Tag: Tim Farron

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

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to promote LGBT rights in developing countries in this Parliament.

Sir Desmond Swayne

Through development programmes, DFID aims to support civil society, governments and others to build open economies and open societies in which citizens have freedom, dignity, choice and control over their lives, and institutions are accountable, inclusive and responsive.

DFID’s approach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights’ was published in February 2016 online.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HM Revenue and Customs paid into the public purse from receipts from its 0845 telephone helpline number in each year before 2014; and what those funds so received were spent on.

Jane Ellison

HM Revenue and Customs did not receive any revenue from 0845 telephone helpline numbers.

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 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions emergency services have attended schools because of snow or ice related incidents in each of the last three years.

Edward Timpson

The Department does not collect information on the number of occassions on which emergency services have attended schools because of snow or ice related incidents.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) reconnaissance, (b) combat and (c) other missions were flown by RAF aircraft over Syria in the last 12 months.

Penny Mordaunt

The number of reconnaissance, combat and other missions between 1 February 2015 and 1 February 2016 are detailed in the table below. The majority of aircraft flying missions in Syrian airspace will have flown over Iraqi airspace as well. Reaper, Tornado and Typhoon are multi-role aircraft and as such can be deployed in both a combat mission and a reconnaissance mission. Other missions have been defined as those involved in the transportation of people or equipment.

*This figure does not include C17, which is estimated to have flown two missions a month in the period in question. The records for C17 are not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children attending primary school were born outside the UK.

Nick Gibb

The Department does not collect information about where pupils were born or their nationality.

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.