Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department has allocated to Malaria (a) prevention and (b) treatment programmes in Kenya.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
DFID’s support for malaria prevention and treatment in Kenya is delivered through the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the ‘Global Fund’). The Global Fund has, to date, allocated more than USD $300m to malaria grants in Kenya. 10% of this (USD $30m) can be attributed to DFID based on our share of global contributions to the Global Fund.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what arrangements are in place for police forces in England to certificate blue light driving for volunteers in charities.
Answered by Nick Hurd
There is currently no legal requirement for voluntary and charitable organisations to gain police certification for those volunteers who need to drive in response to emergency situations. In order to discharge their duty of care to their volunteers and other road users, such organisations are encouraged to make arrangements with police forces or other suitable training providers.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking following the action taken by the Advertising Standards Authority against misleading presentation of pricing information on the websites of secondary ticket operators.
Answered by Margot James
The Government is determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the existing ticketing provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, are in the process of introducing a new criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets than that allowed, and support the work of the Competition and Markets Authority and National Trading Standards in enforcing the law in this area. We recognise, however, that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken in March by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, and the assurances from these platforms that they would make changes to their websites to comply with this ruling. We hope this will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the minimum monthly living expenses required for a single unemployed person in central Scotland.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department has not made an assessment of the minimum monthly living expenses required for a single unemployed person in central Scotland.
However, the Department publishes a range of measures of living standards in the Households Below Average (HBAI) publication. The latest estimates are to 2016/17 and 2017/18 results have been pre-announced to be published in February / March 2019.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support internally displaced people (a) unilaterally and (b) working with the United Nations.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK is committed to meeting the needs of displaced populations, including internally displaced persons (IDPs). For example, we support, through core and bilateral funding, some of the key UN agencies involved in IDP response, including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organisation for Migration. In addition, the UK has large bilateral programmes in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen that support IDPs and the communities that host them.
Several Member States, including the UK, are also actively exploring options with the UN to mark the 20th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement this year - including the idea of launching a UN High Level Panel on Internally Displaced Persons, which presents one way of galvanising further political and operational attention and action on IDPs.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many apprentices his Department directly employs.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
As of 17 April 2018, 976 Ministry of Defence civilian personnel are employed on an apprenticeship scheme. In addition, there are around 20,000 Armed Forces personnel undertaking apprenticeships at any one time.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to make it easier for people living in properties with shared responsibilities, such as blocks of flats, to access the grant support available for installing individual electric vehicle charging points.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Government recognises that not being able to recharge at home can dissuade drivers form making the switch to electric. Government’s Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme supports eligible electric vehicle owners with up to £500 towards the costs of installing a chargepoint in domestic properties, including in blocks of flats.
In addition, as announced in November 2017 in the Industrial Strategy, Building Regulations will be amended to ensure that cabling infrastructure is provided for chargepoints when new dwellings are built, to help future-proof new homes and avoid retrofitting costs.
For those without off-street parking facilities, Government’s On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme also provides grant funding for local authorities towards the cost of installing on-street residential chargepoints for plug-in electric vehicles.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the consequences will be for public sector employees whose pensions have been overpaid as a result of incorrect guaranteed minimum pension calculations.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Where a ministerial department is responsible for the appropriate pension scheme, it is for them to determine, in accordance with Managing Public Money (July 2013, Annex 4.11), whether and how overpayments are to be recovered. If departments determine that it is not feasible to recover overpayments, they will need to bring the resultant losses to parliament’s attention. In the case of the local government pension scheme, decisions on whether and how to recover overpayments are matters for the relevant local authority.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has plans to increase the funding for basketball at grassroots level across the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
Sport England has invested over £31 million in grassroots basketball since 2009, and is investing £5,140,000 in Basketball England across the 2017-21 period.
Sport England makes funding for grassroots sport available through a series of investment programmes, details of which are set out on its website, and which are open for individual organisations to apply for. It has also recently launched a new grant finding service on a one year trial to help organisations access the right type of funding opportunities that are appropriate to them: http://www.idoxopen4community.co.uk/sportengland/
Sport England is the arms length body of government that supports and invests in grassroots sport and physical activity in England. Support for grassroots sport and physical activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the respective Home Nations Sports Councils.
Asked by: Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the outstanding money under the Child Maintenance Service's collect and pay system is swiftly collected.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Child Maintenance Service has wide ranging powers to enforce the collection of both ongoing child maintenance liability and also arrears. We recently consulted on a new Compliance and Arrears Strategy with the aim of increasing these powers. The Government’s response to this consultation will be published in due course.