The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average time is for a school to convert to academy status.
Edward Timpson
The average time taken for a maintained school to convert to become an academy is 7 months.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsty Blackman on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what monitoring his Department undertakes of waiting times for immigration appeal hearings.
Mr Shailesh Vara
HMCTS regularly monitors waiting times for immigration and asylum appeal hearings across the UK. They are considered monthly by the HMCTS Board and the Ministry of Justice Executive Committee. Tribunal Statistics, including average waiting times for appeals, are published quarterly by the Ministry of Justice. These can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 15 July 2013 to Question 164762, what the annual budget is for food produced for his Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for his Department was sourced from British producers in the latest period for which figures are available.
Mr Philip Dunne
The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many trade negotiators are employed by his Department.
Greg Hands
The Rt hon Member will be aware that my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister has created a new Department for International Trade, which is responsible for promoting British trade across the world and ensuring the UK takes advantage of the huge opportunities open to us. We are building up our trade policy capability. The new Department has begun a process to recruit and train staff to work on the UK’s trade policy. We will adapt the resource devoted to trade policy in line with future demands.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of the Government Equalities Office.
Caroline Dinenage
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. However, there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that military vehicle licences granted by the UK to the Egyptian government will not contribute to human rights violations.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK operates one of the most rigorous and transparent arms export control regimes in the world. All defence and dual-use exports are required to meet the UK’s strict export control legislation and adhere to the UK’s international commitments, including under international treaties and other arrangements. We do not issue an export licence if there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression or in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law, and we take account of any risk that the goods might be diverted to undesirable end-users or end-use.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-12-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many adults applying for a passport for the first time have failed the personal interview test in each year since such interviews were required.
Lord Bates
Interview offices were established in 2008 for first time adult applicants. From 2008 to 2010 information on failed interviews was held in each Interview Office and not collated or transformed into centrally held data. A failed interview does not automatically mean the passport application has failed. It indicates that the interviewer was not fully satisfied with the answers given within the allotted interview time and the application requires further investigation.
During this period a number of changes were made to the way in which we conduct our interviews; these changes have led to fewer interviews being failed. Our new interview processes are more flexible and allow us to gather more details from the applicant at the interview stage. This means that interview staff are able to progress the application to a point where they can advise central examining teams that a passport should be issued. Previously, with less freedom in the questions they could put to the applicant they may have had to fail the interview so that these details could be established by another means later on in the process.
|
Calendar Year |
Volume of Interviews failed |
|
2010 |
2,396 |
|
2011 |
2,009 |
|
2012 |
1,016 |
|
2013 |
795 |
|
2014 |
239 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2015-12-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the percentage of the funds pledged by all nations through the 2013 Somali Compact that has been spent.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Somalia’s Aid Coordination Unit (ACU), supported by the World Bank and UN Development Programme, has reported that donors are meeting and sometimes exceeding their pledges. The 2013 pledge to implement the New Deal was 2.4 billion US dollars. ACU estimate that donors spent 3.2 billion US dollars across 2014 and 2015, exceeding the pledge by 33 per cent. According to ACU, donors have consistently delivered 1 billion US dollars annually in Overseas Development Assistance, accompanied by significant resources for peacekeeping and military aid.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans for the consultation on the repeal of the Human Rights Act and replacement with a British Bill of Rights to (a) begin and (b) end.
Dominic Raab
This Government was elected with a mandate to reform and modernise the UK human rights framework. We will fully consult on our proposals before introducing legislation for a Bill of Rights and we will set out our proposals in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the implications for her policies on harm caused by alcohol are of the finding in the Balance report, The second hand harm of alcohol in the North East, published on 17 February 2016, on the proportion of people in the North East who have suffered harm at least once due to the drinking of others in the last 12 months.
Karen Bradley
The Balance report ‘The second hand harm of alcohol in the North East’ highlights a range of harms caused by other people’s drinking. The Government acknowledges that the costs of alcohol-related harm are too high. Alcohol-related harm is estimated to cost society over £21 billion per year, including £11 billion costs of alcohol-related crime, £3.5 billion costs to the NHS and £7.3 billion costs in lost productivity based on 2009-10 data. The Government will soon be publishing a Modern Crime Prevention Strategy which will set out new action to reduce alcohol-fuelled crime and violence.