Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on city deals in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
We have made a clear manifesto commitment to work with a restored Executive and other stakeholders towards a comprehensive and ambitious set of city deals across Northern Ireland.
We have announced our intention to open negotiations for a Belfast Region City Deal, and the Secretary of State continues to engage with Cabinet colleagues to progress this vital growth agenda for Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What steps he is taking to encourage innovation by defence suppliers
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to the hon. Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey).
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made in reducing the abuse of personal injury whiplash claims for incidents involving motor vehicles.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Government’s whiplash reforms in recent years have included improving the independence and quality of whiplash medical reports through the introduction of the MedCo system in 2015, as well as reducing and fixing the cost of those reports.
In February this year, following consultation, the Government announced further reforms to help bear down on the number and cost of claims. Those reforms that require primary legislation will be introduced through a Civil Liability Bill which was announced in the Queen’s Speech. They are:
banning the practice of seeking or offering to settle such claims without medical evidence.
In addition, secondary legislative rule changes will bring the vast majority of whiplash claims into the small claims track.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle neglected tropical diseases.
Answered by Priti Patel
The number of people at risk from Neglected Tropical Diseases has decreased from 2 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2015, in large part due to the high quality, lifesaving programmes the UK supports in 27 countries. In April 2017 the UK announced we will protect over 200m people from the pain and disfigurement caused by NTDs.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the cyber security of both public and private sector organisations.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The National Cyber Security Strategy, supported by £1.9 billion of transformational investment, sets out measures to defend our people, businesses, and assets; deter our adversaries; and develop necessary skills and capabilities.
The National Cyber Security Centre provides advice that helps public and private sector organisations to be more resilient to cyber attacks.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to address railway signal failures caused by periods of very hot weather.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The resilience of the signalling system and other railway infrastructure to extreme weather conditions is the responsibility of Network Rail. With Ministers’ support, the company has developed a Weather Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation Plan for each of its eight Routes in order to understand the risks and to provide a focus for action to mitigate these. Specific measures include the roll-out of uninterruptible power supplies to help reduce signal failures, and the greater use of remote condition monitoring technology to ensure that any emerging issues are identified as soon as practicable.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on works to upgrade the overhead line between Shenfield and London Liverpool Street.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Where a need to upgrade has been identified, all the overhead wire on the line between London and Norwich has been upgraded as part of a £250m project, including the overhead line between Shenfield and London Liverpool Street.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to address violence in HM Prison Chelmsford.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The level of violence in our prisons is unacceptable. We are fully committed to making prisons safer and addressing the significant increase in violence and assaults by increasing staffing levels and the ways of working in our prisons.
The White Paper on Prison Safety and Reform announced a major shake-up of the prison system with 2,500 extra prisons officers and new security measures to tackle drones, phones and drugs. The additional 2,500 prison officers will allow us to introduce a new key worker role, in which all prison officers on wings will support a small caseload of prisoners, improving the quality of staff-prisoner relationships and tackling the drivers of each prisoner’s offending.
The Governor at HM Prison Chelmsford leads on reducing violence and chairs thePrison Safety meeting. Chelmsford are using the Violence Diagnostic Tool to identify violence trends and with the support of the regional safety team they are working to address these.
Five-minute intervention training is being delivered at Chelmsford which equips staff to turn everyday conversations into rehabilitative interventions.
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on long-term broadcast access to the EU for Ofcom-licensed broadcasters based in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The UK is currently the EU's biggest broadcasting hub, and the sector makes an important contribution to our thriving creative industries.
During our negotiations with the EU we will work to get the right deal for broadcasters and will support their continued growth in the UK
Asked by: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help prisons to increase levels of (a) drugs testing and (b) searches for mobile phones.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The number of mobile phones and SIM cards in prisons continues to be too high. We have purchased better quality detection equipment in larger quantities and equipped all prisons with additional portable detection devices to use across the prison. We are also working with mobile network operators to deliver ground-breaking technology to stop illicit phones working in prisons.
The illicit supply of drugs undermines the safety and security of prisons. The introduction of mandatory drug testing for psychoactive substances in prisons in September 2016 was also a significant step to support our prisons in tackling the supply and use of these lethal drugs. We are not aware of any other prison service in the world that has introduced these innovative new tests.
As part of our commitments in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper, published in November 2016, we will invest to strengthen the frontline with 2,500 additional prison officers by 2018. These new prison officers will receive dedicated substance misuse training which explains the substantial impact of drug use, particularly psychoactive substances, implementation of the Psychoactive Substance Act 2016 in prisons and insight into what they can do to prevent further PS supply and use.