Tag: Parliamentary Question

Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many North Korean refugees have approached the British Embassy or Consulate in China for safe passage or asylum in each of the last 10 years.

Mr Hugo Swire

We do not have any record of refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea approaching Our Embassy in Beijing or our Consulates in China to claim safe passage or asylum in the last 10 years.

01/01/2023
Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department spent on upgrading IT systems at 2 St Paul’s Place, Sheffield in 2014-15.

Joseph Johnson

The Department spent £38m on upgrading IT systems in 2014-15, including both software and equipment development. This includes around £31m for internally developed software, predominantly within delivery bodies of the department such as the Student Loans Company. It also includes the Core Department roll out of a new ICT system, Evolve, for use by all staff. This replaced the previous IT service. The total cost of the Evolve rollout was £3.5 million.

The IT systems at 2 St Paul’s Place Sheffield are part of the Core Department’s IT infrastructure, so the upgrades are included in the total cost of the Evolve rollout of £3.5m. Costs were not recorded separately by location for this general upgrade to our systems.

01/01/2023
Lord Smith of Hindhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Smith of Hindhead on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the current annual arrangements for setting the Horseracing Betting Levy will continue under the proposed new funding arrangements, or will be extended beyond twelve months.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Currently the levy rate is agreed each year by the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Under the new model the level of contribution from betting to racing will be set by Government. We will take into account various findings when considering the rate and its duration, including the independent economic analysis that we commissioned last year. We will hold discussions with both industries before reaching decisions on these issues.

01/01/2023

Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff were paid off-payroll in each agency for which his Department is responsible in each of the last three financial years for which information is available.

Jane Ellison

The number of people paid off payroll, in both of the Department’s agencies, for the last three financial years are presented in the table below.

The information given is an average for each financial year. Off payroll staff includes all agency workers, contractors and consultants.

Number of People Paid Off Payroll by Financial Year
Financial Year	Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency	Public Health England
Financial Year	Average Headcount	Average Headcount
2013-14	41.17	279
2014-15	43.33	167
2015-16	40.08	179

Notes

1. An average figure for the year has been used to take account of staff who leave and/or join within the year.

2. Headcount refers to the total number of staff in both part-time and full-time employment.

3. The figures in the table also includes the off payroll workers earning £220 or more per day and reported separately in the agencies respective annual resource accounts.

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01/01/2023

Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people who received redundancy payments from the NHS in 2015-16 were subsequently re-employed by the NHS on a (a) consultancy and (b) permanent basis; and what the cost to the NHS was of those redundancy repayments.

Mr Philip Dunne

The number of compulsory redundancies in 2015-16 was 1,944.

The number of staff made redundant and then re-employed is not currently available.

In May 2015 the Government announced that it intended to take forward its manifesto commitment to end six-figure exit payments for public sector workers, including the National Health Service. The Enterprise Act containing provisions for the £95,000 public sector exit payment cap received Royal Assent in May 2016 and will come into force later this year.

Further legislation is being taken forward to allow for the recovery of exit payments from all high earning public sector workers who return to any part of the public sector within 12 months of leaving.

The Government’s changes to the NHS mean a huge net gain for the taxpayer. The Department published a written ministerial statement on 21 July 2015: Column 90WS NHS Modernisation setting out the costs and benefits of NHS modernisation. “The Department of Health also originally forecast that between 2010-11 and 2014-15 the reforms would save the NHS £4.5 billion in lower administration costs, as well as a further £1.5 billion a year thereafter. Actual savings were far greater, in cash terms at £6.9 billion over this period, including £2 billion in 2014-15—and in 2010-11 prices comparable to the impact assessment £6.5 billion, including £1.8 billion in 2014-15. This means the Government have successfully achieved their aim to reduce NHS bureaucracy costs by a third”.

01/01/2023
Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the £55.7 billion cost of the High Speed 2 project also includes the cost for the High Speed 3 project.

Andrew Jones

Spending Review 2015 restated the long-term budget for HS2 at £55.7bn (2015 prices). This is for the entire ‘Y’ network, including Phase 1 and 2.

The government committed a separate £60m from the Transport Development Fund for the development of Northern Powerhouse Rail (sometimes known as HS3) at this year’s Budget. Transport for the North are leading the development of a range of potential options for Northern Powerhouse Rail, including options that make use of sections of the HS2 network, major upgrades, and new lines. Transport for the North will publish their priorities for further development in spring 2017.

01/01/2023
Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate she has made of the average cost to a (a) school and (b) local authority of employing a (i) teacher and (ii) classroom assistant; and what forecast she has made of that cost in each year from 2016-17 to 2019-20.

Nick Gibb

The government published a statistical release in July 2015, ‘School Workforce in England: November 2014’, which contains the latest statistics on average salaries for teachers employed by schools and local authorities in England. This release can be found online at: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014

The latest available statistics on the average salaries of teaching assistants employed by schools and local authorities in England were published in response to PQ856 in June 2015. This can be found online at: www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-06-02/856/

The Department for Education’s pay reforms have given schools greater flexibility to decide how much to pay their teachers and how quickly their pay progresses over time.

Future average salaries of teachers will be informed by the annual recommendations of the School Teachers Pay Review Body. The pay of teaching assistants and school support staff are set by schools themselves. The department does not produce forecasts of future average pay for these staff.

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01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many civil servants in her Department are in the redeployment pool.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID has 10 staff at present in its redeployment pool of staff who have become surplus due to the role they were filling either having been discontinued, or it having been confirmed to them that their role will be discontinued.

For those whose roles have already been discontinued (5 staff), temporary work has been found whilst we continue to look for more appropriate longer term positions for them.

01/01/2023
Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential role of technology in reducing aseptic pharmaceutical medication error.

George Freeman

Where appropriate, automation has a role to play in ensuring consistent output from aseptic compounding and increased production capacity. It may also provide additional protection against microbiological contamination by use of ‘closed systems’ of manufacture.

Licensed specials manufacturers may consider automation as an appropriate solution for their product range and capacity. In these cases, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency inspections assess whether the process design, validation, personnel, training and procedures relating to the automated system comply with the requirements of Good Manufacturing Practice.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 2 March 2015 to Question HL5030, how much his Department on the feasibility phase for undertaking a diesel generator upgrade to the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers; when the feasibility phase for that work was concluded; when his Department made a decision on whether to proceed with the upgrade programme; how many options for undertaking the upgrade work were initially presented to his Department by BAE Systems; whether BAE Systems was asked to present further options to his Department, in addition to those initially presented; which option his Department chose to proceed with, and for what reasons; what estimate he has made of the cost of carrying out that work on each of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers; on how many destroyers such upgrade work has commenced; and on how many such destroyers the upgrade work is complete.

Mr Philip Dunne

As referenced in the answer given on 2 March 2015 by the then Under Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Astor of Hever, to Question HL5030, the initial feasibility phase of upgrading the Type 45 diesel generators concluded in March 2015. Following this, further feasibility studies were completed in November 2015 at a cost of £4.7million. A range of technical options and a variety of delivery models are currently being explored with competing industrial partners and when the way forward has been determined, will be subject to the Departments formal approvals process. This approval will constitute a decision to proceed.

BAE systems initially presented a range of options. The MOD was satisfied with the range of choices presented and has since selected the three leading options to be taken forward into the Assessment Phase.

01/01/2023