Category: Speeches

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 1.302 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what progress his Department has made on exploring the sale of the Government’s 49 per cent shareholding in the National Air Traffic Service.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department is in the early stages of developing its approach to exploring options on the potential sale of the Government’s shares. No decision has been made on how it will realise value from its stake in NATS.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the recent reconstruction and reopening of the Ferhadija Mosque in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Government warmly welcomes the reopening of the Ferhadija Mosque, which took place on 7 May. This is an unmistakable symbol of religious diversity and tolerance in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The atmosphere during the reopening ceremony, which our Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina attended, was dignified and celebratory. The Ferhadija Mosque will serve as a powerful symbol of how communities can support each other on the long journey towards reconciliation.

  • Lord Cashman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Cashman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Cashman on 2016-07-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government who is representing them at the LGBTI Human Rights Conference taking place in Montevideo and what update they can provide about the proceedings of that Conference.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK was represented at the Montevideo conference by Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials and by a representative from the Kaleidoscope Trust, a UK civil society organisation working to promote the advancement of the rights of LGB&T people globally. The conference brought together representatives of governments, civil society organisations and multilateral organisations and agencies. It discussed: diplomatic efforts to promote and protect the equal rights of LGB&T and intersex people; their social inclusion; efforts to ensure the commitment made in the Sustainable Development Goals to ‘leave no one behind’ is fulfilled; and ways to coordinate donor funding to best support these objectives.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy of the UN Secretary-General’s statement of 11 July 2016 on events in South Sudan; and whether the Government supports calls for an arms embargo to that country and the strengthening of the UN mission in South Sudan in the light of its response to those events.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We welcomed the statement made by the UN Secretary-General on the situation in South Sudan. Our policy continues to be focussed on helping to protect the people of South Sudan and we are in support of an arms embargo as a means to support this. We lobbied hard to strengthen the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and supported UN Security Council Resolution 2304, adopted on 12 August, which mandated a regional protection force of up to 4000 additional troops to robustly protect civilians and key humanitarian transit routes in Juba. In addition, the Secretary of State for Defence, Rt Hon the member for Sevenoaks (Michael Fallon) announced on 8 September that the number of UK troops to be deployed within UNMISS will be increased to close to 400 in order to support the mission’s operations.

  • Owen Thompson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Owen Thompson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Thompson on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of national lottery sales income has been allocated to the Big Lottery Fund budget for Scotland in each of the last five years.

    Tracey Crouch

    The Big Lottery Fund decides how much of its funding to allocate to each of the home nations. Scotland is allocated 11.5 per cent of the Big Lottery Funds proceeds from the National Lottery after administration costs, and 10 per cent of the Fund’s Lottery income is allocated to a UK portfolio, from which Scotland also benefits.

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the embarked carrier air wing of Sea Lightnings, Merlins, Crowsnest aircraft, and Wildcats will be under Maritime Task Force command.

    Earl Howe

    Command of embarked aircraft will be dependent on a variety of factors such as but not limited to, the specific task, whether it is a national or coalition commitment, threat levels and theatre of operations.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will hold a formal public consultation on proposed extremism disruption orders which makes reference to issues of free speech before bringing such proposals to the House.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government has engaged widely on the Counter-Extremism Strategy and will continue to do so. This includes on any proposals to prevent and disrupt extremist activity.

    The Government will continue to protect freedom of speech and the right to practice any faith or none. These are two of the values that the Counter-Extremism Strategy is designed to uphold.

  • Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dairy farmers have gone out of business in each of the last five years.

    George Eustice

    The table below shows the net change in the number of dairy farms. Data is only available on the total number of dairy farms in June and December of each year, so the table only shows the net change, rather than the number entering and the number leaving dairy farming. The latest data available on the number of dairy farms in England is for June 2015. This is shown below with data for the previous 5 years. The change in the number of farms includes new holdings which have been registered with dairy cattle, holdings that have ceased to have cattle and holdings that have merged.

    The number of dairy cows on these dairy farms is also shown below. This shows that despite a 16% decrease in the overall number of dairy farms between June 2010 and June 2015, the number of dairy cows has remained almost unchanged, suggesting consolidation within the industry.

    Date

    Number of dairy farms(a)

    Number of cows in the dairy herd(b)

    Jun-2010

    9 461

    1 142 497

    Dec-2010

    9 287

    1 147 450

    Jun-2011

    9 041

    1 112 459

    Dec-2011

    8 823

    1 105 290

    Jun-2012

    8 663

    1 104 676

    Dec-2012

    8 503

    1 107 045

    Jun-2013

    8 342

    1 098 610

    Dec-2013

    8 197

    1 124 368

    Jun-2014

    8 092

    1 128 548

    Dec-2014

    8 051

    1 150 007

    Jun-2015

    7 982

    1 148 089

    % change Jun15/Jun10

    -16%

    0.5%

    (a) Sourced from Cattle Tracing System. Dairy farms are defined as the number of holdings with more than 10 cows in the dairy herd.

    (b) Cows in the dairy herd are defined as female dairy cows over 2 years old in the milking herd (i.e. with offspring).

    “

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.

    The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.

    The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).

    The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.

    The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.

  • Christopher Pincher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Christopher Pincher – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Pincher on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support (a) people with savings and (b) home ownership.

    Harriett Baldwin

    400,000 people have already opened a Help to Buy: ISA to buy their first home. At Budget 2016 the Chancellor also announced a Lifetime ISA which can be used by people under 40 to save for their first home and retirement.