Category: Speeches

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) merchant ships, (b) fishing vessels, (c) Port State Control and (d) other vessel surveys were conducted by Maritime and Coastguard Agency surveyors based at the Marine Office in (i) Brixham, (ii) Leith, (iii) Newlyn, (iv) Tyne, (v) Plymouth, (vi) Beverley, (vii) Orpington, (viii) Harwich and (ix) Norwich in each year since 2009-10.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The table below shows the number of vessel surveys and inspections undertaken by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in each year since

    2009-10:

    i)

    Brixham*

    ii)

    Leith

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    43

    44

    54

    48

    42

    25

    11

    Fishing Vessels

    22

    12

    8

    5

    1

    3

    –

    PSC

    30

    35

    41

    29

    21

    26

    14

    Other

    31

    41

    63

    57

    46

    23

    5

    iii)

    Newlyn*

    iv)

    Tyne

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    181

    173

    173

    141

    163

    164

    104

    Fishing Vessels

    60

    125

    114

    94

    87

    91

    98

    PSC

    68

    204

    127

    146

    154

    144

    102

    Other

    26

    20

    45

    37

    53

    46

    40

    v)

    Plymouth*

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    243

    215

    223

    217

    205

    195

    148

    Fishing Vessels

    318

    462

    421

    265

    176

    105

    157

    PSC

    31

    35

    15

    11

    16

    12

    9

    Other

    89

    112

    75

    60

    42

    40

    53

    vi)

    Beverley/Hull

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    221

    170

    141

    127

    126

    120

    108

    Fishing Vessels

    135

    171

    126

    182

    139

    141

    130

    PSC

    227

    237

    254

    211

    299

    230

    146

    Other

    127

    119

    118

    105

    102

    90

    75

    vii)

    Orpington

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    567

    504

    551

    628

    555

    564

    529

    Fishing Vessels

    –

    –

    2

    5

    6

    1

    –

    PSC

    206

    202

    172

    170

    149

    79

    63

    Other

    86

    76

    56

    62

    52

    50

    35

    viii)

    Harwich

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    101

    118

    86

    82

    79

    86

    80

    Fishing Vessels

    52

    90

    39

    –

    5

    –

    2

    PSC

    98

    111

    126

    79

    59

    78

    52

    Other

    42

    29

    21

    16

    6

    15

    16

    ix)

    Norwich**

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    –

    –

    –

    –

    76

    96

    93

    Fishing Vessels

    –

    –

    –

    –

    22

    88

    96

    PSC

    –

    –

    –

    –

    40

    36

    20

    Other

    –

    –

    –

    –

    98

    141

    122

    ix)

    Great Yarmouth**

    Surveys:

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    Merchant Ships

    99

    95

    111

    97

    14

    –

    –

    Fishing Vessels

    59

    81

    77

    68

    22

    –

    –

    PSC

    74

    56

    60

    58

    41

    –

    –

    Other

    105

    115

    99

    126

    31

    –

    –

    * Newlyn and Brixham were sub-offices of Plymouth Marine Office; all work related to vessels was coordinated through Plymouth.

    ** Work coordinated from the Marine Office located at Great Yarmouth office moved to Norwich Marine Office on 16 May 2013.

    “

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) how much funding was allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by (i) the National Crime Agency’s Criminal Finances Threat Group and (ii) each of the cash-based money laundering, non cash-based money laundering and professional enablers divisions and the other sub-groups in each year since 2009-10.

    Mr John Hayes

    The National Crime Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 sets out the Agency’s staffing numbers and funding allocations including gross expenditure for the Economic Crime Command for 2013-14, and 2014-15.

    The gross expenditure of the Economic Crime Command in 2013/14, the first year of the NCA’s operation, was £10,571,000. In 2014-15 gross expenditure was £21,718,000. In June 2015, the International Corruption Unit was established in the Economic Crime Command. It brought together resources from the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the NCA into a single unit and is responsible for investigating the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK, and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates.

    The Economic Crime Command also leads the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) through which the financial sector, law enforcement agencies and the Financial Conduct Authority share information to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing. The NCA as a whole has around 4,000 staff. The majority of the NCA’s staff work as a flexible investigative resource, not in a particular Command, but assigned to particular operations across all areas of the NCA as needed. The agency also houses a number of deployable specialist capabilities.

    The number of staff working in a particular Command is not a reliable indicator of the overall NCA resource linked to a particular type of crime. The Criminal Finances Threat Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the NCA which includes representatives from across law enforcement, meeting quarterly. As the Group is not a unit within the NCA, the information sought is not available. HMRC leads on tax evasion.

    The NCA works closely with HMRC in relation to tax evasion that relates to serious and organised crime. Through the NCA’s national tasking and coordination mechanisms the Agency is able act on these cases by utilising its specialist capabilities, for example undertaking tax investigations to recover assets from serious and organised criminals under part 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

  • The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Secretary of State for Energy will respond to the Committee on Climate Change’s report on the environmental impact of shale gas fracking submitted to the Department of Energy and Climate Change on 30 March.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The Government has received the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) report. We are carefully considering the report to ensure it is given the proper consideration it is due.

    Under the Infrastructure Act 2015, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is required to lay the CCC report and our response before Parliament together. They will be published as soon as practicable once our response is complete.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the tunnel and bridge tolls in Merseyside on the (a) finances, (b) employment levels, (c) employment choices and (d) road travel habits of residents of Liverpool, Wavertree.

    Andrew Jones

    Tolling levels for the Mersey Tunnels and the future Mersey Gateway Crossing are the responsibility of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Halton Borough Council respectively. Any assessment of the local impact of these tolls is therefore a matter for these bodies rather than this Department. The Department’s assessment of the business case for the Crossing included a consideration of the overall impacts effects of tolling levels on road users and showed that the new Crossing will reduce congestion and improve journey times for users. This assessment was not disaggregated to the level of individual local areas.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to support the eradication of malnutrition.

    Grant Shapps

    The Government has made a commitment to improve the nutrition of 50 million people by 2020. Those being helped include children under five, breastfeeding women, women of childbearing age and adolescent girls. This builds on an earlier commitment to help children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women, through which 28.5 million people had been reached by mid-2015.

    DFID support is focused on the following objectives: greater coverage of nutrition-specific programmes; leverage more nutrition outcomes from other programmes like agriculture, social protection, education, health and water and sanitation; contribute to new solutions to undernutrition; and a more effective international response.

  • Lord Patten – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Patten – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2015-12-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the annual amount spent on upgrading the railway tracks and stations between Salisbury and Exeter between 2015 and 2020 will increase or decrease in real terms.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Network Rail currently has no funded strategic plans for significant upgrading on this route. However, it advises that it is working closely with local stakeholders, including Local Enterprise Partnerships and local authorities, to work up potential schemes that could support growth and meet the needs of passengers.

  • Iain Wright – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Iain Wright – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Wright on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve recruitment and retention of embryologists in the NHS in (a) England and (b) the North East.

    Ben Gummer

    Individual healthcare providers are responsible for ensuring that they have the right level of staffing to provide high quality care to their patients, including embryology services.

    Health Education England (HEE) was established in 2012 to ensure the National Health Service has access to the right numbers of staff, at the right time and with the right skills. In doing so, HEE works with key external stakeholders to develop its National Workforce Plan for England which sets out the number of training places it will commission in the year ahead to meet future local need.

    HEE will continue to work with its 13 Local Education and Training Boards and others to ensure that there are sufficient healthcare scientists, including embryologists, being trained to meet the future needs of patients.

    Currently HEE has 28 reproductive scientists in training (which includes embryology) and are planning a further 11 to start in 2016/17. It takes three years to train a reproductive scientist.

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority have advised that it is not aware of any issues concerning the availability of embryologists in the United Kingdom.

  • Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Quin on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the average waiting time is for a result to be given of a DEXA bone density scan in each NHS region in England; and what assessment they have made of the average waiting time for such results in (1) Scotland, and (2) Wales.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Genomics England has set an objective to deliver 8,000 clinical reports by the end of 2016. The precise details of the reports from the pilot and main phases will become clearer once the phenotypic data is collected and linked to the genome data.

  • Baroness Crawley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Crawley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Crawley on 2016-03-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what have been the interim results of HMRC’s pilot of the Codentify system, when that pilot is due to end, when the final results will be assessed and published, and what benchmarks they have used in that pilot.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes the restrictions in the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) very seriously. These require that the development, implementation and enforcement of tobacco policies as part of public health policies should be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry.

    Codentify is a system, developed and introduced by the major tobacco manufacturers on their own initiative through the Digital Coding and Tracking Association (DCTA). HMRC played no part in the development or introduction of the system nor did HMRC require that it be introduced. Codentify codes already feature on packs and are there regardless of any HMRC use of them. The trial HMRC is undertaking is to see whether these existing codes could help officers in the field to authenticate products and help tackle illicit tobacco. No other companies currently provide such codes.

    The use of Codentify by HMRC is not part of an exercise to evaluate the wider use of potential tools available on the market. Any such exercise would be undertaken in the context of the implementation of the EU Tobacco Products Directive track and trace security feature requirements, which will be implemented by May 2019 for cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.

    The European Commission is still considering, with Member States, proposals for new pan European security features and track and trace systems, and has yet to determine any technical specifications. HMRC are not evaluating Codentify as a track and trace tool or potential security feature; the aspects of the system being used are entirely separate from the requirements of the Directive.

    The use of Codentify is not a formal pilot and there will not be reports or results to publish. Instead the trial will identify the strengths, weaknesses and usefulness of using Codentify to HMRC as an authentication tool in the field. HMRC will review this later in 2016. Some resource has been spent providing access to the system and training officers in the use of the tool. However, this has been minimal and has not been separately identified. The Department of Health leads on public health policy and has been consulted on this initiative. HMRC sees no conflict between its current use of the Codentify system and FCTC requirements.

  • Louise Ellman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Louise Ellman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Ellman on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which technical service tested the Skoda vehicles for the purposes of type approval; and which testing facilities were used.

    Andrew Jones

    The Vehicle Certification Agency has type approved a selection of Skoda vehicles. The Vehicle Certification Agency appointed TuV Sud as a technical service in accordance with the European type approval rules. TuV Sud have undertaken the range of required tests at a number of locations, including Volkswagen Group laboratories and the TuV Sud facility in the Czech Republic.