Category: Speeches

  • Matthew Offord – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Matthew Offord – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of local authorities which have adopted powers under the London Local Authorities Act 2007 to re-use graves where burial rights have been extinguished since that Act came into force.

    Simon Hughes

    The Ministry of Justice has not made an estimate of the number of grave spaces created since the introduction of the London Local Authorities Act 2007 or the number of local authorities who have used powers under the Act to re-use graves. However, as the Ministry of Justice has responsibility for burial law and policy, I am keeping the issue of burial space under active review including considering what legislative changes might be necessary to address a shortage of graves.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps the Government has taken to protect the UK’s honeybee population.

    Dan Rogerson

    Recent steps taken by Defra to protect the UK’s honeybee population include the launch of the National Pollinator Strategy and conducting a 12 month policy review, in collaboration with stakeholders, on the pests and diseases affecting honeybees. Longer term initiatives include the Healthy Bees Plan and continued funding of the National Bee Unit.

  • Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the criteria are by which Arqiva assesses notspot data.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Notspot data is compiled and held by Ofcom, with information provided by the Mobile Network Operators. In areas where coverage is thought to be marginal, or there is uncertainty over coverage, DCMS officials have commissioned drive testing to check the level of coverage.

  • Katy Clark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Katy Clark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Katy Clark on 2014-04-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Iranian counterpart for the release of Shahrokh Zamani.

    Hugh Robertson

    We remain deeply concerned about the detention and treatment of labour activist Shahrokh Zamani. Unions and labour organisations have been heavily repressed in Iran, and many members have been arrested, jailed or harassed. We have called on Iran to fulfil its international and domestic obligations to allow freedom of expression to all Iranians.

  • Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will restrict the use of fused multi-disciplinary intelligence at the forthcoming Joint and Combined Geo-INT event held by the Defence Geospacial Intelligence and Fusion Centre at RAF Wyton.

    Mr Mark Francois

    Sharing and fusing intelligence in an increasingly complex world is essential if we are to understand threats to UK interests. The Ministry of Defence intelligence community works closely with international partners in the fulfilment of this aim. Any intelligence sharing is conducted in accordance with UK law.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many times she has visited Northern Ireland since 1 January 2014; and what the length was of each such visit.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    I have visited Northern Ireland 14 times since 1 January 2014. On two occasions the length of the visit was a day, on ten occasions the length of the visit was two days and on two occasions the length of the visit was 3 days.

  • Huw Irranca-Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Huw Irranca-Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of mango lots or number of shipments infested by tephriditae were rejected by Fera in each of the last five years; and from which source country each infected shipment was exported.

    Dan Rogerson

    The ban was imposed following persistent interceptions of plant pestson imports of Indian produce into the European Union (EU) and critical reports from the European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office audits in 2010 and 2013. Despite assurances from India in response to these reports the level of interceptions remained high. The EU’s decision to introduce a ban was therefore fully justified and supported by all Member States including the UK, in line with our policy of strengthening plant health controls. Therefore, no alternatives to a ban were considered by Defra.

    Protecting plant health is a key Defra objective. Plant pests and diseases such as those intercepted from India in recent years can cause serious damage to the UK glasshouse industry which is worth over £300 million per annum. However, I am aware of the importance of the mango trade and Defra officials are liaising with the Indian High Commission on what support the UK can offer to India to help it ensure compliance with EU import requirements.

    The following table shows the number of consignments of mangoes imported into the UK in the last five years which were infested with Tephriditae (and therefore rejected) by country of origin. The European Commission is considering similar measures to those taken against India for other countries with high levels of interceptions of plant pests. Such consideration takes account of findings from all Member States, and covers all plant commodities and all pests identified.

    Year

    Country of origin

    No. of consignments imported into the UK

    No. of consignments infected with Tephritidae

    2010

    Dominican Republic

    351

    1

    India

    1977

    1

    Jamaica

    228

    3

    Pakistan

    3302

    6

    2011

    Dominican Republic

    417

    2

    India

    1836

    11

    Jamaica

    262

    3

    Pakistan

    3690

    19

    Puerto Rico

    1

    1

    Sri Lanka

    144

    1

    Uganda

    138

    1

    2012

    Bangladesh

    146

    1

    Brazil

    445

    1

    Costa Rica

    70

    2

    Dominican Republic

    606

    18

    Ghana

    628

    15

    India

    3448

    23

    Jamaica

    332

    24

    Kenya

    2044

    4

    Pakistan

    5128

    81

    Philippines

    12

    2

    Sri Lanka

    189

    10

    St Lucia

    50

    1

    Thailand

    1050

    3

    Uganda

    104

    2

    2013

    Brazil

    316

    3

    Dominican Republic

    756

    16

    Ghana

    357

    4

    Guinea

    7

    1

    India

    3563

    13

    Jamaica

    516

    17

    Kenya

    1654

    17

    Pakistan

    5910

    47

    Puerto Rico

    104

    1

    Sri Lanka

    111

    3

    U A E

    1

    1

    Vietnam

    77

    1

    2014 (to 18/06/14)

    Brazil

    106

    1

    Dominican Republic

    420

    3

    Ghana

    271

    1

    India

    401

    1

    Jamaica

    464

    9

    Kenya

    698

    7

    Mexico

    61

    1

    Senegal

    4

    1

    Sri Lanka

    69

    3

    Source: Fera and Europhyt

  • Richard Burden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what formula is being used to distribute (a) the £185 million fund to help repair local roads damaged by severe weather announced and (b) the £200 million Challenge Fund announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2014 Budget Statement.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    (a) The distribution of the £185 million provided to help repair local roads damaged by severe weather is described table below.

    (b) Funding formula for the £200 million Challenge Fund announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2014 Budget Statement.

    £32 million is being provided directly to the devolved administrations as a result of the Barnett formula. It is a matter for the devolved administrations how their shares of the funds are used.

    On 24 April 2014 English local highway authorities were in invited to bid for a share of a £168 million Pothole Fund to repair local roads.

    Local authorities wishing to apply for a share of the funding are required to submit an application to the Department for Transport by 22 May 2014. Details of the application are available to view via:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pothole-fund-2014-to-2015-application

    “

  • Matthew Offord – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Matthew Offord – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his priorities are for renegotiating UK membership of the EU.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Government’s priorities are to reform the EU so that it is more flexible, competitive and democratically accountable. We want to see further deepening of the Single European Market, especially in services; an ambitious and sustained drive to cut red tape, and successful free trade negotiations with the United States, Japan and other countries. We are also seeking greater powers for groups of national parliaments to block or review EU legislation; an end to benefit tourism, and the development of Economic and Monetary Union in a way that safeguards the interests of countries which have chosen not to join the Euro. The Government has already made progress in delivering reform, including cutting the EU budget for the first time and securing reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy that include a ban on discards and a shift to the regional and local management of fisheries.

  • Graeme Morrice – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Graeme Morrice – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graeme Morrice on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many days were lost due to illness among Jobcentre Plus staff in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) West Lothian local authority area and (d) Livingston constituency in each of the last five years.

    Mike Penning

    DWP has robust and effective measures in place for managing sickness absence and has succeeded in cutting sickness absence from an annual average of 11.1 days per employee in 2007 to 6.9 days per employee currently. To place this in context the Civil Service average is 7.6 days.

    Jobcentre Plus was re-structured and absorbed into a revised Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Operations structure in October 2011. Since that point, it has no longer existed as a separate organisation. This means the information beyond September 2011 is not available.

    In accordance with cross government arrangements; the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reports sick leave expressed as average working days lost (AWDL) per employee, over a rolling 12 month period

    The following table shows Jobcentre Plus AWDL for 2009/10 and 2010/11. Information was not available for the period April to September 2011 because this was less than a 12 month period.

    2009/10

    2010/11

    UK

    8.8

    8.6

    Scotland

    8.2

    7.3

    West Lothian LA Area

    9.6

    7.4

    Livingston Constituency*

    10.9

    6.1

    *Information by Parliamentary Constituency is not held directly but information is available by office, therefore we have created a combined figure for the two offices in the Constituency – Livingstone Jobcentre and Broxburn Jobcentre.

    To put these reductions into context, if Average Working Days Lost in DWP was still at the level it was in 2007, the Department would be paying over £27.5m more in sick pay than it is at present.