Category: Speeches

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what missions HMS Protector is currently undertaking; and how many missions that ship has undertaken in the last five years.

    Penny Mordaunt

    HMS PROTECTOR, the Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol Ship, provides a United Kingdom Sovereign presence in the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and their surrounding maritime areas.

    PROTECTOR is currently in the South Atlantic and is focussed on the provision of support to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including Antarctic Treaty inspections and station visits in support of the British Antarctic Survey, and survey activity, primarily to increase charting coverage of Antarctic shipping routes and the United Kingdom Overseas Territories. She recently successfully deployed unmanned aerial vehicles for the first time to assist with navigating through the Antarctic.

    Since entering service in 2011, PROTECTOR has been deployed to the South Atlantic from December 2011 to May 2013; and from October 2013 to April 2015. In October 2015, she again deployed from the United Kingdom, arriving in the region this spring, having conducted a circumnavigation of the globe.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of common coverage planning for mobile services similar to that undertaken by the broadcast industry.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    As part of the Government’s wider work to improve digital connectivity the Government announced a package of planning reforms on 17 March to support the rollout of digital infrastructure so that UK consumers can continue to benefit from the opportunities offered by digital economy. We would encourage mobile infrastructure providers to consider sharing infrastructure wherever possible.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to encourage more young people to take A-level language subjects.

    Nick Gibb

    Modern foreign languages are one of the Russell Group’s facilitating subjects – A levels which open doors to more degrees and professions than other subjects. We are incentivising the take-up of these A levels in the 16-19 performance tables through the facilitating subject measure, and are encouraging the best language graduates to enter the teaching profession, through financial incentives such as a bursary of £25,000 for trainees with a first class or 2:1 relevant degree.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has held with his counterparts in Qatar on the human rights situation and working conditions for foreign workers building stadia for the 2022 World Cup.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We continue to support Qatar’s efforts in preparing for the FIFA World Cup in 2022, including ensuring UK businesses involved adhere to international and Qatari labour laws, and we support the steps that the Qatari government has taken to respond to concerns about the treatment of migrant workers. We continue to discuss implementation with the Qatari government and we welcome the Government of Qatar’s commitment to the ongoing, systematic reform of Qatar’s labour laws.

  • Phillip Lee – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Phillip Lee – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phillip Lee on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to reduce the exposure of children to alcohol marketing.

    Jane Ellison

    The Department is not responsible for alcohol marketing.

    In 2014, 8% of pupils had drunk alcohol in the last week, which is less than half the level in 2003 when this was 25%. There has been a consistent decrease the percentage children and young people drinking in the last week since 2003.

    The survey data can be found at:

    http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/2021/Website-Search?productid=18273&q=Smoking+drinking+Drug+use+survey+2013&sort=Relevance&size=10&page=1&area=both#top

    “

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of recent changes to the student opportunity fund on the number of people from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education.

    Joseph Johnson

    We have taken significant steps to widen participation in higher education. In particular, from 2015/16, we have removed the cap on student numbers, enabling more people than ever before to benefit from higher education. We have also established a stronger framework with increased responsibility placed on providers to widen access. The Director of Fair Access has agreed 183 Access Agreements for 2016/17 containing an estimated £745m to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds – up from £404m in 2009/10.

    The Green Paper Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, CM 9141 sets out additional steps the Government plans to take to increase the proportion of students from disadvantaged background entering higher education including through the new guidance that we plan to issue to the Director of Fair Access, and through the social mobility taskforce being set up by Universities UK.

    We will work with the Higher Education Funding Council for England to target the Student Opportunity Fund in the most effective way and with the Director of Fair Access to ensure that universities take more responsibility for widening access, prioritising activities that demonstrate the greatest value for money.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the reply of 17 March 2011, Official Report, column 514W, on radioactive materials transport, whether the practice of displaying radioactive materials hazard warning signs on vehicles carrying special nuclear materials will continue following the retirement from service of High Security Vehicles.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    It is not current Ministry of Defence policy to display radioactive material hazard signs on the Truck Cargo Heavy Duty (TCHD) Mk3 when transporting special nuclear materials. Adequate safety arrangements, as required by legislation, are in place to ensure the necessary information is available to emergency services in the event of an incident.

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of trends in the overall size of the under-10 metres fishing fleet in (a) England, (b) the South West of England and (c) Devon.

    George Eustice

    The Department publishes details on the structure of the UK fishing fleet, including vessels of 10 metres and under, annually in the UK Sea Fisheries Statistics. Data on the change in number of vessels and engine size from 2010 to 2014 is shown in the table below.

    England

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    No. of Vessels

    2569

    2573

    2562

    2602

    2573

    Engine power (kW)

    141524

    141164

    141855

    144863

    144045

    South West*

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    No. of Vessels

    982

    994

    982

    1004

    1002

    Engine power (kW)

    49914

    49925

    49262

    51073

    51256

    Devon**

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    No. of Vessels

    438

    447

    446

    473

    465

    Engine power (kW)

    27836

    27835

    27854

    29651

    29289

    *using the administration ports of Brixham, Newlyn and Plymouth

    **using the administration ports of Brixham and Plymouth

  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training front line officers will receive to ensure they record all forms of religiously motivated hate crime.

    Karen Bradley

    The police have made great strides in responding to hate crime in recent years. New hate crime guidance, which includes information on dealing with and recording all forms of hate crime was issued to all police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the College of Policing in May 2014.

    The Government is working closely with the police on the development of the new requirement to record data on religiously motivated hate crime by faith. The National Policing Lead for hate crime will provide guidance and support to forces to ensure there is consistent data collection for religious hate crimes from 1 April this year.

  • Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the reasons are for the government policy not to support the progress of the European Commission’s proposed reforms to (a) trade and defence instruments and (b) the lesser duty rule.

    Anna Soubry

    The UK fully supports modernisation of the European Union’s/Commission’s trade defence instruments but believes that effective trade defence measures should be proportionate, not protectionist, and set tariffs only as high as necessary to remove the injury inflicted on EU industry without being punitive, which would hurt users of products, including downstream manufacturers, and consumers.

    The Government’s response to the Commission’s public consultation on the modernisation of trade defence instruments (TDI), in June 2012, stated:

    “The strongly held UK view is that the EU’s use of the lesser duty rule is one of the elements of the TDI regime which contributes to its being recognised as one of the most progressive global trade defence systems. Furthermore, it enhances the economic coherence of European TD actions as imposing tariffs no higher than that level needed to offset the injury caused by dumping / subsidy is entirely consistent with restoring fair competition. We have fully supported the Commission’s efforts to encourage FTA partners to adopt the lesser duty rule in their regimes. It would be a retrograde step to remove its position as a central part of the EU regime (2.3.3).”