Category: Speeches

Lord Boswell of Aynho – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Boswell of Aynho on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each government department, from July to December 2015, on how many occasions the scrutiny reserve resolution in (1) the House of Lords, and (2) the House of Commons, was overridden, and in respect of how many documents an override occurred in (1) both Houses, or (2) either House.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Between July and December 2015, 434 Explanatory Memoranda on EU documents were submitted for scrutiny. There were 54 occasions when the Government supported decisions in the EU Council of Ministers before the scrutiny procedures had been completed by either one or both Scrutiny Committees. In each case the Government wrote to the Scrutiny Committees to explain the reasons why it was important for the Government to support the proposal before the scrutiny process could be completed or where the Committees were unable to provide a waiver for the Government to support the proposal whilst retaining the issue under scrutiny. As with previous six-monthly periods, the largest category of instrument were fast-moving EU restrictive measures where there were overrides on 40 such measures (74 per cent of the total number) of which 12 measures addressed the situation in Iran.

The figures requested are set out below:

Department	(1). House of Lords Override	(2). House of Commons override	(1). No. of overrides in both Houses	(2). Total no. of overrides
Foreign and Commonwealth Office	42	44	41	45
HM Treasury	7	7	7	7
Culture, Media and Sport	1	1	1	1
Food Standards Agency	0	1	0	1
Totals	50	53	49	54

I refer the noble Lord to my answer of 29 July 2015 (HL1633) which presented the figures for overrides for the period January-June 2015. That answer contained two errors. In a letter dated 16 September 2015 to the Chairs of the two Scrutiny Committees, the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington), undertook to correct the errors when providing figures for the period July-December 2015. One Foreign and Commonwealth Office override on the Council decision extending the mandate of the EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina had been counted twice. This brings the overall total down from 90 to 89. The total in the House of Lords (54) is unchanged since the Committee cleared that proposal before adoption, but it does reduce the number declared for the House of Commons from 86 to 85. The answer also stated that the 39 measures (the largest category of the total) were the Common Foreign and Security Policy restrictive measures. A recalculation has shown the figure to be 38. The earlier answer also highlighted an unresolved issue of whether an override needed to be recorded against a Commission Communication on the Paris Protocol (‘A Blueprint for tackling Global Climate Change beyond 2020’) because discussion with the European Scrutiny Committee had at that stage not been concluded. It was subsequently agreed that agreement of the document did not need to be recorded as a scrutiny override.

01/01/2023

Lord McColl of Dulwich – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord McColl of Dulwich on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many EEA nationals with ongoing applications for discretionary leave to remain as victims of human trafficking have been issued with minded to remove” letters or administrative removal papers since 1 January 2014.”

Lord Bates

Since 01 January 2014, no EEA Nationals with ongoing applications for Discretionary Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom as victims of human trafficking have been served with ‘minded to remove’ letters or administrative removal papers whilst their applications were being considered.

In the same time period,fewer than five applicants were served with papers before they made an application for Discretionary Leave to Remain.

01/01/2023
John Stevenson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Stevenson on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Attorney General, whether his Department plans to move any government legal services to the north of England.

Jeremy Wright

The Government Legal Department (GLD) provides legal services to Ministry of Justice, as well as to the majority of other government departments. GLD provides these services to Government principally from London, but also from a number of other locations including Manchester, Leeds, Warrington and Bristol. GLD is currently reviewing its location strategy, including whether it should provide further legal services from locations outside London, but has made no decision to that effect.

01/01/2023
Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to promote Bristol as a location for small businesses with an eco-agenda.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Supporting our cities to grow is a key part of the Government’s long-term economic plan. As such Government departments are working together to support UK businesses by creating an effective business environment that allows them to flourish.

An example of this work can be seen in the Bristol City Deal. As part of this deal the Government agreed to provide over £2m towards creating Invest in Bristol and Bath, a dedicated service established to attract investment to the region. In its first year of operation, Invest in Bristol and Bath helped 30 new companies locate or expand in the West of England area. This has the potential to deliver more than 530 new jobs by 2017.

Building on the Bristol City Deal, the recently announced West of England Devolution Agreement sets out further ways in which Government will work with the planned West of England Combined Authority to support business growth across the city-region.

01/01/2023
Deidre Brock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguard rescue (a) employees and (b) volunteers cover Scotland.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The number of Coastguard rescue (a) employees and (b) volunteers that cover Scotland are as follows:

(A) Employees

HM Coastguards National Network enables the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) and 9 Coastguard Operations Centres (CGOC) to coordinate any incident anywhere around the UK coast. Workload is therefore managed on a national basis enabling national capability and resource to be available to any incident. There are 314 full time equivalent Coastguard posts within the national network of which 69 are based at CGOCs located in Scotland (Aberdeen, Shetland and Stornoway).

There are 37 full time equivalent Coastguard posts that are responsible for the management, training and oversight of the volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams that cover Scotland.

(B) Volunteers

There is an establishment of 1,226 volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers that cover Scotland.

01/01/2023
Nick Clegg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Clegg on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how much his Department has spent to date on legal advice from (a) the Government Legal Department and (b) external legal firms; and how much he plans to spend on such advice in the next 12 months.

Mr David Jones

The department is currently assessing the overall requirement for legal advice and the associated funding requirement over the next 12 months . To date the department has incurred an estimated total of £256,000 in fixed fee legal advice with the Government Legal Department and a further £12,711 in relation to additional billed fees and disbursements. No spend has been incurred in relation to external legal firms.

01/01/2023
Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Healthier Together programme.

Mr Philip Dunne

No assessment has been made. These are matters for the local National Health Service.

We are advised by NHS England that effectiveness of the Healthier Together programme will be continually monitored throughout the implementation phase. The aim of the programme is to improve standards and quality of care for all patients across Greater Manchester. To support this, a “Healthier Together Dashboard” has been developed and is now operational. The Dashboard allows real time tracking of compliance with the Healthier Together standards.

This began with the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit standards for emergency general surgery. These are being monitored and improved within and across sectors, to demonstrate how compliance with standards will be improved. The next stage will add National Cardiac Arrest Audit information.

01/01/2023
Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what rules they have put in place to ensure that transgender persons are placed in prisons that are appropriate for them based on their gender identity.

Lord Faulks

Prison Service Instruction 07/2011 sets out NOMS policy on the care and management of prisoners who live or propose to live in a gender other than the one assigned at birth. Prisoners are normally placed according to their legally recognised gender. However, the guidelines allow room for discretion and senior prison staff will review the circumstances of every case in consultation with medical and other experts in order to protect the physical and emotional wellbeing of the person concerned along with the safety and wellbeing of other prisoners.

A review of the current policy on transgender and transsexual prisoners began earlier this year and revised policy guidance will be issued to reflect NOMS’ responsibilties to transgender offenders in the community as well as in custody. The intention is to implement the guidance early in the New Year.

01/01/2023
Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the (a) forecast reduction in cases of and deaths from infection by Group C meningococcal disease as a result of the introduction of the meningitis C vaccine to the UK schedule in 1999, (b) number of meningitis C vaccinations administered in each year since that programme began and (c) cost of delivering that programme in each year since 1999.

Jane Ellison

Deaths have fallen from 110 in 1998/99 to an annual average of 3 deaths over the last 10 years. Annual MenC cases and deaths have therefore been respectively 97% and 96% lower in the last 10 years than in the year before vaccination was available.

Routine immunisation programmes with MenC containing vaccines have changed since 1999 and this has affected the ability to collect estimate annual numbers of doses administered for each vaccine offered but currently around 96% of infants receive MenC vaccine and 93% of one year olds receive their MenC-Hib booster in England by their second birthday. Coverage data are not routinely collected on the third dose in adolescence (currently MenACWY vaccine) which began in the 2013-2014 school year.

The administrative costs for the MenC programme are included in the global sum payment to general practitioners (managed by NHS England) which covers the costs of providing essential and additional primary care services.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure greater collaboration between businesses and education to promote skills for potential future careers.

Nick Boles

We are strengthening business influence in schools, further education, the skills system, higher education and in giving young people a broad experience of the careers options open to them. Our education reforms are ensuring that young people leave school or college with everything they need to get on and succeed in life. The new Careers and Enterprise Company aims to help schools and colleges in England to prepare young people aged 12 to 18 for the world of work, and increase the level of employer engagement in schools and colleges across England.

In further education we have given employer-led Local Enterprise Partnerships significant local influence over the skills system. National Colleges are being established by employer-led partnerships to design and deliver specific higher level training, and we are working in direct partnership with employers in reforming technical and professional education to ensure the new system provides the skills most needed for the 21st century economy. In trailblazer apprenticeships, employers develop the standards themselves.

In higher education, the government fully supports and actively encourages collaboration between universities and business. Partnership is needed to ensure graduate skills and employability meet the needs of business, to maximise the university sector’s capabilities in business-led research and innovation, and to realise the benefits of a strong role for Higher Education Institutions in the development of their local economies.

01/01/2023