Category: Speeches

  • Alex Salmond – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Salmond – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Salmond on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to speed up family reunification for unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government began work to implement the ‘Dubs amendment’ immediately after the Immigration Bill gained Royal Assent. Over 30 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act have been accepted for transfer since it received Royal Assent in May, the majority of these have already arrived in the UK.

    We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities and others to speed up existing family reunification processes or implement new processes where necessary for unaccompanied children. We have seconded a UK official to Greece, we have a long-standing secondee working in Italy and will shortly be seconding another official to the French Interior Ministry to support these efforts.

    We have established a dedicated team in the Home Office Dublin Unit to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children. Transfer requests under the Dublin Regulation are now generally processed within 10 days and children transferred within weeks. Over 120 children have been accepted for transfer this year from Europe. We also continue to consult local authorities about the transfer unaccompanied refugee children from Europe to the UK, where it is in their best interests.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the government of North Korea, or any of its state-owned companies, has access to the London Stock Exchange or holds financial interests in the UK.

    Lord Young of Cookham

    As part of UN and EU sanctions, banks are required to close existing branches, subsidiaries or accounts in North Korea where it has been determined that they contribute to North Korea’s ballistic missile programmes. The sanctions also prohibit any commercial activity by the Government of North Korea (including legal persons, entities or bodies owned or controlled by them).

    Assets owned or controlled in the EU by designated DPRK persons, entities or bodies, including government bodies, are subject to an asset freeze and cannot be traded on the London Stock Exchange. A list of designations which has been placed in the Library includes a number of DPRK government and state-owned bodies. HM Treasury implements these financial sanctions in the UK. Non-compliance with financial sanctions is a criminal offence and HM Treasury works closely with law enforcement to ensure sanctions breaches are dealt with appropriately. For reasons of confidentiality, the Treasury does not make public the details of individual reports of frozen assets.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-10-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to fund Bikeability beyond 2015.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Funding for Bikeability is currently confirmed until the end of March 2016. We will take a decision on future funding for the Bikeability programme beyond March 2016 following the outcome of the Spending Review.

  • Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Ansell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the Goverment is providing for mature students who wish to enter the teaching profession; and if she will make a statement.

    Nick Gibb

    Mature students are an important source of new teachers and bring relevant knowledge and skills from their previous employment. In 2015/16, 21 per cent of new entrants to initial teacher training (ITT) courses were aged 30 or over. To attract more potential career changers, our marketing campaign, ‘Your Future, Their Future’, uses a range of media, including television advertising, national newspaper advertising and targeted digital and print communications. As part of this we will be running the ‘New Year New Career’ sub-campaign, which is dedicated to attracting career changers, throughout January 2016.

    We provide support specifically for career changers to make the transition to teaching, especially in the subjects where they are needed the most, including:

    • The School Direct (salaried) route is specifically targeted at career changers with three years’ work experience and allows them to earn a salary whilst they train to teach. We provide grant funding to schools to subsidise the costs of salary and training for trainees on this route.
    • For ITT 2016/17, we are working with 18 School Direct lead schools to develop and recruit to part-time and abridged School Direct (salaried) courses in maths and physics starting in September 2016. The aim of this pilot is to test whether schools can attract more career changers by offering flexible training routes which meet the needs of different individuals.

    In addition, career changers can access extensive support that is available for all ITT candidates. This includes bursaries or scholarships of up to £30,000 tax-free; advice and guidance from the expert advisers on the Get Into Teaching Line; help with arranging school experience to assist with their ITT application; and access to our free Train to Teach events.

    Those who wish to teach secondary biology, geography, maths, physics, chemistry, languages or computing are also eligible for our enhanced Premier Plus service. This includes tailored advice from a dedicated adviser, including the practicalities that often affect career changers, such as childcare funding. Applicants who wish to teach these subjects can also access funded Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses, through which they can boost or refresh their subject knowledge.

  • Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) total cost and (b) cost per sortie mission flown has been of UK military action in Syria since 2 December 2015.

    Penny Mordaunt

    It is not possible to separate out the costs of UK military action in Syria from that of wider Counter-Daesh operations due to the inter-related nature of the UK’s military activity. However, information on the net additional costs of Counter-Daesh operations during the financial year 2015-16 will be published in the Ministry of Defence’s Annual Report and Accounts, with £75 million approved by Parliament at Main Estimates in July 2015 to meet the initial net additional costs of such operations in 2015-16. We will update this estimate in our 2015-16 Supplementary Estimates which Her Majesty’s Treasury plan to lay before the House in February.

  • Mrs Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Mrs Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Anne Main on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when 100 per cent of residents in St Albans will have access to superfast broadband; and when ultrafast broadband will be rolled out in St Albans.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Based on current delivery plans, it is estimated that 98% of premises in the St Albans constituency will have access to superfast broadband by the end of June 2018. Additional funding sources, including Herts & Bucks share of the £129 million of early gainshare funding that BT will return in response to the high levels of take-up being achieved, could allow coverage to be extended further in St Albans and the rest of the area covered by the Herts & Bucks broadband project.

    Virgin Media already provides services over 100Mbps in many urban areas, including extensive network coverage in St Albans.

  • Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Metcalfe on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether Option A for a new Lower Thames Crossing is still (a) included in the consultation and (b) considered by his Department to be a viable option.

    Andrew Jones

    In July 2014, the Secretary of State for Transport announced the next steps for delivering a new Lower Thames crossing. This led to Highways England launching a public consultation on its proposals that started on 26 January 2016.

    I can confirm that Option A is included within the consultation and remains an option for consideration. I would encourage all local communities and businesses to provide their views before the end of the consultation on the 24 March 2016.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to (a) better identify visitors to the UK from other EEA countries who are being treated in NHS hospitals and (b) ensure that such visitors’ home countries are charged for their treatment.

    Alistair Burt

    Since its inception in 2013, the Department of Health’s Visitor and Migrant NHS Cost Recovery Programme has been working to design and implement key improvements to ensure that those people who should pay for National Health Service care in England are identified and charged. The Department has also been working closely with the NHS to improve rates of recovery where these healthcare costs are the responsibility of other member states of the European Economic Area (EEA) via the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), S1 and S2 mechanisms.

    Achievements include:

    – the revision of the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations that came into force on 6 April 2015, reducing the number of exemption from charge categories and realigning the Regulations to the principle that the NHS is a residency-based healthcare system;

    – support of and engagement with NHS providers through meetings with senior trust employees, plus the launch of a Cost Recovery Support Team to provide bespoke assistance to trusts to support them in improving their processes for identifying chargeable patients and recovering funds owed, including those from Europe;

    – the launch of the European Health Insurance Card reporting incentive on 1 October 2014. Through this, all EHIC activity correctly reported by NHS secondary providers that enables the UK to make appropriate reimbursement claims from other member states attracts an additional 25% funding of the costs of providing treatment for the benefit of the reporting organisation.

    The Department has recently concluded a consultation on the extension of charging overseas visitors and migrants using the NHS in England. Part of the consultation proposes to amend the residence definition for EEA nationals, by which they qualify for free NHS treatment in England. The Government will set out its response to the consultation in due course.

    EEA countries and Switzerland reimburse the UK for the cost of the NHS providing treatment to people they are responsible for under EU law, including UK nationals insured in another EEA country or Switzerland.

  • Lord Jopling – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Jopling – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jopling on 2016-04-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why people leaving the UK have their passports examined and recorded at some airports, whilst at others no examination takes place.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Border Force does not operate a uniform passport control regime against passengers departing the UK in the same way that it does for passengers who arrive in the UK. However, it does undertake targeted passport checks against selected cohorts of passengers leaving the UK for a range of law enforcement purposes.

    We check the passports of all those passing through passport control on entry to the UK and we also conduct exit checks.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much was spent on non-payroll staff in his Department in 2015-16.

    Mark Lancaster

    The amount spent on non-payroll staff in 2015-16 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.