Category: Speeches

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what influence they and the EU will exert to secure the lifting of restrictions imposed on Palestinians in and near Hebron.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We remain deeply concerned about restrictions on freedom of movement in and near Hebron as well as elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Through our Embassy in Tel Aviv, we continue to lobby the Israeli authorities on the issue of movement and access, most recently on 24 November when our Deputy Head of Mission discussed with the Head of the relevant unit at Israel’s Ministry of Defence. We continue to work closely with EU partners to call on Israel to ease restrictions on access.

  • 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 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress he has made in reducing red tape for British business during his Department’s renegotiation of the UK relationship with the EU.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in Britain – so we get a better deal for our country and secure our future. That includes cutting red tape to make Europe more competitive, so we create jobs and make British families more financially secure. We have made progress; legislative proposals under the new Commission fell by 80 percent in 2015, and more regulations were repealed in 2015 than in the whole of the previous Commission. But the burden from existing regulation is still too high and so we are working to secure a target to cut the total burden on business.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many local authorities have applied for funding from the permanent pothole fund since the announcement of that fund in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015; and how many applications for such funding his Department expects to be approved in (a) 2015-16 and (b) the 2015-20 Parliament.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport is providing over £6.1 billion funding to local highway authorities in England between 2015 and 2021 for local highways maintenance. This includes repairing roads that might be damaged due to severe winter weather. This funding includes £50 million per annum from 2016 to 2021 for a dedicated Pothole Action Fund as announced in the recent Spending Review.

    The Department for Transport is currently working up criteria on how the Pothole Action Fund will operate and an announcement will be made in due course on this. Therefore no applications have yet been submitted nor have any decisions been made on how this funding will be allocated.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Prime Minister, how many times his ministerial office has been decorated in the last five years.

    Mr David Cameron

    Refurbishment and maintenance at 10 Downing Street is part of a continuing programme of work. The Downing Street complex is maintained to standards appropriate to its Grade 1/2 listed status in consultation with English Heritage.

    The building also fulfils an important representational role.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department’s agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government’s view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed.

    The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.

    The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. HM Treasury regularly raises these issues with financial institutions and the regulator, and we encourage financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.

  • Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new staff have been appointed to his Department since 21 March 2016.

    Justin Tomlinson

    A total of 337 new employees were appointed to the Department for Work and Pensions during the period 21 March 2016 to 25 April 2016.

  • Lord Vinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Vinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Vinson on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the number of children waiting to join the Scout movement, what plans they have, if any, to review the procedures for repeat Disclosure and Barring Service checks of volunteers.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Government has introduced an Update Service to enable existing criminal record certificates to be kept up to date whilst reducing the need for repeat checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The DBS is driving greater uptake of the Update Service which will continue to reduce the need for repeat checks, whilst continuing to safeguard children. The Update Service and criminal records certificates are provided free of charge to volunteers. It is for the Scout Association to determine when criminal records checks should be undertaken and whether to enable volunteers to make use of the Update Service.

  • Meg Hillier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Meg Hillier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how often the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been applied in each police authority area in England.

    Sarah Newton

    The Home Office published an evaluation report on the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme on 8 March 2016 which showed that there had been over 1,900 disclosures under the scheme since national roll out. A full breakdown by police force area can be found in the report which is available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-violence-disclosure-scheme-assessment-of-national-roll-out

  • Louise Ellman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Louise Ellman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Ellman on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to support projects that encourage co-operation and co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK is supportive of coexistence (people-to-people) programmes which bring together Palestinians and Israelis and foster inter-community understanding. The Secretary of State is currently assessing options for providing further support to coexistence programmes.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that junior doctors do not suffer a reduction in pay as a result of the Government’s proposals to change junior doctors’ contracts.

    Ben Gummer

    Our offer on a new contract for junior doctors includes transitional arrangements that guarantee that all junior doctors currently working legal hours will not receive a pay cut compared to their current contract. Those in the higher stages of training will remain on current pay terms; for those moving onto the new pay terms, we are offering pay protection.

    Around 1% of junior doctors currently work on rotas that have breached the current limits on hours, and these junior doctors receive Band 3 payments (100% of basic salary). New contractual safeguards will include stronger limits on hours and patterns of work; and there will be stronger contractual processes, with external scrutiny, for dealing with variations from planned working. These Band 3 payments will not, therefore, apply or be protected.