Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury on 2016-02-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which Special Advisers and Permanent Secretaries attended any meetings in which ministers from HM Treasury discussed the future of Channel 4 between May 2015 and January 2016 inclusive.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    HM Treasury Ministers and officials have both regular discussions with colleagues and meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. It is not government practice to release details of routine officials’ discussions as to do so would be impracticable and potentially prejudice the effective conduct of public policy development. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available on the gov.uk website.

  • Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-03-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the National Referral Mechanism applies the definition of forced labour when the victim is a child.

    Lord Bates

    Data on the number of child cases of forced labour or domestic servitude recorded through the National Referral Mechanism is already publically available on the National Crime Agency website and can be found here: www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.

    The National Referral Mechanism is designed to gather evidence in order to determine whether someone is considered to be a victim of ‘slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour’ or ‘human trafficking’ in line with the offences set out in the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Whether an individual is considered to be a victim of either of these offences in the form of domestic servitude or forced labour will be determined on the indicators present and the facts of each case. Additional consideration is given to the particular vulnerabilities of children and their inability to consent.

    Information on how many cases of domestic servitude have been prosecuted where the victim was a child or how many cases of domestic servitude have been recorded which involved more than one person from the same family is not recorded centrally.

  • Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government in the event of the UK leaving the EU what advice they plan to give to UK citizens who work or live in EU member states related to their legal rights generally, their rights related to UK pensions and to medical care paid for under the NHS social security system, and their right to travel across EU without the need of visas.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    UK citizens get a range of rights from our membership of the EU. If the UK were to leave the EU, all of these rights would have to be covered in a successor arrangement. If we left the EU without agreeing what would happen to these rights, it would at the very least bring them into serious question, creating difficulty for UK citizens who relied on them.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had with NICE on changes to its current methodology for evaluating new drugs.

    George Freeman

    Departmental officials are in regular contact with officials in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about a range of issues, including NICE’s methodologies for the assessment of new drugs and other technologies.

    The Accelerated Access Review is expected to make a series of recommendations which may include reforms to NICE’s processes and methods pathways and mechanisms in connection with innovative treatments.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage UK travellers abroad to take out adequate holiday insurance.

    James Duddridge

    Encouraging travellers to obtain comprehensive travel insurance is a key part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s ‘Travel Aware’ communications campaign, which has been active since 2001 (formerly known as Know Before You Go). Messaging on insurance is prominent in many of our travel safety materials and we run specific campaigns on insurance, reaching the travelling public through media engagement, digital activity and collaboration with industry partners such as ABTA and the Association of British Insurers.

    We have worked with the Association of British Insurers to create a new ‘checklist’ to help travellers choose the right insurance policy for their needs, which we communicate through social media and our network of industry partners. Our messages on insurance have also been reinforced by broadcasts on a wide range of national, regional and community TV and radio stations.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many times his Department has used the services of (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms since his Department was established; and what (i) work was undertaken and (ii) the cost to the public purse was on each such occasion.

    Mr David Jones

    The Department for Exiting the European Union has used the services of a number of consulting firms to help with departmental set-up and planning. The cost to the public purse on each occasion was either nil or nominal fee (£1). Two individuals are on secondment from consultancy firms, incurring a cost to the department equivalent to median civil service salary levels.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting times for therapeutic services through referral pathways was for sexual assault referral centres which do not directly provide therapeutic services for children under 18 in the most recent period for which figures are available.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England has set out care pathways for adult and child Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) services in its `Commissioning Framework for Adult and Paediatric Sexual Assault referral Centre (SARC) Services’, published in August 2015. Pathway services are wide-ranging, including safeguarding, social care, housing, other medical support and therapeutic counselling. The framework is now being rolled out across England and outlines the expected core service.

    Data on waiting times into care pathways or therapeutic services in SARCs or referred to by SARCs, is not collected centrally.

  • John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much UK aid is being provided in each region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The DRC is the largest country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the provinces are bigger than other DFID focus countries and there is a huge difference between the mineral-rich plains of Katanga in the south and the tropical rainforests of Equateur in the north, between the conflict-affected east and the megacity of Kinshasa in the west.

    Our current approach to working in provinces was shaped in 2012. At that time we decided to focus on six strategic partnership provinces – North Kivu, South Kivu, Kasai Occidental, Katanga, Equateur and Kinshasa. Of these, our greatest area of focus has been the conflict-affected east of the country, which receives one third of our budget and hosts our only sub-national office in Goma. DFID programme design also takes into account need, geographic and logistical constraints, conflict, political issues, and presence of other donors. Whilst we increasingly focussed on the six provinces, we deliberately preserved some flexibility. Some activities, for example addressing humanitarian crises, do not observe provincial borders.

    The regional picture in the DRC became more complex in September 2015 as the country’s 11 provinces were divided into 26, in a process called decoupage. In response to this radical change in the country’s geography, DFID DRC is reappraising its provincial focus and calculating its contribution in each province. The new approach will be set out in DFID DRC’s refreshed country business plan in May 2016.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-01-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on the 20 January (HL4935), (1) what is the timeline for the development of the written policy for future capability requirements, development, integration and use of unmanned systems, (2) what form of consultation is proposed, and (3) whether the written policy proposed will include a position statement on the use of drones by the Her Majesty’s Government (a) in domestic airspace, and (b) for collective and individual self-defence abroad.

    Earl Howe

    Defence policy on use of remotely piloted air systems (RPAS) is currently being drafted. This work is still in an early stage and is currently scoping the policy with the aim of producing a substantive document towards the end of the year. It is our intention to consult widely during its production, both across Government and with our international allies.

    This work will be supported and underpinned by the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre’s (DCDC) revision and update of Joint Doctrine Note 2/11 "The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems" and through its work on the Future Air and Space Operating Concept; both of which are currently being written and will be available before the end of 2016. The DCDC will then commence work on the next edition of Joint Doctrine Publication 0-30 "UK Air and Space Doctrine" which it expects to publish in first quarter 2017.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward proposals to require private landlords to fit carbon monoxide alarms in any property that contains a fuel-burning appliance.

    Brandon Lewis

    Since 1 October 2015, landlords have been required to install carbon monoxide alarms in any room used as living accommodation which contains a solid-fuel burning appliance.

    We regulated for rooms with these appliances as they are responsible for a disproportionate number of carbon monoxide deaths and injuries compared to other combustion appliances.

    The Government therefore has no current plans to regulate further. These regulations are still very new and need time to bed in. A full review will be conducted in October 2017.