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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguards were employed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since 2010-11.

    Mr John Hayes

    The number of Coastguards employed by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since 2010/11 is as follows:

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    2016/17

    517

    491

    469

    418

    386

    416

    424

    When interpreting the above numbers, it is important to note that the new HM Coastguard structure enables the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) and nine Coastguard Operation Centres (CGOC) to coordinate any incident around the UK coast. Workload and incidents continue to managed locally but all Coastguard Centres now have a national support network available to them during busy periods. These arrangements are most effectively deployed from a smaller national footprint.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to meet the requirements of the Equine Identification Regulations in anticipation of requirements arising from EU regulation to monitor the importation and exportation of horses by 1 January 2016.

    George Eustice

    I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 23 November 2015 to PQ UINs 16593, 16594 and 16595.

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 19 November (HL3562), in the absence of centrally collected data on the occupancy levels of registered care homes, on what data the Care Quality Commission relies to discharge its oversight function for the publicly-funded nursing and residential care sectors.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The purpose of market oversight, amongst other things, is to protect people who may be placed in vulnerable circumstances due to the failure of a ‘difficult to replace’ adult social care provider. It does this by monitoring in arrears the quarterly financial returns of those providers captured by the scheme. Since inclusion in the scheme is a reflection of provider size, by definition it is the larger providers that are captured by the scheme and as such market oversight is concerned with the overall consolidated financial performance. Consequently, it would not ordinarily consider occupancy levels for individual registered care homes.

    The types of information the Care Quality Commission collects from registered care providers as part of its Market Oversight Scheme is included in published guidance – Market Oversight of ‘difficult to replace’ providers of adult social care. The guidance is attached.

  • Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wendy Morton on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how she plans to implement the cross-governmental aid strategy.

    Justine Greening

    The UK aid strategy sets out our strategy to defeat poverty, tackle instability and create prosperity in developing countries. Not only is this the right thing to do; it is also strongly in our national interest. For the first time ever, development is becoming a truly cross-Government agenda and I am working with my colleagues to deliver that.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the distinctions between Volkswagen’s practices (a) on the use of defeat devices and (b) in mitigating customer inconvenience in the US and the UK; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the reasons for those distinctions.

    Andrew Jones

    The Government takes the unacceptable actions of Volkswagen extremely seriously and our priority is to protect the public. In Europe, Volkswagen Group has developed a technical solution for the affected vehicles and is testing this with the relevant type approval authorities. For Skoda vehicles this is the UK’s Vehicle Certification Agency. We understand that the company is not in the same position in the USA as there is not yet an agreed technical solution. We are urging Volkswagen to complete swiftly the recall of the affected vehicles in the UK.

    In his appearance before the Transport Select Committee on 25 January, Paul Willis, the CEO of Volkswagen UK, reconfirmed that Volkswagen do not intend to offer compensation in the UK as they do not believe that vehicle owners have suffered a loss. In the USA they have offered their customers up to $1,000 in gift vouchers. It is for Volkswagen to justify to their customers the different approaches that they are taking in different jurisdictions, however the Government expects Volkswagen to treat its UK customers fairly and the Secretary of State continues to press Volkswagen on the issue of this discrepancy in compensation.

  • Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Metcalfe on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average length of a (a) delay and (b) tailback caused by the closure of the Dartford Crossing; and what effect a new crossing would have on those averages.

    Andrew Jones

    Typically there are in excess of 300 incidents per year resulting in partial or full closures of the Dartford Crossing. On average each incident takes approximately 27 minutes to deal with, often requiring a lane closure for safety. During this time queues build rapidly towards junctions 29 and 3 of the M25 and take a further 3 to 5 hours for the road condition to return to normal.

    Highways England are continuing to explore ways of reducing incidents and improving clear up times. In the longer term, with a new crossing, there would be increased capacity to cross the river so the effect of any incident would be less extreme. If one of the tunnels were to close today, the northbound capacity of the crossing would reduce by 50%. With the new Lower Thames Crossing in place at either Dartford or Gravesend, a closure of one of the tunnels at the Dartford Crossing would still leave more capacity than exists today without an incident, so recovery times would be much improved.

  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children who have applied in France for asylum or family reunion in the UK since 2012 have been admitted to the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    Whilst all asylum claims, including those accepted under Dublin III, are registered on the main immigration database the specifics of each case are not currently available in the form requested as the data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically.

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the Government’s targets for participation in grassroots football were for (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15 and (f) 2015-16.

    David Evennett

    Through Sport England’s Whole Sport Plan process the FA has been challenged each year to demonstrate an increase in the number of people playing grassroots football in this country. In 2010/11 the target number of people aged 16 and over playing football for at least 30 minutes every week was 2,219,700; in 2011/12 it was 2,257,200; in 2012/13 it was 2,294,700; in 2013/14 it was 2,150,050; in 2014/15 it was 2,208,902 and in 2015/16 it is 2,267,386.

    As set out in ‘Sporting Future’, The Government has set out our intention to increase the number of people who engage in all types of sport and physical activity. However, from now on will move away from our historic focus on how many people are playing one sport or another at a particular moment to understanding how active people are overall. As part of this, we will also target funding at groups which have traditionally had lower participation rates, including by extending Sport England’s remit to engage people from as young as five, to help create a much healthier and more active nation.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to support the G7 Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance; and what assessment her Department has made of progress towards the target of expanding insurance coverage to 400 million people by 2020.

    Rory Stewart

    DFID has a large and growing disaster risk finance and insurance portfolio, with up to £136m approved or invested to date. This includes our £100 million contribution to the Africa Risk Capacity, which aims to reach 150 million people by 2020. The G7 are setting up an expert group to develop indicators to measure progress against the ‘Insuresilience’ target, against which all G7 members, including the UK, will report progress.

  • Tom Tugendhat – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Tom Tugendhat – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Tugendhat on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Civil Aviation Authority’s review of impact of environmental landing charges published in 2013, if he will exercise his powers under the Civil Aviation Act 1982, Section 78, to direct airports to review their charges for night flights.

    Mr John Hayes

    The Government has no current plans to use these powers. We have asked the Civil Aviation Authority to update its 2013 review of the impact of environmental landing charges at UK airports to consider the impact of changes since that date.