Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve disability awareness among bus drivers on the use of a ramp when required for disabled passengers.
Answered by Andrew Jones
I am committed to building transport networks that work for everyone, including ensuring that disabled people have the same access to transport services as other members of society.
We are currently developing best practice guidance in delivering disability awareness training. This has been informed by engagement with disabled people and the bus industry, and aims to ensure that bus drivers have the knowledge and skills to provide passengers with the appropriate assistance they need, including the use of ramps for wheelchair users.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that there is sufficient provision of accessible taxis for disabled people in rural areas.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) provide a particularly important service for many disabled people, helping them to remain independent and to complete journeys which may not be possible using other forms of transport.
I recognise that the availability of wheelchair accessible taxis and PHVs varies across Great Britain, particularly in rural areas. I know too, however, that they can sometimes be difficult to access for some ambulant disabled people. As such we encourage local licensing authorities to use their existing powers to ensure that a range of vehicle categories are represented in their taxi and PHV fleets. We have also introduced powers in the Deregulation Act 2015 to enable the sub-contracting of PHV services across local authority boundaries, helping to ensure that wheelchair accessible vehicles are available wherever they are required.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which charities successfully bid for money from the Tampon Tax Fund; and how much money each such charity received.
Answered by David Gauke
In total, 25 charities have been allocated funding so far. This includes funding allocated to Comic Relief and Rosa to disburse funding over the coming year to a range of grassroots women’s organisations across the UK, in recognition of the high number of applications received.
The list of charities and funding announced at the Autumn Statement 2015 can be found in the Autumn Statement publication available here (section 6.4): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-and-autumn-statement-2015-documents/spending-review-and-autumn-statement-2015
The list of charities and funding announced at Budget 2016 can be found in the Budget publication available here (section 7.6): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2016-documents/budget-2016
Finally, the list of charities and funding announced at Autumn Statement 2016 can be found in the Autumn Statement publication available here (section 6.3): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2016-documents/autumn-statement-2016
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department is providing to the Dominican Republic to assist with the flooding in that country.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The UK has monitored the situation since heavy persistent rain started falling in parts of the Dominican Republic on 7 November and stands ready to offer assistance if requested by the Government of the Dominican Republic.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to the Dominican Republic to assist with the flooding in that country.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
The UK has monitored the situation since heavy persistent rain started falling in parts of the Dominican Republic on 7 November and stood ready to offer assistance if required.
The Government of the Dominican Republic have not requested international assistance.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment her Department has made of the trends in the level of uptake of (a) creative, (b) artistic and (c) technical subjects at GCSE since June 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not define GCSE subjects as ‘technical’ or ‘creative’.
Provisional information on the proportion of pupils entered for at least one arts GCSE between 2009/10 and 2015/16 is published as part of the ‘Provisional GCSE and equivalent results in England’ statistical first release (SFR)[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-results-2015-to-2016-provisional (Table 1c)
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Great British Food Unit in opening up new markets for British food and drink exports.
Answered by George Eustice
In the last year, the Great British Food Unit has opened 24 new export markets and secured improved conditions for an additional 14 markets. It has supported UK companies around the world to secure new exports worth hundreds of millions of pounds. In addition, we have made good progress opening the US and Japanese markets to British beef and lamb.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of security at London City Airport after the recent protestor security breach.
Answered by John Hayes
We keep aviation security under constant review. The Civil Aviation Authority, as regulator, has carried out a full investigation of the incident on 6 September, and will continue to monitor London City Airport’s response to the incident and subsequent investigation. For obvious reasons we would not comment publicly on the details of this response.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of those provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which relate to rail passengers claiming compensation.
Answered by Paul Maynard
We want to strengthen the rights of rail passengers to get compensation for poor service. The Consumer Rights Act will allow rail passengers to challenge compensation amounts awarded for delays and cancellations where the train operator is at fault.
Train operators’ existing compensation schemes will continue to provide the main means of redress for passengers after 1 October 2016, when the Act comes into force for all transport providers. We will continue to work with train operators to improve their compensation schemes.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the merits of offering unused returned drugs to developing countries.
Answered by David Mowat
In general, where a hospital pharmacy issues medicines to an individual patient and they remain within the hospital, either because they are not used or only partly used, the medicines would be returned to the pharmacy to check that they are suitable for re-use and returned to the pharmacy stock.
The Government does not promote the re-use of medicines that have left the pharmacy and been returned to either hospital or community pharmacies by patients, as it is not possible to guarantee the quality of a returned medicine by physical inspection alone.
The Government also does not recommend the donation of patient-returned medicines. This is in line with clear World Health Organization guidelines, which have been developed in cooperation with major international agencies involved in humanitarian and developmental aid. The guidelines are available at:
www.who.int/medicines/publications/med_donationsguide2011/en/