Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there will be an overspend on the Northern Ireland block grant from the Renewable Heating Incentive over the lifetime of the scheme.
Answered by David Gauke
The Treasury sets an allocation related to the costs of the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in the Northern Ireland Executive’s Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) budget, proportionate to the budgets set in AME for the departments which manage the schemes in Great Britain. Any costs in excess of this AME budget are managed by the Northern Ireland Executive from its block grant or other sources of funding available to it.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which regions have agreed or are developing plans for devolved government without the need for an elected mayor.
Answered by Andrew Percy
To date Cornwall, a single, large unitary authority is the only area to agree a non-mayoral devolution deal with government. As a result their devolution package is not as expansive as those deals which have included commitments to establish Mayoral Combined Authorities, for example Cornwall has not received a Gainshare fund.
With regard to future devolution, it is for local areas to develop their proposals and share these with government.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria he uses to decide whether a region can agree a devolution deal without a regional mayor.
Answered by Andrew Percy
An area’s governance arrangements must provide the accountability and leadership which is proportionate to the scale of powers and budgets being devolved.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will discuss with energy companies the potential exclusion of customers who cannot access IT services from cheaper tariffs.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy Ministers have met with a number of energy supply companies to discuss a wide range of issues.
Consumers without access to the internet can shop around to find a better deal for their energy by using any price comparison company which is accredited to the Confidence Code administered by Ofgem and provides a free telephone price comparison service. In addition Citizen Advice offers advice and support on energy switching.
The Government has made it clear that it wants to see companies treating all of their customers fairly – not just those who switch.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2016 to Question 52620, on County Londonderry, what the legal basis is for the Government's position given in that Answer.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The issues relating to Lough Foyle date back to a 1662 charter of Charles II, which granted the waters and bed (as well as the fisheries) of Lough Foyle to the Irish Society, and included them as part of County Londonderry.
In practice, the regulation of activities in the Lough is now the responsibility of the Loughs Agency, a cross-border body established under the Belfast Agreement of 1998.
We remain fully committed to these arrangements and continue to work closely with the Irish Government over improvements to the management of the Lough. Like the Irish Government, we do not anticipate these issues forming part of the negotiations over the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether UK state pensioners who reside in the Irish Republic will receive annual updating of their UK state pension after the UK leaves the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The details for negotiating the UK’s exit from the EU will take some time. The status of pensioners will need to be carefully considered and state pensions will be considered carefully as part of the negotiations.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the risks posed by WiFi and related electromagnetic fields to children.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Government policy is that exposures to electromagnetic fields from Wi-Fi and other radio equipment should comply with the guidelines on limiting exposures from the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
The former Health Protection Agency published a comprehensive review of the evidence prepared by its independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation in 2012. The Group’s overall conclusion was that although a substantial amount of research has been conducted in this area, there is no convincing evidence that electromagnetic field exposures below guideline levels cause health effects in either adults or children.
Exposures from Wi-Fi equipment are well within the ICNIRP levels. Public Health England (PHE) advice is that there is no consistent evidence to date that exposures adversely affect the health of the general population. PHE has committed to keeping emerging evidence under review and preparing another comprehensive review when sufficient new evidence has accumulated.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Brain Tumour Research report on National Research Funding, published in October 2016, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for the 40 per cent increase in brain tumour diagnosis in the North East between 2011 and 2014.
Answered by David Mowat
These are matters for the local National Health Service.
Public Health England advises that the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) collects data on all primary cancers diagnosed in England. The report from Brain Tumour Research shows that there were 241 brain cancers diagnosed in the North East in 2014, and NCRAS data shows that there were 210 diagnoses in 2011.
NCRAS recommends that changes in cancer incidence are only compared using an age-standardised rate to ensure differences in the underlying population and changing age structure of an area are taken into account. The age-standardised rate of brain cancer incidence in the North East in 2014 was 9.5 per 100,000, and in 2011 was 8.4 per 100,000. As the number of new diagnoses is relatively small, it is not possible to say that any differences over time, or between the North East and the England average, are outside of that expected by random variation.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Brain Tumour Research report on National Research Funding, published in October 2016, if he will launch a public enquiry into reasons for the 40 per cent increase in brain tumour diagnosis in the North East between 2011 and 2014.
Answered by David Mowat
These are matters for the local National Health Service.
Public Health England advises that the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) collects data on all primary cancers diagnosed in England. The report from Brain Tumour Research shows that there were 241 brain cancers diagnosed in the North East in 2014, and NCRAS data shows that there were 210 diagnoses in 2011.
NCRAS recommends that changes in cancer incidence are only compared using an age-standardised rate to ensure differences in the underlying population and changing age structure of an area are taken into account. The age-standardised rate of brain cancer incidence in the North East in 2014 was 9.5 per 100,000, and in 2011 was 8.4 per 100,000. As the number of new diagnoses is relatively small, it is not possible to say that any differences over time, or between the North East and the England average, are outside of that expected by random variation.
Asked by: David Anderson (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how the Foyle and Carlingford catchments fishing regime will be enforced and regulated after the UK leaves the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The UK Government is committed to withdrawing from the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and putting a new fisheries regime in place. No decisions have yet been taken, although the Government remains committed to sustainable fisheries and the Discard Ban (Landing Obligation), as set out in its manifesto commitments.
The UK is bound by international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which gives coastal states rights and responsibilities over their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the resources within it.