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  • Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the National Probation Service budget has been allocated for the management of high-risk cases.

    Lord Faulks

    The total probation budget for 2014-15 is £804 million. This includes the first two months of the financial year, during which services were provided by the probation trusts. As well as operational delivery, the probation budget includes provision of corporate services to support the new operating model.

    The budget figureis based on an initial assessment of operational and business needs and may vary within the financial period. The costs associated with high-risk offenders fall within a number of budget items and do not constitute a separate category.

  • Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the event of a rise in the anticipated costs of community rehabilitation companies emerging from the bidding process, the Secretary of State will delay the process; and, if so, what estimated impact on the National Probation Service would trigger such a decision.

    Lord Faulks

    The Transforming Rehabilitation Programme is opening up the market to a diverse range of new providers, so that we can harness the best that the private and voluntary sectors has to offer to reduce reoffending. We are on track to award and mobilise Payment by Results (PbR) contracts for offender rehabilitation services across England and Wales by 2015. Bids to run the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have yet to be submitted, but are expected by the end of June 2014. We currently have strong, competitive bidder interest across all Contract Package Areas, and we do not expect rising costs to be an issue.

  • Lord Birt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Birt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the time taken for the United Kingdom economy to return to recovery in comparison to other leading countries; and what they consider to be the reasons for the differences in those timescales.

    Lord Deighton

    UK GDP fell 7.2% between the first quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009. Of the G7 economies Japan was the only one that had a deeper recession, and the depth of UK recession was almost twice that of the US.

    Thanks to the government’s long term economic plan, since the trough of the recession the UK has grown faster than France, Italy, Spain and the euro area as a whole. In the year to the first quarter of 2014 the UK grew faster than any other G7 economy, the deficit has fallen by over a third as a share of GDP since 2009-10 and there are more people in work than ever before. But the job is not yet done and the biggest risk now to the recovery would be abandoning the plan that is delivering a brighter economic future.

  • Lord Adonis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Adonis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Adonis on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many apprenticeship starts there were in public sector employers in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively in total and for each apprenticeship framework; for each year, how many were in (1) central government, and (2) local government, in total; and for each year and type of public sector employer, how many of those apprentices were aged (a) 16–18, (b) 19–24, or (c) over 25, when starting their apprenticeship.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    We do not separately measure the number of apprenticeship starts in the public and private sector.

    Information on the number of Apprenticeship starts by Sector Subject Area is published in a supplementary table to a quarterly Statistical First Release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 27th March 2014 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/learner-participation-outcomes-and-level-of-highest-qualification-heldhttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships–2

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  • Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ashcroft on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will place in the Library of the House the bond document of the loan that they have guaranteed for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

    Baroness Northover

    The TCI Government issued US$170 million of bonds in 2011 under the terms of an Offering Memorandum. This was guaranteed by DFID. It would not be appropriate for her Majesty’s Government to place a Turks and Caicos Islands Government document in the Library of the House. A copy might be requested, however, from the Turks and Caicos Islands Government.

  • Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ashcroft on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Liberation and Justice Movement in Sudan has been involved in South Sudan; and if so in what capacity and on what side.

    Baroness Warsi

    We are not aware of any reports that suggest that the Liberation and Justice Movement in Sudan has been involved in the conflict in South Sudan.

  • Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ashcroft on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any gallantry awards other than the Victoria Cross and the George Cross can be awarded posthumously.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    All military and civilian gallantry awards may be awarded posthumously.

  • Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Ashcroft – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ashcroft on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Warsi on 25 April 2013 (WA 447– 48), with regard to the use of Diego Garcia for rendition flights, what is the latest situation in relation to such flights.

    Baroness Warsi

    Aside from the two cases of rendition through Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory) in 2002, there have been no other instances in which US intelligence flights landed in the UK, our overseas Territories, or the Crown Dependencies, with a detainee on board since 11 September 2001.

  • Lord Steel of Aikwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Steel of Aikwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Steel of Aikwood on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider investment by the Commonwealth Development Corporation in luxury construction projects is consistent with the Department for International Development’s overall objectives in developing countries.

    Baroness Northover

    In 2013, CDC’s 1,300 investee companies directly employed over a million people, and created more than 68,000 net new jobs.

    Individual investments are fully decided by CDC and the Government has put in place strict rules which require commitments to deliver jobs, economic development and poverty alleviation in developing countries.

  • Lord Steel of Aikwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Steel of Aikwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Steel of Aikwood on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the conduct of the recent census in Burma.

    Baroness Warsi

    The UK (through the Department for International Development) joined an international effort to provide funding to the census in 2014 because it will be a critical step in the country’s development process, underpinning better planning and delivery of vital services and infrastructure, such as schools, roads and hospitals.

    The UK, UN and other international donors argued strongly for the right of all people to be enumerated fairly and to be able, where necessary, to self-identify their ethnicity in the census. In most areas where the census was conducted, self-identification was permitted. We were deeply disappointed that, in the case of the Rohingya, the Burmese government contravened its long-standing assurance that all individuals would have the right to self-identify their ethnic origin. We have been clear that this decision is contrary to international norms and standards on census conduct. The Minister of State, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), summoned the Burmese Ambassador on 7 April to make these concerns clear.

    Reports from independent international observers of the census suggest that, with the exception of Rakhine and parts of Kachin state, the enumeration process appears to have been largely carried out effectively. We continue to closely monitor the process.