Category: Speeches

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister’s Oral Statement of 22 February 2016, Official Report, column 35, on the European Council, whether her Department is undertaking planning in the eventuality of a majority leave vote in the EU referendum.

    James Brokenshire

    At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ring-fence special educational needs funding as part of her Department’s new national funding formula.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    We are currently consulting on arrangements for new national formulae for schools and high needs funding (funding for pupils with high cost Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)). Both funding streams, along with early years funding, make up the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which is ring-fenced so that local authorities can only spend it on specified elements of education. The DSG will continue to be ring-fenced when the national funding formulae are in place. We have also protected the high needs budget in this Parliament and the previous one. We recently added £92.5 million to the 2016-17 allocations.

  • Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Naz Shah on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on raising the profile of forced marriage as a criminal offence in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    We made forced marriage a criminal offence in 2014 to better protect victims and send a clear message that this abhorrent practice will not be tolerated in the UK.

    The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) (a joint FCO and Home Office Unit) leads the Government’s forced marriage policy, outreach and casework. It carries out a range of awareness raising work, including a comprehensive programme of outreach, new e-learning for professionals, and the launch of short film aimed at deterring potential perpetrators. For the financial years 2014-16, the Home Office has allocated £200,000 to the FMU.

    Statistics on the number of cases of forced marriage investigated by the police are not collected centrally. The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) most recent violence against women and girls report shows that the volume of referrals from the police to the CPS with a forced marriage element is going up: from 67 in 2013-14, to 82 in 2014-15. In addition, to date over 1,000 Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been issued to prevent marriages from taking place and to assist in repatriating victims.

    We are encouraged by the first conviction secured in June last year, but there is still work to be done. We want to see more victims having the confidence to come forward and being identified by the police. As part of the wider work to improve the police response to so-called ‘honour’ based violence, we will continue to work with the partners to review the implementation of the new legislation and lead efforts to tackle this barbaric crime.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of Sustainability and Transformation Plans have been submitted to his Department; and what the deadline is for such plans to be submitted.

    George Freeman

    No Sustainability and Transformation Plans have been submitted yet. Draft submissions will be made to the national arm’s length bodies and are due on 30 June 2016. These documents will be discussed with footprints in July 2016.

    Plans will have no status until they are agreed. Footprints are at different starting points, and so the degree of detail that will be provided by 30 June 2016 will vary. Therefore, rather than expecting to have one ‘sign-off’ moment for all 44 plans, it is anticipated that this will occur in a series of waves over the coming weeks and months, with those areas who are more advanced achieving earlier sign off than those who will require more work.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the rationale was for his Department’s decision to allow soldiers who have completed only Phase One training to be called up to perform frontline tasks.

    Mark Lancaster

    The rationale behind the decision to plan to use Army Phase 1 trained Regular and Reserve personnel in response to crises within the UK was set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Michael Fallon) on 29 June 2016 (HCWS49).

  • Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is giving to aid organisations based in Yemen to deliver humanitarian assistance in that country.

    Priti Patel

    The UK is the fourth largest donor to Yemen with an additional £37 million in UK funding for Yemen announced at the UN General Assembly. This brings the UK’s total to £100 million in humanitarian assistance for 2016/17 which is provided to aid organisations in Yemen. Last year, we helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis with food, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter.

    We also continue to urge parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to ensure our partners are able to deliver aid to its intended beneficiaries.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of national programmes which provide naloxone for at-risk prisoners on their release.

    Jane Ellison

    There is no national programme that provides naloxone for at-risk prisoners on their release. The decision of whether or not to provide naloxone to prisoners on release is the responsibility of Health and Justice commissioning teams within NHS England’s area teams and other local stakeholders, including local authorities and clinical commissioning groups. The information on how many prisons provide naloxone for prisoners upon release in England is not held centrally.

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much of the Armed Forces Covenant has been enacted in Northern Ireland.

    Mark Lancaster

    Since the launch of the Armed Forces Covenant in 2011 the Ministry of Defence has worked closely with Northern Ireland Government Departments, Service charities and other groups to build on existing measures to support the Armed Forces Community. In 2013, the Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs reported that, less some specific areas, Covenant measures were being applied in Northern Ireland.

    I acknowledge that the Armed Forces Covenant does not enjoy the same level of awareness or appreciation in Northern Ireland as in other parts of the UK. However, I am clear that every effort is being made to implement the Covenant against the particular nuances of the Northern Irish political and legal environment. The Ministry of Defence and other parties work tirelessly to ensure good relationships help develop improved understanding of specific needs and I have been impressed by the way in which solutions to these needs are generated in a focussed and professional manner. Such provision is fully commensurate with the aims and objectives of the Covenant, whether it is branded as such or not.

    Service personnel in Northern Ireland are well-catered for under the auspices of the Covenant and are at no particular disadvantage, although more work is needed to identify the needs of those within the veterans community. This work is ongoing, well-resourced, and fully recognised as activity provided within the scope of the Armed Forces Covenant.

  • Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    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.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many consultants’ contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID does not hold specific information relating to termination of consultants’ contracts.