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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what role he has had in designing the new GCSE English Literature curriculum; and on what dates he has had meetings about its design in the last 12 months.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Secretary of State for Education set out that new GCSEs should provide students with fulfilling and demanding courses of study, with expectations that match and exceed those in the highest performing countries. GCSE English literature subject content was developed drawing on the evidence gathered through its public consultation on GCSE English literature content, which ran from June to August 2013, and from Ofqual, the Awarding Organisations and other subject experts.

    In the last 12 months, the Secretary of State has met Department for Education officials on a series of occasions to discuss evidence gathered during the consultation.

  • Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pamela Nash on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many officials in his Department are employed on zero-hours contracts.

    Mrs Helen Grant

    The Department has no employees with a zero hours contract.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of TB tests for Alpacas; and if he will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency undertook research sponsored by the British Alpaca Society, the British Llama Society and British Camelids Ltd. to validate ante mortem TB tests in camelids. Their report was delivered to the sponsors in 2012 and a copy can be found at: http://www.llama.co.uk/resources/Validation_of_ante_mortem_TB_tests_in_Camelids.pdf.

    The outcome of that research formed the basis of Defra’s proposals for combined skin and blood TB testing of camelids on which we consulted in April this year. They can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bovine-tb-disease-controls-for-deer-and-camelids

    “

  • Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consultation his Department had with HM Revenue and Customs staff prior to awarding the mail management contract to EDM Group.

    Mr David Gauke

    Regular consultation took place between HMRC and staff representatives throughout the process up to the point the decision was made to go out to tender for a provider of scanning services to HMRC.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much and what proportion of national cancer spend was spent on radiotherapy in each of the last five years.

    Jane Ellison

    The information is shown in the following table:

    Estimated expenditure on cancer services and radiotherapy, 2008-09 to 2012-13, £ millions in 2012-13 prices

    Year

    Cancers and tumours

    Radiotherapy

    2008-09

    5,281

    401

    2009-10

    5,908

    435

    2010-11

    5,685

    467

    2011-12

    5,565

    473

    2012-13

    5,681

    485

    Sources:

    Programme budgeting data, NHS England

    Reference costs, Department of Health

    It is not appropriate for a given service to present reference costs as a proportion of programme budgeting expenditure. This is because radiotherapy data are calculated from reference costs, which are the unit costs to National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients. Reference costs do not represent all expenditure in the NHS, and are costs to NHS providers whereas programme budgeting data are expenditure by NHS commissioners.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by whom the decision was taken not to proceed from the Technology Demonstrator Phase of the EASAMS collision warning system to Full Development and Production; and whether that decision was reflected in the relevant platform risk registers.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 7 April 2014 (Official Report, column 96W).

    Risk Registers are not designed to record the outcome of the scoping of systems which are at pre-concept stage.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) amount and (b) proportion of Public Health England’s marketing budget has been allocated to each of the six Big Ambitions referred to in its 2014-15 business plan.

    Jane Ellison

    The core Public Health England (PHE) marketing budget for 2014-15 is £53 million. The allocation to each of the six big ambition areas is as follows:

    Ambition

    Campaign

    Budget for 2014-15

    Percentage of total budget

    Tobacco

    Smokefree

    £11,689,200

    21.72

    Obesity

    Change 4 Life

    £9,360,000

    17.39

    Dementia

    Vascular dementia programme and dementia friends

    £5,460,000

    10.14

    Best start in life

    Start4Life and Information Service for Parents

    £3,450,000

    6.41

    Alcohol

    Alcohol

    £2,000,000

    3.72

    Tuberculosis (TB)

    £0

    0.0

    £31,959,200

    59.38

    The current assessment of the evidence shows that a national marketing campaign on TB would not be a cost effective investment so there is no marketing budget allocation to this ambition area.

    In addition to the individual campaign costs stated above an additional £3.3 million is also spent on call centres and £2.6 million is also spent on infrastructure costs such as evaluation. The final budget will be subject to clearance by the Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group.

    PHE’s 2014-15 Marketing strategy is due for publication in early July and will provide more detailed information on the full marketing programme.

  • Andrew Percy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andrew Percy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the level of illegal use of cellular devices in UK prisons; and if he will make a statement.

    Jeremy Wright

    The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of mobile phones in prisons very seriously and is committed to addressing the risks they present to both the security of prisons and the safety of the public.

    NOMS has implemented a multi-layer approach: to minimise the number of mobile phones entering prisons, to find phones that do get in and to disrupt mobile phones that cannot be found. A range of technology has been rolled out to prisons to strengthen searching and security, including portable mobile phone signal detectors, Body Orifice Security Scanners (BOSS chairs), high sensitivity metal detecting wands and short range portable mobile phone blockers.

    In 2012 prisons reported 7,301 seizures* of mobile phones and/or SIM cards. All figures provided have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.

    *One seizure may constitute a handset containing one SIM card or media card, a handset only, or a SIM card only.

  • Iain McKenzie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Iain McKenzie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain McKenzie on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to reimburse people who have had to pay to upgrade to the premium one-day service to secure a (a) new or (b) renewed passport; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    There are no plans to reimburse customers who choose to use the four hour
    premium service.

    On 12 June, the Home Secretary announced in the House of Commons that where
    people have an urgent need to travel, and their application has been with Her
    Majesty’s Passport Office for longer than the standard processing time of three weeks
    through no fault of their own, they will be able to upgrade their application
    without charge. After their application has been through the proper checks, the
    processing, printing and delivery of the new passport will be fast-tracked for
    free. To qualify, customers must be booked to travel within the next 7 days.
    Customers will be asked to provide details – such as flight numbers and the
    name of the travel company – to confirm their travel plans.

    This policy came into effect immediately after being announced and will be
    available until further notice. This policy will not be applied
    retrospectively.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department takes into account the differences in the positions of men and women in preparing for retirement when devising its policy on pensions.

    Steve Webb

    Yes. The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to fully meeting our legal obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, which is part of the Equality Act 2010. We have embedded equality analysis into the processes we use to develop, deliver and evaluate our policies, practices and services. This ensures that we continue to assess the likely and actual effects of what we do on people with protected characteristics to help inform our decision making processes.