Naomi Long

Post Office Limited already provides access to 95% of current accounts across the counter at more than 11,500 Post Offices. This is in addition to the Post Office’s own wide range of personal financial services, which includes three types of current account. It also operates a network 2,500 ATMs which are free to use and part of the LINK network, enabling withdrawals from a full range of current and other accounts; many of these in rural and deprived areas.

Since 2010, Post Office Ltd has reached agreement with RBS (including NatWest) and HSBC to allow customers to access their current accounts at post office branches. Post Office Ltd continue to engage with the one remaining high street bank (Santander) who have yet to offer their customers this service.

The Secretary of State will be writing to the banks to ask them how they plan to ensure that the banking needs of vulnerable consumers are met, particularly in areas facing branch closures. He will also be encouraging them to give priority consideration to creating or building on existing partnership arrangements with Post Office Limited, including considering how to address any additional financial and operational burdens on the Post Office.

The location of Post Office Application Enrolment and Identity machines is the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited.

As such I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The regulation of gas and electricity supplies in Northern Ireland, including the setting of licence conditions, is a devolved matter and the responsibility of the Utility Regulator in Northern Ireland.

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill will make provision for the implementation of a central registry of company beneficial ownership information. The legislation will set out the obligations and sanctions that will apply to companies and others to ensure that the central registry contains information on the ultimate owners and controllers of UK companies.

As part of the reforms to the national curriculum, the Department for Education is strengthening the teaching of programming in schools by replacing ICT with computing. The new computing programmes of study, which will be taught in maintained schools from September 2014, have a much greater emphasis on computer science and include a significant focus on programming. Primary school pupils at key stage 1 will be taught to understand what algorithms are, create and debug simple programs, and use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs. Building on this, primary school pupils at key stage 2 will be taught to design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; and use logical reasoning to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs.

The Department is funding several projects to help teachers acquire the necessary subject knowledge and skills to teach the new computing curriculum. We are funding the British Computer Society (BCS) to help primary school teachers improve their subject knowledge through online teach-yourself resources and 800 in-school workshops. We are also funding BCS to build a network of 400 ‘Master Teachers'. A further £500,000 competitive match-funded scheme was announced on 4 February to support excellent computing teaching and lever additional investment and engagement from business.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Rt. Hon. Member for Richmond (Yorks), to the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse, during the House of Commons debate on 23 October 2014, Official Report column 1062-1063.

Securing access to Chinese markets for a range of UK products is a key priority in the Government and industry's Export Action Plan. In addition to our interests on pork, we are working closely with industry and the Chinese authorities to advance negotiations on the export conditions for poultry meat. This trade could be worth up to £70 million a year.

Over the longer term, we are working to secure market access for beef and lamb exports to China estimated to be worth up to £120 million a year. We have recently agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese authorities and this formally initiates the detailed technical negotiations. This development has been widely welcomed by industry, and whilst the negotiations are likely to take some time we will seek to conclude them as quickly as we can.

We are also pressing for early agreement on exports of UK poultry meat and have invited the Chinese authorities to conduct an inward inspection visit as soon as possible. I would encourage any plant interested in exporting to China to ensure it complies fully with Chinese requirements before any inspection visit.

The Secretary of State intends to visit China again this year to advance these and other UK market access interests.

There are many underlying issues which result in horses being abandoned and neglected. In some cases it seems owners are struggling to cope with the costs involved in keeping a horse. In other cases, irresponsible breeders and horse traders are deliberately placing horses on land to secure grazing for their animals at no cost to themselves. In the Government's view the way to address these problems is to tackle the perpetrators directly. Anti-social behaviour orders have been successfully used in Wales and in Bristol to address fly grazing, and there is likely to be an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 where a horse is abandoned. The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 brings forward new streamlined measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, of which the practice of fly-grazing of horses is a prime example. Where fly grazing is a particular problem, we encourage the local authorities and police to work together with landowners, farmers and welfare charities to identify the culprits and address their behaviour directly using these powers. In a number of cases and to encourage joined up working, protocols have been drawn up by some local authorities to summarise the action that can be taken under existing legislation. Defra is supplementing that guidance with advice on the new measures in the 2014 Act which come into force later this year.

Securing access to Chinese markets for a range of UK products is a key priority in the Government and industry's Export Action Plan. In addition to our interests on pork, we are working closely with industry and the Chinese authorities to advance negotiations on the export conditions for poultry meat. This trade could be worth up to £70 million a year.

Over the longer term, we are working to secure market access for beef and lamb exports to China estimated to be worth up to £120 million a year. We have recently agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese authorities and this formally initiates the detailed technical negotiations. This development has been widely welcomed by industry, and whilst the negotiations are likely to take some time we will seek to conclude them as quickly as we can.

We are also pressing for early agreement on exports of UK poultry meat and have invited the Chinese authorities to conduct an inward inspection visit as soon as possible. I would encourage any plant interested in exporting to China to ensure it complies fully with Chinese requirements before any inspection visit.

The Secretary of State intends to visit China again this year to advance these and other UK market access interests.

DFID regularly monitors the security and humanitarian situation in CAR. High levels of violence continue across the country, and a million people have been displaced since December 2013. The security situation impacts not only communities but humanitarian workers. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported 142 security incidents directed at humanitarian workers since January 2014 and 18 humanitarian workers killed. In 2014 DFID provided £18 million to the ICRC, UN agencies and international NGOs to support communities who have suffered from the violence in CAR.

We welcome the leadership of the EU on the humanitarian response in CAR and on programmes linking relief, recovery and development. The UK is not a current contributor to the EU Trust Fund in CAR. The UK has committed £33 million in humanitarian funds to CAR and CAR refugees since July 2013, funding a range of NGOs and UN agencies to provide protection, water, health and food security.

DFID has already disbursed £5 million of the £20 million early recovery assistance that we pledged at the Gaza Reconstruction Conference. The UK was also the first donor to support the temporary Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism which is facilitating the import of construction materials into Gaza, and, in close co-ordination with our EU partners and the Office of the Quartet Representative, we continue to press the Government of Israel to lift restrictions and facilitate the entry of aid into Gaza.

The UK is leading the international response to Ebola in Sierra Leone and has committed £230m to help fight the disease. This outbreak of Ebola is unprecedented in scale and highlights the vital importance of strong public healthcare systems. The UK is the biggest bilateral donor to Sierra Leone and commenced a major health systems programme in 2012.

DFID always considers the longer term development impact when developing our programmes. Operational Plans, setting out how DFID’s programmes will deliver results and measure progress up to 2015 for our country office programmes in West Africa (Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone), can be found on the website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/operational-plans-2013 .

DFID does carry out humanitarian programmes to address short term needs but we also have longer term development programmes designed to build resilience. Full details of our programmes can be found on Development Tracker.

Port Facility Security Assessments are conducted for port facilities in the Port of Belfast as required by EC Regulation 2004/65 on enhancing ship and port facility security. A Port Security Assessment for the Port of Belfast has been undertaken, reviewed and approved by the Department for Transport as required by EC Directive 2005/65/EC on enhancing port security.

Discussions continue between Her Majesty’s Government and Post Office LTD to consider the needs of our customers beyond the term of the current contract and announcements will be made when these discussions reach a conclusion.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has had one discussion with the new Minister for Social Development on implementation of welfare reform.

Available data does not provide the number of people with Parkinson's disease who have (a) applied for Personal Independence Payment (b) are receiving Personal Independence Payment (c) have been refused Personal Independence Payment. However, published statistics show that at February 2014 there were 2,831 people entitled to PIP for Neurological Conditions, which would include those who have Parkinson's disease.

The Government regularly produces analysis of the cumulative impact of all Coalition changes, including welfare, on households across the income distribution. This information is produced by the Treasury and is published alongside every Budget and Autumn Statement, in the interests of transparency. The previous government did not provide this type of analysis. The most recent update was published with the Budget on 19 March 2014, and can be found using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293738/budget_2014_distributional_analysis.pdf

Distributional analysis is provided for the whole population on the basis of household income and household expenditure. However this is not disaggregated to the level of household characteristics such as disability status or lower level geographies. No organisation is able to do this robustly.

This analysis estimates the effect of Coalition measures from all fiscal events from the Budget in June 2010 to the Budget in 2014. It also includes changes that were announced before the Budget in June 2010 that have been implemented by this Government. Current Coalition policies are compared with what might have happened if the previous Government's policies had continued into the future without any further fiscal consolidation.

The Government currently has no plans to undertake a review or change the decision on cumulative impact assesments.

Since the launch of the Early Access to Medicines Scheme in April 2014, three Promising Innovative Medicine (PIM) designations have already been granted. By 9 January 2015 there had been 428 downloads of the PIM designation form and 187 downloads of the scientific opinion form, which indicates the high level of interest in the scheme.

The Early Access to Medicines Scheme already has a number of incentives for pharmaceutical companies. The PIM designation provides an early indication that a product may be a possible candidate for the Early Access to Medicines Scheme and is of particular value to smaller companies because it will act as a signal to potential investors. At the next stage of scientific review, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will consider the evidence and can issue an Early Access to Medicines scientific opinion. This opinion will support the prescriber to make a decision with the patient on using this medicine, when still unlicensed or used off-label. Earlier clinical use of new innovative medicines will also provide valuable real world data to companies for use in subsequent health technology appraisal processes.

We committed to review the Early Access to Medicines Scheme when we launched the scheme in April 2014. Through the Innovative Medicine and Medical Technologies Review we will also be taking forward a major review over the coming months to make recommendations to Government on opportunities to accelerate access for National Health Service patients to innovative medicines, devices and diagnostics.

In developing our response to the Bill, we have taken advice from a number of cancer clinicians including breast cancer specialists and from officials at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and taken account of views expressed by other stakeholder organisations.

Off-patent drugs are those whose patent period has expired and consequently manufacturers may make available generic or non-branded versions of the products.

An “off-label” medicine is any medicine prescribed outside the terms of its licence (as set out in the prescribing information in the Summary of product Characteristics). Medicines legislation permits prescribers to prescribe a product outside the terms of its licence where they judge it to be in the best interests of the patient to address a medical need. For example to prescribe for a different use or to different category of patients but in doing so the prescriber takes personal responsibility for the treatment, inform the patient(s) of the licensing status of the product and obtain consent from the patient for its use.

The Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS) aims to give patients with life threatening or seriously debilitating conditions access to medicines that do not yet have a marketing authorisation when there is a clear unmet medical need. Under the scheme, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will provide a scientific opinion on the benefit/risk balance of the medicine, based on the data available at the time of the EAMS submission. The scheme is voluntary and as such the MHRA is dependent on companies submitting potential products that may fulfil the EAMS criteria.

In the government response to the public consultation, it was confirmed that off-label supply of existing medicines would be eligible for the scheme, but only if they meet the EAMS criteria. Thus companies can submit an application to the EAMS for a new indication for an already marketed drug (which may be off patent).

In June 2013 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued an updated clinical guideline on familial breast cancer which includes recommendations on the use of tamoxifen and raloxifene outside their licensed indications for the prevention of cancer in specific groups of women at high and moderate risk of breast cancer.

NICE’s clinical guidelines represent best practice and we expect commissioners to take their recommendations into account when designing services and making commissioning decisions for their healthcare population.

Our assessment is that, as NICE has already provided guidance on the use of tamoxifen and raloxifene, there would be little value in NICE separately appraising these drugs for the prevention of breast cancer and we have had no discussions with NICE on this issue.

I met with the Thalidomide Trust on 23 June 2014 and subsequently wrote to Manuela Schwesig, Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, on behalf of all four UK Governments asking if she would meet with the Trust.

The UK actively pushes for the release of all political prisoners in Burma. The most recent official figures from the government of Burma suggest that 27 political prisoners remain in prison, having dropped from over 2,000 in 2011. However these figures are contested, and a leading local non-government organisation – the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) – suggest that as of January there are 160 political prisoners with another 203 facing trial.

Clearly, the UK is very concerned by the increase in political prisoners witnessed over the last year. Officials from our Embassy in Rangoon meet regularly with members of civil society on this issue, and we continue to raise our concerns with the government of Burma at Ministerial level. I raised our concerns over political prisoners with Deputy Foreign Minister Thant Kyaw in June 2014. Most recently, the Minister of State at the Home Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), raised this issue directly with the Minister for the President’s Office, U Soe Thein, during her visit to Burma this month. We continue to lobby on individual cases. We also raise our concerns publicly in our Annual Report on Human Rights and in multilateral fora such as the UN General Assembly, where the UK co-sponsored a Resolution last year that called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners.

Women have largely been under-represented in peace-building efforts with only 2.5% of signatories to peace agreements being women. This is unacceptable and more must be done. With this in mind, the UK has been working in Afghanistan, and other post-conflict countries, to improve women’s political participation and their role in building peace.

The Government has raised the case of Ghonceh Ghavami with the Iranian authorities on many occasions, including most recently on 23 November. Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have raised this with President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif. We welcome news that Ms Ghavami has been released on bail. I met with the family on 25 November to discuss ways we can work together to ensure the best possible outcome of this case.

Officials at the British Embassy in Khartoum have discussed the issues highlighted by the Meriam Ibrahim case with both the Sudanese Attorney General and senior members of the ruling National Congress Party. In addition, my Hon Friend, the member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge MP), the Minister for Africa highlighted the need for the lessons of this case to be learned in a recent letter to the Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs. The UK also ensured that this case was raised with the delegation from the Government of Sudan at the 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which took place between 8-26 September.

We have had a number of discussions with the Burmese government on the importance of Burma ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). I personally raised the importance of adhering to international human rights standards and encouraged the ratification of key human rights treaties with Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister when we met in June. At the request of the Burmese government the British Embassy in Rangoon recently funded an experts’ visit to Burma to identify steps that would need to be taken and issues that would need to be considered to ratify the ICCPR.