Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Paul Blomfield

Wednesday 28th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I have been very keen to deliver value for money for the taxpayer. In fact, smarter procurement has saved DFID more than £400 million over the past four years alone. We are now looking at how we can make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to work with DFID and at how we can get better value for money from our work with non-governmental organisations and UN agencies.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

T2. As a result of the ongoing conflict in Yemen, 21 million people now are in desperate need of aid. What is the Secretary of State doing to secure action by the UN Security Council to ensure the constructive engagement in peace talks by all parties to the conflict, to end the de facto blockade and to provide humanitarian access?

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman is right to raise this forgotten crisis. At the UN in September, I held a discussion with a range of stakeholders, including UN agencies, about how we can do a better job of reaching people in need, but that fundamentally requires a dialogue on how to achieve peace.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Paul Blomfield

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I am not aware of that campaign. The Department sets a lot of store by the work that it does to protect children, whether in Syria or Democratic Republic of the Congo. Only today, I announced £2 million to take care of the Syrian children who are turning up in Iraq unaccompanied. I will write to my right hon. Friend to respond more fully on the campaign that she mentioned.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

5. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the levels of food, fuel and medical supplies entering Gaza each day.

Rail Investment

Debate between Justine Greening and Paul Blomfield

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I am looking at how the competition and the bids will work, and I believe we can get a lot of learnings from how individual communities and local authorities respond. We can see how the local authority major roads programme worked—it was an effective process in getting local authorities to work with local enterprise partnerships and say what their road network needed. I am interested to see how this pot of money can do the same thing for new stations in communities such as my hon. Friend’s. Once we have got those learnings, there is no reason why we cannot start to pull forward that investment.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, but may I ask her for further clarification of her earlier answers about track improvements? In particular, will the programme include track improvements at all three bottlenecks on the midland main line—Derby, Leicester and Market Harborough —without which we will not get the targeted improvements in journey times?

[Justine Greening]

I will need to confirm that specific point, but I am certainly aware that track improvements will happen at Leicester. I believe that they will also happen at Derby, but I will need to find out about Market Harborough and write to the hon. Gentleman.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Paul Blomfield

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

Obviously, security issues are also involved, but I can tell the hon. Gentleman that I have already met representatives of the Scottish Government to discuss the longer-term plans that we have for improving the journey times between Scotland and the rest of the country. There are some exciting proposals that we can bring forward. I am very much looking forward to continuing those discussions over the coming weeks and months, and I very much hope that he will be involved in those discussions and thoughts, as they develop.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

6. What progress she has made on the electrification of the midland main line; and if she will make a statement.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Justine Greening and Paul Blomfield

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

I emphasise to the hon. Gentleman that the measures we came up with for the Budget were ones that we talked to charities about in order to pull together. Over this Parliament, the measures will encourage approximately £600 million more going to charities from donations, and I think that all hon. Members across the House should welcome that.

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

10. What assessment he has made of the level of taxation of banks.