The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Thompson on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many community projects have benefited from monies allocated by Scotland’s Big Lottery Fund in the last five years.
Tracey Crouch
From 1 November 2010 to 31 October 2015, the Big Lottery Fund in Scotland has allocated monies to over 11,500 projects.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Crawley on 2015-12-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many welfare claimants were sanctioned between 21 and 27 December 2015; and how many such claimants were single parents.
Priti Patel
The information requested is not yet available.
The Department publishes Official Statistics on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), (including JSA Lone Parents) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) sanction decisions and these statistics are published via the following link:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
The latest set of Official Statistics was released on 11 November 2015 and covers all decisions made to 30 June 2015.
Guidance on how to extract the information required from Stat-Xplore can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started—SuperWEB2.html
The latest set of Official Statistics on Income Support Lone Parent sanctions was released on 11 November 2015 and covers all decisions made to 30 June 2015. A summary of this data can be found here
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to launch his Department’s consultation for target numbers of apprenticeships in the public sector.
Nick Boles
The consultation was published on 25 January 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps are being taken to address and prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus in Yemen.
Mr Desmond Swayne
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We have so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis with medical supplies, food, water, and emergency shelter.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that there have been 16 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus identified in Yemen in 2016, and that appropriate treatment has been given. The WHO and Ministry of Public Health continue to conduct Health Education awareness campaigns on the prevention and control of a number of epidemic diseases, including H1N1.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent progress he has made on the electrification of the Leeds- Harrogate-York railway line.
Andrew Jones
Network Rail is taking the recommendations of the North of England Electrification Task Force into account in assessing the case for further electrification of the national rail network, including the Leeds-Harrogate-York line. It plans to publish a draft update to the industry electrification strategy this year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he has had discussions with the local authorities concerned on amending the legislation that created the Lee Valley Regional Park levy in order to allow the London Borough of Sutton and other London local authorities the option of investing the money they currently contribute to the Lee Valley Regional Park through that levy into the Wandle and other regional parks.
Mr Marcus Jones
The Secretary of State has not held discussions about amending the Lee Valley Regional Park funding levy with the local authorities concerned.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Rural Payments Agency has made in payments related to the European School Milk Scheme in each region and constituent part of the UK in each year since 2005.
George Eustice
The attached table shows the total UK amounts taken from the annual European accounts for each year from 2005 to 2016. The amounts in the table are the payments made to the organisations that supply milk to schools, which have been claimed back in full from the European Commission by the RPA.
In years 2005 and 2006 the Rural Payments Agency were required to produce the accounts in GBP currency and in years 2007 and later, were required to produce accounts in euro currency to comply with Regulation 883-2006.
|
Year |
Amount |
|
2005 |
6,695,400.64 |
|
2006 |
6,552,414.56 |
|
Total£ |
£13,247,815.20 |
|
2007 |
8,204,965.56 |
|
2008 |
7,893,693.21 |
|
2009 |
7,553,825.13 |
|
2010 |
7,292,814.68 |
|
2011 |
1,900,066.83 |
|
2012 |
4,753,174.39 |
|
2013 |
4,525,499.84 |
|
2014 |
4,382,584.46 |
|
2015 |
4,325,618.91 |
|
Total € |
€ 50,832,243.01 |
The figure for 2011 is a result of a repayment made by the Department of Health, where a decision was taken to fund the cost of the nursery milk provision entirely from their own budget. This resulted in the RPA claiming less from the European Commission that year only.
A breakdown by region and constituent part of the UK could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she has received on reforming the questions asked on asylum applications related to persecution related to religious beliefs.
Mr Robert Goodwill
In June 2016 The Home Office received the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Freedom of Religion’s report, ‘Fleeing persecution: Asylum claims in the UK on religious freedom grounds’. We are carefully considering the report and its recommendations and will provide a response in due course, including whether we will consider whether any changes to the way we handle religious-based claims are appropriate.
The report acknowledges the progress made by the Home Office with regards to guidance and training provided to its staff but highlighted the Group’s view that there were some discrepancies between the Home Office policy and practice.
The Home Office carefully considers all asylum claims on their individual merits and grants protection for those who genuinely need it, in accordance with our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). In every asylum case the particular circumstances of the individual are considered in light of published country information, which includes issues relating specifically to religious freedoms.
Published guidance on the interviewing and consideration of religious claims is regularly reviewed and takes into consideration the views of religious groups and other stakeholders.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Tracey on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps the Government is taking to support businesses in Scotland.
Jesse Norman
The British Business Bank currently facilitates around £300m of finance in Scotland. Around £10m of Start-Up Loans have been provided to over 2,000 Scottish businesses, and £290m is helping a further 2,000 businesses to grow through other Bank programmes. In 2015/16, Innovate UK committed to invest £58.3m in 291 innovation projects in Scotland.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many of the (a) core recommendations and (b) specific recommendations of his Department’s report entitled Children in Military Custody, published in June 2012, the Israeli government has implemented.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Since the publication of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office-funded independent report on Children in Military Custody in June 2012, there has been some progress on the issue of children held in military detention. This includes a pilot to use summons instead of night-time arrests, changes to standard operating procedures on methods of restraint, and steps to reduce the amount of time a child can be detained before seeing a judge. There has also been a reduction in the use of solitary confinement and an increase in the use of Arabic to give notifications of arrest.
While we welcome the improvements to date, we continue to press the Israeli authorities to make further progress on this important issue.