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  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many (a) publications, (b) consultation documents and (c) circulars his Department has issued since August 2012; and what the title was of each such publication, consultation document or circular.

    Mr David Lidington

    Over 3,500 Foreign and Commonwealth Office publications since 1 August 2012 are available on the gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications

    Many of our Posts and Missions overseas publish documents that are relevant to their work. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold information on the full range of documents centrally and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

    “

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) contracts out cleaning services relating to the FCO’s UK estate to Interserve as part of its facilities management contract. Interserve are responsible for setting rates of pay for their staff. They have informed the FCO that they currently pay £7.04 per hour to staff for cleaning the FCO’s buildings.

    The National Living Wage will come into effect on 1 April and all employers, including Interserve, will be required to pay all staff, aged 25 years and above a minimum of £7.20 per hour.

  • Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Heaton-Harris on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the compliance of the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 with Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 is not subject to the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) legal fees for employment tribunals for the last twelve months, where invoices have so far been received (January 2015 – December 2015), total £46,385.52. The FCO is in the process of recovering £3,000 of this following a Costs Order in our favour.

  • Gavin Shuker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Gavin Shuker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Shuker on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the compatibility with international law of the arrest and transfer of children from the Occupied Palestinian Territories to Israel.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are clear that Israel has legal obligations as an Occupying Power with respect to the Occupied Palestinian Territories under the Fourth of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. This includes Article 49, which prohibits deportation of protected persons from the occupied territory and Article 76, providing that protected persons convicted of offenses shall be detained and serve their sentences within the occupied territory. We regularly talk to the Government of Israel with regard to the implementation of those obligations and raise our serious concerns, including about the treatment of Palestinian children that are arrested and detained in Israeli prisons. We have been clear with Israel that forcible transfer would be a breach of international humanitarian law and would have serious ramifications on Israel’s international standing.

  • David Nuttall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    David Nuttall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016, is an international Treaty to which the procedures of sections 20 and 25 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 will apply.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 is a treaty as defined in section 25(1) of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Given that no ratification procedures apply to the Decision, the obligations in section 20 of the Act do not apply.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Prime Minister’s Oral Statement of 22 February 2016, Official Report, column 35, on the European Council, whether his Department is undertaking planning in the eventuality of a majority leave vote in the EU referendum.

    Mr David Lidington

    At the February European Council the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many North Korean refugees have approached the British Embassy or Consulate in China for safe passage or asylum in each of the last 10 years.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We do not have any record of refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea approaching Our Embassy in Beijing or our Consulates in China to claim safe passage or asylum in the last 10 years.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) defections from North Korea and (b) unsuccessful defection attempts from that country in the last four years.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold detailed information on the number of defections from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Information on defections from the DPRK can be obtained from the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Unification

    http://eng.unikorea.go.kr/content.do?cmsid=3026

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to (a) China, (b) Laos, (c) Vietnam and (d) Myanmar on the repatriation of North Korean defectors from those countries to North Korea.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We regularly raise the treatment of North Korean refugees in multilateral fora such as the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council. We raise our concerns around refoulement regularly at the annual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue and through our Embassy in Beijing. In addition, we work directly with the Chinese authorities on a number of projects to counter human trafficking, which seek to protect the most vulnerable from exploitation, abuse, neglect and violence. We made bilateral representations to Laos in 2013 (see written answer HL950) regarding the refoulement of DPRK refuges. We have not made any specific representations to Vietnam or Burma on DPRK refugees, but we continue to maintain a dialogue on human rights issues with these countries.