Category: Speeches

  • Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations he has received from (a) the Council of Europe, (b) the UN and (c) other international bodies on the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

    Dominic Raab

    We have received no such formal representation. Ministry of Justice Ministers have met the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Jagland, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence de Greiff.

  • John Redwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    John Redwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many mobile pumps the Environment Agency owns.

    Rory Stewart

    The Environment Agency owns a total of 245 mobile pumping units which can be deployed to respond to flooding incidents.

    During the flooding in December 2015, 425 mobile pumping assets owned and held by responding organisations, including the Fire Services and the Environment Agency, were identified as being available to Strategic Coordination Groups (Gold Controls).

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 22908, on prisoner escapes, if he will place a copy of the letter to the hon. Member for Romford in the Library.

    Andrew Selous

    Once the information requested is available I will write to the hon. Member for Romford and place a copy of that reply in the Library.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hostage incidents in which a (a) prison officer and (b) prisoner was taken hostage have taken place in each prison establishment since January 2010.

    Andrew Selous

    Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. These figures demonstrate that the Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary are right and out prisons badly need reform.

    We are already trialling the use of body worn cameras in prisons, training sniffer dogs to detect new psychoactive substances and have made it an offence to smuggle new psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively rehabilitate offenders.

    Hostage incidents are rare occurrences. The table attached provides details of hostage incidents, broken down by establishment and victim type.

    Note: These figures have been drawn from the NOMS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last case the figures may not be accurate to that level.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Department has no record of receiving any funds from the European Social Fund.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the DVLA on the implications of the Supreme Court case, Beavis vs ParkingEye.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government is aware of the public concern at the way some private parking companies operate.

    Whilst we have not held any specific discussions with the DVLA or representatives of the private parking companies, we are currently reviewing responses to the discussion paper, “Parking Reform: Tackling Unfair Practices”.

    We will issue a response in due course.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the freeze on housing benefit rates, combined with an extended benefit cap and rising rents, on homeless families, and especially children, in particular in cases where local authorities have to place families in temporary housing far away from their local areas.

    Lord Freud

    The Government routinely publishes cumulative analysis of the impacts of its tax, welfare and public spending policies on households. The most recent assessment was published at Budget 2016 and is available on gov.uk. Nevertheless, such static analysis is limited in that it cannot robustly capture the behavioural changes encouraged by these policies. Considering welfare measures in isolation, such as Housing Benefit changes, would fail to recognise the impacts of tax and spending decisions such as the increase to the personal allowance and the provision of early years’ childcare, which are benefitting families up and down the country.

  • Peter Bottomley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Peter Bottomley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Bottomley on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the reasons given for the dismissal of Mr Agrawal were related to clinical concerns.

    Mr Jeremy Hunt

    This is an employer and employee matter between the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Mr Aditya Agrawal respectively. The Department cannot comment on individual employment matters that are the responsibility of independent organisations, and that are subject to ongoing legal proceedings or on matters relating to individual clinical cases or other personal information. We understand that the cost to East Lancashire Trust of legal proceedings concerning Mr Agrawal is £296,848.42 to date, and that the Trust does not have insurance costs for legal awards in the event of the Trust or one of its employees being subject to legal action for defamation.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times her Department has used the services of Denford Associates in each of the last five financial years; what work was so undertaken; and what the cost to the public purse was on each such occasion.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Department’s financial systems have no record of Denford Associates as a supplier, and it has not made any payments to them in the last five financial years.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with the government of Saudi Arabia on ending the conflict in Yemen.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) met with King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir during his visit to Saudi Arabia on 28 October. He discussed the need for accelerating the political process in Yemen and humanitarian issues, particularly the importance of ensuring sustained access for shipping. The UK is actively supporting the UN’s efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire and return to the political transition in Yemen. The UK has provided £85 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen.