Category: Speeches

  • Lord Addington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Addington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Addington on 2016-02-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the timetable for the publication of the recommendations of the Department for Education’s independent expert group, led by Stephen Munday CBE, on improving the quality of initial teacher training courses in England.

    Lord Nash

    Ministers of the Department for Education are awaiting the report from Stephen Munday’s independent expert group on the content of initial teacher training, which is expected this spring. The Government will consider the group’s recommendations carefully and determine how they should be taken forward.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) nurses, (b) doctors and (c) allied health professionals practised overseas after qualifying from a UK institution in (i) 2013-14 and (ii) 2014-15; and how many of those professionals (i) hold British passports and (ii) were classified as overseas students when studying in the UK.

    Ben Gummer

    The information is not held by the Department.

  • Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department has paid to Morning Lane Associates (a) directly and (b) through other organisations in (i) 2012-13, (ii) 2013-14, (iii) 2014-15 and (iv) 2015-16.

    Nick Gibb

    The web-link below shows the total value of payments made to Morning Lane Associates in each of the requested financial years.

    The Department does not hold information on payments made by other organisations.

    Each month, the Department publishes data for transparency purposes in line with the Government’s transparency agenda. All payments over £25,000 are published. Supplier payment details can be found by searching the published data on GOV.UK:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dfe-and-executive-agency-spend-over-25000-2015-to-2016

    “

  • Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-05-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 26 April (HL7583 and HL7584), what assessment they have made of whether the same collateral could be used to support risk at both LCH and Eurex.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    I refer the noble Lord to my previous answers of 26 April (HL7583 and HL7780) which noted that, once notified of the merger, the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority would assess the proposal from a regulatory standpoint, and that it would also be subject to assessments and approvals by the competition authorities, overseas regulators, and shareholders.

    My previous answers further noted that any inter central counterparty links would need to be assessed against the relevant parts of European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) by the Bank of England, as supervisor of LCH.

  • Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer on 2016-06-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current health and status of earthworm populations in English arable soils, and based on research and surveys carried out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ commissioned research and research of other organisations, what trends they have identified in the last two decades.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Defra is working closely with the research councils and is funding research to improve our understanding of the role of soil biodiversity in contributing to soil condition. This research includes a Defra-funded review of the current available UK-affiliated evidence base. The Report of the review was published in March and has been placed in the House Library.

    We are looking closely at its findings, including whether there is a need to carry out analysis of trends in biodiversity in order to understand better how the functions it supports, such as soil structure, water movement, nutrient dynamics and plant growth, contribute to soil condition across a range of ecosystem services and management practices.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the disclosure by Equal Justice of details of six new discrimination claims involving race, sex and gender against the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), what action they are taking to ensure that MPS black and ethnic minority groups are able to work in an environment that is safe and free from abuse.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Government takes allegations of unlawful discrimination in the police very seriously and is firmly committed to ensuring the highest possible standards in policing. Such allegations must be investigated thoroughly and, when and where required, perpetrators must be dealt with robustly.

    We are reforming the police disciplinary system to ensure it delivers greater transparency and accountability. We are implementing the recommendations of the Chapman Review to make the police disciplinary system less adversarial with a greater focus on rehabilitation, development and improvement where possible, whilst ensuring the most serious matters are dealt with appropriately and robustly through the police conduct system.

    It is essential that the actions and behaviour of racist police officers are not allowed to undermine public confidence in the police’s ability to respond to, investigate and fight crime, or to tarnish the reputation of the police and the majority of officers who work closely and effectively with people from all communities.

    The public must also have trust that the police represent the communicates they serve, and the proportion of police officers who are from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds has now risen to its highest level ever with forces taking important steps to attract staff from a diverse range of backgrounds.

  • 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 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he intends to implement a single consolidated legislative framework for taxis throughout England and Wales.

    Andrew Jones

    A single legislative framework for taxis and private hire vehicles throughout England and Wales was one of the recommendations of the Law Commission following their comprehensive review of taxi and private hire legislation.

    The Government is continuing to consider the Law Commission’s report in its entirety and in line with the protocol that exists between the Government and the Law Commission, the Government will formally respond to the Law Commission and announce its intentions in due course.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to protect civilians in Syria in its strategy to tackle ISIL.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Ultimately the best way to protect civilians in Syria from Daesh’s brutality and inhumanity is by defeating Daesh and establishing peace and stability in the region. We are the second largest bilateral donor of humanitarian aid to Syria and the region. Many of our projects are aimed at protecting civilians – such as support to civil defence and search and rescue teams throughout Syria.

    By joining Coalition airstrikes in Syria, the UK is bringing the most advanced forms of targeting and precision weaponry, possessed by only a small number of international actors. We observe rigorous targeting protocols. These have meant that in more than a year of strikes against Daesh targets in Iraq, there have been no reports of civilian casualties resulting from UK operations. We are bringing these same protocols in our work in Syria.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many computers each jobcentre in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West has available for recipients of universal credit to access benefits online.

    Priti Patel

    The number of computers available in jobcentres for recipients to access benefits online are as follows:

    Burnley 6

    Lancashire 191

    North West 474

    In addition, claimants who do not have their own internet access can be signposted to local services such as libraries or local authority facilities.

  • Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of re-trafficking were recorded in the pilot child trafficking advocacy scheme.

    Lord Bates

    The National Crime Agency is responsible for the assessment of threats, including methods of trafficking by criminals. Information on this is not centrally recorded on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Data included in NRM referral forms concentrates on detail specifically required to prove the three constituent elements of human trafficking. This would not necessarily include the detail required to assess methodology used to re-traffick victims and as such does not form part of assessment reporting. The independent evaluation of the trial by the University of Bedfordshire collected data on the number of all potentially trafficked children referred to the trial, along with their characteristics including age, gender and geographical location, as well as the number of children that were recorded as missing. However the evaluation did not collect data on the number of children in the trial that were re-trafficked and it is not possible to determine how many of those children who went missing were subsequently re-trafficked.