Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the annual budget is for food produced for his Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for his Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) does not set a budget for food served in its offices. Catering services are provided by private companies under contract to BIS which lease facilities in its London offices at 1 Victoria Street, 151 Buckingham Palace Road and Fleetbank House and provide food to staff without subsidy. Spending on food is determined by the contractor based on sales receipts.

    BIS has worked with its current suppliers to align the existing contract with the requirements of the “balanced scorecard” for public food procurement.

    The amount of food sourced from British producers for the Department’s three London offices is approximately 75% per month on average based on data for the period January – March 2016.

    Items that are not available as British produce are fruits (for example – melons, pineapples, grapes, lemons, oranges), continental meats and Fairtrade coffee which is a large part of the sales volume.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effect of leaving the EU on EU funding for flood defence projects.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    No Government Grant-in-Aid funding for flood defence projects comes from the European Union. Where EU Structural Funds are being used in partnership funding, current arrangements for such funding will remain in place until we leave the EU.

  • William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the result of the EU referendum.

    David Mundell

    Following the EU Referendum, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Lord Dunlop, and I have met with Scottish Government Ministers on a number of occasions, including with the new Scottish Government Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland’s Place in Europe, Mr Michael Russell.

    We will continue to work with the Scottish Government as we form our negotiating strategy, working closely to get the best possible deal for all parts of the United Kingdom as we leave the European Union.

  • Lisa Cameron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lisa Cameron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of resources available to (a) primary and (b) secondary school children requiring educational psychology services in each of the next five years; and how much such support will be made available during each of the next five years.

    Edward Timpson

    The responsibility for educational psychology training and services is devolved. This response relates to the current position in England.

    Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there is a sufficient supply of educational psychologists to deliver their statutory responsibilities. This includes the local authorities’ statutory duties in primary and secondary schools for assessing, monitoring and reviewing children with special educational needs.

    The Department works in partnership with local educational psychology services in the private and public sector to ensure a steady flow of educational psychologists to the workforce. As part of our assessment of the implications of the Children and Families Act 2014, the government has increased the number of funded educational psychology training places by 25% in response to the needs of educational psychology services. The cost of this training is shared with local educational psychology services. The Department contribution comes to £20,188,857 over the next five years.

  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on the evaluation of the Child Trafficking Advocates Trial.

    Karen Bradley

    Section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act requires the Government to lay before Parliament a report setting out the steps it proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates within nine months of Royal Assent of the Modern Slavery Act. The Government will publish this report and the independent evaluation, by the final day that Parliament sits this year.

  • Anne McLaughlin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Anne McLaughlin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne McLaughlin on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to provide cold weather clothing and equipment to progressive anti-Daesh forces.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The UK is providing a wide-range of humanitarian support to civilians inside Syria including food, clean water, medical support and relief packages. In Iraq, the UK is working with other Coalition members to help meet the needs of the Iraqi (including Kurdish) security forces. There are no plans to provide cold weather clothing and equipment to armed forces fighting Daesh in Syria or Iraq.

  • Lord Mancroft – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Mancroft – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mancroft on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to develop prison health workers’ understanding of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England, Public Heath England, the National Offender Management Service and other organisations including the Royal College of General Practitioners have developed resources to support prison healthcare teams in delivering a blood-borne virus (BBV) opt-out testing programme. This covers all aspects of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) and other BBVs including testing, managing positive and negative test results, providing advice on harm minimisation and supporting prisoners into treatment.

    Specialised HCV Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) ensure specialist oversight of HCV services in order maximise uptake and completion of HCV treatment. NHS England has linked every prison to the relevant ODN and a service specification for ODNs directs specialist service providers to accept patients from prisons.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who have stopped smoking cigarettes because they have switched to e-cigarettes in each of the last three years.

    Jane Ellison

    Prescriptions for e-cigarettes will be charged like any other medication and normal exemption arrangements will apply including for those on low incomes.

    In August 2015 Public Health England published a report that outlined evidence that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking. Data from local stop smoking services shows that 2/3 of smokers are successful in their quit attempts when combining e-cigarettes with behavioural support. Data from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) suggests in 2015 there were 2.6 million e-cigarette users of which nearly 2 out of 5 no longer smoked tobacco products. This data is available at ASH ‘Use of electronic cigarettes (vapourisers) among adults in Great Britain’, 2015.

    http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_891.pdf

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the number of dental practices which were accepting NHS patients in each of the last five years.

    Alistair Burt

    Information is not collected centrally by the Department on the number of dentists taking on new patients.

    The table below shows the expenditure on National Health Service dental services. The total expenditure figures have been broken down into primary care (delivered by high street dentists through General or Personal Dental Service contracts (GDS/PDS)) and other services (delivered in community and secondary care settings).

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    1

    Primary Care (Net) Expenditure on GDS / PDS

    £2,075,965

    £2,175,560

    £2,190,685

    £2,056,469

    £2,030,294

    2

    Patient Charge Revenue

    -£617,014

    -£637,121

    -£653,006

    -£683,583

    -£716,014

    3

    Primary Care (Gross) Expenditure on GDS / PDS

    £2,692,979

    £2,812,681

    £2,843,691

    £2,740,052

    £2,746,308

    4

    Other (Community and Secondary Care)

    £826,857

    £602,327

    £740,640

    £818,042

    £851,687

    5

    Total Expenditure

    £3,519,836

    £3,415,008

    £3,584,331

    £3,558,094

    £3,597,995

    Notes:

    Total expenditure is the sum of rows 3 and 4.

    Expenditure figures between years is not directly comparable owing to changes in commissioning arrangements from primary care trusts (PCTs) to NHS England from April 2013.

    In addition, responsibility for public health and prevention programme moved from PCTs to local authorities.

    Source: Rows 1, 2, 3 -Primary Care expenditure Departmental accounts; row 4 – Other Programme Budgeting NHS England.

  • Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much is spent from the public purse on food procured for (a) his Department and (b) the Prime Minister’s Office; and what proportion of food procured for each was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

    Matthew Hancock

    Information on expenditure on food is not held separately to overall expenditure on catering, hospitality and subsistence, which is normally sold with no subsidy.