Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the luxury yacht building industry in the UK since the EU referendum.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Department works closely with the marine engineering and manufacturing sector, which includes the yacht building industry. The Ministerial Working Group for Maritime Growth continues to engage with the industry on the issues and opportunities for the maritime sector resulting from the UK leaving the EU.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the economic costs to the UK of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (a) globally and (b) in the Western Indian Ocean.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government has made no specific assessment of the economic cost to the UK of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing either globally or in the West Indian Ocean. IUU poses a threat to the economic livelihood for many countries with consequences for the marine environment. The UK fulfils its IUU obligations to prevent trade in illegally caught fish by prohibiting the import of fish from countries, identified by the European Union, as not supporting sustainable fisheries.
In 2009, prior to the implementation of the regulation, the European Commission commissioned an evaluation report on the expected impacts of the EU IUU Regulation on third countries. This report aimed to help third countries and the EU access the training requirements to implement this measure successfully, and is available at
https://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/sites/fisheries/files/docs/body/iuu_consequences_2009_en.pdf.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the level of risk to the security of UK citizens posed by illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Western Indian Ocean.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the West Indian Ocean poses a limited security threat to British nationals, so we have not made a formal assessment.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what advice is given to patients and families of deceased patients who no longer require prescribed medicines, aids and medical equipment.
Answered by David Mowat
Disposal of waste medicines is an essential service within the community pharmacy contractual framework, to be provided by all community pharmacies in England. NHS England is responsible for commissioning National Health Service pharmaceutical services.
Patients are normally advised to return unused medicines to their local community pharmacy for safe disposal. This is the case also for patients and families of deceased patients who no longer require prescribed medicines.
Appliances are normally collected by community nurses. Occasionally there is a local amnesty with appeals to patients to return equipment, for example crutches and wheelchairs to accident and emergency departments.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to build and develop more homes.
Answered by Sajid Javid
The Government is committed to building the homes our country needs.
Measures in the recent White Paper will ensure more homes are planned for where they are needed most, that homes are built more quickly once they have planning permission, and will diversify the housing market so it works for everyone.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support democracy in and (b) strengthen UK relations with countries in Africa.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The UK’s links with Africa are profound. We spend almost £5 billion a year supporting Africa’s stability and prosperity. My Rt. Hon Friend the Foreign Secretary (Mr Johnson) last week visited The Gambia which recently saw its first democratic transfer of power, and in May my Rt. Hon Friend the Prime Minister (Mrs May) will host a major conference to agree a new international partnership for Somalia, demonstrating UK leadership and commitment to democracy and stability in Africa.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the hosting of major sporting and tourism events in the UK.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Since London 2012, the UK has hosted nearly 100 major sporting events. We will host the World Athletic and Para-Athletic Championships in this summer, and after that, the women's World Cups in Cricket, Hockey and Netball, cycling's World Championships and the Euro 2020 semi finals and final.
The government is committed to bringing sport and tourism events to the UK. The Government’s Tourism Action Plan highlights the work we are doing to encourage major tourism events here.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve recruitment of nurses to the NHS.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for the forecasting and planning of the future nursing workforce supply needs for the National Health Service.
HEE has increased nurse training commissions by nearly 15% over the last three years and is forecasting that up to 40,000 additional nurses could be available to the NHS by 2020.
In addition to the increase in training commissions HEE has also implemented a number of steps to increase nurse numbers within the NHS these include:
- proactively promoting the Return to Practice programme, aimed at encouraging previously qualified nurses that have left the NHS, to update their skills and qualifications and return to practice within the NHS;
- the provision of flexible routes into nursing for pre-existing support staff; and
- working closely with universities to improve attrition rates from courses which will further increase the number of nursing students who graduate.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
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 sustainability of the GP network.
Answered by David Mowat
The General Practice Forward View, published in April 2016, announced that investment in General Practice will increase from £9.6 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion by 2020/21, a major financial investment to transform primary care.
Work is underway to increase the primary care workforce and reduce workload, to improve primary care estates and infrastructure, and to redesign care and spread innovation throughout the country.
It is also becoming increasingly normal for general practices to work together at scale in networks or federation of practices, bringing greater opportunities for practices to work collaboratively to strengthen services and their sustainability.
Asked by: Oliver Colvile (Conservative - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the funding that has been allocated to the GP Development Programme remains unspent.
Answered by David Mowat
The General Practice Development programme covers a number of initiatives set out in the General Practice Forward View, including: £6 million for practice manager development, which runs over three years; £45 million for reception and clerical training, which runs over five years; £30 million for a national development programme, which runs over three years; and £45 million for online consultations, which will run over three years from 2017/18.
NHS England is working to spend up to allocation and final outturn figures will be published later in year in the NHS England accounts for 2016/17 with more detail provided in the Investment in General Practice Report for 2016/17 published by NHS Digital.