Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to exempt community groups, charities and other not-for-profit organisations from the requirement to pay VAT on the installation of government-funded high-speed broadband cabinets; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Priti Patel
EU VAT law does not enable an exemption of VAT for the installation of high-speed broadband cabinets. However, the government has provided £1.7bn of direct funding to deliver superfast broadband to 95% of premises by 2017 with over 2 million homes reached so far. The broadband connection voucher scheme has also been extended to March 2016 and will be available in a total of 50 cities by 1 April 2015. The scheme provides vouchers of up to £3,000 to support broadband connection upgrades for small businesses, charities, social enterprises and sole traders.
At Budget we also announced a new ambition that ultrafast broadband of at least 100 Megabits per second should become available to nearly all UK premises, to be supported by market delivery and government action to remove barriers to investment and reduce red tape.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Burmese counterpart on allowing international observers to monitor a future national ceasefire agreement; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Swire
A national ceasefire agreement in Burma is still being negotiated. Negotiations include discussions on the nature and extent of ceasefire monitoring mechanisms and on the role international observers could play. Our Ambassador in Rangoon has made clear our strong support for international observers of any future ceasefire. Ultimately this is a matter for the various Burmese parties themselves to decide.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of funding to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium was provided by her Department in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The Department for International Development has provided the following proportions of funding to the Border Consortium (formerly called the Thailand Burma Border Consortium) over the last five years: 2010, 5%; 2011, 5%; 2012, 10%; 2013, 10%; 2014, 11%.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department provided to support refugees from Burma living in refugee camps in Thailand in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
Through The Border Consortium, the Department for International Development has provided the following support to refugees from Burma living in refugee camps in Thailand over the last five years: 2010, £1,085,000; 2011, £1,085,000; 2012, £2,071,250; 2013, £1,800,000; 2014, £1,800,000.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress she has made on bringing forward legislative proposals to allow the mothers of brides and grooms to be recorded on marriage certificates.
Answered by James Brokenshire
There is support across Government for marriage registers to be updated and my Rt.Hon. Friend the Prime Minister stated publically in August 2014 that it was “high time” that a change was made. This is a complex task due to the large numbers of registers in use and the associated costs of replacing them. We are, therefore, investigating options on how this can be achieved as soon as possible.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Child Maintenance Service payments and Child Support Agency collections are made; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
As an employer, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes its duties in recovering child support maintenance very seriously. The MOD has a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to facilitate the direct deduction of child maintenance payments from the pay of non-resident parents who are Service personnel.
Where a parent asks the CMS to help obtain appropriate child support from a Service person, the MOD will assist the CMS in engaging with the Service person and will implement any Deduction from Earnings Request submitted by the CMS. This mechanism can also be applied to Service pensions and civilian pay.
The only exception is when the Service person is in an operational zone. Under the terms of the MOU, if a Service person is committed to operations, their Commanding Officer may delay any engagement with the CMS until the non-resident parent is in a position to consider any papers that the CMS may send them and respond appropriately.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217335, what the causes of these incidents were; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Table 1 and Table 2 illustrate the number of incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) where the incident report contained keywords indicating multiple pregnancies. It is important to note that the inclusion of these keywords may not always indicate the incident directly affected a multiple pregnancy; for example, reference in the incident report may be made to previous pregnancies. The harm reported may relate to the mother or to one or more foetuses/infants. The table is attached.
Information on the specific causes for the maternity incidents outlined in Question 217335 is not held centrally as these are only available after local investigation. The NRLS collects incident reports from maternity services through upload from local reporting systems. The majority of learning and action on the causes of patient safety incidents is undertaken within trusts. NHS England reviews all reports of death and severe harm made to the NRLS and where specific remediable causes are identified NHS England issues advice through the National Patient Safety Alerting System.
Increasing numbers of reported patient safety incidents are considered to be a sign of an improving patient safety culture and increases in the number of incident reports should not be interpreted as deterioration in the safety of patients.
As organisations change considerably across time this data reflects NHS organisational structures as of 31 December 2014. This means that incidents reported before that date may have taken place in a site that was not associated with a given trust at that time.
NHS England has a wide programme of work in partnership with other organisations seeking to improve outcomes for mothers and babies, including reducing stillbirth and neonatal death and avoidable admissions to neonatal care.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217335, how many patient safety incidents involving multiple pregnancies there were in each (a) hospital trust and (b) region in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Table 1 and Table 2 illustrate the number of incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) where the incident report contained keywords indicating multiple pregnancies. It is important to note that the inclusion of these keywords may not always indicate the incident directly affected a multiple pregnancy; for example, reference in the incident report may be made to previous pregnancies. The harm reported may relate to the mother or to one or more foetuses/infants. The table is attached.
Information on the specific causes for the maternity incidents outlined in Question 217335 is not held centrally as these are only available after local investigation. The NRLS collects incident reports from maternity services through upload from local reporting systems. The majority of learning and action on the causes of patient safety incidents is undertaken within trusts. NHS England reviews all reports of death and severe harm made to the NRLS and where specific remediable causes are identified NHS England issues advice through the National Patient Safety Alerting System.
Increasing numbers of reported patient safety incidents are considered to be a sign of an improving patient safety culture and increases in the number of incident reports should not be interpreted as deterioration in the safety of patients.
As organisations change considerably across time this data reflects NHS organisational structures as of 31 December 2014. This means that incidents reported before that date may have taken place in a site that was not associated with a given trust at that time.
NHS England has a wide programme of work in partnership with other organisations seeking to improve outcomes for mothers and babies, including reducing stillbirth and neonatal death and avoidable admissions to neonatal care.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217336, what the causes of these damages were; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
This information is attached.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217334, how many multiple pregnancies received (a) the higher tariff for the antenatal phase, (b) the delivery phase tariff with complications and co-morbidities and (c) the delivery phase tariff without complications and co-morbidities in each year since 2004.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Information on the tariff each individual multiple pregnancy attracts is not collected centrally.
NHS England is undertaking a major review of the commissioning of NHS maternity services, in line with commitments made in the NHS Five Year Forward View. The review will assess current maternity care provision and consider how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies.
The maternity pathway payment system was first mandated for use in 2013-14, from 2014-15, national tariffs will be set by Monitor. Monitor and NHS England have jointly established a review process and will monitor how the new system is working.