Tag: Tom Brake

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to provide development assistance to native Tibetans in Tibet.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID does not have a bilateral programme in the Tibetan region.

Tibet is included within an Asia Regional programme which helps communities adapt to the effects of climate change and environmental degradation in the Mount Kailash area, the source of South Asia’s largest rivers. This area includes Tibet, India and Nepal. DFID has also funded assessments of glacial melt and rivers in the Himalayas, which contain findings relevant to Tibet.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which sources independent of the Saudi government are assessed by the UK Government regarding the alleged use of cluster munitions by the Saudi led coalition in Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK Government considers a range of information regarding the conduct of the Saudi Arabian-led Coalition in Yemen. This includes UN sources, INGO reports, open sources such as social media, and our internal government sources which includes UK Defence Intelligence reports. This comes from government sources, foreign governments, the media and international non-governmental organisations. The UK ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 4 May 2010 and, in line with our obligations under the Convention, we have always made it clear to the Saudi Arabians that we cannot support the use of cluster munitions in any circumstances and we continue to encourage Saudi Arabia, as a non-party to the Convention, to accede to it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answers of 10 May 2016 to Questions 36574 and 36576, in what way his Department carried out its assessment of the human rights situation in Tibet; and for what reasons the 2015 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy contained no relevant information on that situation.

Alok Sharma

Our assessment of the situation of Tibet is based on range of credible sources and information gathered by diplomats and officials. I draw the Hon. Members attention to the most recent version (updated in July 2016) of the Human Rights and Democracy report where we outline a number of concerns relating to Tibet. We raise these concerns regularly, for example I raised two Tibetan cases involving freedom of expression (Tashi Wangchuk and Druklo (Shokjang)) with the Chinese Ambassador on 1 August.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy of the UN Secretary-General’s statement of 11 July 2016 on events in South Sudan; and whether the Government supports calls for an arms embargo to that country and the strengthening of the UN mission in South Sudan in the light of its response to those events.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We welcomed the statement made by the UN Secretary-General on the situation in South Sudan. Our policy continues to be focussed on helping to protect the people of South Sudan and we are in support of an arms embargo as a means to support this. We lobbied hard to strengthen the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and supported UN Security Council Resolution 2304, adopted on 12 August, which mandated a regional protection force of up to 4000 additional troops to robustly protect civilians and key humanitarian transit routes in Juba. In addition, the Secretary of State for Defence, Rt Hon the member for Sevenoaks (Michael Fallon) announced on 8 September that the number of UK troops to be deployed within UNMISS will be increased to close to 400 in order to support the mission’s operations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions on the demolition of Palestinian homes.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

​We have not had any discussions with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage clinical commissioning groups to abide in full by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on funding in vitro fertilisation.

Nicola Blackwood

Clinical commissioning groups have a legal duty to have regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. As such, NHS England expects that all those involved in commissioning infertility treatment services to be fully aware of the importance of having regard to the NICE fertility guidelines.

Representatives from NHS England, the British Fertility Society and Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority are looking at how commissioning of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) services could be improved. Commissioning of IVF will remain a local decision but there may be scope to improve the quality of commissioning through, for example, the development of a benchmark price that the National Health Service pays for infertility treatments and by encouraging the adoption of best practice when making clinical decisions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will undertake research on whether alternative pricing structures of the access charges set by Eurotunnel could incentivise greater passenger and freight traffic between the UK and mainland Europe.

Paul Maynard

Since the 15th June 2016 responsibility for Economic regulation of the Channel Tunnel rests with the independent regulators, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) in the UK and Autorité de regulation des activities ferroviaires et routières (ARAFER) in France.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will conduct a national review of hydrotherapy provision.

George Freeman

NHS England is responsible for commissioning specialised neurological services, which includes services for patients with neuromuscular disorders. NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care, which sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. The specification can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf

Specialised neuromuscular care may include referral to local physiotherapy, hydrotherapy or rehabilitation if appropriate, however the commissioning of hydrotherapy services is a matter for local clinical commissioning groups. There are no plans to conduct a national review of hydrotherapy provision.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what he plans will be on the agenda for the next UK-China Human Rights Dialogue.

Mr Hugo Swire

The UK-China Human Rights Dialogue is a platform for detailed, expert exchanges on human rights issues. The agenda for the next round is still to be agreed with the Chinese government, but we plan to raise the full range of our concerns, as set out in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights Report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Health and Wellbeing boards have identified in their strategic plans loneliness as an issue needing to be tackled.

Alistair Burt

Health and wellbeing boards are responsible for preparing joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) which should assess the health and care needs of the entire local population. As such, the JSNA offers a valuable opportunity for localities to review how current local services address loneliness.

The Government has not highlighted or prioritised any specific groups or area of need over another as this would risk undermining the purpose of JSNAs as being objective, comprehensive and most importantly locally-owned assessments.