Category: Speeches

Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current backlog of applications for land registration at the Land Registry, and how long is the average delay in registration.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

There are approximately 234k applications awaiting completion at Land Registry, 93k of which cannot be processed as they are awaiting replies to queries sent to the originating conveyancer or solicitor, or notices sent to the registered proprietor(s) of the land or property. This leaves 141k applications available for Land Registry to process. Registration takes place after the transaction has been completed and the priority of all of these pending applications is protected upon receipt. Last year, Land Registry received 5.9m applications for registration.

The average number of days taken to complete all applications for registration is 11 days, with applications to update an existing register taking an average of just under 7 days, and applications that result in the creation of new registered titles taking an average of 42 days to complete.

January 1, 2023
Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-01-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government who supervises and audits public funding of universities in the UK.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Responsibility for higher education is devolved.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has responsibility for oversight of the higher education sector in England.

For Higher Education Institute’s that receive HEFCE funding, the individual HEI’s external auditor is required to provide a statement in their audit report that public funding has been used for the purposes for which it was provided. HEFCE also seeks a range of other accountability returns from each HEI and carries out periodic ‘HEFCE Assurance Reviews’ of all HEIs.

Similar arrangements are in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. BIS is responsible for “alternative HE providers”, which includes some private universities, who are not in receipt of funding from HEFCE.

Individual public bodies (such as Government Departments and Research Councils) are separately accountable for any public funding that they distribute.

January 1, 2023
Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2016 to Question 23171, to which countries RAF Reaper drones have been deployed on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sorties since 26 January 2016.

Penny Mordaunt

Since 26 January UK Reapers have been deployed on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Iraq and Syria.

January 1, 2023

Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many full-time equivalent GPs were employed in general practices in Mid Sussex constituency in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12, (d) 2012-13 and (e) 2013-14.

Alistair Burt

The information is shown in the following table.

Total general practitioners (GPs) in selected area, full time equivalents 2009-2014:

	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
West Sussex Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT)
Total GPs	556	556	558	550
GPs (excluding registrars)	469	455	462	474
GPs (excluding retainers and registrars)	462	452	460	472
GP Provider	355	344	352	357
GP Other	107	108	108	115
GP Registrar	86	101	96	76
GP Retainer	7	4	2	3
East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT
Total GPs	236	240	243	242
GPs (excluding registrars)	213	213	219	220
GPs (excluding retainers and registrars)	208	211	217	218
GP Provider	179	173	173	173
GP Other	29	38	43	45
GP Registrar	22	27	25	21
GP Retainer	5	2	2	2
NHS High Weald Lewes Havens Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
Total GPs					115	110
GPs (excluding registrars)					110	110
GPs (excluding retainers and registrars)					109	109
GP Provider					80	78
GP Other					29	31
GP Registrar					5	1
GP Retainer					0	0
NHS Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG
Total GPs					134	135
GPs (excluding registrars)					130	132
GPs (excluding retainers and registrars)					129	131
GP Provider					95	94
GP Other					33	37
GP Registrar					4	3
GP Retainer					1	1

Source: The Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics

Notes:

Data as at 30 September in each year.
NHS Workforce figures are not available by constituency. Mid Sussex constituency was contained within and serviced by East Sussex Downs and Weald PCT and West Sussex Teaching PCT from 2009-2012 and NHS High Weald Lewes Havens CCG and NHS Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG from 2013 onwards. These trusts are not geographically co-terminus and thus the figures are not comparable over a time series.

January 1, 2023

Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of injured children trying to leave Syria being turned away at the Jordanian border.

Mr Philip Hammond

We are aware that there are large numbers of refugees being denied access to Jordan at the Jordan/Syria border. Whilst recognising their legitimate security concerns and the need for proper vetting, we have discussed with the Government of Jordan the necessity of prioritising admittance for the sick and injured, including children. Jordan has shown remarkable generosity as host to over 630,000 registered refugees from the Syria conflict. The UK is firmly committed to supporting Jordan. We have contributed over £330 million to help Jordan since the start of the Syria crisis. As co-hosts of the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference held in London this year we helped secure over $12 billion of commitments of further support for those inside Syria and Syria’s neighbours Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey which are bearing the humanitarian weight of the crisis.

January 1, 2023
Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Naz Shah on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department takes to limit the effect on service users of contracts with sub-contractors being terminated early due to the provider being at risk of failure.

Nick Boles

Where a subcontractor is impacted by the Skills Funding Agency’s (SFA) decision to terminate a provider contract, the SFA ensures that the learners can remain in their programme of learning either through the subcontractor or through a transfer to another provider depending on the circumstances of the termination. However, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) does not terminate contracts on the grounds of a provider being ‘at risk of failure’.

January 1, 2023
Steven Paterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Mk4A upgrade is expected to increase the yield of the warhead.

Mr Philip Dunne

The UK currently fields the Trident Mk4 warhead as part of the Trident Strategic Weapons System. In order to ensure continuity of the Mk4-based capability, the Mk4A Arming, Fuzing and Firing system is a non-nuclear component being introduced into the UK Trident warhead to replace a similar component. The Mk4A programme will not increase the destructive power of the warhead.

Approval to procure the new Arming, Firing and Fuzing mechanisms, to manage obsolescence in Mk4 and to adopt a Mk4A component was given in January 2006. I am withholding further details of the date of the Mk4A component’s entry into service, the cost of the Mk4A programme and the extension in operational life expected for the purposes of safeguarding national security.

January 1, 2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals related to the recommendations of the Law Commission’s report on level crossings, published in September 2013.

Paul Maynard

We welcome the Law Commission’s recommendations on the reform of level crossing legislation, the majority of which we accepted. We are considering opportunities to take measures we accepted forward through primary legislation.

January 1, 2023
Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will ensure that at least half of the Board of HS2 Ltd are business professionals with exclusively private sector experience.

Andrew Jones

The HS2 Ltd Board contains a balance of public and private sector experience. The members are well qualified to provide the appropriate challenge and guidance to the HS2 Programme and include those with major project, construction and rail expertise. Ministerial appointments, extensions and exemptions to the HS2 Ltd Board, come under the remit of the Office for Commissioner for Public Appointments.

January 1, 2023
Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2015-11-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they made to the government of Israel concerning the right of Palestinian Christians from the West Bank to visit Jerusalem for Christmas worship.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We have not specifically raised the issue of access for Palestinian Christians with the Israeli authorities. However the Government remains deeply concerned about restrictions on freedom of movement between the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It remains difficult for Palestinians, of all religions, to enter East Jerusalem for work, education, medical treatment or religious worship. Through our Embassy in Tel Aviv, we regularly lobby the Israeli authorities on this matter and encourage them to lift access restrictions.

January 1, 2023