Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the importance of the Corsellis Brain Collection for promoting research into brain diseases for the treatment of patients in the NHS.

    George Freeman

    The Department has not made any specific assessment of the importance of the collection for promoting research into brain diseases.

    The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. Every effort is being made to ensure as much of the collection as possible is available to researchers and the West London Mental Health Trust has been working with BRAIN UK (an initiative funded by the Medical Research Council which co-ordinates the distribution of tissue across the country) to support this.

    As part of this strategy the Trust has therefore decided to publicise the decision to close the collection and invite requests from appropriate academic departments for tissue relevant to their research and teaching programmes, and to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some 7,500 out of 8,500 specimens have identified destinations as a result of this process, to departments across the United K and in the Netherlands, in Canada and in Hong Kong. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.

    The UK Brain Bank Network, which is funded by Government through the Medical Research Council, has established a national network of UK brain tissue resources (banks) for researchers to access. The Network currently involves 10 brain banks across the UK which now hold over 14,000 well characterised brains.

  • Lyn Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lyn Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lyn Brown on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that the human rights of Turkish people imprisoned as a result of the failed coup in July 2016 are respected; and what reports he has received on the alleged abuse of those prisoners by the Turkish authorities.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The Government condemns unreservedly this failed coup. In the aftermath of the coup attempt we have emphasised the need for Turkey to respect human rights, including press freedom, and the rule of law. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has also raised concerns about reports of ill-treatment in detention. The Turkish Government’s response to the coup attempt should be lawful and proportionate, and undertaken in line with Turkey’s international obligations.

  • Mrs Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Mrs Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what services are being provided to HS2 Ltd by the Maclean Partnership; and what the cost of those services has been to date.

    Andrew Jones

    McLean Partnership have provided two forms of service to date; executive search at a cost of £588,750, and provision of administrative and payroll services for interim staff at a cost of £286,306.

  • Jo Churchill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jo Churchill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Churchill on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent progress has been made on increasing the provision of affordable and sustainable social housing in the East of England.

    Brandon Lewis

    To date, £1 billion has already been allocated towards our commitment to deliver a further 275,000 affordable homes by 2020.

    Of this, £155 million will deliver affordable homes in the East and South East of England.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2015 to Question 17275, what estimate his Department has made of the number of qualified fast jet pilots that will be employed by the RAF in each of the next five years.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The number of qualified fast jet pilots forecast to be in the Royal Air Force in each of the next five years is shown below, and includes both Regular and Reserve personnel.

    2016

    2017

    2018

    2019

    2020

    640

    620

    600

    570

    560
  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-01-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they give to voluntary organisations engaged in the refugee crisis.

    Earl of Courtown

    The UK has pledged over £1.1 billion to date to help alleviate the Syria Crisis, our largest ever humanitarian response. The UK is supporting a range of implementing partners working in Syria and neighbouring countries, including United Nations agencies, international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the Red Cross/Crescent and other international organisations.

    In relation to the Mediterranean migration crisis, the UK is supporting host government capacity and organisations such as the Red Cross, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s fund (UNICEF), the International Organisation for Migration, and NGOs to provide basic care, assistance, protection, and informationto vulnerable people.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24475, what his policy is on providing for parliamentary scrutiny any revisions to guidance on procurement policy and its relationship to foreign policy.

    Matthew Hancock

    Procurement guidance issued by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) deals with operational matters and clarifies existing policy, set out in the EU Public Procurement Directives and the Public Contracts Regulations (2015), which were subject to Parliamentary process.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-02-24.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the net annual UK financial contribution to the EU is expected to be in each of the next three years.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Office for Budget Responsibility does not provide a forecast for net UK contributions to EU budgets, and does not take into account receipts directly received by the private sector.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to (a) review and (b) improve the autism self-assessment framework.

    Alistair Burt

    Working with the Department, Public Health England regularly undertakes an autism self assessment exercise with local authorities and their partners to gauge progress in implementing the Autism Strategy. The results of the self assessment and the individual returns from areas are made public so that organisations and people can challenge locally if they think that more needs to be done. The assessment questions and the process for local agreement are reviewed each time, taking into account that general continuity is needed in terms of measuring progress. The February meeting of the cross government Autism Programme Board considered the changes proposed for the next exercise which were put forward following discussions with representatives of Government departments, local authorities, the National Health Service, the autism third sector and people with autism and family carers. Further refinement will be undertaken over the next few weeks before the self assessment exercise is launched in the summer.

  • Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the recently announced steel support package on the steel industry in Scotland.

    Anna Soubry

    On 28th April, ownership of Tata’s mills in Dalzell and Clydebridge passed to Liberty. The package announced on 21st April is to support a sale of the remaining Tata sites. However, the Scottish plant will benefit from our wider action to help the steel industry, including compensating energy costs.