Tag: Tim Farron

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on what basis the contribution to broadband installation costs for the very remotest properties will be calculated; and whether there will be an upper limit on the contribution which individual households are required to make.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Work is ongoing on the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the reasonable cost threshold. The independent telecoms regulator Ofcom will provide technical analysis and recommendations to help inform both of these, as well as identify the premises likely to be within the USO footprint. These are expected to be predominantly in rural areas, but there will also be urban and suburban homes and businesses eligible to request a connection under the USO.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans she has for future funding from her Departmental budget for women’s rights organisations in developing countries.

Sir Desmond Swayne

DFID supports a wide range of Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) through specific central programmes, such as the £8 million pound commitment to Amplify Change, reaching WROs to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), child, early and forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation; through multilateral programmes, such as up to £6 million pound commitment to the UN Trust Fund to end VAWG which reaches WROs in 76 countries and territories; and through country programmes, such as the £12.5 million pound Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness (STAR) programme in Ghana.

Future plans are to continue these mechanisms, ensuring their effectiveness and expanding or extending where appropriate, and in implementing DFID’s Civil Society Partnership Review to develop and share learning on reaching WROs and small-scale organisations, so that collectively we achieve a systemic approach to supporting a resilient and effective women’s rights movement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many Rural Payments Agency staff have been tasked with responding to telephone enquiries from farmers on the Basic Payments Scheme in each year since 2011-12.

George Eustice

All staff in the RPA contact centre deal with external calls covering every part of the agency’s business, including the Basic Payment Scheme introduced in 2015. The contact centre is made up of a core telephony team but additional operational resource is deployed on the telephone lines to meet demand during peak periods. The average number of people, shown in Full Time Equivalents, is given in the table below. Accurate figures before 2013 are not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September to Question 45236, to which destinations (a) ministers and (b) officials have taken flights as part of their official duties since his Department was established.

Greg Hands

Since the inception of the department, as part of their official duties Ministers and accompanying officials have visited:

Rt. Hon Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade (Liam Fox) – USA, India, Switzerland, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Northern Ireland, Scotland.

Rt. Hon Friend the Minister of State (Greg Hands) – USA, Germany, Taiwan, Korea.

Hon Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Mark Garnier) – Burma, Thailand, Israel, France.

Noble Friend the Minister of State (Lord Price CVO) – China, South Korea, USA, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of pharmacies that will close as a result of the proposed 12 per cent reduction in funding for pharmacies in England from December 2016 until March 2017.

David Mowat

Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of community pharmacy services including public access to medicines. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we have a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population. Our reforms are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.

The Government announced the package of reforms for the community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond on 20 October 2016. This included full details of how the Pharmacy Access Scheme will operate, as well an impact assessment for the package of reforms. This can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-pharmacy-reforms

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, from what date his Department has been advertising the Right to Buy scheme for housing association tenants; and how much has been spent on (a) television, (b) radio, (c) print and (d) social media advertisements for the scheme.

Brandon Lewis

The Department has not undertaken any advertisement for the extension of the Right to Buy to housing association tenants not currently eligible and as such has incurred no costs. The Department recently set up a ‘register of interest’ so we could keep these tenants up to date with any developments. This is run on our existing Right to Buy website at no additional cost and we also signpost the register through other owned channels.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 10 January 2016 on sink estates, with what bodies he discussed the redevelopment of 100 sink estates; and on what grounds the sum of £140 million for that redevelopment was arrived at.

Brandon Lewis

The Government has been in regular contact with a wide range of stakeholders to maximise opportunities to meet our ambition to deliver one million more homes. The new Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel, Chaired by , my Noble Friend, the rt. hon. Lord Heseltine, comprises a range of experts and will provide advice on how the £140 million loan fund can best be utilised, in addition to other private and public funding sources. The fund was allocated in the Spending Review assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to deploy British police officers to popular holiday resorts abroad as a result of the outcome of the pilot scheme in summer 2015.

Mike Penning

The deployment of police resources is an operational matter for Chief Constables. However, any deployments overseas to provide advice or assistance to a foreign government must be approved by the Home Secretary under the provisions of Section 26 of the Police Act (1996). No decision has been made regarding any future deployments following last year’s pilot.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 14 of the Queen’s Speech 2016: background briefing notes, if he will define the terms (a) very remotest properties and (b) contributing to the cost of broadband installation in rural areas; and if he will estimate the number of properties in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency in that category.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Work is ongoing on the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the reasonable cost threshold. The independent telecoms regulator Ofcom will provide technical analysis and recommendations to help inform both of these, as well as identify the premises likely to be within the USO footprint. These are expected to be predominantly in rural areas, but there will also be urban and suburban homes and businesses eligible to request a connection under the USO.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on investment in renewable energy of the UK withdrawing from the EU.

Jesse Norman

Since the EU referendum, the Government has been engaging with our key energy stakeholders, including investors in the renewable energy sector, to make it clear that we are open for business.

The UK remains an attractive environment for investors in energy.