Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the market conditions affecting the Government’s decision to postpone the privatisation of Lloyds Bank on the proposed privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.

    Anna Soubry

    Decisions about these separate matters will be taken on their individual merits. Further information on the Government’s proposals for a sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) is provided in our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB and in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the future of GIB. Both documents can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.

  • Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and which local authorities have notified her Department about plans to dispose of grant-funded assets through the (a) sale, (b) transfer and (c) change of use of children’s centres under the requirements of the Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Where local authorities dispose of or change the use of buildings or other assets funded wholly or partly through Sure Start capital grants, they must repay the money through the claw-back process.

    The Department for Education has a thorough set of monitoring arrangements in place regarding claw-back rules. Local authorities are required to notify the department of each and every proposed change of services and provide details about the level of early years services that are to continue. The department then considers if the local authority has continued to offer a sufficient level of early years services for children and their families from the building in question to meet the original aims of the grant.

    If the department is satisfied that the funding for the asset will continue to be used for purposes consistent with the grant, the department may defer claw-back. Deferring claw-back means that we accept the change of usage at that time, however, the department retains its interest in the asset and if in the future the asset has its usage changed, is transferred or otherwise disposed of, and does not continue to meet the purposes of the grant the local authority must inform the department and we will claw-back the funding. The department’s interest in an asset funded by Sure Start capital grants is 25 years from designation of the building. If the grant was used to purchase capital items or re-furbish an existing asset, the length of time and value of any claw-back depends on the depreciation value of the items, according to local authority depreciation rules.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of Crown immunity on the ability to bring legal action on liability for the infection of patients with contaminated NHS blood.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department’s assessment is that Crown immunity does not limit an individual’s right to redress via legal action. Crown immunity does not protect from civil suit, but only from criminal prosecution. Indeed, some affected persons did bring an action in 1988, which was settled out of court, without establishment of liability.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage car manufacturers to adopt green and hybrid technologies.

    Andrew Jones

    The UK offers one of the most comprehensive packages of support for ultra low emission vehicles in the world. This includes the plug-in car and van grants, support for infrastructure, investment in R&D, and the ground breaking government-industry communications campaign, ‘Go Ultra Low’.

    The government recently committed over £600m over the course of this parliament to support the take up and manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles, and has set itself the ambitious goal that by 2050 nearly all cars and vans should be zero emission.

    We are also active in the EU in pushing for ambitious regulation of the CO2 emissions of new cars, which will encourage the increasing deployment of new greener technologies.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

    Karen Bradley

    The Local Government Association (LGA) has worked in consultation with the Government to develop bespoke guidance for local authorities on the enforcement of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 and their new powers. This has been disseminated to local authorities across the country and is available at: http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/publications/-/journal_content/56/10180/7838372/PUBLICATION

    In February, we held joint operational workshops with the National Police Chief’s Council for enforcement partners across the UK, including trading standards officers, to raise operational awareness of the Act.

    We have also produced a forensic strategy for all enforcement partners on the new forensic requirements to support prosecutions under the Act.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward proposals to ensure mandatory assessment of sources of additional evidence supplied by claimants of personal independence payments.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Department always considers a range of evidence from a variety of sources when making a decision on an individual’s PIP claim and is robust in asking for further information if it feels this will be beneficial for the claimant. In addition, the department will always consider any additional evidence provided at the Mandatory Reconsideration or appeal stage.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many letters his Department received from the Mayor of London between May 2010 and April 2016; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Department is not able to confirm the total number of letters received by the Department from the Mayor of London since 2010 as this would incur disproportionate cost.

  • The Countess of Mar – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The Countess of Mar – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Countess of Mar on 2015-11-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to emerging evidence relating to the appropriate level of dietary sodium intake; what meetings Ministers have had with scientists and others about that issue; and what representations they have received regarding dietary sodium intake.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The evidence base relating to dietary sodium intake was extensively reviewed in the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition’s (SACN) report ‘Salt and Health’, published in 2003. In reviewing the evidence, SACN noted that the greatest benefits were likely to be achieved by taking a population approach to reducing salt intakes rather than through individual targeted advice. SACN continues to monitor average salt intakes through a programme of dietary survey work.

    New voluntary salt reduction targets have been developed for 76 specific food groups that contribute most to people’s salt intakes and major retailers, manufacturers and caterers are working to meet these targets by December 2017.

    SACN has also reviewed the evidence around the impact of low sodium intakes. It found no basis for changing the existing recommendation for a target reduction in average salt intake to 6 grammes per day for the adult population, equivalent to an average reduction of 2.4 grammes per day of sodium.

    SACN’s ‘Salt and Health’ report is attached and can be found at:

    www.gov.uk/government/publications/sacn-salt-and-health-report

    Baroness Masham of Ilton has recently asked three questions about dietary sodium intake. Further representations have been received from the Salt Association. Ministers have not met with scientists and others about this issue.

    “

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-11-23.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward plans to monitor the effectiveness of how the Homelessness Protection Grant is spent.

    Greg Hands

    Since 2010, local councils have had more flexibility over how they spend the money they receive from central government. It is up to individual authorities to decide how grant funding should be spent in order to deliver local services. To ensure that councils have the necessary skills to do this, the Government supported the establishment of the National Practitioner Support Service’s ‘Gold Standard’ programme to help improve the effectiveness of local authority homelessness prevention services.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases were referred to the National Referral Mechanism as potential victims of trafficking for domestic servitude in each year since 2009; and how many such cases had a (a) positive reasonable grounds decision and (b) positive conclusive grounds decision.

    Karen Bradley

    Statistics relating to the National Referral Mechanism are published quarterly by the National Crime Agency in their “Human Trafficking: National Referral Mechanism Statistics” report, which includes information on exploitation type and decision outcomes. These can be found here:

    http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics

    Data prior to April 2012 is held for internal use but has not been validated for publication.