The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.
Karen Bradley
The cost of Employment Tribunals can be found within the HM Courts & Tribunals Service annual accounts published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433948/hmcts-annual-report-accounts-2014-15.pdf .
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the preparedness is of the Animal and Plant Health Agency to react to and control a potential future animal health outbreak similar in scale to the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001.
George Eustice
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), compiles the UK contingency plan for exotic notifiable disease that sits above plans designed by Defra and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Governments.
These are key documents that describe the strategic, tactical and operational responses required to any incursion of exotic notifiable disease, such as foot and mouth disease. These plans are complemented by specific GB disease control strategies and APHA work with the Government Departments in each administration to produce the necessary operational instructions.
To ensure the plans and instructions are fit for purpose, the UK runs a national animal disease exercise roughly every other year on various exotic diseases and we regularly include foot and mouth disease in those exercises.
The next national exercise will be in June 2018 and will be based on a foot and mouth disease scenario.
APHA also create and manage an annual programme of regional or country exercises designed to identify best practice and any gaps in existing plans or procedures. They also run table-top exercises for APHA’s policy customers to identify issues that may arise from new and emerging threats such as African Horse Sickness.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to his Department was of vehicle hire in each of the last five years.
Mr Philip Dunne
The MOD uses hire and lease vehicles to transport personnel and equipment around the country, often to areas not readily accessible by public transport. The vehicles are used for different tasks, ranging from moving defence personnel and stores to support military operations or training exercises, to enabaling taskings such as mountain rescue and emergency support to the civil authorities.
The MOD’s vehicle lease and hire in the UK is covered by the Phoenix contract with Babcock Land Limited, which was placed in April 2012. The department does not hold readily available and comparative spend data before this date. The cost to the MOD of vehicle lease and hire through the Phoenix contract is as follows:
|
FY15/16 |
FY14/15 |
FY13/14 |
FY12/13 |
|
£124.1m |
£132.4m |
£125.5m |
£101.9m |
The MOD recently negotiated a new contract with Babcock Land Limited for the continued provision of its lease and hire cars, targeting savings of around £100m over the next six years through more efficient use of the MOD’s vehicle fleet.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for Government policies of medical and scientific evidence on the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
Jane Ellison
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers have made an assessment of the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on cardiovascular disease, as well as other conditions such as cancer, as part of their review of the alcohol guidelines. The alcohol guidelines give the public the latest and most up to date scientific information so they can make informed decisions about their own drinking. The advice can be read here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/health-risks-from-alcohol-new-guidelines
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assistance his Department provides to local authorities to help tackle (a) homelessness and (b) the root causes of homelessness.
Mr Marcus Jones
One person without a home is one too many. That is why the Government is clear that prevention must be at the heart of everything we do to tackle homelessness. We will be investing £500 million in work to prevent and relieve homelessness across this Parliament. This includes protecting homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, which will amount to £315 million by 2019-20, to help them continue to provide quality advice and assistance to everyone who approaches them for help. Since 2010, local authorities have helped prevent or relieve over one million cases of homelessness.
Homelessness is rarely a housing issue alone. The causes are varied and driven by issues such as health, education, justice, welfare, and employment. That is why we have increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million, including a new £10 million Social Impact Bond to support rough sleepers with the most complex needs. This builds on the success of the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond, run by the Greater London Authority to turn round the lives around of 830 of London’s most entrenched rough sleepers. Over half have achieved accommodation, employment or reconnection outcomes.
In addition we have invested £15 million to improve outcomes for young people through the Fair Chance Fund. This funding is turning around the lives of around 1,900 18 to 25 year olds with complex and overlapping needs, by supporting them into accommodation, education, training and employment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-10-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what role the Government plans to take in helping to facilitate a resumed dialogue between Somaliland and Somalia after presidential elections in Somaliland in March 2017.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The Government recognises the importance of dialogue between Somalia and Somaliland, currently facilitated by the Government of Turkey, and we expect to see this resumed once both the Somaliland Presidential elections and the Parliamentary and Presidential electoral processes in Somalia have been held.
The Government’s position on Somaliland has long been that it is for Somalia and Somaliland to decide their future, and for regional neighbours to take the lead in recognising any new arrangements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which regulations her Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015 to date; which regulations her Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017; and what estimate she has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Nick Gibb
I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to Parliamentary Question 15037 on 11 November 2015.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many catapult networks have been established by Innovate UK; what is the focus of each network; and how much funding they are providing to each network.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Innovate UK has established a network of 10 Catapult Centres covering a broad range of markets and technologies and Government investment will be around £557 million by 2015/16 but the future allocation between the individual catapults has not yet been finalised”. The Catapults are:
High Value Manufacturing Catapult – seven individual centres working together to bring their expertise in different and complementary areas of high value manufacturing to provide an integrated capability and embraces all forms of manufacture using metals and composites, in addition to process manufacturing technologies and bio-processing.
Cell Therapy Catapult – working to grow a viable and sustainable cell therapy industry in the UK.
Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult – focused on development of commercially viable technologies applicable to offshore wind, wave and tidal power.
Satellite Applications Catapult – helping UK businesses to develop new satellite-based products and services.
Digital Catapult – working to position UK business to lead the introduction of radically new applications and experiences across the increasing breadth of internet services.
Future Cities Catapult – helping to make cities to become smarter and more forward thinking.
Transport Systems Catapult – supporting UK industry in exploiting the massive global market for new products and services that will drive the integration of transport and its systems and help UK businesses to develop effective and sustainable solutions to transport needs for both freight and people.
Energy Systems Catapult – working to deliver economic value to Britain by making the transformation of the UK’s energy systems sector attractive to companies that are developing and growing new technology-based products and services by creating a critical mass of world class independent engineering and social science expertise in energy systems
Precision Medicine Catapult – working to simplify and accelerate precision medicine product development and implementation, building the necessary partnerships between different therapeutic, diagnostic and informatics players in the sector, supporting existing and new companies and attracting inward investment by global life science companies
Medicines Technologies Catapult – still being established, but will work on the development of new technologies that better predict the response of humans, animals and environment to chemicals (for example prescription drugs, pesticides and cosmetics).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the estimated cost to his Department has been of evaluating the Airports Commission’s Final Report since 1 July 2015.
Mr Robert Goodwill
We do not hold estimates of the cost of reviewing the findings and conclusions of the Airport Commission’s report.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the correlation between smuggling rings which bring people into the EU and human trafficking gangs which exploit migrants for sex and slavery.
Karen Bradley
Organised crime groups are known to be involved in smuggling and trafficking operations, and in some cases both. We are working closely with operational partners including the National Crime Agency, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement, as well as partners across Europe and Africa, to develop the intelligence picture on both of these crime types.We will continue to monitor the development of links between these two crime types.
We are working with partners across Europe and Africa, including through the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce to identify and disrupt organised crime groups facilitating irregular migration in source and transit countries.