Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that contaminated blood is not donated to patients.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Health Service blood supply chain has rigorous safety standards making the United Kingdom blood supply one of the safest in the world. Every donor completes an extensive donor health check questionnaire before each donation. This is designed to identify donors who have a recognisable risk of infection who can then be excluded or subject to further testing. Those considered at risk are asked to defer donation until it is safe for them to do so.
All blood donations are routinely tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis E, HIV, syphilis and for first time donors, human T-lymphotropic virus, before they are sent to hospitals and released into the supply chain. If any blood donation tests positive for infection it is not released into the blood supply chain.
NHS Blood and Transplant and the other UK blood services are subject to regular inspections by independent regulators and NHS Blood and Transplant safety policy is formulated by two independent advisory committees: the Joint United Kingdom Blood Transfusion Services Professional Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs. NHS Blood and Transplant, along with the other UK Blood Services, established a UK blood supply surveillance scheme where all hospitals in the UK report, as a condition of their registration, any recognised or unexpected reactions to blood products. This allows constant vigilance to any possible threat to the safety of the blood supply.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help people with severe insomnia.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The majority of patients experiencing a sleep disorder such as insomnia are diagnosed and managed by general practitioners (GPs) in primary care. Where the disorder cannot be resolved in primary care, or does not resolve itself, a referral to a specialist clinic may be appropriate. The NHS website provides advice and guidance for dealing with insomnia.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage the hosting of major sporting tournaments in the UK.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the wide-ranging benefits that hosting major sports events can bring.
My Department works closely with UK Sport and the national governing bodies of sport, as well as local, regional and devolved partners, to ensure that the UK successfully bids for and stages a wide range of the world’s biggest sporting events.
The 'Gold Framework' publication sets out the processes as to how the Government and UK Sport work together with our sports bodies in bidding and staging major sports events. Our approach has been successful, with over 100 major international sporting events secured for the UK since the London 2012 Games.
We have a strong programme of events to look forward to, including the Cricket World Cup, Netball World Cup and Cycling Road World Championships this year, the EURO 2020 men's Championships next year, and the EURO women's Championships and Rugby League World Cup in 2021.
We are also looking forward to hosting the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, welcoming thousands of athletes and officials from around the world and showcasing the best that the UK has to offer to a global audience of 1.5 billion.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much Heritage Lottery funding has been allocated to First World War commemoration events in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The National Lottery Heritage Fund invested £18,429,100 in 863 First World War Centenary projects over the last three financial years. National commemoration events to mark significant events during the First World War were delivered and funded by HM Government.
Financial Year | Projects Awarded | Grant Awarded |
2016-17 | 265 | £6,478,100 |
2017-18 | 248 | £8,174,200 |
2018-19 | 350 | £3,776,800 |
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with television companies on the risk to participants' mental wellbeing of participating in tv reality shows.
Answered by Margot James
The Secretary of State has been clear that all broadcasters and production companies have a responsibility to the mental health and wellbeing of both participants and viewers and must ensure that they have appropriate levels of support in place. The Secretary of State has recently met with ITV on this subject.
Ofcom, as the independent broadcast regulator, is reviewing whether more can be done to safeguard the people taking part in reality and factual shows. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has opened an inquiry into the duty of care that makers of reality TV shows have to participants and the Government will consider its findings.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with phone companies on potential cyber attacks on mobile phone devices.
Answered by Margot James
The security and resilience of the UK's telecoms networks is of paramount importance. The UK government works with telecoms companies to manage cyber security risks while ensuring the UK can continue to benefit from new technology. Ministers and officials have regular discussions with mobile phone companies on a range of matters, including covering potential cyber attacks. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides simple advice and guidance to help individuals and organisations be more resilient to cyber attacks. In addition, The Government advocates for strong security to be built into internet-connected products via the secure by design programme.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the contribution has been from the public purse to the EU since 29 March 2019.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The extension of Article 50 to 31 October 2019 will affect the size of the financial settlement because contributions to the EU that would have formed part of the settlement will be made while the UK remains a Member State, which reduces the size of the settlement. The UK will make further contributions in 2019 as a Member State until our exit, but there will be an equal reduction in contributions in 2019 under the financial settlement. The net effect on EU contributions is zero.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimated in its March 2019 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) that the UK’s net (public sector receipts) contribution to the EU over 2019/20 would be £11bn.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much money has been repaid to the Student Loans Company in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Statistics covering student loans, debt and repayment are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC). The statistics are published separately for each government administration. Information on repayments by financial year can be found in table 1 of each of the publications:
https://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/student-loans-debt-and-repayment.aspx.
The next release in the student loans, debt and repayment series is confirmed for 13 June 2019, which will include repayment statistics for the financial year 2018-19.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the cost of rail fares to the EU from the UK will be affected by the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Chris Grayling
Fares for international passenger services between the UK and the EU are set by the relevant train operator on a commercial basis. Any potential change in fares is therefore a commercial matter for the operators concerned.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce congestion of lorries going to the port of Dover after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Chris Grayling
The Government remains focused on ensuring the UK’s smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU with a deal as soon as possible. As a responsible government, we’ve been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of no deal for over two years.
The Department for Transport has worked closely with the Kent Resilience Forum on developing plans, also known as Operation Brock, to be used as a contingency in the event of cross-Channel travel disruption at the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel, whatever the cause.
Operation Brock has been designed to ensure that the M20 will be kept open and traffic will continue to flow in both directions. It consists of three phases: a contraflow queuing system on the M20, between Junctions 8 and 9; temporary holding areas at Manston Airfield for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) heading to Europe via the Port of Dover; and, if necessary, temporary holding areas on the M26 (Brock M26) for HGVs heading to Europe via Eurotunnel. The M20 contraflow element will allow non-port traffic to continue to use the M20 in both directions when HGVs are stored on the coast-bound carriageway.
The Government has also been taking steps to minimise the number of hauliers and other vehicles arriving at Dover and Eurotunnel without the essential documentation for EU border controls in a no deal scenario. This should help to reduce the risk of significant disruption at ports and on the Kent road network from the introduction of new EU customs processes.