Category: Speeches

Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding she plans to allocate to Birmingham City Council for implementation of a Clean Air Zone in Birmingham; and how much funding she plans to allocate to that Council under the air quality grant programme.

Rory Stewart

The air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide we published on 17 December last year confirms that we will be providing funding to help five Local Authorities in England outside London to implement clean air zones and to support the implementation of additional measures where necessary. We will be discussing the details of this with the Local Authorities concerned, including Birmingham City Council.

Birmingham City Council has not received any funding for 2015-16 under our air quality grant programme. No decisions have been made about air quality grant awards for 2016-17 and beyond.

01/01/2023
Kevin Hollinrake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Hollinrake on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the timetable is for completion of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation Footprint; and what alternative uses his Department has recently considered suitable for RAF Linton-on-Ouse.

Mark Lancaster

The RAF envisages no further use for RAF Linton-on-Ouse following the out of service date of the Tucano aircraft which is anticipated to be October 2019.

Further announcements regarding the rationalisation of the Defence estate will be made later this year.

01/01/2023
Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information his Department holds on the powers of appointment of university vice-chancellors for staff working in Confucius Institutes on their university campus.

Joseph Johnson

Universities are autonomous from Government and responsible, by law, for all decisions about who they appoint as staff.

01/01/2023
Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the legal advice given by the Attorney General in Northern Ireland that genocide is being committed against Christian and other minorities in Iraq and Syria.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

This Government condemns Daesh atrocities against Christians, other minorities, and the majority Muslim populations of Iraq and Syria. As the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has said, the Government’s position remains that although there is a very strong case to answer, ultimately it should be a matter for judicial authorities.

We are supporting the gathering and preservation of evidence that could in future be used in a court to hold Daesh to account. And we continue to deliver our comprehensive strategy to defeat Daesh, and thereby stop them from preventing more atrocities.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in which reporting periods the performance of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise has (a) met and (b) exceeded its breach performance level for the (i) train operating company minute delay, (ii) cancellation and (iii) short-formation benchmark.

Claire Perry

Since Rail Industry period 7 in financial year 2015/16 (ending mid October 2015), GTR have exceeded the breach level for the Cancellations benchmark. The Secretary of State issued GTR with a Remedial Plan Notice last year requiring them to set out in a Remedial Plan the measures they will take in order to improve their performance and included benchmarks against which GTR are measured for the duration of the Remedial Plan. GTR has not breached the remedial plan cancellations benchmark and are under the breach benchmark for train operating company minute delays and peak short formations.

01/01/2023

Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Attorney General, what plans he has to extend the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Jeremy Wright

The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.

The number of offenders who have had their sentence increased under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Offenders who have had their sentence increased by the Court of Appeal	95	62	61	106	102

Some cases attract multiple referrals from various sources and we do not record how many referrals each case has received. The total number of cases where requests were received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of referrals received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed under the scheme	377	435	498	674	713

The number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal	117	82	70	122	136
Total number of sentences that were increased	95	62	61	106	102
Total number of sentences that remained unchanged	22	20	9	16	34

The number of referrals under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of the scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Number of referrals that have been rejected due to the offence falling outside the remit of the scheme	62	75	131	194	228
Number of referrals received out of time	3	12	9	10	16

01/01/2023

Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times his Department did not select or treated as ineligible a contractor under article 23 of the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011 since 2011.

Harriett Baldwin

The Ministry of Defence is not aware of any instances where it has not selected, or treated as ineligible, a contractor under article 23 of the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the potential sale of information stolen during the cyber-security breach of the Government Gateway system.

Matthew Hancock

To date the security reports on the Government Gateway system do not show a cyber-security breach.

01/01/2023
Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training her Department has provided to staff on the family test; what other steps she has taken to raise awareness of the family test among staff of her Department; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

The Family Test has been integrated into the Department’s impact assessment process. Workshops are being scheduled to further assist staff in understanding how to apply the guidance introduced for the Family Test issued by the Department for Work and Pensions.

01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 13628, whether the £230 million spend incurred by BT is an addition to the £683 million recorded as state aid receipts in BT’s accounts.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The £230m is BT expenditure and would therefore be in addition to receipts recorded on the BT annual accounts.

01/01/2023