The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what visits each of the Ministers in his Department have made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
Mr David Lidington
Details of Ministers’ visits overseas are published quarterly and can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the savings to the NHS from the use of mindfulness interventions to reduce the number of GP visits.
Norman Lamb
No such assessment of the saving to the National Health Service from the use of mindfulness interventions to reduce the number of general practitioner visits has been made.
The Department is aware of the Mental Health Foundation’s research into the impact of mindfulness. The benefits of mindfulness are widely recognised. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance for the NHS has recommended Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for recurrent depression since 2004. MBCT is available through a number of Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services in England.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the next British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey will be carried out.
Norman Lamb
The Department is currently looking at the options available for carrying out a new survey of children and young people’s mental health.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2014, Official Report, column 101W, on the human papillomavirus, when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will publish its conclusions into whether the human papillomavirus should be offered to males.
Jane Ellison
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) human papillomavirus (HPV) sub-committee will report its findings to the JCVI following consideration of on-going studies by Public Health England on the impact and cost-effectiveness of extending HPV vaccination to men who have sex with men (MSM) and/or adolescent boys.
It is expected that the MSM modelling study will be completed at the end of 2014 at the earliest, and the adolescent boys modelling study will be completed at the end of 2015 at the earliest. The JCVI will then consider the findings of the HPV subcommittee before deciding what advice or recommendations can be made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what visits each of the Ministers in her Department have made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
Karen Bradley
Home Office Ministers have meetings with and make visits to a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of these meetings and visits are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website:
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Burns on 2014-06-12.
To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, how much Saxton Bampfylde will be paid for its work on a successor to the Clerk of the House and Chief Executive; and if he will publish their terms of reference.
John Thurso
Following a competitive tendering process, Saxton Bampfylde was appointed on 29 May 2014 to support the recruitment of the next Clerk of the House and Chief Executive, in particular by providing executive search services. Three bids were received and evaluated by Mr Speaker and the Director General of HR and Change. The fee for these services is fixed at £18,000. The contract will be monitored by the Department of HR and Change. The recruitment brief to which Saxton Bampfylde are working will be placed in the Library.
The Clerk of the House is appointed by the Crown by Letters Patent, on the recommendation of the Speaker to the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister to the Crown. Short-listed candidates will be interviewed by a panel chaired by Mr Speaker, three other members of the House of Commons Commission, a senior backbencher and an external member.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Seabeck on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many parliamentary questions tabled to her Department in the last parliamentary Session did not receive a substantive answer by the time of the 2014 prorogation; and when each such question was first tabled.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
None.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what consideration he has given to providing mitigation and transition support to maritime businesses during the introduction of maritime fuel sulphur regulations in January 2015.
Stephen Hammond
In October 2012, and again in March 2013, I chaired ‘round table’ meetings of industry stakeholders (from the shipping, ports, exhaust gas cleaning system technology, oil refining and logistics sectors) to consider the best way forward for compliance with the new international and EU sulphur requirements. The potential for reverse modal shift, the maturity and efficacy of scrubber technology and the scope for financial assistance to industry were all key to those discussions. The report commissioned by the UK Chamber of Shipping was produced as a result of those meetings, and officials have taken it into account in producing the Government’s Impact Assessment on the draft UK Regulations to implement the sulphur limits in national law.
The Government went out to an eight-week public consultation on 29 April 2014 on those draft UK Regulations. Meanwhile, Government officials continue to work closely with the industry and to explore the scope for securing EU finance, possibly under the Trans-European Network (commonly known as TEN-T) programme and affordable capital from the European Investment Bank, for shipowners and ports who wish to invest in scrubber technology or in technology associated with the use of an alternative fuel, such as liquefied natural gas, to comply with the new limits.
The UK Regulations will be reviewed in accordance with normal Government practice and consistent with the principles of better regulation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of employment and support allowance claims processed within (a) 10, (b) 20, (c) 30, (d) 40, (e) 60 and (f) more than 60 working days.
Esther McVey
The information requested is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Russell Brown on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what response he has given to the recommendation of the Welfare Reform Committee of the Scottish Parliament that (a) those living with long-term progressive conditions should not be subject to reassessments and (b) changes should be made to the work capability assessment criteria to better recognise the impact of hidden symptoms and fluctuating conditions including multiple sclerosis.
Mike Penning
As Minister of State with the responsibility for this policy area I responded to the letter dated 21 March 2014 from the Welfare Reform Committee of the Scottish Parliament on 26 April. In this letter I:
a) responded by explaining the importance of claimants having contact with the Department; the need to move away from the old style Incapacity Benefit; and that Employment and Support Allowance claimants, including those claimants with progressive illnesses, will be placed in the Support Group if they meet the criteria.
b) responded that through the Evidence Based Review of the Work Capability Assessment the current descriptors were tested against an alternative assessment and what the findings indicated