Category: Speeches

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that human rights are being upheld in Ethiopia.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We remain deeply concerned by the violence which has occurred in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia throughout 2016 including the high number of deaths.

    We have made clear to the Government of Ethiopia, including at ministerial level, our concerns about the handling of these protests. We have reiterated our strong support for the constitutional right of all Ethiopian citizens to gather peacefully and express their opinions. We also supported the EU’s statement of 10 August expressing concern and condolences to those affected, and their statement on the current state of emergency.

    At the Ethiopian state opening on Parliament on Monday 10 October, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, announced proposals which Ethiopia hope will address some of the underlying grievances of the wider population.

    We continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Ethiopia both through our bilateral engagement, as well as jointly with our international partners.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will urge his Australian counterparts, on the grounds of the right to democratic self determination, to return Norfolk Island to its previous system of self-government.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Governance of Norfolk Island is a matter for Australia, in consultation with Norfolk Islanders. I am confident that Australia’s respect for democratic self-determination is undimmed: before introducing recent reforms, it ran a full consultation process, which included a number of public hearings with Islanders, and have committed to retaining a local regional council with responsibility for local services and with powers to legislate on local issues.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many dangerous occurrences were reported by his Department to the Health and Safety Executive in each of the last five years; and how many of those incidents involved the unplanned or faulty discharge of a weapon.

    Mark Lancaster

    We are investigating the compilation of the requested statistics and I will write to the hon. Member in due course.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to work with farmers and land owners in areas susceptable to flooding to encourage them to allow parts of their land to flood to avoid flooding elsewhere.

    Rory Stewart

    Temporarily storing flood water on agricultural land can be a cost effective way of reducing risks elsewhere in a catchment, and where such schemes are planned, farmers/landowners are paid to store flood water on their land in a managed way, with payments being made to offset the damages caused by additional deliberate flooding that forms a part of the flood management scheme.

  • David Simpson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    David Simpson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions her Department has had with social media providers on steps to combat cyber bullying.

    Edward Timpson

    The Government continues to work closely with social media companies to make sure they are committed to protecting children who use social media platforms. Ministers from the Department for Education, the Department for Culture Media and Sport, and the Home Office meet quarterly with social media providers and other key stakeholders at the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) executive board meetings, to discuss important issues relating to child safety online, including cyberbullying.

    Recently, Ofcom led a social media working group on behalf of UKCCIS, with representation from Twitter, Facebook, Google, Ask.FM, and MindCandy. The group developed best practice guidance aimed at encouraging responsible practice from industry to ensure children using their services are able to do so in a safe and protected way. The guidance was issued by UKCISS in December 2015 and can be found on their website.

    To help schools prevent and tackle bullying, we are providing £1.3m this year (2015-16) to anti-bullying charities to tackle all forms of bullying including cyberbullying, on top of the £4m provided in 2013-15. We are also providing £2m this year (2015-16) to organisations to specifically tackle homophobic bullying, which includes cyberbullying.

    We do not want to make any form of bullying a criminal offence as to do so would risk criminalising young people. In some circumstances that may be justified, but probably only in a limited number of very serious cases, for which there are already laws in place to protect people. Internet providers, schools and parents all have a role to play in keeping children and young people safe online.

    The Government Equalities Office is funding the UK Safer Internet Centre to produce advice for schools on how to keep children safe online. This is scheduled for publication this spring.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many names were provided to Ministers to enable them to take a formal decision on the appointment of the Pubs Code Adjudicator.

    Anna Soubry

    I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Hove on 10 March, Official Report, Vol 607, Col 426.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to facilitate the establishment of community banks that are willing to service rural communities and small local economies.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government is committed to creating the right regulatory environment that allows banks to enter and expand within the market, and serve customers and communities effectively. This is why the Government has substantially lowered barriers to entry by introducing more proportionate requirements for new banks and establishing the New Bank Start-up Unit run by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, and creating the Payment Systems Regulator to ensure all banks can access payment systems on fair and equal terms.

    In addition, this Government has committed to support the credit union movement to make financial services more accessible. Credit unions are community-based financial institutions which already provide services to under-served and financially excluded communities.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the outcome and cost effectiveness of the use of faecal microbiota transplants in the treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile infections.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced guidance on faecal microbiota transplant for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. NICE has recommended that the procedure is safe enough for use in the National Health Service, but no assessment of its cost effectiveness has been made by NICE.

    Data on the uptake by the NHS of faecal microbiota transplants in the treatment of recurrent Clostridium difficile is not collected centrally.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many air ambulance rescues have taken place in Cumbria in each month of the last 10 years.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The information requested is not centrally collected.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 September 2016 to Question 45858 and 2 August 2016 to Question 42407, whether Government assistance has been provided to the UK Thalidomide Trust on its proposal to allow collective compensation applications to Contergan Foundation established by the German government.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The Government has discussed this proposal with the Thalidomide Trust and is considering the detail. The German Government has been clear, however, that collective compensation is not permissible. In response to the UK Government’s previous correspondence they have stated that:

    "The assessment of damage by the Medical Commission of the Contergan Foundation and the individual categorization in line with the damage points according to the legally stipulated points based system are mandatory – irrespective of analogous assessments from abroad".

    The German Government further states that there are approximately 300 non-German recognised persons worldwide who are currently supported by the Contergan Foundation, each of whom has undergone individual assessment. This information has been shared with the Trust.