Tag: Virendra Sharma

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her Department’s wellness strategy is.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is aligned with the Civil Service Health & Well-being Strategy which was agreed by the Civil Service People Board.

This focuses on three priority areas:

Mental Health

Musculoskeletal Health

Healthy Lifestyle

In DECC this means we ensure visible senior leadership of the well-being agenda, we encourage all managers to undertake mental health awareness training increasing manager capability through Civil Service Learning training.

We have been adopting the Public Health England ‘Workplace Well-being Charter’ and promoting ‘Time to Change’. The Department offers support to staff including ‘Employee Assistance’. The Department is also running wellbeing events and initiatives over the coming year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what her Department’s wellness strategy is.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

The Northern Ireland Office’s wellness strategy is to promote and sustain a healthy, safe and supportive working environment for all our people. We do this by:

• Providing absence and welfare policies and workplace support services;
• Maintaining a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination, bullying and harassment in the workplace;
• Ensuring the working environment is safe and meets Health and Safety legislative requirements;
• Promoting an open-minded, respectful and inclusive workplace.

As a small department the Northern Ireland Office has also secured access to the Ministry of Justice’s networks and services for our staff to use.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on reaching a settlement with Gurkha soldiers who retired before 2000.

Mr Julian Brazier

The Government and the people of the United Kingdom hold the Gurkhas in the highest esteem and have done so throughout their 200 years of service to the Crown. Successive Governments have taken steps to ensure that the service provided by Gurkhas is appropriately recognised and reflects the terms and nature of that service, including in relation to pensions.

These sentiments were most recently confirmed in the previous Coalition Government’s response to the All Party Parliamentary Group report on historic Gurkha grievances and the statement made by my hon. Friend the former Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans (Ms Soubry) on 29 January 2015 HCWS234.

This reaffirmed successive Governments’ long standing approach to public sector pension provisions which is that an individual qualifies for a pension according to the rules of that scheme at the time, and that improvements to public sector pension or compensation schemes should not be introduced retrospectively because of the burden such an approach would place on the Exchequer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of re-offending.

Andrew Selous

Reducing reoffending is a priority for the Ministry of Justice, to cut crime and improve public safety. The Ministry of Justice does not analyse the overall cost to the public purse of reoffending. However, the National Audit Office (NAO) has produced analysis in the past.

Reoffending has been too high for too long which is why we are investing £1.3bn over the next five years to transform the prison estate and give prisoners the help they need to turn their lives around. We have also changed the way offenders are managed in the community with almost all now receiving targeted support on release. This will help reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-07-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will take steps to ensure that all heated tobacco-based products are subject to the same excise rates.

Jane Ellison

As announced at Budget 2016, the government will consult on the duty treatment of heated tobacco products later this year.

Heated tobacco products are a recent innovation in the tobacco market and are not directly captured by current legislation, though the tobacco they contain is subject to excise duty under current legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 6.32 of his Department’s publication, Living Well for Longer: One year on, published in March 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect of the time taken to publish the hepatitis improvement framework on (a) members of the South Asian population and (b) other people in England with hepatitis C.

Jane Ellison

No such assessment has been made.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in his Department.

Mr Edward Vaizey

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer to PQ 27946

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what her Department’s wellness strategy is.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID seeks to create a workplace where we protect the health, safety and wellbeing of staff, optimise the opportunity to promote a healthy workforce, maintain safe systems of work and proactively support the physical and emotional wellbeing of staff.​ These principles are reflected throughout DFIDs HR Policies and approach to People Management.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department’s wellness strategy is.

Justin Tomlinson

DWP recognises the importance of good health and wellbeing and the positive impact this has on employee morale, engagement and performance.

We have in place a comprehensive range of policies and measures to encourage and help employees.

Particular interventions include:

An Occupational Health service which supports employees during periods of ill health and absence, enabling them to remain in work/return to work more quickly.

An Employee Assistance Programme which offers immediate support for employees on a wide range of issues.

We also provide employees with access to a range of advice on our dedicated Wellbeing site.

And we have a longstanding, active network of 2,000 volunteer Wellbeing Champions, who arrange and deliver a large number of local events.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in her Department.

Andrea Leadsom

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my rt. hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on Monday 29 February 2016 to Question 27946:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-23/27946/.

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