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  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the flogging of Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Whilst the latest flogging has been postponed, we remain seriously concerned by Raif Badawi’s case. The UK condemns the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment in all circumstances. We have raised Mr Badawi’s case at a senior level with the Saudi authorities. The UK is a strong supporter of freedom of expression around the world. We believe that people must be allowed to freely discuss and debate issues, challenge their governments, exercise the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and speak out against violations of human rights wherever they occur.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the use of corporal punishment for penal purposes.

    Mr David Lidington

    The UK Government condemns all forms of judicial corporal punishment. We believe it amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and is incompatible with international human rights law and the obligations of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture. Where we have concerns, we raise these with the appropriate authorities. As part of the UK’s global strategy on torture prevention, Ministers and senior officials frequently raise concerns about torture in multilateral fora, including on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Convention Against Torture on 10th December 2014.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what account she takes of promoting freedom of speech when deciding on allocations of overseas aid.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID promotes respect for human rights, including freedom of expression, through its partnerships with governments and, where necessary, raises issues of concern in collaboration with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

    Before providing aid to a foreign government, DFID assesses the government’s commitment to four partnership principles, one of which concerns human rights. Where we cannot provide aid directly to governments, we will find other ways to help poor people in those countries.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote freedom of speech in the Middle East.

    Mr David Lidington

    Freedom of expression has been a human rights priority for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, from the beginning of this Parliament; and the subject of an Expert Group which advises Ministers. We raise press freedom regularly in multilateral fora, supporting relevant initiatives and resolutions, and in bilateral conversations – in both private and public. We regularly raise the importance of freedom of speech with counterparts in government across the Middle East and North Africa. Through our Arab Partnership Initiative, we are working to support the development of legitimate and inclusive institutions to improve governance, enable inclusive reform and protect fundamental freedoms such as freedom of speech. Our Arab Partnership Participation Fund has supported the training of journalists in countries across the region, including Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to deliver un-biased reporting and work to protect freedom of speech. In Iraq, we have worked to build a legal and regulatory environment in order to allow Iraqi media to operate safely, freely and effectively.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to promote freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK is a strong and leading supporter of freedom of expression around the world. We continue to raise a range of human rights issues with the Saudi authorities including the right to freedom of expression. Earlier this month we raised freedom of expression at a senior level with the Saudi authorities.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on the case of Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Whilst the latest flogging has been postponed, we remain seriously concerned by Raif Badawi’s case. The UK condemns the use of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment in all circumstances. We have raised Mr Badawi’s case at a senior level with the Saudi authorities.

    The UK is a strong supporter of freedom of expression around the world. We believe that people must be allowed to freely discuss and debate issues, challenge their governments, exercise the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and speak out against violations of human rights wherever they occur.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on the sale of arms by UK companies to countries with governments which consistently violate the human rights of their citizens.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    This Government supports a responsible defence and security industry that helps meet the legitimate defence needs of other states, and contributes to their security and law and order.

    We take our arms export responsibilities very seriously and aim to operate one of the most rigorous and transparent arms export control regimes in the world. All defence and dual-use exports are required to meet the UK’s strict export control legislation and adhere to the UK international commitments including international treaties and obligations.

    Each application for an export licence is subject to rigorous case-by-case assessment against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. Risks around human rights violations are a key part of our assessment. We do not issue an export licence if there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve the recovery of court fines; and if he will make a statement.

    Mike Penning

    This Government takes recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to finding new ways to ensure impositions are paid and to trace those who do not pay. This is why there has been a year on year increase in the total amount of financial penalties collected over the last three years. The amount of money collected reached an all time high of £290 million at the end of 2013/14 and collections continue to rise. In 2013/14 the total outstanding balance of financial impositions reduced by £26.7m (5%) in the year.

    To build on improvements made in recent years in fine collection HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is embarking on an ambitious programme of reform. When developing and implementing the Criminal Compliance and Enforcement Services Blueprint we identified a number of areas where fundamental change was necessary in order to increase fine collection and better serve the public by delivering value for tax payers’ money.

    To meet these challenges HMCTS is looking to work with an external provider for future provision of the service. This will bring the necessary investment and technology HMCTS needs to achieve its aspirations for compliance and enforcement services in the future. It will enable the automation of many of the manual administrative processes and in turn decrease the cost of providing fine enforcement and increase the amount of fines that are paid. The innovation this will bring and the use of automated administrative processes will free up staff time to be more pro-active in pursuing offenders to ensure they comply with their court order.

    The competition to identify an external provider commenced in July 2013; the contract is expected to be awarded in early 2015.

    HMCTS has also started to pilot the use of data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in fine collection in July 2014, albeit for a number of specifically targeted cases. Early indications are that data from HMRC has enabled HM Courts & Tribunals Service to increase the number of attachment of earnings orders it can make. At present, it is not possible to provide a meaningful estimate of the impact on collection rates; however HMCTS is exploring ways to assess the impact of receiving the data over coming months.

  • George Hollingbery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    George Hollingbery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of French recreational sea bass anglers on the management of sea bass stocks.

    George Eustice

    The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has had no recent discussions with representatives of the French recreational sea bass anglers on the management of sea bass stock.

  • George Hollingbery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    George Hollingbery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Hollingbery on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has received the report Bass Discards published by the Irish Bass Group; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    I met the Irish Minister in the margins of the European Union Agriculture and Fisheries Council of 15-16 December to discuss key fisheries items on the Council agenda including management of sea bass stocks.

    Under longstanding Irish national measures to protect bass stocks their commercial fishing vessels are not permitted to land bass for sale, which means a degree of discarding of bass by-catch from mixed fishing activity will occur. I have not, however, seen the Bass Discards report published by the Irish Bass Group.