The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2016 to Question 40488, on civil service recruitment, who has been appointed the board level diversity champion in his Department.
Joseph Johnson
Gareth Davies, Director General for Business and Science, is the Department’s board-level diversity champion.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help the Local Government Association prevent children being taught in illegal schools.
Lord Nash
We are determined to keep children safe in and out of school and have made it very clear that it is an offence to operate an unregistered independent school. In January 2016, we announced funding for Ofsted to establish a dedicated team of specialist inspectors to investigate such settings and since that time, there has been a significant escalation of Ofsted investigations.
The Department for Education and Ofsted are working closely with local authorities to identify and tackle illegal schools, and close collaboration has resulted in the closure of many such settings.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she intends to lay before Parliament her report on the steps she will take in relation to the powers conferred by section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act on independent child trafficking advocates.
Karen Bradley
Section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act requires the Government to lay before Parliament a report setting out the steps it proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates within nine months of Royal Assent of the Modern Slavery Act. The Government will publish this report by 16 December, whilst Parliament is sitting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-12-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the timescale for the delivery of the HS3 rail scheme, and what budget is allocated to it.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Since March, the government and Transport for the North have undertaken significant work to develop options for transformational improvements to the North’s rail network; building on committed upgrades in the North of England and integrating with HS2.
By March 2016 we will conduct an initial prioritisation of options to focus further work and inform the development of an appropriate timeline for implementation.
The government has also established a new £300 million Transport Development Fund, which following advice from the National Infrastructure Commission, could support the development of proposals such as Northern Powerhouse Rail (HS3).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-01-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the costs, rather than the tariff, of a cancer molecular profile using (1) a whole tumour-normal pair using Illumina technology at 70× tumour coverage, and (2) a deep sequenced next-generation sequencing panel test, as deployed in most major NHS teaching hospitals; and if those figures are not available, why not.
Lord Prior of Brampton
This information is not held centrally by NHS England. Where the cost of these tests falls outside of tariff, costs will vary according to commissioning arrangements, the systems in place and the technology used.
Further information on the costs to the National Health Service of whole genome sequencing in cancer and rare diseases will be derived through the 100,000 Genomes Project. The intended NHS re-procurement of Regional Genetic Laboratories will aid in defining the costs of genomic tests.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-02-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel about allowing Mohammed Al -Qeeq to transfer to a hospital in Ramallah from Afula Hospital; and what further representations they plan to make concerning the use of torture in Israeli prisons.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
While we have not made any representations on this specific case, officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv are following this case and those of the other hunger strikers closely and have spoken to Amnesty International about them. Officials from our Consulate General in Jerusalem maintain a dialogue with the relevant Palestinian organisations about the condition of the hunger strikers. The EU in Jerusalem recently issued a local statement on administrative detentions, including the case of Mr Al Qeeq. We have been informed that Mr al-Qeeq is in a stable condition and has not been forced-fed as alleged.
We remain concerned about Israel’s extensive use of administrative detention which, according to international law, should be used only when security makes this absolutely necessary rather than as routine practice, and as a preventive rather than a punitive measure. We also have concerns about mistreatment of Palestinian detainees and about Israel’s respect of its obligations in this regard as an Occupying Power under applicable international law. We have raised concerns over treatment of Palestinian detainees with the Israeli authorities on many occasions, including at Foreign Minister, Attorney General and National Security Adviser levels.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-03-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the impact on UK tax receipts of the corporate tax regimes in Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The information requested is not available in this format.
HM Revenue and Customs publishes estimates of the tax gap each year. The latest edition was published on 22 October 2015 and is available on the gov.uk website.
Estimates are made for all major taxes, including corporation tax and income tax. However, this information is not broken down in such a way that can be used to identify the loss of tax receipts due to the tax regimes requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress has been made on the construction and procurement of HMS Prince of Wales and the accompanying aircraft for both Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Philip Dunne
The construction, test and commissioning of HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and HMS PRINCE OF WALES continues in Rosyth. Around 80% of the structure of HMS PRINCE OF WALES has been built, and she will be structurally complete this summer. Aircraft will continue to be purchased incrementally, as part of a coherent build-up of capability, and we remain on track to deliver an Initial Operating Capability in the Carrier Strike role from 2020.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many public engagement events to support the enterprise, business and produce sector in Scotland have been held at Dover House in the last 12 months.
David Mundell
A variety of events are held in Dover House, both by Scotland Office Ministers and by third parties, throughout the year.
The events are aimed at engaging stakeholders on a wide variety of policy issues and aspects of life in Scotland.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-07-06.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of HM Revenue and Customs’ preparedness for handling customer enquiries in advance of the January 2017 self-assessment deadline.
Mr David Gauke
January is always a peak time for customer contact and, as in previous years, will be subject to detailed resource planning. This planning is still at an early stage.