Roger Williams

I refer my hon Friend to the reply I gave to my hon friend the Member for Hendon (Dr Matthew Offord) to question 225412.

The Department published a summary of the evidence around the potential contribution to the economy of its investment in science alongside the Science and Innovation Strategy that was published in December. In addition we announced new funding for specific projects which will boost the contribution of our science investments to the wider economy.

In January 2014 the NDA published a position paper on the progress it made on assessing options to manage separated plutonium, including the Government’s preferred option of reusing plutonium as MOX fuel, as well as the credibility of alternative proposals. Following this, Government concluded that all options for plutonium management required further work. We asked the NDA to undertake this work which we expect to be delivered in Spring 2015. When this information has been collated, DECC will begin the necessary Government process to decide whether or not to proceed into a formal selection process. However to be clear, only when the Government is confident that its preferred option could be implemented safely and securely, that it is affordable, deliverable, and offers value for money, will it be in a position to proceed.

The UK Government remains open to any credible option that offers the best value for money to the taxpayer. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) are undertaking work for us to:

1) gain further understanding of reuse options (reuse as MOX and assessment of the credible alternatives PRISM and Candu);

2) continue to develop the immobilisation option; and

3) establish potential approaches to acquisition and procurement.

We are expecting the NDA to complete this work by Spring 2015. When this information has been collated, DECC will begin the necessary Government process to decide whether or not to proceed into a formal selection process. However to be clear, only when the Government is confident that its preferred option could be implemented safely and securely, that it is affordable, deliverable, and offers value for money, will it be in a position to proceed.

The Government is actively encouraging all householders, whether on or off the gas grid, to invest in energy efficiency and reduce their energy bills.

The number of seizures of illegally imported meat made at airports and seaports in Great Britain for each of the last 10 years is:

The following tables provide details of UK imports of beef and veal as recorded in the Official Overseas Trade Statistics for the period January 2012 – April 2014.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could be worth £10 billion a year to the UK economy, with potential to deliver significant opportunities for the UK agriculture, food and drink sectors. Sanitary and phytosanitary issues are likely to be critical to a successful agreement. I am pursuing these in consultation with industry and other interested parties to ensure progress is made, based on sound science and consistent with our biosecurity and food safety standards.

In April 2013 Universal Credit was added as a qualifying benefit and Council Tax Benefit was removed as a qualifying benefit as it ceased to exist. Otherwise, the criteria for awarding Cold Weather Payments have remained the same.

This Government have also, from 2010, permanently increased the value of a Cold Weather Payment from £8.50 to £25.

Information on claims made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) broken down by condition is not available.

The information requested is not available at this time. We will make the statistics on PIP interventions available when they meet the standards required for them to be released in official statistics.

It is not for the Government but for local hospitals to decide how many staff they employ and they are best placed to do this based on the needs of their patients.

In November 2013 the National Quality Board supported by Jane Cummings, the Chief Nursing Officer in England, published guidance on ‘How to ensure the right people, with the right skills, are in the right place at the right time’.

In addition to this and to support trusts further, the Department commissioned the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to produce independent and authoritative evidence based guidance on safe staffing.

NICE published guidance on ‘Safe Staffing for Nursing in Adult In-Patient Wards in Acute Hospitals’ on 15 July 2014. The guidance does not endorse a staffing ratio. It says that no single ratio can be applied across all wards and patient populations, but makes recommendations on safe nursing and identifies indicators that should be used by trusts to demonstrate safe and effective nursing care is being provided.

The NICE guidelines will ensure that National Health Service trusts have the tools they need to make decisions to secure safe staffing. These staffing decisions will then be subject to external scrutiny and challenge by commissioners, regulators and the public, and inspection by the Chief Inspector of Hospitals.

The Government is investing £450 million in raising awareness and achieving earlier diagnosis to ensure people are diagnosed with cancer before they present through an emergency route. NHS England are currently working on developing the new care models set out in the Five Year Forward View, which will help ensure that there are sufficient numbers of general practitioners (GPs) working in larger practices with greater access to diagnostic and specialist advice.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of updating the Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer (2005) to ensure that it reflects latest evidence and can continue to support GPs to identify patients with the symptoms of suspected cancer and urgently refer them as appropriate. NICE’s draft is currently out for consultation until 9 January 2015. The anticipated publication date for the revised guidelines is May 2015.

The Department ran a national Be Clear on Cancer lung cancer campaign from May to July 2012 to raise awareness of persistent cough as a symptom of lung cancer and to encourage people with this symptom to visit their GP. Public Health England took over running of Be Clear on Cancer campaigns in April 2013 and have since run two repeat national lung cancer campaigns in July-August 2013 and March-April 2014.

In 2012, to increase the awareness of cancer amongst GPs and support GPs to assess all patients more effectively, the Department funded the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Learning to provide an e-learning tool for GPs. The modules include tackling late diagnosis; risk assessment tools; and cancer pathway and the role of primary care.

In 2013, Macmillan Cancer Support, partly funded by the Department, piloted an electronic cancer decision support (CDS) tool for GPs to use in their routine practice. It is designed to help GPs recognise the symptoms of cancer and identify patients that they might not otherwise refer urgently for suspected cancer. The CDS covers lung cancer and a number of other cancers. Following the pilot, Macmillan is now offering the tool free of charge to all GPs in the United Kingdom.

In March 2012 NICE published the Lung cancer Quality Standard. This quality standard describes markers of high-quality, cost-effective care that, when delivered collectively, should contribute to improving the effectiveness, safety and experience of care for people with lung cancer.

We know from the 2013 National Lung Cancer Audit that there have been continued increases in curative surgery for lung cancer patients. The audit report supports providers and commissioners and NHS England to reduce variation in services and drive improvement locally. We are also providing improved access to treatment through other means, such as the Cancer Drugs Fund. With the development of the chemotherapy dataset, we now have detailed information about chemotherapy drug treatment for lung cancer patients.

Work is also underway to support early diagnosis through delivery of transparent data about performance in outcomes. For example, indicators on stage of diagnosis of cancer and diagnosis through emergency routes are part of the clinical commissioning group outcomes indicator set, which support clinical commissioning groups to understand how their local communities are performing in relation to cancer outcomes.

Officials from our Consulate-General in Jerusalem, including our Consulate-General, regularly meet with UN OCHA representatives, including the Head of OCHA in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), Ramesh Rajasingham, to discuss the impact of the occupation in the OPTs (including topics ranging from settlements, settler violence, demolitions, blockade on Gaza to movement and access restrictions, and others).

Mr Rajasingham has also briefed many of the visiting Ministers and Members of Parliament from the UK on the impact of the occupation, including The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) in February 2014, the Minister for Universities and Science, my right hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr Willetts) in March 2014, myself in October 2014, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, my right hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr Maude) in November 2014 and the Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition (Mr Miliband) in April 2014.

The Government has appointed a senior member of the diplomatic service, Sir John Jenkins, to lead the review. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is contributing information and analysis through our network of Embassies across the Middle East and more widely, including by consulting academic experts. The FCO is also providing an oversight role as part of the review's steering group.

The Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme offers lenders the option to purchase a guarantee on mortgages where the borrower has a deposit of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent of the value of the property. A mortgage supported by the mortgage guarantee scheme works in exactly the same way as any other mortgage, but has to comply with the requirements set out in the scheme rules. In particular, the scheme rules exclude the use of the mortgage guarantee alongside other government schemes or shared ownership schemes.

The Help to Buy: equity loan scheme is managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government and is available to all those who aspire to own a new build home, but struggle to access or afford the repayments on a low deposit mortgage. The scheme is open to first time buyers and to those looking to move up the housing ladder.

Whilst the Government keeps all schemes, including Help to Buy, under review, the Government currently has no plans to extend the Help to Buy scheme.

Further information about both parts of the Help to Buy scheme can be found at: http://www.helptobuy.org.uk/home.

Border Force currently has four detector dogs in use at ports and airports in Great Britain trained to detect meat and other animal products illegally imported from non EU countries. This number can fluctuate as dogs are replaced through ill health or retirement and new dogs and handlers are trained.

The dogs are deployed on a mobile and flexible basis according to risk and where they will have the most impact. They are deployed at key border locations such as Heathrow Airport and can be utilised at any port, airport or other point of entry into Great Britain.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland is responsible for detecting illegal imports of meat and other animal products at ports and airports in Northern Ireland.

The Government is working with EU partners to prevent the deaths of people crossing the Mediterranean through joint efforts under the EU’s Task Force Mediterranean, established following the Lampedusa tragedy inOctober 2013.

While the UK is providing support for the new Frontex (EU External Border Agency) Operation ‘Triton’, an enhanced maritime border management operation that intercepts migrants in the Mediterranean, we believe that the only
sustainable means of addressing this issue is to take action to dissuade migrants from making these perilous and illegal journeys in the first place, enhance protection in refugees’ region of origin, and combat the criminal facilitators who place migrants’ lives at risk. This is why we support the EU’s focus on action ‘upstream’ in third countries of origin and transit.

For instance, we are playing a leading role in the new ‘Khartoum Process’ under which the EU countries and countries in the Horn of Africa will work together to combat people smuggling and human trafficking in that region. We also
support the EU’s proposals for Regional Development and Protection Programmes (RDPPs) to provide sustainable protection for refugees in North and East Africa. The UK also continues to work with EU partners and international organisations to develop information campaigns in North and East Africa, aimed at dissuading migrants from risking dangerous Mediterranean and Saharan crossings and countering the work of criminal facilitators.

The Aarhus convention is referred to by some of those who challenge planning decisions in the High Court although we do not hold systematic records. Each challenge is considered on its merits, taking into account the representations of each party as a whole. The Department also deals with correspondence referring to the Convention in its normal course of business.

Local authorities across England must have regard to the National Planning Policy Framework. This asks local authorities to assess the needs of the food production industry and resolve any associated planning barriers, but also to recognise the character and beauty of the countryside and prevent unacceptable levels of pollution. Local authorities have to assess each proposal on its facts and merits in the light of the Local Plan, of national planning policies, and all other material considerations, including the views expressed by local people. They can also assess the cumulative impact of numbers of such premises on the area.