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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 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Bates on 8 February (HL Deb, col 1980), what steps they are taking to persuade the government of Turkey to open the border at Oncupinar to enable Syrian refugees fleeing Russian aerial bombardment of the Aleppo Province to reach safety; what assessment they have made of how many refugees are at that border; and how many of those are estimated to be women and children.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We condemn the recent actions of the Syrian regime, driving civilians from their homes in and around Aleppo, and question the role of Russia in supporting this offensive. We are appalled by the humanitarian impact of these developments and the ongoing war in Syria. We assess that there are over 30,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a result of this action. On 8 February 2016, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released an initial assessment which estimated 80 per cent of IDPs to be women and children. We welcome Turkey’s generosity in hosting over 2.5m Syrian refugees in Turkey, a commitment reaffirmed by Prime Minister Davutoğlu at the 4 February London Syria Conference. The Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister have made clear that Turkey will continue to allow refugees to enter Turkey. The UK continues to work closely with the Turkish government, including through implementation of the EU-Turkey Action Plan, to ensure refugees continue to receive support and protection.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 4 February (HL5344), when Genomic England expects to have reported back to patients from the pilot phase on (1) 100 patients, (2) 250 patients, (3) 500 patients, (4) 1000 patients, and (5) all patients.

    Earl of Courtown

    The existing bilateral programme fund, run by our Embassy in Pyongyang, has contributed to a number of projects aimed at improving the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). These include helping to improve food and nutrition for people in rural areas and equipment for the physically disabled. In addition, our funding of English language projects and visits to the UK for government officials, exposes DPRK citizens to other values and cultures. We assess that many of our existing projects contain a human rights element, without strictly being defined as a human rights project. In the coming year we will continue to fund such projects where possible and will assess future human rights projects under the Magna Carta Fund for Human Rights and Democracy. The amount spent on projects categorised as containing a human rights element between 3 September 2013-8 October 2015 was £270,046.61.

  • Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 4 February (HL5345), how many of the 20 patients with reports issued so far by the Genomic England cancer project had (1) a clinically actionable mutation for which the NHS will reimburse the costs of the treatment drug, and (2) a clinically actionable mutation for any trial currently open in the UK; and of those patients in both categories, how many had a clinically actionable mutation in open reading frames that would be covered by a simple next-generation sequencing panel test.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    In 2006 the United Nations imposed restrictions on a range of goods from entering or leaving North Korea and imposed a travel ban and asset freeze against those persons designated as persons who engage in or provide support for North Korea’s nuclear-related, other weapons of mass destruction related and ballistic missile-related programmes. These restrictions were implemented in the EU in 2007, and have subsequently been expanded by the EU.

    Under the current EU Regulation, UK financial institutions are able to establish banking relationships with North Korean banking institutions if there are no reasonable grounds to believe this will contribute to North Korea’s nuclear-related, other weapons of mass destruction related or ballistic missile-related programmes. In practice, there are almost no financial links between the UK and North Korea. North Korea is almost wholly dependent on China for international assistance.

  • Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what specific benefits are covered by the proposed safeguard mechanism set out in paragraph 2(b) of Section D of the draft Decision of the European Council published on 2 February; in particular, whether (1) Child Tax Credit, (2) Work Tax Credit, and (3) Housing Credit, will be included in the proposed restrictions on access to in-work benefits.

    Lord Freud

    DWP takes many steps to protect the personal and sensitive information that citizens provide to us, and will apply additional protections to records that, for a variety of reasons, may require it. DWP does not routinely maintain specific counts of these cases and the numbers can fluctuate. However, it is possible to state that in June 2015 DWP applied such controls to approximately 8,000 records relating to individuals at the various stages of gender transition.

  • Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proposed restrictions on access to in-work benefits mentioned in paragraph 2(b) of Section D of the draft Decision of the European Council published on 2 February will apply to Universal Credit, and if so, to which elements of Universal Credit those restrictions will apply.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    The number of statutory instruments laid before Parliament is recorded in the sessional returns. The House of Commons Library produce publications on this matter which show that the numbers peaked in the 2005-2006 session. The latest figures show that the number of UK statutory instruments laid before the House of Commons in each session since 1997 are as follows:

    • 1997-98: 1856

    • 1998-99: 1479

    • 1999-00: 1456

    • 2000-01: 868

    • 2001-02: 1788

    • 2002-03: 1474

    • 2003-04: 1281

    • 2004-05: 793

    • 2005-06: 1885

    • 2006-07: 1361

    • 2007-08: 1319

    • 2008-09: 1302

    • 2009-10: 823

    • 2010-12: 1809

    • 2012-13: 964

    • 2013-14: 1173

    • 2014-15: 1378

    • 2015-16: 540 (so far in this session)
  • Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an EEA national residing in the UK who wished to bring in a non-EU spouse into the country would, under the draft Decision by the European Council published on 2 February, have to meet the requirements for salary and the spouse the conditions for language as are required of a British citizen and are set out under part 8 of the UK Immigration Rules..

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The Government considers that it is important that the interests of energy consumers are represented on the SEC Panel. The current arrangements were consulted on in the Government’s Smart Energy Code Consultation in April 2012, and were concluded in the Government Responses in November 2012 and April 2013. The Government concluded that Consumer Futures, as the exclusive statutory consumer body in the energy sector, was best placed to nominate consumer representatives for the Panel. These statutory responsibilities were transferred to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland when Consumer Futures was abolished in 2014.

  • Lord Knight of Weymouth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Knight of Weymouth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Knight of Weymouth on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 1 February (HL5090 and HL5091), whether they will now provide the direct link to that information, and why they did not provide that link in those answers.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England is currently finalising the service specification for a forthcoming procurement for genomic laboratory services. The issues around sharing outcome data are under broader consideration as part of the wider genomics programme.

  • Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have an agreement or understanding with the IRA that there will be no attempts to stop or bring to court its members on charges relating to tax fraud or tax terrorism in South Armagh.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Genomics England is familiar with the Broad Institute’s database and it is one of a number of data sources that will be included in their clinical interpretation process.

  • Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Quin on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the average waiting time is for a result to be given of a DEXA bone density scan in each NHS region in England; and what assessment they have made of the average waiting time for such results in (1) Scotland, and (2) Wales.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Genomics England has set an objective to deliver 8,000 clinical reports by the end of 2016. The precise details of the reports from the pilot and main phases will become clearer once the phenotypic data is collected and linked to the genome data.

  • Baroness Scott of Needham Market – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Baroness Scott of Needham Market – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Scott of Needham Market on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are planning to take to ensure that council tax billing authorities pass on to parish and town councils the council tax support funding providing for those councils by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The patients with clinically actionable reports from the pilot phase are from rare diseases where improved knowledge of the causal mutation improves the management of the patient, their family members and possible future reproductive decisions. The patients diagnosed by whole genome sequencing had not been diagnosed using existing National Health Service panel tests. We are still evaluating the data from the 100,000 Genomes project to identify options for panel testing or other clinical sequencing strategies.