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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Leader of the House, how many (a) Peers and (b) civil servants have offices within the Palace of Westminster.

    Mr David Lidington

    As of 13 October, there is a total of three hundred and sixty eight (368) Peers with desks provided within one hundred and twelve (112) offices in the Palace of Westminster.

    There is a total of twenty eight (28) desks provided within eight (8) offices to Civil Servants in the House of Commons foot print of the Palace of Westminster for the following: Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Leader of the House and Government Chief Whip.

    There is a total of twenty one (21) desks provided within six (6) offices to Civil Servants in the House of Lords foot print of the Palace of Westminster for the following: Cabinet Office (16 desks, 4 offices) and Crown Office (5 desks, 2 Offices). In addition there is a Bill Team Room in the House of Lords. This is a single office with two desks which is for the use of civil servants from whichever department is having legislation debated in the Chamber to use as a ‘hotdesking’ facility.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to encourage higher donor registration among (a) all people and (b) mixed ethnicity donors to the UK stem cell and bone marrow register.

    Jane Ellison

    Since 2012, the Department has provided nearly £19 million to improve the provision of stem cells in the United Kingdom for all people. This funding has enabled the recruitment of over 75,000 young male donors who are more likely to be able to donate bone marrow and we continue to expand the pool of young male donors.

    The stem cell improvement programme has directly addressed the difficulty faced by patients from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community and those with mixed ethnicity through targeted recruitment. The Department also continues to support the work of the National BAME Transplant Alliance. The programme has also funded the collection of umbilical cord blood samples, which has a specific target to achieve 40% of samples come from BAME and mixed ethnicity births.

  • Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether non-academic employees of a UK university are considered to be public officers for the purposes of misconduct or malfeasance in public office.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    This is a matter of interpretation for the courts to pronounce upon in the context of a relevant case, and it would not be appropriate for the department to provide a general legal opinion.

  • Christina Rees – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Christina Rees – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons he ended the insolvency exemption from the 2012 Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act on 17 December 2015.

    Dominic Raab

    Since the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012, it has always been the government’s stated intention that the exemption for insolvency cases would be temporary. Commencement of Part 2 of LASPO’s conditional fee (or ‘no win no fee’) arrangement reforms for insolvency, was announced in December and will apply from April this year. The aim of LASPO’s reforms was to control the cost of civil litigation.

    Ministry of Justice Officials discussed Professor Walton’s report with him, but the Ministry of Justice did not agree with his conclusions. Officials have also met representatives of insolvency practitioners who use no win no fee arrangements to fund these cases, as well as those who fund them in other ways.

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

    Lord Condon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Condon on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by Sir Stephen Bubb The Challenge Ahead and his proposal for a Commissioner to protect and promote the rights of people with learning difficulties.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government welcomes Sir Stephen Bubb’s report Time for Change – the Challenge Ahead which focuses on improving the experience of care and outcomes for people with learning disabilities. Sir Stephen’s report acknowledges the real progress that has been made in the last year.

    The Department will consider the recommendations in Time for Change – the Challenge Ahead in our development of a Learning Disability Action Plan. However, new statutory roles and legislation are not necessarily the answer to achieving the changes envisaged by the Steering Group. We believe that we can make more rapid and meaningful progress by ensuring that the rights that exist under current laws and statutes are properly understood, implemented and exercised by those with learning disabilities and/or autism.

  • 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 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to Best in Class, published by the CBI in December 2015, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of Swedish four box grid approach to analysing the attractiveness of international markets.

    Anna Soubry

    In CBI’s Best in Class report, the reference to the Swedish four box grid approach was part of a wider recommendation on allocating overseas resources for business support.

    The UK Government recognises that it has a crucial role to play in supporting businesses that export and invest in international markets.

    The Government is committed to focusing UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) overseas resources for business support in those markets that can deliver greatest benefit for the UK. UKTI uses similar publicly-available market data to Sweden (including GDP growth, political risk and the ease of doing business) in its assessment of export markets, but importantly this is just one input into the opportunity-focused, five-year rolling business planning process being developed to guide resource decisions.

  • 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 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the legal status of NHS Improvement is; how and to whom that body is accountable; and what functions he has in relation to that body.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS Improvement has brought together two distinct legal entities: Monitor, a non-departmental public body and the NHS Trust Development Authority, a special health authority, under a single leadership and operating model. It is a combination of the continuing statutory functions and legal powers vested in these organisations.

    They will continue to maintain their current legal underpinnings as two separate bodies, although they will function as a single organisation to manage NHS trusts and foundation trusts more effectively in the interests of patients and taxpayers.

    NHS Improvement will be accountable directly to Parliament, the Secretary of State and the Department’s Principal Accounting Officer for discharge of Monitor’s statutory and regulatory functions and to the Secretary of State and Principal Accounting Officer for the specific functions of the Trust Development Authority.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to his Department’s White Paper, Success as a knowledge economy: teaching excellence, social mobility and student choice, published on 16 May 2016, what the minimum number of (a) students and (b) higher education students is which any new provider would have to have registered at their institution in order to be granted university teaching powers.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Government’s intention is that – as now – in order to be eligible for taught degree awarding powers a provider must have the majority of its higher education students enrolled on study programmes which are recognised as being at level 6 or above of the Framework of Higher Education Qualifications for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This requirement will be set out in detailed criteria and guidance on degree awarding powers on which there will be a consultation in due course.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the statement in his article in The Telegraph of 27 March 2016, on his Department’s hesitation in using the term genocide, what his assessment is of whether Daesh has committed genocide.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Government maintains that genocide should be a matter for judicial authorities rather than a political decision. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), announced on 21 July that the UK will work with our international partners to drive a global campaign to hold Daesh to account for its crimes.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the cycling and walking investment strategy will include investment for the proposed cycling and pedestrian bridge linking Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf.

    Andrew Jones

    The draft Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy sets out the Government’s plans for increasing cycling and walking in England. It is a high level document, with a long term ambition up to 2040, supported by a target and a number of objectives.

    The Strategy outlines how Government will work with local bodies and business to develop expertise and support, the tools and policies Government will deliver to support them in increasing walking and cycling in local communities, and how this work will enable progress towards our national objectives and target. It does not set out details of individual schemes as that is a matter for local bodies.