Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps the Government has taken to (a) monitor and (b) counter the activities of Al Qaeda and Daesh in Yemen.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We continue to work with regional and international partners to tackle the threat posed by terrorist organisations including Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Daesh-Yemen. For operational reasons we cannot comment in detail on this activity.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what controls arising from health considerations are placed on manufacturers on the use of formaldehyde.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has responsibility for the regulation of workplace health and safety in the UK, and it is the legal duty of those who create risks through work activities to understand those risks and ensure they are adequately controlled. This includes ensuring that duty holders/employers identify and obtain relevant information on the hazardous properties of the substances or materials they use or manufacture.

    The Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals Regulation (REACH) requires those who place chemicals such as formaldehyde on the market to provide information on the hazards associated with the chemical both up and down the supply chain. This includes the provision of Safety Data Sheets which must accompany chemicals through the supply chain, providing the information users need to ensure that chemicals are safely used and managed.

    The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) also applies in the workplace when hazardous substances, such as formaldehyde, are manufactured, used, or where processes are undertaken that generate hazardous substances. COSHH requires the employer to carry out a risk assessment to establish what, if any, risks to health are associated with the products/processes their employees are using/undertaking and then to put in place measures to eliminate or control exposure to those risks.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish the (a) agenda, (b) attendees and (c) matters discussed and decided at the forum on combatting weapons of mass destruction proliferation hosted by his Department in London on 12 April 2016.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is a voluntary initiative, endorsed by 105 states, to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Of those states, 21 form the Operational Experts Group (OEG) who support the PSI by developing and disseminating best practice for all PSI endorsing states to draw on. OEG members meet annually, hosted this year by the UK. All OEG member states were represented at this year’s meeting.

    The OEG discussed a wide range of issues, including current proliferation trends and challenges; transferrable skills and capacity building; intangible technology transfers; proliferation finance; aviation and shipping, including transit and trans-shipment; emerging threats; tools for capacity building and sharing best practice; legal issues; and outreach.

  • Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what the annual budget is for food produced for his Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for his Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

    Guto Bebb

    Given the small amount of expenditure involved, the Wales Office does not have a budget specifically for food. It uses external caterers to supply food and drink for events in its London and Cardiff offices. Records are not kept on where the food is sourced from.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish her Department’s 25 year plan on food and farming.

    George Eustice

    Work on the 25 Year Food and Farming Plan is currently on hold following the result of the EU Referendum. We now have an opportunity to consider our long term vision for food and farming outside of the EU. We look forward to continuing to work with a wide range of interests to develop that vision and to work together to deliver it.

    It remains essential that the UK has a thriving food and farming industry with high animal welfare and environmental standards, access to international markets and a long term commitment to boosting productivity through innovation and skills. We are now focused on taking forward the actions that support these objectives, and continuing to develop our long term vision, in a different context.

  • Baroness Redfern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Redfern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2016-09-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which five clinical procedures have the highest average waiting time in England.

    Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

    Patients have a legal right, set out in the NHS Constitution, to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions. The NHS Constitution for England is attached, as is the Handbook to the Constitution, which provides a further level of detail regarding the rights and pledges. Performance is measured against an operational standard that 92% of patients who have not yet started treatment should have been waiting less than 18 weeks from referral at the end of each month. These referral to treatment waiting times are collected for 18 treatment functions (e.g. trauma and orthopaedics), but not for individual conditions or procedures. They are different from the data derived from hospital episode statistics, which show only the waiting time from decision to admit to admission, and not the waiting time from referral to start of treatment.

    Table: The five treatment functions that had the highest average waiting time from referral to treatment in July 2016, in England

    Treatment Function

    Average (median) waiting time (in weeks)

    Neurosurgery

    8.4

    Oral Surgery

    7.3

    Neurology

    7.0

    Trauma and Orthopaedics

    7.0

    Cardiothoracic Surgery

    7.0

    Source: Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times, NHS England

  • Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sarah Champion – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) child and (b) adult EU nationals were (i) identified as potential victims of trafficking and (ii) returned to their country of origin in each of the last 5 years; and how many of those returned to their country of origin were so identified as potential victims of trafficking.

    Karen Bradley

    The total number of EU nationals identified as potential victims of trafficking through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in the last five years is 2,776. The figures for adult and children are shown in the table attached.

    Given the freedom of movement for EU nationals the Home Office would have no way of knowing how many had returned to their home country as this would not be on the Home Office immigration database.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements for care in their home countries are made for those deported on reaching the age of 18.

    Lord Bates

    Those who depart the UK with the additional support of an assisted package may qualify for a combination of cash and in-kind support, depending on their individual circumstances and those in the country of return. Asylum seekers may qualify for assistance equivalent to a maximum value of £1,500, and families up to £2,000 per family members.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of (a) white and (b) non-white people convicted of a crime were sentenced to immediate custody for each category of offence in each of the last five years.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The proportion of persons sentenced to immediate custody for indictable offences, can be calculated through table 5.20, part of chapter 5: defendants tables of the Race and the Criminal Justice System: 2014 which can be located at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/race-and-the-criminal-justice-system-2014

    “

  • 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 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to implement the recommendations of the Mental Health Taskforce’s report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government welcomes and accepts the recommendations from the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. The Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21: by the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality.

    Investment in mental health rose to its highest ever level, an estimated £11.7 billion, in 2014/15. The £1 billion of additional investment announced by the Prime Minister last month will be in place by 2020/21 and builds on the £280 million per year of new funding for children and young people’s mental health announced last year. This funding will make an important contribution to plugging the gap and fulfilling the Taskforce’s recommendations, helping one million additional children, young people and adults to access high quality care by 2020/21.

    How new investment for NHS priority recommendations is identified and implemented will be for NHS England to determine as part of the planning and allocations process. We anticipate that the majority of commitments outlined in this report will be delivered through clinical commissioning groups.

    Further guidance will be issued shortly as part of the new Sustainability and Transformation Planning process: this will set expectations for how funding will be invested to deliver on the Taskforce recommendations for the NHS and how areas will be supported to deliver them over the following four years.