The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether meetings of Rail North will be held in public.
Andrew Jones
Whether Rail North holds its meetings in public is a matter for that organisation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss with his Indonesian counterpart the restriction on non-governmental organisations working in West Papua.
Mr Hugo Swire
We welcome the Indonesian government’s commitment to improving the situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. President Joko Widodo has visited 3 times since his election, most recently spending New Year in Papua. During his visit in May 2015, he granted clemency to a number of prisoners and announced the lifting of travel restrictions for foreign journalists and international organisations. Since then, a number of foreign journalists have successfully visited and reported from Papua and West Papua. Our Ambassador in Jakarta last visited Papua in January. As well as raising these issues, he also discussed ways to ensure the sustainable and equitable development of the provinces with members of the police, and religious and community leaders.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-18.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of individual voter registration.
John Penrose
The transition to IER is now complete and has been a great success. Over 14 million applications have been made to register since the introduction of IER, almost three quarters of them online. Ghost entries have been removed, which means the electoral registers are more accurate and less vulnerable to fraud than before. The Electoral Commission is expected to publish its assessment of the completeness and accuracy of the first full electoral registers under IER, published in December 2015, this summer.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken through the UN to promote the human rights situation in (a) China and (b) Saudi Arabia.
Mr Hugo Swire
In respect of China, the UK made a national statement on 15 March under Item 4 of the UN Human Rights Council about the human rights situation there. We highlighted our concerns about the application of due process and transparency of justice, as well as the importance of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong. We also supported the EU’s Item 4 statement on China the same day. On 10 March, we signed up to a cross-regional Item 2 statement delivered at the Human Rights Council, alongside eleven other countries, on China’s deteriorating human rights record. In respect of Saudi Arabia, the British Government’s position on human rights is a matter of public record. We regularly make our views well known including through the UN Universal Periodic Review process and we supported the EU’s Item 4 statement on Saudi Arabia on 15 March at the UN Human Rights Council, which noted a range of human rights concerns. We will continue to raise our human rights concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities at the highest level.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-05-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to publish a specific strategy for policy-influencing work relating to violence against women and girls and monitoring of that work.
Mr Nick Hurd
The UK’s international policy relating to violence against women and girls is set out in the UK’s Ending Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2016 – 2020. In her position as Ministerial Champion for tackling VAWG Overseas my colleague Baroness Verma will have a key role to play in international influencing to deliver this policy agenda. We do not intend to publish a policy influencing strategy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans that the new Anti-Corruption Strategy announced by the Government earlier this year will still be completed by the end of 2016.
Ben Gummer
Departments are working to progress the anti-corruption agenda, including work that was set out at the London Anti-Corruption Summit on May 12. However, the new government will wish to consider its approach to specific anti corruption policies, and the governance structures that will oversee this work.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-10-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what regulatory requirements are currently applicable to digital radio stations.
Lord Ashton of Hyde
There are extensive regulatory requirements covering digital radio.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-11-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the Government’s aim of halving the disability employment gap.
Justin Tomlinson
The Government is committed to giving disabled people the opportunity to fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions. Work is an important part of this. That is why we have committed to halving the disability employment gap, requiring us to transform policy, practice and public attitudes.
We must build on recent progress. We have already:
– extended Access to Work to provide support to more disabled people in pre-employment, such as work experience and also to undertake employment-based training, such as supported internships, traineeships and self-arranged work experience.
– launched Specialist Employability Support, an innovative new programme which provides intensive, specialist support to the disabled people who need the most help.
– continued to work with employers through our Disability Confident campaign to ensure that they understand the benefits of recruiting and retaining disabled people in work.
– announced new funding in the Budget of up to £100m per year for additional practical support to provide the right incentives and support to enable those who have limited capability, but who have some potential to prepare, for work to move closer to the labour market, and when they are ready, back into work.
– committed to spending £43m over the next 3 years to develop the evidence base on what works for those with common mental health conditions retain and return to employment. This will be done through a range of voluntary mental health and employment pilots that will go live next year
We set up the Work and Health unit in the summer to bring together the Work and Health agendas, to help disabled people and people with health conditions get into work, stay in work, and return to work with the right support and we are developing our plans in this area.
The Government will set out it its spending plans for this Parliament in the forthcoming Spending Review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many qualified fast-jet pilots were employed by the RAF in each of the last five years.
Mark Lancaster
The number of qualified fast jet pilots in the Royal Air Force, as of 1 January in each of the last five years is shown below, and includes both Regular and Reserve personnel.
|
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
720 |
680 |
660 |
670 |
640 |
In accordance with Defence Statistics rounding policy, the numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in five being rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the announcement of 4 January 2016, The Government will directly build affordable homes, whether a new college and innovation centre is intended to open at the same time as the first of the 249 residential units at the direct commissioning site at Daedelus Waterfront.
Brandon Lewis
The direct commissioning pilots will follow the normal planning and commercial processes for determining the phasing of homes and associated facilities.