Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November 2015 to Question 17622, if he will identify separately the marginal costs associated with maintaining the Vanguard submarines in service for five years longer then envisaged.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    As announced in Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) 2010 we can extend the life of the existing Vanguard class submarines into the early 2030s. Cost estimates for supporting the ballistic missile submarines during the transition from Vanguard to Successor are not materially affected by minor changes to scheduled dates.

  • Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are currently taking to improve support to children with disabilities in their early years.

    Lord Nash

    This Government is committed to ensuring that all families have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare. Children with disabilities should have the same opportunities as other children to access high-quality childcare.

    Local authorities are required by legislation to secure early education places offering 570 hours a year over no fewer than 38 weeks of the year for all three- and four-year olds, including those with disabilities. The Childcare Bill is delivering extended entitlement to free childcare for working parents of three- and four-year-olds. This will provide eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year.

    Early Implementers of the extended childcare entitlement will focus on key delivery issues, including access for children with SEND, in order to provide critical learning to inform national rollout.

    All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and to promote equality of opportunity for children in their care. These requirements are set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2014. The SEND Code of Practice, introduced as part of the wide-ranging reforms set out in the Children and Families Act, gives guidance on how children between the ages of 0 and 25 with SEN or disabilities are to be supported and providers are statutorily required to have regard for this Code of Practice.

    The Government has invested £5.3 million to voluntary and community sector organisations this year. A number of these programmes are delivering specific SEND training to the early years workforce. In particular, the National Day Nurseries Association’s current SEND Champions grant has proven very popular amongst the workforce.

    The Department funds local authorities’ high needs provision in both the early years and schools through the Dedicated Schools Grant; local authorities have reported that they are planning to spend over £90 million from their high needs budgets on children in their early years. The Spending Review provided a generous uplift in the funding early years providers will receive from April 2017 and protection for the majority of high needs funding. We recognise the critical importance of childcare to parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities; we will consider SEN funding for early years as part of wider consultations in 2016 on how we introduce a fairer funding system.

    This Government is committed to helping parents with disabled children. For example, from early 2017 working parents with children under the age of 17 who have a disability will be able to access support under Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) worth up to £4,000 per child, per year. This is double that offered for children without disabilities for whom support is offered until the age of 12.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 25006, for what reason the repair and maintenance costs of HMS Diamond were greater than those of the other Type 45 Destroyers.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The primary cause of the greater repair and maintenance costs for HMS DIAMOND was a longer Docking Period than the other two routine docking cycles. HMS DARING and HMS DAUNTLESS are the only other Type 45 Destroyers to have completed a routine docking cycle. The additional length of the Docking Period was a reflection of the number of capability upgrades and modifications, fitted to HMS DIAMOND. This was entirely normal for a class of warship of this age and all future Docking Periods for the Class are now programmed for a similar duration.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in which universities the Frontline programme was promoted in (a) 2015 and (b) 2016.

    Edward Timpson

    Frontline was promoted at the following universities in both 2015 and 2016: Aston, Bath, Birmingham, Belfast, Bristol, Brunel, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Greenwich, Kings College London, Kingston, Imperial College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Leeds Beckett, Liverpool, London Metropolitan, Loughborough, LSE, Manchester, Middlesex, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary, Reading, Sheffield, SOAS, Southampton, Strathclyde, Surrey, St Andrews (not in 2016), UCL, UEA, University of East London, Warwick, Westminster, and York. In 2016, Frontline also visited Belfast, Leeds Beckett, Surrey, and UEA to promote the programme.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent advice have Ministers and officials in his Department received from the European Commission on the compliance with state aid rules of awarding Public Service Obligation subsidies that specify airports both origin and destination.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    We have not received any recent advice from the European Commission on the compliance with state aid rules of awarding Public Service Obligation subsidies that specify airports both origin and destination.

  • Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-05-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support the children and families of alcoholics.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England (PHE) is engaged in a work programme which aims to reduce alcohol-related harm to individuals, families and society. PHE works closely with local authorities to support their work of assessing local alcohol-related need and commissioning services and support to meet that need, including identification and brief advice, alcohol treatment and helping ensure that young people’s substance misuse services target vulnerable young people.

    PHE is producing a report on the harm alcohol causes to people other than the drinker, in collaboration with governments in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This report will look at the impact of alcohol on others, including the children of parents with alcohol problems. It is due to published this year.

    PHE will also provide estimates of the number of children likely to be affected by their parents’ alcohol use and provide advice to national and local government on where action could have the greatest impact on improving life chances.

  • Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Masham of Ilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase patients’ access to specialist multi-disciplinary teams to improve care for heart failure patients in the community.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England is working with key partners to ensure better co-ordination and integration of all services with the aim of delivering person-centred and coordinated care which is tailored to the needs and preferences of the individual, their carer and family.

    In particular, to encourage better practice in the caring for heart failure patients, NHS England has established a best practice tariff for acute heart failure. It is also working with Health Education England to explore ways of improving the provision of and increasing access to echocardiography, which is used for the diagnosis of heart failure.

    To help the NHS understand what a good quality service looks like, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publish quality standards which define best practice within a topic area and it has published quality standards for acute and chronic heart failure. NHS England expects all commissioners and providers to take account of quality standards in the services that are delivered to patients.

    NICE has developed a commissioning toolkit for the use of natriuretic peptides assessment in primary care for suspected heart failure. It has also produced guidance on acute heart failure and chronic heart failure, both of which cover the use of natriuretic peptides.

    NICE guidance and quality standards are published online only, but due to the complexity and length of their content, they cannot be included as attachments.

  • Sammy Wilson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Sammy Wilson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sammy Wilson on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has made to bring forward legislative proposals to implement the ruling of the European Court of Justice of September 2014, Damijan Vnuk v Zavarovalnica Triglav C-162/13, on insurance for motorised vehicles used off-road and on private property.

    Andrew Jones

    We oppose any measure that imposes unreasonable costs on British motorists, home owners and businesses. We are pleased to have achieved positive progress; the Commission has agreed in principle that the Motor Insurance Directive should be amended. They set out their high level proposals in an Inception Impact Assessment in June.

    The Secretary of State will consult in due course on whether or not to make changes to how the Motor Insurance Directive is implemented in domestic law.

  • Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 14380, what (a) number or (b) proportion of referrals under the UNHCR VPR scheme translate into arrivals.

    Richard Harrington

    We do not have reliable statistics on this at this stage. We are quickly working our way through the referrals received from UNHCR. It is too early to say how many will become arrivals into the UK. However, we have collaborated closely with UNHCR to ensure that those referrals made in the early months of the expanded scheme are likely to be people that can be matched quickly with Local Authority places. More difficult cases might take longer to place.

    In some instances, refugees choose to withdraw from the scheme, for example, following the death of a family member, marriage or childbirth. Furthermore the Home Office also retains the right to reject individuals on security, war crimes or other grounds.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made the effectiveness and reliability of small arms equipment issued as standard across the armed forces; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The effectiveness of small arms is regularly reviewed, with current performance routinely compared to other equipment used by military peers and developed by industry. The requirement for small arms to achieve defined levels of reliability is set prior to procurement and tested prior to purchase. Equipment already in service is continually reviewed, with any emerging issues investigated to resolution.