Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote in 1918.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department will support and publicise a number of events being held across government to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote in 1918. In addition, the Suffragette Flag will be raised on Tuesday, 6 February at 1 Victoria Street to mark the occasion and show support for this important anniversary.
The Department, in collaboration with Parliament, will also host this year’s cross-Whitehall International Women’s Day celebrations on the 8th March. We will celebrate the impact of women in public service over the last 100 years; consider how women in public service can take action to increase their impact today; and challenge attendees to dream big and increase impact over the next decade.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote in 1918.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Department will support and publicise a number of events being held across government to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote in 1918. In addition, the Suffragette Flag will be raised on Tuesday, 6 February at 1 Victoria Street to mark the occasion and show support for this important anniversary.
The Department, in collaboration with Parliament, will also host this year’s cross-Whitehall International Women’s Day celebrations on the 8th March. We will celebrate the impact of women in public service over the last 100 years; consider how women in public service can take action to increase their impact today; and challenge attendees to dream big and increase impact over the next decade.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's total spend on health research and development was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
We do not hold data for total Departmental spend on health research and development. However, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) have published their 2014 UK health research analysis at http://www.ukcrc.org/research-coordination/health-research-analysis/uk-health-research-analysis/.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what mechanisms his Department uses to share best practice with other Government Departments on including provisions on affordable access in research and development grants.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
This Government supports open access to research publications, following the Finch Report in 2012, and further advice from Professor Adam Tickell in 2016. It is for the Research Councils and Funding Councils (and, soon, UK Research and Innovation) to implement open access within their arrangements for grants and other instruments. The Research Councils make available block grants to enable universities to make publications arising from their research open access.
Best practice in this regard is for research publications to be open access, that is, freely available for all to read on the internet, and for research data to be “FAIR”. We support the recent G7 communique that proposes that “research data should adhere to the FAIR principles of being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable”. This does not mean that such data should always be open, as there are circumstances in which that would not be appropriate, for example where personal confidentiality or national security might be put at risk. Best practice is shared with other Government departments, primarily through the work of the Government Office for Science, and the Chief Scientific Advisors in Government departments across Whitehall.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his Department's total spend on health research and development was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
We do not hold data for total Departmental spend on health research and development. However, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) have published their 2014 UK health research analysis at http://www.ukcrc.org/research-coordination/health-research-analysis/uk-health-research-analysis/.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that levels of investment in research and development in medicines is maintained after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to maintaining and enhancing the strength of our research base. This is why we are increasing research and development investment by £4.7 billion over the period 2017-18 to 2020-21, an increase of around 20% to total government R&D spending, more than any increase in any parliament since 1979. This is in addition to our commitment to invest in new scientific infrastructure on a record scale – £6.9 billion over the period 2015-2021.
While we remain a member of the EU, UK businesses and universities should continue to bid for competitive EU funds, and we will work with the Commission to ensure payment when funds are awarded. The Government will underwrite the payment of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU. This includes awards that are bid for before exit that are successful after exit. This guarantee gives British participants and their EU partners the assurance and certainty needed to plan ahead for collaborative projects that can run over many years. We are committed to ensuring that the UK continues to be a world leader in international science and research, including in the development of medicines.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what reports he has received or requested on child refugees working in UK registered companies' factories in Turkey.
Answered by Margot James
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not received or requested any such reports.
UK listed companies are required to publish an annual strategic report that must – to the extent necessary for an understanding of the development, performance or position of the company’s business – include human rights issues. For other UK registered companies, there is no legal obligation to publish such reports.
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 includes a provision that requires all businesses operating in the UK, with an annual turnover of more than £36 million, to produce a slavery and human trafficking statement that sets out the steps they have taken during the financial year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any of its supply chains or its own business. While this provision does not explicitly oblige businesses to report on child refugees, guidance accompanying the provision does make several references to children’s rights. This policy and legislation is the responsibility of my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether, following the recent machinery of government changes, the National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines is still based in his Department.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for International Trade.
Under the machinery of government changes announced recently the UK NCP will now be located in the Department for International Trade.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many students from the London Borough of Southwark are in receipt of student maintenance grants.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Statistics showing the number of English applicants awarded Maintenance Grants are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release ‘Student Support for Higher Education in England’.
http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx
Data provided by the SLC indicates that there were 5,980 applicants from the London Borough of Southwark awarded Maintenance Grants in the academic year 2014/15.
An awarded applicant will only receive payments once SLC have received confirmation from the applicant’s provider that the student has been registered on the course.