Category: Speeches

Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-11-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made, if any, of who was responsible for the recent heavy missile attack on Camp Liberty.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We strongly condemn the shameful attack against the civilian residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq on Thursday 29 October. Officials from our Embassy in Baghdad raised the attack with the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office on Friday 30 October and made clear the importance of an urgent and comprehensive investigation into the incident and ensuring that all those responsible are brought to justice.

It is not clear at this stage who carried out the attack. Iraqi militia, the al-Mukhtar Army, has claimed responsibility, but we are unable to verify this claim.

In all of our engagement with the Government of Iraq on this issue, including at Ministerial level and in our Statements, we have emphasised the importance of the Iraqi government doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the residents of Camp Liberty. We support UN calls for more to be done to protect the residents.

01/01/2023
Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2016 to Question 20755, when the visits to clinical commissioning groups referred to in that question are planned to start; and when he expects the findings of such visits to be reported to him.

Alistair Burt

NHS England with support from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, is visiting a selection of areas to talk to clinical commissioning groups and local authorities about their Autism Diagnostic Care Pathways. Based on information provided in the most recent local authority Autism Self-Assessment exercise, the areas selected include those areas that have assessed themselves as having a diagnostic pathway in place, those who appear to be facing obstacles, and those who have no pathway in place. A report on the work will be completed by the end of April 2016.

01/01/2023

Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers in part or full-time education other than higher education aged between 19 and 21 in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015 were former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after by the local authority.

Edward Timpson

The information requested is shown in the table below. This information is for England only.

Care leaver activity [2]	Number of former unaccompanied asylum seeking children [1]
2014	2015
Higher education	20	40
Education other than higher education	100	260
Training or employment	40	130

Source: SSDA903

Information on the activity of all care leavers in England has been published in tables F1 of the Statistical First Release on looked after children[3].

[1] This includes young people who were unaccompanied asylum seeking children in their final period of care.

[2] Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015

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01/01/2023

Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children aged (a) up to 12, (b) 12 to 15 and (c) 16 to 18 were prescribed (i) fluoxetine, (ii) fluvoxamine, (iii) sertraline, (iv) paroxetine, (v) escitalopram and (vi) citalopra by the NHS in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

This information is not collected centrally. Prescribing information is not linked to the patient receiving the prescription so it is not possible to supply prescribing information by patient age.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential costs and benefits of introducing an import tax on coal and gas imported from outside the EU; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry

The UK is part of the EU Single market which has a common EU tariff policy which applies to all imports. Import tariffs are set by the EU. The UK has no legal ability to set its own import tariffs.

EU tariffs rates form part of our World Trade Organisation (WTO) commitments and apply to all WTO member countries. Under WTO rules increases to EU tariffs above the level committed to, or ‘bound’ rate, require us to give compensation to affected countries (in the form of lower tariffs on other products). Any potential benefit of an import tariff increase may therefore harm another UK sector.

The latest version of the EU tariff was published in Official Journal to the EU L285 on 30 October 2015 (Council implementing Regulation EU No 1101/2014 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EEC|) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff). Chapter 27 covers the import of fuel including coal and gas. The import of coal has a 0% import duty and the import of gas ranges from 0% to 8% depending on the type and usage.

WTO rules, do however allow countries to impose import tariffs when goods are being “dumped” e.g. sold on our market at below manufacturing cost price. If there is evidence that imports of coal and gas are being dumped the European Commission could propose imposing anti-dumping duties.

01/01/2023
Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much support work by (a) value and (b) numbers of jobs has been undertaken by US employees in the US on UK Government defence contracts in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not currently collate information on how much production or support work is undertaken in the UK or US on UK defence contracts, either by value or number of jobs. A comprehensive breakdown of which MOD contracts placed over the last five years are with UK or US suppliers is also not held centrally.

The MOD routinely publishes statistics on contracts it places on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/defence-trade-and-industry-index. This includes an overall estimate of MOD expenditure for work undertaken in the UK and lists all organisations with which we have spent £5 million or more in the financial year. These statistics include expenditure with US companies.

The MOD does not collate information centrally on the value of production work undertaken in the UK on contracts placed by the US Department of Defense.

01/01/2023
Stephen McPartland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen McPartland on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of trends in the number of patients with severe asthma being referred to a specialist by their GP over the last three years.

Jane Ellison

No such assessment has been made.

01/01/2023
John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much central government funding has been (a) made available for tenant training in each of the last 10 years and (b) allocated, or he plans to make available, for tenant training in (i) 2016 and (ii) each subsequent year of the current Parliament.

Gavin Barwell

We do not hold data on central government funding for tenant training prior to financial year 2009/2010. Since 2010/11 Government has funded the National Communities Resource Centre (NCRC), the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) and Tribal Education. Funding as follows:

Tribal Education

2010/11: £256,600

National Communities Resource Centre

2010/11: £350,000

2011/12: £136,492

2012/13: £267,350

2013/14: £131,159

2014/15: £285,100

2015/16: £90,000

Tenant Participation Advisory Service

2011/12: £170,000

2013/14: £668,700

2014/15: £518,310

2015/16: £160,000

A decision has not yet been made regarding funding for this and future years.

01/01/2023
Lisa Nandy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Nandy on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when (a) she and (b) her Department’s officials have met John O’Brien, Secretary of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse since his appointment to that position.

Sarah Newton

The Home Secretary has not met the Secretary to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

Home Office officials meet regularly with the Secretary to the Inquiry as part of the sponsorship responsibilities.

01/01/2023
Lord Lexden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2015-11-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the sale of the playing fields of over 100 schools since 2010 on the physical fitness of young people.

Lord Nash

The Government does not approve the sale of playing fields but assesses applications from schools and local authorities to dispose of them. A disposal can include a lease of the playing fields to a third-party commercial organisation with the fields, following investment and improvement, continuing to be used by the school.

It is neither the government nor the Department for Education that instigate the disposal of playing fields. It is the local authorities, academies or schools that seek consent to convert these often surplus or un-used fields to enable them to invest in school sport or education. However, there is strict control in place which requires an assessment of the facilities available to pupils. The government will only give permission to dispose of school playing fields if it is clearly demonstrated that they are surplus to requirements and the sports and curriculum needs of the school and its neighbouring schools will continue to be met.

Since any approved disposal would not impact on the provision of the sports curriculum at the school/s, no follow up studies on the sale of playing fields has been undertaken.

01/01/2023