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  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 5 April (HL7189), and further to the findings of the United Nations Panel of Experts and paragraph 13 of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2270, what assessment they have made of the role of personnel from the North Korean Embassy in London in nuclear proliferation activity and sanctions evasion; and whether any representations on this matter have been made to the North Korean Ambassador to the UK.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We are concerned by the evidence in the Panel of Experts’ report that officials of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) continue to play key roles in facilitating trade of prohibited items. We regularly raise our concerns about the DPRK’s nuclear weapons programme and nuclear proliferation with the North Korean Embassy in London. We remind all foreign diplomatic missions in the UK to operate in accordance with their obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

  • Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for each category of hate crime since 2010.

    Robert Buckland

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of prosecutions flagged as hate crimes. Hate crimes comprise offences motivated by hostility or prejudice to a person’s race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, disability or perceived disability and transgender identity or perceived transgender identity. These data are accurate only to the extent that the flag has been correctly applied.

    The tables below show the number and proportion of convictions and overall prosecutions, by each category of hate crime, during each of the last five available years:

    TOTAL HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

    Convictions

    Total

    2010-11

    12,651

    82.8%

    15,284

    2011-12

    11,843

    83.4%

    14,196

    2012-13

    10,794

    82.6%

    13,070

    2013-14

    11,915

    84.7%

    14,074

    2014-15

    12,220

    82.9%

    14,738

    RACIAL HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

    Convictions

    Total

    2010-11

    10,566

    83.1%

    12,711

    2011-12

    9,933

    84.4%

    11,774

    2012-13

    9,107

    83.3%

    10,935

    2013-14

    10,069

    85.2%

    11,818

    2014-15

    10,123

    83.5%

    12,130

    RELIGIOUS HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

    Convictions

    Total

    2010-11

    472

    83.4%

    566

    2011-12

    479

    80.8%

    593

    2012-13

    308

    77.2%

    399

    2013-14

    463

    84.2%

    550

    2014-15

    557

    83.8%

    665

    HOMOPHOBIC & TRANSPHOBIC HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS (1)

    Convictions

    Total

    2010-11

    1,034

    80.7%

    1,281

    2011-12

    951

    78.7%

    1,208

    2012-13

    885

    80.7%

    1,096

    2013-14

    913

    80.7%

    1,132

    2014-15

    1,037

    81.2%

    1,277

    (1) A separate flag for Transphobic crime was introduced in December 2012 following the amendment to the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

    DISABILITY HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

    Convictions

    Total

    2010-11

    579

    79.8%

    726

    2011-12

    480

    77.3%

    621

    2012-13

    494

    77.2%

    640

    2013-14

    470

    81.9%

    574

    2014-15

    503

    75.5%

    666

    Data Source: CPS Management Information System

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Serious Fraud Office is taking to address fraud by employees in large companies.

    Robert Buckland

    The role of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is to investigate and prosecute serious or complex frauds.

    The SFO is committed to investigating and, where appropriate, prosecuting such serious frauds, as seen in the conviction of Tom Hayes for offences related to manipulating LIBOR.

    The Government is consulting and will introduce a new criminal offence to apply to corporations who failed to prevent their agents from criminal facilitating tax evasion.

    The Government will also consult on extending the criminal offence of “failure to prevent” from bribery to other economic crimes such as fraud and money laundering so that firms are properly held to account for criminal activity that takes place within them.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate the Student Loans Company has provided to his Department of the costs of the preparation, introduction and administration of the amendments to the fees and student support system in England arising from the (a) replacement of maintenance grants by maintenance loans, (b) introduction of the postgraduate loan scheme, (c) extension of maintenance loans to part-time students, (d) extension of advanced learner loans to those aged 19 years and above and (e) Teaching Excellence Framework.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) fully funds the cost to the Student Loans Company (SLC) of implementing Higher and Further Education student finance policy in England. Funding is allocated on a demand-led basis whereby BIS requests services, SLC estimates the cost of delivery and then BIS pays the costs in full.

    As set out in the SLC’s public Annual Performance and Resource Agreement (APRA) for financial year 2015-16, BIS made approximately £8.8m available to SLC to meet the estimated costs of implementing all new policies related to student support for Higher and Further Education in England, including (but not exclusively) the implementation of policies a, b and d above.

    Overall implementation costs for individual policies are usually spread over a number of financial years reflecting the different stages of the implementation process. The amount of funding to be made available to SLC for financial year 2016-17, including for delivery of policies a-e above, will be confirmed in this year’s APRA and published on SLC’s website shortly.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many visits (a) by Ministers and (b) officials from his Department were made to Coventry in each of the last five years.

    Joseph Johnson

    This information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether lease renewal and rent review will remain trigger points for the market rent only option procedure, as set out in Part 6 of the withdrawn Pubs Code etc. Regulations 2016.

    Anna Soubry

    Yes. Lease renewal and rent review will remain trigger points for the ‘Market Rent Only’ option procedure in the revised regulations.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to lay the revised statutory instruments for the Pubs Code etc. Regulations 2016 and Pubs Code (Fees, Costs and Financial Penalties) Regulations 2016 before the House.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government is working hard to bring the Pubs Code etc Regulations 2016 into force as soon as possible. We have drafted the necessary technical corrections, and will lay a revised draft as soon as possible. The Code will come in to force following Parliamentary scrutiny. The Pubs Code (Fees, Costs and Financial Penalties) Regulations 2016 will be laid at the same time.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the number and value of arms export licences issued to Saudi Arabia since 19 March 2015; and if he will make a statement.

    Anna Soubry

    Information on arms export licences are published as Official Statistics in the Annual and Quarterly Reports on Strategic Export Controls. These reports contain detailed information on export licences issued, refused or revoked, by destination, including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. They are available to view at GOV.UK.

    The most recently published information covers the period to 31 December 2015. Information covering 1 January to 31 March 2016 will be published on 19 July 2016 and information covering 1 April to 30 June 2016 will be published on 19 October 2016.

    All export licences are issued in strict accordance with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what additional resources have been or will be made available to the Student Loans Company to enable that Company to administer amendments to the fees and student support system in England covering the (a) replacement of maintenance grants by maintenance loans, (b) introduction of the postgraduate loan scheme, (c) extension of maintenance loans to part-time students, (d) extension of advanced learner loans to those aged 19 years and above and (e) Teaching Excellence Framework.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) fully funds the cost to the Student Loans Company (SLC) of administering Higher and Further Education student finance policy in England. Funding is allocated on a demand-led basis whereby BIS requests services, SLC estimates the cost of delivery and then BIS pays the costs in full.

    As set out in SLC’s public Annual Performance and Resource Agreement (APRA) for financial year 2015-16, BIS made approximately £8.8m available to SLC to meet the costs of implementing all new policies related to student support for Higher and Further Education in England, including (but not exclusively) the implementation of policies a, b and d above. The amount of funding to be made available to SLC for the financial year 2016-17, including for delivery of policies a-e above, will be confirmed in this year’s APRA and published on SLC’s website shortly.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 119 of the Teaching excellence framework: technical consultation for year two, published by his Department on 16 May 2016, how the estimates for the performance metrics were reached; whether there is scope for making adjustments to those estimates in the future; whether those estimates will be used as part of formal guidance for the operation of the teaching excellence framework; and if he will publish the methodological framework and evidence for how those estimates were reached.

    Joseph Johnson

    In developing our proposals for the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) we used a set of indicative metrics, with data constructed using the methods set out in Chapter 2 of the TEF: Technical Consultation for Year Two. The statement that providers will fall into a bell curve was based on observing the number of providers with positive and negative significance flags against the core metrics.

    The actual TEF assessments will be made against the most recent data which we anticipate will follow a broadly similar pattern. As stated in the Technical Consultation, we expect the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to construct the guidance to assessors in such a way that will lead to a distribution similar to that set out in paragraph 119; however, assessors will not be obligated to check that the awards follow this distribution, only that they have followed the guidance.

    Our consultation response will outline the final metrics and HEFCE guidance will set out the detailed methodology of how the metrics are constructed.