Category: Speeches

  • Lord Chidgey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Chidgey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Chidgey on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has commissioned any research into migration to the EU from Horn of Africa nations, in the UK’s role as the Chair of the Khartoum Process.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    In response to the migration crisis, the Government is building its evidence base on the drivers and trends in migration flows. We are working with partners, including through the Khartoum Process, to obtain a more systematic quantitative and qualitative data on flows and drivers of migration in source, transit and destination countries.

    The UK is funding data analysis and evidence review work by the International Organization for Migration and the Open Data Institute on migration into the EU through the central Mediterranean route. The UK has also funded work for research into criminal networks facilitating human trafficking and smuggling in the Horn of Africa.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Andrew Stephenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what work his Department is undertaking on identifying EU regulations that have a cost to British businesses that could be repealed or replaced.

    Margot James

    In the short term, the Government will continue to seek the amendment or repeal of EU rules within the framework of the European Commission’s Regulatory Fitness (REFIT) programme, in order to minimise the regulatory burdens imposed on UK businesses. The REFIT programme was established in 2012 to review the stock of existing EU legislation in order to identify burdens, inconsistencies, gaps or ineffective measures and address them.

    Building on the work of the Red Tape Challenge and the current Cutting Red Tape programme, we will continue our engagement with business to gather their views on their priorities for reducing EU regulatory burdens wherever possible once the UK has left the EU. My Rt Hon Friend the former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) chaired a roundtable with business leaders, to discuss the challenges faced by businesses and ensure that the negotiation of the UK’s future relationship with the EU is carried out in the interest of UK companies, investors, potential investors and workers.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions on the demolition of Palestinian homes.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    ​We have not had any discussions with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many directly employed government staff currently receive less than the Living Wage.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Every employer in the country will pay the National Living Wage, including all Government departments and their contractors.

    The latest data available suggests that 867 current Civil Servants will benefit directly from the National Living Wage from April 2016 as announced by the Chancellor. We estimate that over 20,000 employees will benefit by the end of this parliament.

  • Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the number of UK businesses is that (a) import services from, (b) export services to or (c) engage in services trade with (i) other EU countries and (ii) non-EU countries.

    Anna Soubry

    Data on the number of businesses in Great Britain engaging in international trade in services can be found on the ONS website in the ‘Exporters and Importers in Great Britain, 2014’ release, published on 12 November 2015. This data cannot be broken down by EU/Non-EU.

  • Kit Malthouse – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kit Malthouse – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kit Malthouse on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to maintain the UK’s position as a market for investment by global pharmaceutical companies.

    George Freeman

    This Government is committed to maintaining and building on the UK’s position as a leader in the global market for investment in health and life sciences – the UK is the number one destination for life science FDI in Europe, and pharmaceutical exports grew 23% in the first three quarters of 2015. Through the Life Sciences Strategy we are working across Government to improve the UK’s competitiveness to stimulate investment, including by protecting the ring-fenced science budget in real terms and increasing funding in real terms to the Catapults which play a key role in commercialising innovation.

  • The Earl of Clancarty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The Earl of Clancarty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether arts organisations registered as charities receiving grants for arts purposes through bodies such as the Arts Council England will be exempt from their new policy restricting how such grants may be used; and if not, what assessment they have made of whether their new policy is compatible with the arm’s length principle of the funding of the arts.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The anti-lobbying policy will apply to all government-funded grants, including those grants issued by the Arts Council England which are funded through the exchequer. It will not be applied to ACE grants funded through the National Lottery, which is allocated and ring-fenced to support statutory good causes. The policy does not however prevent any organisation from using their own self-generated funds as they see fit, and we are clear that it is not the intention to restrict the creative activities of any organisation.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the UN and African Union missions in South Sudan; and what discussions he has had with the UN since the publication of its report, Assessment Mission by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to improve human rights, accountability, reconciliation and capacity in South Sudan: detailed findings, published March 2016.

    James Duddridge

    The UK is deeply concerned by the findings of the African Union Commission of Inquiry (AU-COI) report and the recent UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) assessment. Both reports detail appalling levels of human rights violations and abuses, including widespread levels of sexual violence, and that these may constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity.

    We are pressing for action on multiple levels. We are raising our serious concerns directly with the government in Juba, and when I visited South Sudan in January 2016 I pressed both the President and the Foreign Minister on human rights issues. At the same time, we are also encouraging the African Union to establish the Hybrid Court for South Sudan and pressing the UN Security Council to agree an arms embargo. At the UN Human Rights Council we are pressing for a UN Special Rapporteur to be agreed and the OHCHR report’s findings to be followed up on. We will continue to work to ensure those who are responsible for abuses are held to account.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much compensation was paid from the public purse to Chagossians; on what dates such compensation payments were made; and how many families were so compensated.

    James Duddridge

    The UK Government has paid out around £21m at current prices. This comprises two sums. An initial figure of £650,000 which the UK Government paid in 1973 to the Government of Mauritius towards the resettlement of those removed from the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965. This was disbursed with accrued interest in 1977 and 1978 to 595 families. Furthermore, in 1982 the UK Government paid over a further £4m pursuant to an agreement with the Government of Mauritius which had established the Ilois Trust Fund Board to distribute the money for the benefit of the Chagossians. The government of Mauritius had also contributed some land to the Trust Fund and the government of India contributed £1m to it. At least 1,344 Chagossians received compensation through the Trust Fund, which was largely paid out between 1982 and 1984, with a final disbursement in 1987. The Government does not hold information about those it has not compensated.

  • Lord Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lucas on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the reported decision by the BBC to discontinue the BBC Food website, and other services that digitally repurpose content that the BBC has already paid for, is in accordance with its vision of the future of the BBC.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Decisions in relation to the BBC’s online content are a matter for the BBC which is editorially independent of the Government.