Category: Speeches

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of prisoners who have converted to Islam in prisons in each of the last five years.

    Andrew Selous

    Information on the number of prisoners that have converted to Islam while in prison is not held centrally. The data held relates to a prisoner’s current declared religion, not any previously declared religion.

    In order to provide data relating to offender conversions to Islam in prison, it would be necessary to manually examine individual prison records which could only be done at disproportionate cost.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has received from the Austrian government on a person suspected of rape in Linz, Austria, who is now resident in the UK.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not received any representations from the Austrian government on this alleged case.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on how much and what proportion of the total budget for UN peacekeeping was spent in support of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus in each of the last six years.

    James Duddridge

    The table below sets out how much the UN General Assembly allocated to the gross budget for the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for the last six UN budget years (which run from 1 July to 30 June); the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus net budget, following the deduction of voluntary contributions from the Governments of Cyprus and Greece; how much the total UN Peacekeeping Budget was for each year; and the percentage of the UN Peacekeeping Budget allocated to UNFICYP’s gross budget. The UN budgets in US dollars, therefore all the figures below are in that currency.

    UN budget year

    UNFICYP budget (gross)

    UNFICYP budget (net)

    Total UN Peacekeeping Budget

    Percentage of UN Peacekeeping Budget allocated to UNFICYP’s gross budget

    2015/16

    55,139,400

    31,027,967

    8,256,758,900

    0.67

    2014/15

    62,531,500

    36,082,233

    8,510,143,233

    0.73

    2013/14

    58,514,200

    33,332,866

    7,901,248,366

    0.74

    2012/13

    56,968,200

    32,251,867

    7,364,983,850

    0.77

    2011/12

    60,121,200

    34,506,933

    7,835,339,630

    0.77

    2010/11

    59,759,200

    34,304,608

    7,823,615,600

    0.76
  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether there is a specific budget for advertising the Government’s position on the EU referendum; and whether he plans to advertise that position in the media, on billboards and in newspapers before 23 June 2016.

    John Penrose

    I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14th April to the Hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex on 14th April.

    All external suppliers used were on existing Government procurement agreements, which have been awarded in compliance with the relevant procurement Regulations.

    The Government will comply fully with the statutory restrictions in place from 27th May.

  • Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kennedy of Cradley on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of unlicensed firearms in circulation in the UK.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The table provided contains statistics on the number of licensed firearms and shotguns, by police force area, in England and Wales as at 31 March 2015.

    At this time there was a total of 1.34 million licensed shotguns and 0.53 million licensed firearms.

    The Home Office does not centrally hold any estimates for unlicensed firearms.

    Figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland are a matter for the devolved administrations.

  • Lord Young of Cookham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Young of Cookham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Young of Cookham on 2016-07-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the lower life expectancy of those on low incomes is due to the higher rates of smoking in that group.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The independent review into health inequalities in England undertaken by Professor Sir Michael Marmot culminated in the publication in 2010 of Fair Society, Healthy Lives. A copy of the review has been placed in the Library. The review identified the most effective evidence-based strategies for reducing health inequalities in England and made the following recommendation:

    “Tobacco control is central to any strategy to tackle health inequalities as smoking accounts for approximately half of the difference in life expectancy between the lowest and highest income groups. Smoking-related death rates are two to three times higher in low-income groups than in wealthier social groups.”

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which of the recommendations made by the APPG for Yemen in its report, Conflict in Yemen, the forgotten crisis, published in October 2015 have been adopted by her Department.

    Rory Stewart

    We share the APPG’s concern about the serious humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and welcome the recommendations for DFID in the report.

    The Secretary of State recently co-hosted an international event on Yemen at the UN General Assembly to shine a spotlight on the crisis. At the event, donors pledged over $100 million in additional funding to the Yemen crisis and UN agencies committed to improving the delivery of humanitarian aid on the ground.The Secretary of State announced an extra £37 million for Yemen at the event, bringing the UK’s total funding for Yemen to £109 million for 2016/2017.

    We have continued to lobby at all levels for rapid, safe and unhindered commercial and humanitarian access. Since May, we have provided £1.4 million to the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to facilitate commercial shipping to Yemen, crucial to ensuring adequate supplies of food and fuel.

  • Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-10-27.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average duration is of an in-work tax credit claim containing an underlying entitlement to Working Tax Credit.

    Damian Hinds

    The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

    This Government is committed to moving from a high welfare, high tax, low wage economy to a lower welfare, lower tax, higher wage society. As the Chancellor has made clear, the Government will set out at Autumn Statement how we plan to achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits, saving the money we need to save to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition.

  • Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-11-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider amending electoral law to provide for and require the amounts and details of parliamentary candidates’ election expenses to be published online, and whether this could be implemented voluntarily in the meantime.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Electoral legislation sets out the process for publicising the details and amounts of candidates’ election expenses; election expenses are made available for two years after they are submitted.

    Current electoral law does not expressly require candidates’ election expenses to be published online, but nor is this expressly excluded.

    The Law Commission has raised the matter of online publication of this information in their review of electoral law. This review is on-going and we are awaiting the recommendations of the Law Commission before consideration is given to further legislation in respect of this matter.

    The Government is therefore not persuaded of the need to change legislation at this time.

  • Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of (a) the current proportion of air passenger duty revenues which are raised from Manchester Airport and (b) the potential effect on that proportion of air passenger duty in Scotland being reduced by 50 per cent.

    Damian Hinds

    Air Passenger Duty is payable by airlines and not on a per airport basis. Therefore HMRC does not collect the data to produce a reliable estimate.

    The government is currently undertaking a consultation into options to support regional airports from the impacts of air passenger duty devolution. We are carefully considering the evidence we have received from stakeholders and will respond in due course.