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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which NHS bodies will authorise Sustainability and Transformation Plan footprints; what role NHS Improvement will play; and if he will make a statement.

    George Freeman

    The NHS Shared Planning Guidance asked the National Health Service to develop proposed footprints for Sustainability and Transformation Plans by 29 January 2016, engaging with local authorities and other partners. The footprints were then reviewed by the national arm’s length bodies, including NHS Improvement, with regard to geography (including patient flow), scale, fit with footprints of existing change programmes, financial sustainability, and leadership capacity. There were one or two areas where further clarification was sought and, following further conversations locally, changes were agreed.

    The process for Sustainability and Transformation Plans is designed to bring together health and care leaders to support improvements in health and care based on the needs of local populations. It does not alter the existing accountabilities of clinical commissioning groups, local authorities and NHS provider organisations.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help prevent the hunting to extinction of endangered species.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK has been working through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to tighten controls ensuring that trophies of endangered species are only exported if the animals were hunted sustainably.

    CITES import controls are currently implemented at an EU-wide level. In light of growing concerns about the sustainability of the hunting of some species, stricter controls on the import of hunting trophies of six species, including lions and African elephants, have been introduced. On the advice of EU CITES scientific experts, Member States also prohibit the importation of a number of species from certain countries where there is uncertainty about sustainability, such as elephant hunting trophies from Mozambique and Tanzania.

    We continue to monitor the impact of trophy hunting and will work to put in place greater protection, including prohibiting imports, if this is shown to be needed. For example, I announced on 24 November 2015 that the Government will ban lion trophy imports by the end of 2017 unless there are improvements in the way hunting takes place in certain countries, judged against strict criteria.

    The UK is also pushing for tougher hunting trophy controls to be agreed at the 17th Conference of Parties to CITES in the autumn. A UK-led EU proposal aims to agree global guidelines to ensure that hunting trophy exports are sustainable, and agree clear criteria on when lion trophy hunting can be considered acceptable.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, pursuant to his Oral Statement of 5 September 2016, Official Report, columns 38 to 41, how many of his Department’s 300 officials were recruited for their ability to speak a second language.

    Mr Robin Walker

    The Department for Exiting the EU now has over 200 staff, and is growing fast. The overall size and scope of the new Department, including staffing and budget, are regularly reviewed. We will ensure we are appropriately staffed to deal with all aspects of the forthcoming negotiation. There are currently 43 (French) speaker slots in UKRep, for which the staff require operational language skills to undertake the post. For the wider Department there are a number of staff with language skills, however these are not currently a requirement of the posts and were not the determining factor in recruitment. We are undertaking work to identify the skills required for the future so this position may change in due course.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to monitor the number of local authorities charging carers for the support they receive to help them in their caring role.

    Alistair Burt

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2015 to Question 13008.

    “

  • John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many elite football hubs his Department is co-sponsoring with the Football Association in 2016.

    Tracey Crouch

    The Government’s partnership with the Football Association to improve grassroots football facilities and coaching will see the first two football hubs completed in Sheffield by summer 2016. Advanced discussions are also underway for further hubs in the other pilot local authorities of Liverpool and Birmingham. Other partners are expected to support a shared ambition for over £200 million of total funding to the ‘Parklife’ programme that aims to deliver up to 150 new football hubs in 30 English cities by 2020.

  • Baroness Redfern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Baroness Redfern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-01-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage innovation in paint products to make better use of resources, and what steps they are taking to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and to create new markets for paint products.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    I am pleased to highlight a project by Akzo Nobel, Newlife Paints and Seymour Consulting supported through our delivery arm – Innovate UK – to industrialise the process of recycling paint through increased automation which has proved successful and could lead to significant commercial opportunities as well as a better environmental outcome.

    Additionally, the Government’s Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund is supporting a RePaint project in Cheshire which is working across the local community to minimise the amount of paint going for disposal.

    The disposal of liquid waste, including liquid paint, to landfill is banned under the Landfill Directive (Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste). The ban is implemented in England through the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 (as amended) and is enforced by the Environment Agency through the environmental permits it issues to landfill operators.

    The creation of new markets for paint products was one of the recommendations from the British Coatings Federation’s “Paintcare” initiative which was launched last year. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is taking steps to encourage consumers to recycle/reuse household paint by providing information through the Recycle Now campaign. This includes a postcode locator to pinpoint local facilities and information on how to deal with paint.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 903457, when the Spending Review settlement to her Department will be fully allocated.

    Rory Stewart

    Budgets for 2016/17 to 2020/21 have not yet been finalised. Defra’s internal business planning process is still underway, and it would not, therefore, be appropriate at this time to comment on how particular policy areas may be affected.

  • Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-03-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Women’s League of Burma’s call for the National League for Democracy to focus on bringing peace to the ethnic states.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The National League for Democracy, which is due to lead the incoming Government in Burma, made the peace process and political dialogue its primary manifesto pledge. The peace process is also a priority for the UK. We are providing £19 million over five years to the Peace Support Fund and, with a £5 million contribution, the UK is also the largest donor and currently chair of the multinational Joint Peace Fund. We stand ready to provide further assistance to the incoming government as requested.

  • Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will give details of progress made by all the networks of the Public Health Responsibility Deal, including future plans and a description of the outcomes obtained.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The action notes and papers from the last alcohol network group meeting, which took place on 5 November 2014 are attached. There are no current plans for any of the Responsibility Deal networks to meet, but the Department continues to engage with key stakeholders in each of these sectors as part of its routine policy activity.

    On alcohol, 1.3 billion units of alcohol were removed from the market through improving consumer choice of lower alcohol products, exceeding the target two years ahead of schedule. 101 companies pledged to have 80% of their bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks displaying unit content, the previous Chief Medical Officer’s lower-risk guidelines and a warning about drinking when pregnant by the end of 2013. An independent report (2014) found that 79.3% of labels provided all these three elements correctly, with 92.8% providing correct pregnancy information. The pledge was considered to be met.

    On food, around 75% of the retail market and 65% of major high street restaurants and contract caterers have committed to reduce salt. This includes all the major supermarkets, many big manufacturing brands, restaurant chains and contract caterers. 43 companies, including major retailers, fast food and pubs and caterers, as well as the makers of household-name brands are taking a range of actions to help us to consume fewer calories, including through reducing the sugar content of sugar sweetened beverages. 45 major out of home businesses are currently displaying calories on their menus to help consumers make informed choices when eating outside the home, and account for approximately a quarter of all out of home meals served. 23 businesses agreed to adopt the voluntary United Kingdom front of pack nutrient labelling scheme accounting for two thirds of the market for pre-packed foods and drinks.

    Employees in a wide range of companies are seeing their health and well-being taken more seriously as more and more organisations (over 500) signed up to the health at work pledges. The focus was on making occupational health more about prevention, as well as looking at improving the management of people with chronic health conditions, the workplace environment, healthier canteen food, encouraging more active travel and helping staff to give up smoking. Over 80 construction firms signed up to the health at work pledges representing over 250,000 employees. Construction is the UK’s largest industry employing 2 million workers, 6% of the entire workforce. It is also the unhealthiest industry. Construction workers are at least 100 times more likely to die from a disease caused or made worse by their work than they are to die from a fatal accident. These diseases are all preventable. This was the first sector-specific health at work pledge.

    Working behind the scenes and reaching into the heart of communities, many businesses and organisations – around 300 – made pledges to help get more people, of all ages and backgrounds, more active. Through the physical activity workplace pledge, we estimate 1.5 million more people are now supported to be more active than before in their workplaces.

    On 11 March 2016 the Department let all partners know that they will not need formally to report on the progress of the pledges that they have signed up to by submitting their annual updates this year. The Department has not separately analysed the annual reports submitted by partners to date.

    This Government has renewed priorities and it is considering how best to work with partners and other stakeholders to deliver those. This includes tackling childhood obesity and wider work on diabetes and prevention.

    The Department will keep all partners informed of any developments on the Responsibility Deal whilst the Government is considering how it should best work with industry to deliver its new priorities. In the meantime, the Government expects that all partners will want to continue to work towards the commitments they have already made and welcomes the fact that many organisations have continued to announce significant new commitments.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Royal College of General Practitioner’s report entitled A blueprint for building the new deal for general practice in England, published in May 2015, if his Department will respond to the recommendations of that report on (a) necessary increases in the GP workforce and (b) the proportion of the NHS budget that should be invested in general practice.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has committed to increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice.

    The General Practice Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April and developed in discussion with the Royal College of General Practitioners and other general practitioner (GP) stakeholders, sets out actions to double the rate of growth of the GP workforce by introducing measures to increase recruitment, retention and return to practice.

    The General Practice Forward View states that NHS England is committed to increasing the proportion of investment going into general practice services, which should reach over 10% by 2020/21. Investment in general practice will increase by £2.4 billion per year by 2020/21, meaning that investment will rise from £9.6 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion a year by 2020/21.