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Tag: Ruth Cadbury

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recent Aviation Environment Federation report, Aircraft Noise and Public Health: The Evidence is Loud and Clear, published in January 2016.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government acknowledges that there has been new evidence in recent years that exposure to aircraft noise can adversely affect people’s health. It closely monitors research in this field and relevant robust evidence is incorporated into the policy appraisal process.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government intends to apply to the EU Solidarity Fund to help support those affected by the recent flooding.

    James Wharton

    The Government will consider an application once the full costs are known. The European Union Solidarity Fund does not provide additional funding to local areas, but simply reimburses emergency costs that the Government would have incurred anyway. For this reason, the Government’s immediate priority remains dealing with the urgent needs of those affected, which is why we have provided just under £200 million to help those affected by the floods to support recovery and repair.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many schools are located under the current Heathrow Airport final approach flight paths; and what projection he has made of the number of schools that would be located under proposed flight paths in the event of the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government continues to consider the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report, including on flight paths, before taking any decisions on next steps. Ultimately, any proposals to alter the airport’s flightpaths would be subject to the Civil Aviation Authority’s Airspace Change Process which includes the need to consult those local communities affected.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, at what stage in the decision making process regarding a third runway at Heathrow Airport he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on that matter.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    On 14 December 2015, the Government formally announced that it accepted the Airports Commission’s case for new runway capacity in the South East, as well as the Commission’s three shortlisted schemes. At the same time, it was also announced that the Department for Transport would undertake a package of further work which it anticipates will conclude over the summer. Alongside this, they would prepare an airports national policy statement as the framework for implementing decisions on airport capacity in line with the Planning Act 2008.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to support the work of the Women’s Business Council; and whether he has incorporated any research recommendations from the Women’s Business Council into government policy and legislative proposals.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government Equalities Office lead on supporting the work of the Women’s Business Council.

    We support the aim of the Council to maximise the contribution of women to economic growth and we are working to ensure we create the right environment for everyone, including women, to set up and grow their own businesses.

    Women are able to benefit from the full range of business support available from government, including Start-Up Loans and the New Enterprise Allowance. Over a third of loans (38%) have gone to women. Additionally, the Business is GREAT website has a specific section for women in enterprise providing information on women’s networks, childcare, flexible working, and access to finance.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that human rights are being upheld in Ethiopia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We remain deeply concerned by the violence which has occurred in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia throughout 2016 including the high number of deaths.

    We have made clear to the Government of Ethiopia, including at ministerial level, our concerns about the handling of these protests. We have reiterated our strong support for the constitutional right of all Ethiopian citizens to gather peacefully and express their opinions. We also supported the EU’s statement of 10 August expressing concern and condolences to those affected, and their statement on the current state of emergency.

    At the Ethiopian state opening on Parliament on Monday 10 October, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, announced proposals which Ethiopia hope will address some of the underlying grievances of the wider population.

    We continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Ethiopia both through our bilateral engagement, as well as jointly with our international partners.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2022 Parliamentary Question on GP Recruitment

    Ruth Cadbury – 2022 Parliamentary Question on GP Recruitment

    The parliamentary question asked by Ruth Cadbury, the Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, in the House of Commons on 6 December 2022.

    Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)

    What progress his Department has made on its commitment to recruit 6,000 additional GPs by 2024.

    The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Barclay)

    In September 2022 there were nearly 2,300 more full-time equivalent doctors in general practice than there were at the same time in 2019, and more than 9,000 GP trainees.

    Ruth Cadbury

    A constituent of mine, a full-time GP in her 50s, told me that the pension rules mean she has to retire, work part-time or emigrate, which is hardly likely to help her patients to obtain appointments with her. Having hinted at a change in doctors’ pension rules last summer, the Government are only now announcing a consultation that will last until next spring, so there will be no change in these crazy rules until next summer at the earliest. Is this not too little, too late?

    Steve Barclay

    It is worth reminding the House that there are 3% more doctors this year than last year. As I have said, we have 2,300 more full-time GPs, and we are recruiting more. However, the hon. Lady is absolutely right about doctors’ pensions; that is a material issue, which is why we launched the consultation, and we are working with Treasury colleagues to address these concerns as quickly as possible.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Ruth Cadbury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will estimate the number of homes to be sold under the right to buy policy which are likely to become private rental properties (a) in total and (b) in London.

    Brandon Lewis

    Under Right to Buy there are financial restrictions in place for re-sale within 5 years, and councils have the right of first refusal to buy back the property for up to 10 years at market value.

    What a Right to Buy owner chooses to do with their property after they’ve bought it is up to them, just as it is for other home buyers on the open market. Mortgage providers and landlords may place restrictions on letting in the terms of the sale.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ruth Cadbury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his departmental spending on children’s mental health services will be in 2015-16.

    Alistair Burt

    It is not possible to give a total figure for investment in children and young people’s mental health in 2015-16, as there is no ring-fenced allocation and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are commissioned variously by NHS England, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local authorities and schools.

    As such, there is no single budget for CAMHS, and expenditure on these services, including those commissioned by National Health Service organisations, is taken from general allocations with priorities for investment being determined locally.

    However, in addition to resources already available to local communities including through the NHS, local authorities, public health and education, the Government is investing an additional £173 million in 2015-16 to transform support for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, which will include £30 million for eating disorder services.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2022 Speech on Documents Relating to Suella Braverman

    Ruth Cadbury – 2022 Speech on Documents Relating to Suella Braverman

    The speech made by Ruth Cadbury, the Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, in the House of Commons on 8 November 2022.

    This debate has as its core the issue of standards and integrity in our politics. When he was appointed as Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Rishi Sunak) proclaimed that he would bring integrity back to Government. He certainly had a front-row seat to its disappearance, seeing that he served faithfully next to a previous Prime Minister with form on the issue. Yet one of his first acts as Prime Minister was to bring back a Home Secretary who just six days before had quit for not one, but two breaches of the ministerial code. They were not accidental breaches or a one-off mistake where an official forgot to tick a box; they were clear breaches of the ministerial rules.

    The issue of standards relates not just to emails and the use of personal IT, but to the ethics of how the Home Office works as a Department. Like all of us, Ministers are public servants. We all sign up to the seven Nolan principles of public life: integrity, openness, selflessness, objectivity, accountability, honesty and leadership. Ministers also have a duty to this country on public safety, national security and human rights and a duty to the taxpayer. Have we seen that from the current Home Secretary? No—and that is what this debate is about.

    I want to focus on the record and decisions of the Home Secretary and the Home Office in relation to their approach to the crisis in the UK response to asylum seekers. For instance, last week the Home Secretary played to the anti-immigration gallery by implying that asylum seekers had to be stopped from wandering our streets—hence the Government’s policy on Manston—yet her Department was responsible for two groups of destitute asylum seekers being found wandering the streets around Victoria and having to be picked up by a small charity to ensure that they had warm clothes, warm shoes and food.

    I also remind the Conservative party that asylum seekers are seeking refuge. They are fleeing—

    Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)

    Order. I am afraid the hon. Lady is also going a little wider than the terms of the motion. If she could bring herself back to the motion, that would be very helpful to everybody.

    Ruth Cadbury

    I appreciate that, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I hope you will let me continue, because I will bring my speech back to the point about standards in public life, which is where I started and what I think this motion is fundamentally about.

    Just to give some background, if you will indulge me, Madam Deputy Speaker, in Hounslow there are currently almost 3,000 asylum seekers in nine hotels, and more than 500 in dispersal accommodation, which are mainly rundown houses in multiple occupation with shared kitchens and bathrooms. There are 140 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The challenge locally is not asylum seekers roaming the streets causing problems for the community, because by definition asylum seekers want to play by the rules because they want to be given asylum. They do not want to cause trouble, and they are not going to cause trouble. The problem is the challenge for our public services in making sure that these vulnerable people have the right to education and social services to ensure that they are safe and comfortable while they are waiting in the ever-lengthening queue to get their status. The Home Office—

    Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)

    Order. The hon. Lady absolutely must come back to the terms of the motion, because she is roaming much wider, and I have pulled up other Members for that. She must come back to the motion itself.

    Ruth Cadbury

    The Home Office has contracts with organisations such as Clearsprings Ready Homes, which then has contracts with a network of other agencies that are providing a terrible service. One person who works with these services said that asylum seekers receive food not fit for a dog and accommodation not fit for animals.

    The hotels—I am coming to my point, Madam Deputy Speaker—receive £40 a room, yet the agencies are receiving Home Office money and taxpayer money at £130 a room, and they are pocketing the difference. The agencies are getting £15 a meal, yet the caterers are receiving £5.

    Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)

    Order. I am sorry, but the hon. Lady is not talking about security, as set out in the motion. If the hon. Lady can tell the House how what she is saying relates to these issues of the release of papers, that would be very helpful.

    Ruth Cadbury

    All right, Madam Deputy Speaker. I take your point and I will keep my notes on that level of misuse of taxpayer money for another time.

    I will conclude by saying that perhaps the Prime Minister could finally appoint an independent ethics adviser to ensure that when we see serious breaches of the ministerial code, they can be investigated impartially and a report can be published. I fear that we have returned to an outdated and old-fashioned approach to standards—an approach that simply says, “Trust us, don’t worry, we’ll look after it”, yet surely we and all those who we represent deserve so much better.