Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons public bodies are permitted to import meat and meat products which due to poor welfare standards would be illegal to produce in the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
Government Buying Standards for food and catering services are mandatory for central government and encouraged in the wider public sector. The standards require that all food served must have been produced in compliance with UK legal standards for animal welfare.
To protect the supply of food to central government and other public bodies, including prisons and the military, the only exception is for the procurement of pig and poultry meat. This means that in the event that UK market conditions impose a significant increase in costs that cannot be compensated for by savings elsewhere, pig and poultry meat must as a minimum meet EU standards and the reasons for not applying UK welfare standards must be recorded and signed off by a senior official in the organisation concerned.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on implementation of the recommendations of the Bonfield report on public procurement of food; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government is committed to providing food produced to British standards or their equivalent in all its canteens, restaurants and cafeterias by the end of this Parliament. Defra is working closely with other Departments and businesses to implement Dr Peter Bonfield’s Plan for Public Procurement of Food, including a balanced scorecard. The Ministry of Justice recently launched a tender for supplying food to prisons, worth £500m, which requires bids to use the balanced scorecard. Their current supplier has agreed that the 30 million portions of UHT milk served in prisons each year will be sourced from UK producers. All new Central Government food and catering contracts will use the balanced scorecard approach.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the Lead Ammunition Group's final report; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government is considering the Lead Ammunition Group’s report on the effects of lead ammunition to human health and wildlife and will respond as soon as possible.
I am shortly due to meet the chairman of the Group to discuss their report on the 22nd March.
The Lead Ammunition Group’s report is independent of Government. It will be for the Group to decide when to publish their report.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department took to promote awareness of the NHS consultation paper on the Government's Mandate to NHS England to 2020 published in October 2015.
Answered by George Freeman
The consultation was announced in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament on 29 October 2015 (HCWS274), published online, tweeted by the Department, briefed to the Health Service Journal and circulated through a number of Departmental and NHS bulletins. They included the Health and Care Partnerships e-bulletin which is sent to over 300 health and care sector organisations, the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) bulletin which goes to all CCGs, and HealthWatch England’s bulletin which goes to all local HealthWatch organisations.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make representations to the Indian government on ways in which the UK can assist India in moving to use cleaner sources of energy.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK and India have a strong collaboration in clean energy and this was reflected in our recent joint statement on energy and climate change released during PM Modi’s visit to the UK (12-14 November):
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-india-joint-statement-on-energy-and-climate-change.
DECC, along with other government departments, will be working closely with the Government of India to implement the large number of initiatives detailed in the statement along with ongoing collaboration in clean energy, as well as following up on initiatives announced at the Paris Conference on climate change (COP21) such as Mission Innovation and the International Solar Alliance.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the loss of tax revenues from road fund licences arising from incorrect emissions figures for Volkswagen vehicles.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government takes the unacceptable actions of Volkswagen extremely seriously and is taking robust action to get to the bottom of the emissions scandal.
The Government has announced that UK taxpayers will not incur higher Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) if their existing vehicles are found to be affected by the emissions scandal.
The Government continues to monitor the actions of Volkswagen closely and will consider all options once the facts are fully clarified.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability of NHS dentist places in (a) High Peak constituency, (b) Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group and (c) Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary and secondary care dental services to meet local need. NHS England advises that oral health needs assessments for general dentistry are being conducted for areas that include Tameside and Glossop and Derbyshire.
Overall, access continues to increase with the latest access data showing 30 million patients were seen by a dentist in the 24 month period ending 30 June 2015. This is 1.7 million more patients than May 2010.
There is further to go, and this is why the Government is committed to increasing access still further through reform of the dental contract to incentivise dentists to focus on prevention as well as treatment and, by seeing patients at intervals appropriate to their clinical need, freeing up spaces for additional patients to be seen.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average waiting time is for responses to correspondence to HM Revenue and Customs.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs has published the information on the performance results including post turnaround in the Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15. Link available below: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/449343/HMRC_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2014-15__Web_accessible_version_.pdf
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the number of athletics coaches coaching in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
According to the latest available figures provided by England Athletics, the number of athletics coaches coaching in England currently is 51,031.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will extend eligibility for the main residence nil rate band of inheritance tax to non-direct descendants.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government has sought to strike the appropriate balance and ensure that this policy allows the family home to be passed onto the next generation but is also affordable. Around 80% of estates with both a residence and an inheritance tax liability are expected to be in a position to benefit from the nil rate band.