Tag: Parliamentary Question

Nusrat Ghani – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nusrat Ghani on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, by how much revenue accruing to Southern Rail has increased owing to higher passenger numbers in each of the five most recent years for which data is available.

Claire Perry

The published statutory accounts for Southern Railway Limited show the following Revenue figures for the period from 2010 to 2014. 2015 data is not yet available:

Year to 28th June 2014: £755m

Year to 29th June 2013:£705m

Year to 30th June 2012: £665m

Year to 2nd July 2011:£611m

Year to 3rd July 2010:£444m (part year – franchise commenced 20th September 2009)

These figures include passenger fares revenue, and income arising from third party rentals and subleases, and infrastructure access. Revenue increases include both price rises and increases in passenger numbers, however the latter is not separately identifiable.

01/01/2023
Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the average change in the level of pay for those junior doctors who will be offered pay protection as part of the transition to a new contract.

Ben Gummer

Over three quarters of junior doctors moving on to the new contract pay terms in August 2016 are expected to experience a rise in earnings. Those that do not will receive pay protection.

01/01/2023

Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many organ transplants there have been in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The information on the number of successful and unsuccessful organ transplants performed in each of the last five years is shown in the following table. This includes single and multi-organ transplants containing kidney, pancreas, liver, heart, lung and/or intestinal from both deceased and living donors.

Although deceased donor rates were lower in 2014/15, data show that deceased donor rates for 2015/16 have exceeded 2014/15 rates. The official data are due to published in summer 2016.

Organ Transplants in the United Kingdom, 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2015

Financial year	Total number of organ transplants	Number of unsuccessful¹ transplants	% unsuccessful
2010/2011	3,751	127	3.4%
2011/2012	3,971	131	3.3%
2012/2013	4,221	127	3.0%
2013/2014	4,656	143	3.1%
2014/2015	4,433	122	2.8%

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant

Notes:

¹Unsuccessful has been defined as failed within the first two weeks after transplantation. This figure is based on 98% of transplant recipients where the two week post-transplant outcome is known.

01/01/2023

Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Commissioners have been appointed to run local authority children’s services since January 2015.

Lord Nash

Commissioners are appointed where Ofsted find persistent or systemic failure by a council to deliver children’s services to an acceptable quality.

Persistent failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate more than once within a five year period. Systemic failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate across the board on all key Ofsted judgements.

Commissioners are appointed to direct the improvement of children’s social care services; the Council’s leadership and management of them; and, increasingly, to review whether these services should be removed from council control in order to secure more rapid and sustainable improvement.

Since January 2015 the Secretary of State has appointed five Children’s Services Commissioners.

01/01/2023
Gerald Kaufman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Kaufman on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he intends to answer the letter to him dated 23 March 2016 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regards to Mr C Costigan.

Jane Ellison

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health responded to the Rt. hon. Member’s letter of 23 March 2016 on 22 April 2016.

01/01/2023
Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-07-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of existing regulations on drones; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government’s primary responsibility is the safety and security of our citizens. That is why we apply one of the highest regulatory safety standards for commercial aviation in the world.

There are existing regulations in place that require users of drones to maintain direct, unaided visual contact with their vehicle and to not recklessly or negligently cause or permit an aircraft to endanger any person or property. Guidance on tackling the risks of criminal drone use has been provided to constabularies across the UK.

The Department and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) work with a wide range of industry partners across the aviation sector, (including manufacturers, airports, and airlines), to ensure our understanding of potential hazards to aircraft remains up-to-date and mitigations effective. Further work is underway to better understand the risk posed by flying drones close to commercial planes to ensure that regulations remain fit for purpose.

Awareness and education on current restrictions are vitally important. The Civil Aviation Authority is undertaking activities to raise awareness of the basic safety requirements, including an ongoing ‘Dronecode’ safety awareness campaign, issuing safety leaflets at the point of sale, publishing an animated video on their website, and running ‘small UAS’ Risk and Hazard workshops with industry as part of the Mid Air Collision Programme.

01/01/2023
Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to identify businesses that engage in labour exploitation.

Margot James

The Immigration Act 2016 creates a new Director of Labour Market Enforcement. They will be responsible for overseeing and setting priorities for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, National Minimum Wage enforcement and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. This will strengthen efforts to identify businesses that engage in labour exploitation.

To enable more effective enforcement, we are creating:
- A new intelligence hub so that enforcement is targeted at areas of risk; and
- A new regime of Labour Market Enforcement undertakings and orders, backed up by a criminal offence and custodial sentence, to allow us to tackle repeat labour market offenders and rogue businesses.
We have already reformed the Gangmasters Licensing Authority into the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority with the ability to tackle labour exploitation.
01/01/2023
Ben Howlett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment the Government has made of the benefit to businesses of a healthy workforce.

Priti Patel

There is a good evidence base for the benefits to business of a healthy workforce, for example, workers who are in good health can be up to three times as productive as those in poor health. Conversely there are high costs to business from ill health: ‘Health at Work – an independent review of sickness absence’ found that the costs to employers of sick pay were £9bn per year.

01/01/2023
Baroness Brinton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Brinton on 2015-12-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which organisation has responsibility for ensuring implementation and compliance with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency guidance, which states that biologic medicines should be prescribed by brand name and tracked by batch number.

Lord Prior of Brampton

In 2008, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued best practice guidance on the prescribing of biological products. This advised:

“All biosimilar products are prescription only medicines (POM). When prescribing biological products, it is good practice to use the brand name. This will ensure that automatic substitution of a biosimilar product does not occur when the medicine is dispensed by the pharmacist. Products (biosimilar and reference) that have the same international non-proprietary name (INN) are not to be presumed identical for the reasons given above.”

The MHRA does not have responsibility for monitoring the compliance of healthcare professionals with its prescribing guidance. The responsibility for prescribing rests with the practitioner who has clinical responsibility for their patient’s care and we would expect practitioners to take any relevant guidance into account when making their prescribing decisions. Practitioner professional bodies also have a role in setting out best practice to their members.

01/01/2023
Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 22 January (HL4827), what are the contents of those statements by the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, and where those statements are published.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Statements made by the Office of the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect are published on the UN website.

The statements cover a range of issues including incitement to violence in Syria on religious grounds; urging against rhetoric that escalates the risk of violence against religious communities; expressing concern about the on-going threat to the safety of minority groups in Syria; expressing outrage at speeches and media articles that dehumanise Alawites and Christians; expressing alarm at reports of the abduction of 1,500 Yazidi, Christian and Shabak women and girls; expressing concern at the situation of religious and other minorities, noting that members of the Christian community were fleeing the northern city of Mosul following the Daesh-led invasion; urging leaders in the wider region to refrain from using or condoning any language that may escalate sectarian tension; calling on all actors to condemn hate speech that could constitute incitement to violence against communities based on their religious affiliation.

The complete statements are attached to this response, and the link to the website is provided below for your ease of reference: http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/statements.shtml

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01/01/2023