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  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the value of London Midland’s rolling stock maintenance contract with Siemens after the direct award of the franchise for the period September 2015 to June 2017.

    Stephen Hammond

    Negotiations for the direct award of the West Midlands franchise are yet to commence and the Department has not made any estimate on the value of London Midland’s contract with Angel Trains. It should be noted that the value of rolling stock contracts are a commercial matter between the operator and the rolling stock owner.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the value of London Midland’s rolling stock contract with Angel Trains after the direct award of the franchise for the period September 2015 to June 2017.

    Stephen Hammond

    Negotiations for the direct award of the West Midlands franchise are yet to commence and the Department has not made any estimate on the value of London Midland’s contract with Angel Trains. It should be noted that the value of rolling stock contracts are a commercial matter between the operator and the rolling stock owner.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to monitor London Midland’s (a) budgeting and (b) contractual relationship with Siemens for maintenance work on the Desiro EMU fleet.

    Stephen Hammond

    London Midland provide their Management Accounts to the Department every period. In addition, we receive an annual Business Plan and quarterly forecasts of future revenues and costs for the following twelve months. These are reviewed by qualified management accountants within the Department and challenged with the London Midland senior management team at meetings with a view to assessing the ongoing viability of the TOC.

    Responsibility for monitoring the maintainer rests with the TOC who are responsible for delivering a required performance and availability benchmark through their Franchise Agreement.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of London Midland’s current rolling stock is within the scope of the company’s fleet maintenance contract with Siemens.

    Stephen Hammond

    Prior to the delivery of the new class 350/3 trains ordered in 2012 , 74 trains (45% of the London Midland fleet) was maintained by Siemens; upon completion of delivery, 84 trains (49% of the fleet) will be maintained by Siemens.

  • Grahame M. Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Grahame M. Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame M. Morris on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with B&K Universal Ltd, Yorkshire Evergreen or their associates about their planning application for a facility at Grimston, Yorkshire for the breeding of dogs and other animals for laboratory use in the last 12 months.

    Nick Boles

    There have been no discussions between my Department and this company or their associates in the last 12 months. However, I can confirm that a planning appeal of an application to develop their facilities has recently been received, necessitating standard procedural communications with the Planning Inspectorate.

  • Grahame M. Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Grahame M. Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame M. Morris on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department has had with B&K Universal Ltd, Yorkshire Evergreen or their associates relating to their planning application for a facility at Grimston, Yorkshire for the breeding of dogs and other animals for laboratory use in the last 12 months.

    Mr David Willetts

    UK Trade and Investment and BIS officials provided general planning advice to B&K Universal in the last year at the company’s request. BIS officials met with B&K’s parent company Marshall and signposted other sources of advice and information. Officials were also asked to provide advice on EU Directive 2010/63 and referred this query to the Home Office as the Department with responsibility for implementing the Directive in the UK.

    The use of animals in scientific research remains a vital tool in improving our understanding of how biological systems work both in health and disease and in the development of new medicines and treatments vital for human health and for that of animals. It also underpins the success of the UK’s life science sector which has one of the strongest and most productive industries in the world.

    The UK has a rigorous regulatory system which ensures that animal research and testing is carried out only where no practicable alternative exists, and under controls which keep suffering to the minimum.

    The Government is committed to working to further reduce the use of animals in scientific research and in February 2013 published its delivery plan. This demonstrates our commitment to the “3Rs”: where possible to replace animal use, reduce the number of animals used and to refine the procedures involved so as to find additional ways to minimise suffering. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-to-reduce-the-use-of-animals-in-research-delivery-plan

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  • Grahame M. Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Grahame M. Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame M. Morris on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with B&K Universal Ltd, Yorkshire Evergreen or their associates about their planning application for a facility at Grimston, Yorkshire for the breeding of dogs and other animals for laboratory use in the last 12 months.

    Norman Baker

    Home Office officials have advised B&K Universal Ltd of the requirements for the proposed facility of European Directive 2010/63/EU, which was implemented in the UK and other Member States on 1 January 2013.

    Decisions on planning applications are a matter for the relevant local planning authority.

  • Meg Hillier – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Meg Hillier – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) new passport applications and (b) passport renewal applications have been received by HM Passport Office since the beginning of the current financial year; and what proportion of such applications were completed and dispatched within (i) three and (ii) four weeks.

    James Brokenshire

    During April and May 2014, Her Majesty’s Passport Office received:

    (a) 319,639 new passport applications.
    (b) 1,044,840 passport renewal applications.

    Her Majesty’s Passport Office does not hold passport application processing
    data in the format requested, although we can advise that 96.1% of straightforward
    applications were processed within 3 weeks and 96.9% of non straightforward
    passport applications were processed within the 6-week target.

  • 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 2014-06-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the data published in court proceeding tables associated with their criminal justice statistics quarterly report of December 2013, whether they plan to institute an inquiry into the higher proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences than non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences.

    Lord Faulks

    The Government is committed to making sure that the criminal justice system is fair and just.

    The Criminal Justice System Strategy & Action Plan, published last summer, set out a number of commitments to promote equality including a series of Minister-led events with stakeholders to explore what more could be done.

    The Criminal Justice Board has had several recent discussions about equality and diversity and regularly reviews the statistical data.

    We do not plan to hold a specific inquiry into the proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences as compared with non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences but are clear that more analysis is needed to understand the underlying causes reflected in this data.

    The Government will shortly publish an update to this plan which will contain further actions designed to promote equality.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of reports in The Guardian newspaper on 11 June, they intend to make representations to the government of Thailand about the exploitation and abuse of workers in that country’s fishing industry and to United Kingdom companies which purchase the products of that industry.

    Baroness Warsi

    We are aware of labour rights issues and allegations of human rights abuses in the Thai fishing industry, though not until now of the specific allegations made by the Guardian. We regularly raise our concerns about labour rights in Thailand with the relevant Thai authorities, for example during the UK-Thailand Strategic Dialogue in May 2013. The Guardian’s report contains very serious allegations. We look to the Thai authorities to investigate.

    Given the acute and continual political uncertainty in Thailand our ability to raise these issues with the authorities at this point is limited. However, we take the allegations very seriously and will look for opportunities to raise our concerns. At a minimum, we will continue to press for an improvement in labour rights in Thailand through ongoing negotiations towards an EU-Thailand Free Trade Agreement.

    The UK remains a global leader in tackling human trafficking and slavery as shown by its recent introduction of a Modern Slavery Bill. We welcome any investigation which sheds light on these horrific allegations.

    We also launched our action plan on business and human rights in 2013, becoming the first country to set out guidance to companies on integrating human rights into their operations. We engage regularly with British companies as part of our efforts to boost UK trade and inward investment, but at the same time we also clearly set our commitment to protecting human rights and its expectations of UK companies in this area.