Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) that all Government services are available through the gov.uk website and (b) that that website remains operational at all times.

    Matthew Hancock

    Since its launch in October 2012, GOV.UK has handled over 2.6 billion visits. The site needs to continue operating during major events such as the annual Self Assessment peak and a national emergency. The GOV.UK website has been designed to handle issues and failures in a way which would not impact the public. We have robust incident management processes in place and regularly run disaster recovery simulations to test our response to any outages.

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  • Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2016 to Question 43759, how the Propriety and Ethics Team performed on handling correspondence from hon. Members and Peers in 2015.

    Ben Gummer

    I refer the hon. Member to my answer to him of 5 September 2016 to UIN: 43759.

  • Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the target date is for completion of the England Coast Path.

    Rory Stewart

    The coastal access programme has so far opened up 101 miles of our beautiful coastline for everyone to enjoy, boosting local tourism and growing the rural economy.

    The Government is working closely with Natural England to build on the progress already made, with the aim of completing the coastal path around England by 2020. We have approved Natural England’s coastal access proposals for a further 176 miles. By the end of this financial year we expect Natural England to have submitted proposals for another 349 miles and also to be working on proposals for an additional 986 miles.

  • Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officer grade staff have (a) joined and (b) left the prison service in each of the last six years.

    Andrew Selous

    Information on the number of Band 3 to 5 prison officers in post, and on the number who joined and left the public sector Prison Service, is published in the National Offender Management Service Workforce Statistics Bulletin. The 30 September edition of the bulletin can be found at the link below.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics-september-2015

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  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many admissions there were to accident and emergency departments of children requiring tooth extraction in each of the last five years.

    Alistair Burt

    The information requested is not collected centrally.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5039), whether they will place in the Library of the House a full copy of the responses to peer reviewers by the person responsible for the recently approved licence application submitted to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to perform genome editing in human embryos by means of CRISPR-Cas9; to what extent the HFEA’s Executive followed the recommendations raised by both of their peer reviewers; and on how many occasions the HFEA’s Executive have made decisions against the recommendations of all appointed peer reviewers.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) publishes on its website the inspection report relating to a licence renewal application and the minutes of the Licence Committee’s decision. It does not publish other information associated with a licence application.

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) permits the genetic modification of embryos in research, subject to an HFEA licence. As the regulator, the HFEA’s responsibility is to apply the test in the legislation, namely that the research is necessary or desirable for any of the purposes specified in the Act and that the use of embryos is necessary. The Licence Committee has added a condition to the licence that no research using genome editing may take place until it has received approval from an NHS Research Ethics Committee.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-03-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the difficulties that refugee children face in accessing legal advice or paying the fee required to register their citizenship; whether legal aid is available for those purposes; what the current fee is for registering citizenship; what proportion of that fee represents profit accumulated by the Home Office; whether they have plans to increase that fee, and if so, by how much.

    Lord Bates

    Civil legal aid remains available for advice and representation in relation to applications and appeals for asylum. The majority of unaccompanied refugee children applying for permission to remain in the UK will be seeking asylum, and legal aid will therefore be available. For non-asylum immigration matters and citizenship applications, legal aid is generally not available, although may be provided exceptionally where required by the European Convention on Human Rights.

    The Government has committed to review the legal aid provisions within the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 within 3-5 years of implementation.

    The current fee for a child to register as a British citizen is £749. The estimated unit cost to process this application is currently £223. For 2016/17 the fee will increase to £936 on 18th March 2016 with a rise in estimated unit cost to £272. The power to set fees that are higher than the cost of processing applications is contained within The Immigration Act 2014, which provides that the Home Office may take into account not just the cost of processing an application, but also the benefits and entitlements available to an individual if their application is successful and the cost of exercising any other function in connection with immigration or nationality.

    The Home Office does not provide exceptions to the requirement to pay application fees for naturalisation or registration as a British citizen. This is because the Home Office considers that citizenship is not a necessary pre-requisite to enable a person to exercise his or her rights in the UK in line with the European Convention on Human Rights.

    British nationality applications are not mandatory and many individuals with Indefinite Leave to Remain decide not to apply. A person who has Indefinite Leave to Remain may continue to live in the UK and travel abroad using their existing valid passport and residence permit, visa or travel document.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce safeguards to prevent local authorities whose offices are used for HM Passport Office remote interviews from increasing the charge for using their accommodation.

    James Brokenshire

    The relationship of Her Majesty’s Passport Office with the local provider of the accommodation for remote interviews is managed through a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) which sets out the rights and responsibilities of both parties. Any changes to this MOU are discussed and agreed by both parties. Her Majesty’s Passport Office is not limited to working with Local Authorities.

  • David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to support workplace incentives to promote employee health and reduce sickness-related unemployment.

    Justin Tomlinson

    We plan to publish a Green Paper later this year, which will set out reforms to improve support for people with health conditions and disabilities, including exploring the roles of employers.

    Employers are key partners in our ambition to halve the disability employment gap, reduce sick absence and promote employee health.

    Support is offered to employers through initiatives such as Access to Work and Disability Confident which help employers to recruit and retain people with a disability.

    Public Health England supports local authorities in the provision of a range of resources and services for employers in the area of preventing ill health, including the Workplace Wellbeing Charter.

  • Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will commission research into improving pedestrian safety on pavements and to determine whether accidents occur more often on tarmacadam or on concrete slab surfaces; and if he will make a statement.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport has no current plans to commission research into the issue of pedestrian’s safety on footways or to ascertain whether accidents occur more often on tarmacadam or on concrete slab surfaces.

    Guidance is already available to highway authorities in respect to providing good and safe surfaces for pedestrians. The Department for Transport Manual for Streets – https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/341513/pdfmanforstreets.pdf – also provides advice on footways and advises that surfaces used by pedestrians need to be smooth and free from trip hazards.

    It is ultimately for each highway authority to decide on what materials they use for ensuring the best footway surface for the area for which they are responsible.

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