Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-09-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will take steps to work with local authorities to install air pollution monitoring facilities outside primary and secondary schools in (a) London and (b) England.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    Defra monitors, models and reports air quality at a national level in accordance with the requirements of EU and international legislation. There are 272 monitoring stations in the UK national monitoring network, of which 21 are in Greater London and 83 in England.

    Local authorities are responsible for reviewing and assessing local air quality, including decisions on local air quality monitoring. Their local knowledge and interaction with the communities that they serve mean that they know the issues on the ground in detail and the solutions that are best suited to local circumstances.

    Defra provides guidance, including helpdesk advice to local authorities on the appropriate type of monitoring to install. Where local authorities conduct air quality monitoring, they are expected to site monitors in accordance with local and national priorities, which may include schools and other locations where there is high risk of public exposure.

  • Lord Donoughue – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Donoughue – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Donoughue on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much was paid by the Department for International Development to green energy campaign groups between 2010 and 2015 (1) in the UK, and (2) internationally, both as a total and as a percentage of the Department for International Development’s development expenditure.

    Earl of Courtown

    DFID does not fund any green energy campaign groups in the UK. DFID’s Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) funding to Civil Society enables organisations to achieve international development outcomes. Some organisations may choose to use DFID funding for advocacy efforts, including on climate, within the countries in which they work

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the measures proposed in clause 13 of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on claimants with (a) Parkinson’s disease and (b) other incurable and degenerative conditions.

    Priti Patel

    The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in Bill on 20th July.

    Ministers have considered impacts with regard to all relevant legal obligations when formulating the welfare policies announced in the Bill.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what anti-racism training is given to youth court magistrates.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    All judicial office holders are required to apply the law fairly and objectively regardless of the ethnicity of those who appear before them. A key principle of judicial training is that it should include the social context within which judges and magistrates operate, such as awareness of diversity issues. Additionally, the Judicial College, which oversees the delivery of judicial training on behalf of the Lord Chief Justice, maintains an Equal Treatment Bench Book to assist judicial office holders to deal fairly with those who appear before them. The Bench Book is publicly available at: https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/equal-treatment-bench-book/

    “

  • Martin Vickers – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Martin Vickers – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martin Vickers on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many small businesses responded to the Government’s consultation, Devolving Sunday trading rules, published on 5 August 2015; and what (a) number and (b) proportion of those respondents answered (i) yes, (ii) no and (iii) otherwise to Question one of that consultation.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department does not hold full data from this consultation broken down by specific question as a large portion of respondents chose to respond in their own words rather than addressing the consultation questions directly, and/or did not indicate the type of organisation they represented.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many people have registered for free flood warnings provided by the Environment Agency; and what steps she has taken to ensure that more people so register.

    Rory Stewart

    As of 1 March 2016 there were a total of 1,146,146 properties registered to receive flood warnings in England.

    Environment Agency staff work with communities to prepare them for flooding. They encourage people to fully register for the service by knocking on the doors of residents and businesses who are not registered to receive flood warnings, running local events and attending appropriate shows and seminars to encourage sign-up. Callers to the Floodline call centre are encouraged to register if they are not already on the system.

    Alongside work to encourage people to ‘opt-in’ to the service, the Environment Agency has automatically added 400,000 mobile phone numbers registered to locations at high risk of flooding provided by the company ‘EE’. They are currently working with 3 other major mobile phone companies to access their numbers too. This approach increases the number of people that the Environment Agency can automatically add to their warning system.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of humanitarian conditions inside the town of Daraya in Syria.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The United Nations has been unable to deliver assistance to the 4,000 people besieged by the Syrian Regime in Darayya since November 2012, despite repeated requests for permission. The UN report that humanitarian conditions there are dire, with reports of severe shortages of food, clean water, medicines, electricity and basic commodities. The United Nations stands ready to deliver assistance to Darayaa as soon as access is granted by the Syrian regime.

    Across Syria, Assad and other parties to the conflict are wilfully impeding humanitarian access on a day-by-day basis. It is unacceptable and illegal to use starvation as a weapon of war. We have given support to the UN and international NGOs since the start of the conflict to deliver aid to these areas and are pushing for humanitarian access to be granted to all besieged and hard to reach places in Syria through the International Syria Support Group Humanitarian taskforce and our position in the UN Security Council.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-05-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on medicines policy and management of the reduction in the number of consultant clinical pharmacologist posts within the NHS.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that there has not been a reduction in the number of consultant clinical pharmacologists employed in the National Health Service in England.

    As part of its workforce planning, Health Education England (HEE) take account of a range of factors including forecast rates of retirement. HEE has recently undertaken a review of the clinical pharmacology and therapeutics workforce, the findings of which will contribute to future workforce planning for this specialty in England.

    It is for the respective Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to consider workforce planning for their health system.

  • Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Clwyd on 2016-06-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Bahraini counterpart on the prison sentence handed down to Sheikh Ali Salman; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are concerned about the recent extension of the imprisonment of Al Wefaq’s Secretary-General, Sheikh Ali Salman. We continue to raise his case with the Government of Bahrain, including most recently on 30 May when The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised his case at the highest levels during a visit to Manama. We understand there is a further stage in the legal process.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-09-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to work with NHS health trusts to identify and resolve problems in recruiting the required number of doctors, nurses and other health professionals necessary for the effective delivery of services.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The ultimate responsibility for recruitment and staffing rests with National Health Service organisations as they are best placed to ensure they have the right staff, in the right place, at the right time to provide safe and effective care for their patients.

    Health Education England was established in 2012 to undertake responsibility for the forecasting and planning of future workforce supply, working with NHS organisations to meet their needs. On 4 October the Secretary of State announced that the number of medical training places available to students each year will be expanded to ensure the NHS has enough doctors to continue to provide safe, compassionate care in the future. From September 2018, the Government will fund up to 1,500 additional student places through medical schools each year.

    The latest workforce data for June 2016 published by NHS Digital in September showed that there are almost 22,700 more professionally qualified clinical staff working within the NHS than in May 2010. Health Education England data shows that more than 86,000 professional staff were in training as of March 2016.