The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what involvement her Department has had in the grant originally made available to the Pioneer Communities Project that was administered through her Department.
Edward Timpson
No grant funding was made available by the Department for Education to support the Pioneer Communities Project.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support the West Midlands Police Force respond to an increase in the levels of gun crime in Birmingham.
Mike Penning
The Government and police work nationally, and with international partners, to reduce the threat to the UK from the criminal use of firearms. In 2013/14, firearms were used in a small and diminishing proportion of total police recorded crime, 0.2%. We also support local areas to take action against gang violence to reduce offending and protect vulnerable people. Under the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme, Birmingham was subject to a peer review in 2012 and has implemented and integrated the recommendations from the review into their local strategic plans. The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of arrests made in connection with gun crime. The UK has some of the toughest gun laws in the world and the government and the police continue to work together to reduce the threat from the criminal use of firearms. We will be reviewing options to strengthen the current legislation to ensure it safeguards against abuse by criminals following representations made by the police (and other stakeholders) during the Law Commission’s scoping consultation on firearms legislation. The number of offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) in the West Midlands has fallen by 40% since 2010, from 903 offences in 2009/10 to 540 in 2013/14.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many defibrillators are provided in each building his Department manages.
Mark Lancaster
Ministry of Defence Health and Safety Policy states that the requirement to provide First-Aid is delegated to each Top Level Budget Holder (TLB). It is the duty of each TLB to conduct risk assessments of the activities at the establishments/units they control, and supply the necessary equipment and training including first aid equipment. The information requested is therefore not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mancroft on 2016-02-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 4 January (HL4665) about access to hepatitis C treatment, how frequently NHS England will publish reports on the minimum data set and when the first set of data on patients being treated will be published.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Public Health England (PHE) is working with NHS England and the Clinical Leads of the Operational Delivery Networks to ensure that a minimum data set is collected to allow monitoring of patients being treated. This will be used to support commissioning and planning of these services. PHE plans to publish summary data on people being treated in the annual report on hepatitis C. No timetable for publication has been agreed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-03-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many specialist centres for severe asthma there are in England.
Jane Ellison
Services for people with severe asthma are commissioned by NHS England in line with a national specification to ensure patient numbers are sufficient to support safe services. NHS England has no plans to change the way it commissions these services in south west England.
Nationally, there are 27 trusts that have identified themselves as providing severe asthma services. NHS England is revising the national service specification to assist local teams in verifying and redefining the local service model to confirm the severe asthma services within each region.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Freer on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department plan to attend the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS at the UN headquarters in New York in June 2016.
Jane Ellison
The United Kingdom Government will be represented at this meeting. Precise attendance has still to be finalised.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to promote the development of biomass technologies.
Andrea Leadsom
Support is provided for biomass under a range of renewable financial incentives: the Renewables Obligation (RO), Feed in Tariff (FIT), Contracts for Difference (CfD) and Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The RO closed to co-firing and conversions last year and any future support will be via CfD.
The government announced it will hold three auctions for Contracts for Difference of up to £730 million this Parliament. Details of the future CFD allocation rounds will be published in due course.
The Government confirmed increased funding for the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in November 2015 as part of the Spending Review, with the annual budget rising from £430m in 2015/16 to £1.15bn in 2020/21.
The Government has successfully supported innovation in biomass technologies such as through the Energy Technology Institute, the Research Councils, Innovate UK and in partnership with other European Countries through the Bioenergy Sustaining the Future (BESTF) network.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Parminter on 2016-06-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of leakage at landfill sites in Britain, and what plans they have to investigate landfill sites to identify any that are leaking.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Environment Agency is responsible for regulating landfill sites that hold an environmental permit, which includes all operational and some closed sites. Operators of landfill sites must comply with their permit conditions and these will normally include a requirement to monitor emissions or leakage. The Environment Agency assesses compliance with permit conditions on an ongoing site-specific basis.
The monitoring and management of historic landfill sites that are no longer operating under a permit is a matter for local authorities under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The Government does not hold these records and has therefore not made an assessment of leakage from these sites.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-08.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2016 to Question 43066, on Cabinet Office: Ministerial policy advisers, whether his Department has now calculated the information requested in that Question on severance pay.
Ben Gummer
This information will be published in due course, as part of the full and detailed list of special advisers, salary bands and total pay bill costs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with supermarkets on reducing the amount of food that is wasted because it is not considered aesthetically appealing to customers.
Rory Stewart
The Government, through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), is working with food manufacturers and retailers, including all the major UK supermarkets, to meet targets to reduce food waste from the grocery supply chain under the Courtauld Commitment. Signatories have reported a 7.4% reduction in supply chain waste between 2009-2012, with interim results for Courtauld 3 showing a further 3.2% reduction by 2014.
WRAP has worked with supermarkets and consumers to support acceptance and use of ‘imperfect’ fruit and vegetables. Work is also in progress with signatories, trade bodies and redistribution organisations to build a better understanding of the amounts and causes of waste in the supply of food & drink. WRAP is currently brokering a new agreement, Courtauld 2025, which will build on this progress.