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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 1 December 2015 to Question 17582, what his Department’s timetable is for the closure of the remaining arrears-only Child Support Agency cases after the three-year cases closure programme involving cases with an on-going liability is completed.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department’s timetable for the closure of Child Support Agency arrears only cases is currently under consideration.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Bridget Phillipson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether he has had discussions with representatives of Japanese businesses operating in the UK pursuant to the memorandum presented by the Japanese government to the Prime Minister at the recent G20 Summit.

    Mr David Jones

    Ministers and officials from across the Government are working closely with Japanese companies operating in the UK to reinforce the continued importance of a close business relationship between our countries. The Department for Exiting the EU will continue to support this work.

  • 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.

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-01-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of functional areas of the existing HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) IT Aspire contract for which any HMRC plan to create a GoCo capability would not require TUPE transfers of staff.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has reviewed a number of options when considering the transition from Aspire. Due to commercial confidentiality, the Department is not in a position to give more details of its plans at this stage. HMRC’s ultimate aim is an operating model that has the right mix of technology, processes and skills, delivered in a multi-sourced model.

  • 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 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the government of Romania about the activities of (a) Central Media Enterprise, (b) Adrian Sârbu and (c) Ronald Lauder in (i) 1995 to 1999, (ii) 2000 to 2010 and (iii) 2011 to 2015.

    Mr David Lidington

    I refer the hon. Member to my previous answers of 14 December 2015 (PQ 18601) and 17 December 2015 (PQ 19436). The information requested in the years prior to 2011 is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to introduce new initiatives to increase the uptake of new technologies on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

    George Freeman

    The Government is actively supporting a number of initiatives to accelerate access to innovative treatments. These include the Early Access to Medicines Schemes which supports access in the United Kingdom to unlicensed or off-label medicines and represents a significant advance in treatment in areas of unmet medical need and the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovative drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital products for National Health Service patients, and to make the UK the best place to develop these innovations.

    NHS England supports the invention and adoption of transformative healthcare technologies. This includes existing technologies, where the benefits are already proven but wider adoption is critical to benefit all patients, and new technologies, which require larger scale trials to test out their impact individually and in combination. Current initiatives include the sponsorship of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (£48 million core funding in 2015-16), the Small Business Research Initiative (£20 million in 2015-16), and the Test Bed programme which is providing funding for frontline health and care workers to evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and new ways of working.

    NHS England has been tasked under section 7.1 of the NHS Mandate to “Implement the agreed recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review including developing ambition and trajectory on NHS uptake of affordable and cost-effective new innovations”.

  • Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of claims that women refugees who are in the UK (1) are not guaranteed female interviewers and interpreters who have been trained in sexual violence and trauma, (2) are not always provided with childcare during interviews, and (3) are not given adequate information about their rights.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    When an application for asylum is lodged, all asylum seekers are provided with information, in a range of languages, about the asylum process including appeal rights and other rights and responsibilities. In addition this leaflet, entitled ‘Information about your asylum application’, also includes details of where asylum seekers can obtain information about local legal advisers and local and national voluntary sector organisations who can provide assistance. For instance Asylum Help (part of Migrant Help), is funded by the Home Office and have a presence at many of the initial accommodation sites across the UK as well as providing a multi lingual website and freephone service offering confidential and impartial advice and guidance to adult asylum seekers and their dependants.

    Since April 2015, female asylum seekers are guaranteed a female interviewer at their substantive asylum interview. In addition we also provide female interpreters where operationally possible. All asylum interview officers and decision makers receive training on gender issues during their initial training, this includes information about dealing sensitively with sexual trauma and violence.

    Childcare facilities are currently provided in our Cardiff, Leeds and Solihull interview suites, with similar provisions soon to be made available in Glasgow and Liverpool. We are working towards tendering a national childcare contract to enable facilities to be made available in all our asylum casework hubs.

  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies focuses on the most marginalised children including girls and children with disabilities.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 23rd May to Question number 37287.