Tag: Tom Brake

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential consequences for native Tibetans of the planned railway expansion from China into Tibet.

Mr Hugo Swire

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not made an assessment of the expansion of China’s railway network in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. We collect information about developments in Tibet from a wide range of reports, such as those made by the Chinese authorities and by Non-Governmental Organisations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment her Department has made of the feasibility of air drops of humanitarian aid in Syria; and what her Department’s strategy is for ensuring humanitarian aid is delivered to Syria after the passing of the UN deadline on 1 June 2016.

Sir Desmond Swayne

The UK continues to press for sustained access to all besieged and hard to reach areas. We are also pressing for an end to the removal of medical equipment from convoys by the regime, the evacuation of critical medical cases and regular access to healthcare for besieged populations.

Since the passing of the ISSG’s 1^st June deadline, there has been some progress, including regime approval in principle for land access to all of the areas requested in the UN’s access plan for June. The Syrian regime must now deliver on its commitment to allow land access to all besieged areas.

The international community will be watching progress closely. If the regime continues to block access, the UK and other ISSG members will consider further action to ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what targets her Department has in place to ensure criminal records check disclosures are processed efficiently.

Sarah Newton

The Disclosure and Barring service works directly with each police force to agree a budget annually based on the expected numbers of local checks and considers any requests for additional resources as part of these discussions.

In 2015/16 the Disclosure and Barring Service had a target of processing 85% of all applications within 21 days. Some of the over four million applications received each year need to be referred to one or more police forces for further checks and the Disclosure and Barring Service funds Police disclosure units.

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 steps the Government is taking to (a) help strengthen and lengthen the recently announced ceasefire in Syria and (b) ensure that humanitarian access in that area remains practicable.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson),welcomed the restored Cessation of Hostilities which began on 12 September. The key components of this Cessation were an end to attacks on civilians and moderate groups, and full humanitarian access across Syria.

However, the Cessation of Hostilities was eroded and discredited by regime violations and has now broken down. We are seeing some of the worst violence of the conflict in the appalling, indiscriminate bombardment of Aleppo.

The UK will continue to work with our partners to keep the focus on what is happening, to call for the Cessation of Hostilities to be restored – with full humanitarian access – to allow the resumption of a political process. Political transition away from Asad is the only long-term solution.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2016 to Question 40083, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of the British military conducting and supporting air drops of humanitarian aid in Syria.

Mike Penning

The Ministry of Defence shares the view of the Department for International Development that aid delivered by road, by trusted humanitarian partners who can ensure it gets to those who need it most, remains the best way of getting help to affected populations. The UK has been clear that the use of air drops to deliver aid is high risk and should only be considered as a last resort when all other means have failed, and if it is an effective way of getting humanitarian supplies to people. Air drops require certain conditions to be met for successful delivery that are unlikely to be present on the ground in most of Syria including clear drop zones, safe access for the intended recipients, and co-ordination with authorities on the ground to oversee distribution.

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 assessment the Government has made of the report by Amnesty International, published on 29 September 2016, on the use of chemical weapon attacks against civilians in Darfur.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

​We monitor all allegations of chemical weapons use in close cooperation with international partners and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). We are aware that the OPCW is looking into the allegations contained in the Amnesty International report. We unreservedly condemn chemical weapons use by anyone, anywhere.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to pharmacy funding on the availability of essential medicines.

David Mowat

The Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond, on which we have consulted, are being considered against the public sector equality duty, the family test and the relevant duties of my Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health, under the National Health Service Act 2006.

Our assessments include consideration of the potential impacts on the adequate provision of NHS pharmaceutical services, including the supply of medicines, access to NHS pharmaceutical services, supplementary hours, non-commissioned services, individuals with protected characteristics, impacts on other NHS services, health inequalities, individuals with restricted mobility and access to healthcare for deprived communities.

An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.

Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. We believe these efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or public access to them.

Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive. We are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

We want a clinically focussed community pharmacy service that is better integrated with primary care and public health in line with the Five Year Forward View. This will help relieve the pressure on general practitioners and accident and emergency departments, ensure better use of medicines and better patient outcomes, and contribute to delivering seven day health and care services.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, Dr Keith Ridge has commissioned an independent review of community pharmacy clinical services. The review is being led by Richard Murray, Director of Policy at The King’s Fund. The final recommendations will be considered as part of the development of clinical and cost effective patient care by pharmacists and their teams.

NHS England is also setting up a Pharmacy Integration Fund to support the development of clinical pharmacy practice in a wider range of primary care settings, resulting in a more integrated and effective NHS primary care patient pathway.

The rollout of the additional 1,500 clinical pharmacists announced by NHS England will help to ease current pressures in general practice by working with patients who have long term conditions and others with multiple medications. Having a pharmacist on site will mean that patients who receive care from their general practice will be able to benefit from the expertise in medicines that these pharmacists provide.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2015 to Question 15947, on the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees, how long he expects the matter to be under consideration.

Mark Lancaster

I have considered this matter and will bring forward an amendment in the Armed Forces Bill to extend the remit of the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what requests for information his Department made regarding the cutting to 15 minutes the length of delay after which compensation for train passengers will kick in.

Claire Perry

In our manifesto we committed to improve compensation for delayed rail passengers and the Spending Review reiterated this. We have already changed the system to get compensation paid in cash, not travel vouchers, and we are putting new compensation obligations like automatic delay/repay into future franchise specifications.

We will negotiate hard with rail operators to get even better compensation arrangements for passengers and are considering options on this at the moment.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has to promote a global goal on adaptation to climate change.

Andrea Leadsom

Adaptation is a core component of the Paris Agreement, adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December last year. The Agreement includes a new long-term goal to strengthen adaptation and resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change. This goal is aligned with the new Global Goals for sustainable development, particularly Goal 13 on climate action. Alongside this, the Paris Agreement includes commitments for each country to take action to adapt according to national circumstances, to share their adaptation planning and to cooperate to help those developing countries who need help to adapt to climate change.

The UK has been and remains committed to leading calls to increase support for adaptation, and we aim to use 50 per cent of our International Climate Fund (ICF) to support adaptation in developing countries. The UK has already taken significant action to support vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change and cope with climate-related events. For example, we have increased our support for climate risk insurance initiatives, such as the Africa Risk Capacity Initiative and the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative. We are also funding actions that help build communities’ resilience, including through support for climate services and early warning systems which have an important role to play in helping poor and vulnerable communities be better prepared and more resilient to climate-related risks.