Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of reductions in local authority social care budgets on the prevalence of delayed discharges in the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has not formally assessed the relationship between local authority social care budgets and the prevalence of delayed discharges in the National Health Service.

    Internal analysis has been unable to demonstrate a statistical relationship between local authority budgets and delayed transfer of care performance, although qualitative evidence from the sector does indicate the importance of strong and effective social care services in supporting delivery of NHS services.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proposals his Department has for further defence integration between the armed forces of EU member states; and whether defence integration will be included in the Government’s planned renegotiations of the terms of its membership of the EU.

    Mr Julian Brazier

    Her Majesty’s Government is focused on delivering a successful renegotiation;we believe we can and will succeed in reforming and renegotiating our relationship with the EU and campaigning to keep the UK in the EU on that basis. Although we welcome closer co-operation between the armed forces of EU and NATO member states, this needs to be based on improving defence capabilities across Europe, not creating new institutions. We will not support measures which would undermine member states’ competence for their own military forces, or lead to competition and duplication with NATO

  • Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he plans for the next Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council to take place.

    Grant Shapps

    The next Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council will take place in London in the week beginning 30 November 2015.

  • George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the likely effects of the ageing population on the costs of treating sight loss and eye health issues.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.

    Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.

    Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 20091, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.

    Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published2 for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’3 sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.

    1 http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf

    2 http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

    3 http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

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  • Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many transit visas her Department has issued to Syrian refugees since May 2015.

    Richard Harrington

    In Q2 2015 (April to June – the latest period for which figures are available) no transit visas have been issued to Syrian refugees.

  • Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of prison officers on detached duty was in each month since the introduction of the nationally co-ordinated detached duty scheme in October 2013.

    Andrew Selous

    Using centrally held financial records it is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to determine the costs of the nationally coordinated detached duty scheme.

    Information on the average monthly provision of Band 3 to 5 prison officers received as part of the nationally coordinated detached duty scheme, since November 2013, are shown in the table below. November 2013 was the first full month of the nationally coordinated detached duty scheme.

    Average provision of Band 3 to 5 Prison Officers on detached duty to public sector prisons in England & Wales, November 2013 – June 2015

    Month

    Equivalent Full Time Officers

    Nov 2013

    110

    Dec 2013

    210

    Jan 2014

    210

    Feb 2014

    160

    Mar 2014

    130

    Apr 2014

    210

    May 2014

    160

    Jun 2014

    170

    Jul 2014

    230

    Aug 2014

    240

    Sep 2014

    230

    Oct 2014

    240

    Nov 2014

    230

    Dec 2014

    240

    Jan 2015

    260

    Feb 2015

    230

    Mar 2015

    210

    Apr 2015

    190

    May 2015

    260

    Jun 2015

    270

    All figures in the tables are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures. Values of 5 or fewer are denoted as ‘~’

  • Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to prevent discrimination against single people.

    Caroline Dinenage

    Certain provisions in the Equality Act 2010 – for example permitted exceptions from the age discrimination requirements for retail concessions to students and pensioners – are likely to be of particular benefit to single people.

    Single status is not a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. In the provision of goods and services we believe there is a balance to be struck between the interests of single people and the commercial considerations of business. The government, therefore, has no plans to change the Equality Act 2010.

  • Andy Sawford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Andy Sawford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Sawford on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department provided to billing authorities for council tax support schemes in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government provided £3.3 billion to local authorities for localised council tax support in 2013-14 and has made available the same amount in 2014-15.

  • Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen O’Brien on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to the Answer for 4 March 2014, Official Report, column 765W, on carbon emissions, to which other technologies that Answer refers to; and whether this would still be the case if the carbon footprint of backup technologies was factored in.

    Gregory Barker

    Onshore wind power has a very small carbon footprint range relative to other energy generation technologies, including coal and gas-fired generation, which, in 2012, emitted, on average, 895 g/kWh and 415 g/kWh respectively (not allowing for emissions incurred during the manufacture, construction and decommissioning phases)1.

    The Department does not estimate the gas turbine energy contribution (and therefore related CO2 emissions) associated with the reserve generation needed to manage wind variability specifically, due to complex inter-dependencies of the power system operational parameters. However, the need for reserve generation to manage intermittent supply and demand of electricity does not change the fact that any electricity generated by onshore wind – which in the first quarter of 2014 accounted for around 7% of all electricity generated in the UK – has a carbon footprint of just 8 and 20g CO2eq/kWh. Reserve generation displaces the output of existing generating stations to maintain the balance of supply and demand, so there is no net increase of power on the system at any one time; therefore the only additional emissions from reserve associated with wind power is through the inefficiency of running separate generating stations at part load rather than fewer stations at full-load, which is relatively insignificant compared to the carbon savings made.

    [1]Coal and Gas emissions factors from table DUKES 5C, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electricity-chapter-5-digest-of-united-kingdom-energy-statistics-dukes

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  • Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen O’Brien on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the explicit monetary value per quality-adjusted life was in the context of ‘Evaluation of new pharmaceutical products or medical devices’, as quoted as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s submission to Inter-departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and Health review in 2008.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    I refer my Rt. hon. Friend to the answer given on 26 June 2014, Official Report, column 283W.