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  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Indian counterpart on alleged human rights violations in that country; and what progress has been made on promoting a fair and independent judicial system in India.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) discussed human rights with Prime Minister Modi during Mr Modi’s visit to the United Kingdom in November 2015. Mr Modi reassured the Prime Minister and honourable members in his address to Parliament that he fully respected India’s traditions of tolerance and diversity. I raised the extensive interest taken by right honourable and honourable members in this place with the Indian High Commissioner on 12 January. The Indian Constitution provides for a judiciary which is independent of the legislature and the executive. The courts have proved to be a powerful medium of progressive change in India and a protector of India’s Constitution, challenging successive governments on various issues, including human rights. However, we do acknowledge that there is a backlog of cases and are encouraged by discussions in India to address this issue.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many officials in his Department have undertaken Foreign and Commonwealth Office language classes in each year from 2006.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    In 2014 there were 255 officers in full time language training with an additional 332 officers and/ or spouses attending part time language classes. In 2015 there were 332 officers in full time language training and 767 officers/spouses following part time language classes. To provide statistics for the years 2006-2013 would incur disproportionate costs.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with democratic opposition parties in Iran; and what his Department’s policy is on working with opposition parties to achieve greater political stability in that region.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    I have had no recent discussions with opposition parties in Iran. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office works across the region with a range of stakeholders in support of regional security.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which of the countries listed in the Human Rights and Democracy Report have been highlighted as lacking respect for conscientious objection; and what representations he has made to his counterpart in each such country on this matter.

    Mr David Lidington

    The UK Government recognises that conscientious objection can be regarded as a human right under Article 18 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. The UK co-sponsored a UN Human Rights Council resolution on conscientious objection to military service in 2013. It is important that all states live up to their international obligations to protect freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The UK Government does not specifically monitor respect for conscientious objection in individual countries.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Bahraini authorities on the planned execution of Mohammad Ramadan and Hussain Moosa.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Bahrain has had a de facto moratorium in place on the use of the death penalty since 2010, although we are concerned a number of individuals have received the death penalty sentence since then. The UK opposes the death penalty around the world because we believe it undermines human dignity, there is no evidence that it works as a deterrent and any error made in its application is irreversible. We regularly discuss human rights and reform with the Government of Bahrain. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) raised human rights with his Bahraini counterpart, Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa at their last meeting on 4 February.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of whether there have been any unintentional violations of international humanitarian law carried out by Saudi coalition forces in Yemen.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are aware of reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by actors to the conflict and take these very seriously. It is important that all sides conduct thorough and conclusive investigations into all incidents where it is alleged that IHL has been breached. As the Saudis themselves announced on Sunday, they have mechanisms in place to investigate alleged incidents and to learn lessons if things go wrong. The Ministry of Defence also monitors incidents of alleged IHL violations using available information, which in turn informs our overall assessment of IHL compliance in Yemen. At this stage, looking at all the information available to us, we have not assessed that there has been a breach of IHL by the coalition, but continue to monitor the situation closely, seeking further information where appropriate.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether UK personnel were involved in checking the target selections for any (a) deliberate and (b) unintended breaches of international humanitarian law during the recent Saudi Arabian military action in Yemen.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK is not a member of the Saudi Arabia-led military Coalition. British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets, and are not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process. We have deployed a small number of military personnel serving as liaison officers in Saudi Arabia’s headquarters to provide insight into Saudi operations. They remain under UK command and control.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23665, in which 33 different languages his Department has Operational Level (C1) examination pass speakers employed in the last five years up to the end of 2015.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Records show that up until the end of 2015, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had officers with a C1 pass in the following languages:
    Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Mandarin, Pashtu, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.

    The FCO Language Centre was re-opened in September 2013 to renew the focus and investment in languages as a core diplomatic skill to ensure that we get the right people with the right skills in the right jobs to deliver our foreign policy objectives. The Language Centre gives us a strong platform to grow our language skills as an organisation and develop a pipeline of talent to fill language slots on a continuous basis.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23665, how many (a) Arabic speakers with an Operational level (C1) examination pass and (b) Mandarin/Cantonese speakers there were employed in his Department in each year since 2006.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Records from the last five years show that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has 51 officers who have a current Operational Level (C1) Arabic pass and 44 officers with a C1 pass in Mandarin/ Cantonese. We only record current C1 passes, valid for five years after the date of the exam, and therefore do not have pre-2010 data.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve access to mental health services for care leavers aged 18 to 25 years old.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government is committed to making the full £1.4 billion investment available over the course of this Parliament to improve mental health services for children and young people.

    In line with guidance published by NHS England, all clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have produced Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health and these have all now been assured and funding allocated for implementation. These plans required all key partners to agree locally how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations and should cover the whole spectrum of need, which includes improving access to mental health services for vulnerable groups such as children in care and care leavers so that they can receive high quality mental health care when they need it. It is for local partners to decide how much of the funding which will be allocated to CCGs to improve local services throughout the five years will be spent specifically on children in care and other vulnerable groups. However, this will be based on an assessment of local needs and set out in the LTPs.

    The Government’s overall strategy to improve outcomes for care leavers is set out in the Care Leaver Strategy: A cross-departmental strategy for young people leaving care report (October 2013), and a one-year-on document, Care Leaver Strategy: One year on progress update, (October 2014) that reported on progress made and set out how the Government intends to further improve support for care leavers. The Government intends to publish its refreshed Care Leaver Strategy later this year.

    The Local Government Association has produced a spreadsheet giving details of every LTP can be found using the following webpage address:

    www.local.gov.uk/camhs

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