Category: Speeches

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-04-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were released on temporary licence for (a) up to 12 hours, (b) 12 to 24 hours and (c) over 24 hours in a week in the latest period for which figures are available.

    Jeremy Wright

    Prisoners may be released on temporary licence for reasons linked to their resettlement needs and sentence plans, or where there are compelling circumstances that justify the release. Last month, we announced a range of measures to strengthen the existing temporary release provisions to ensure that the right balance is always struck between facilitating resettlement and protecting the public. Under our plans, public protection will always take priority.

    Data on the number of hours for which prisoners are released on temporary licence is not collated centrally.

    Data on temporary releases in 2012 is available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statistical-notice-releases-on-temporary-licence-2012

    “

  • Guy Opperman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Guy Opperman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Guy Opperman on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to raise the plight of persecuted Christians abroad; and what steps he is taking to raise the case of Meriam Ibrahim with his Sudanese counterpart.

    Mark Simmonds

    I am appalled at the death sentence given to Meriam Ibrahim, and her continued imprisonment. Immediately following her trial, I issued a statement describing her conviction as barbaric and calling upon the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion or belief and international human rights laws as enshrined in its own constitution. The Chargé d’Affaires of the Sudanese Embassy in London was summoned to the Foreign Office on the 19 May at the request of Foreign Secretary. DFID Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Lynne Featherstone, reiterated our demand with the Sudanese Foreign Minister when she met him on 20 May. Our Embassy in Khartoum, that attended her trial, continues to press the Sudanese authorities for Meriam Ibrahim’s release, and is in close contact with the defence team.

    This is a priority human rights area for us. We speak out regularly against violence perpetrated against Christians. The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi) gave a speech in Washington in November last year on the need for unity in confronting the intolerance and sectarianism that leads to minority communities being persecuted. We also lobby for changes in discriminatory laws and practices that affect religious minorities, including Christians, and support UN resolutions on the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Hollobone – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2014-04-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national prisoners were transferred to secure detention in their home country under (a) compulsory and (b) voluntary prisoner transfer agreements in each of the last five years.

    Jeremy Wright

    The table below sets out the number of prisoners who have transferred from a prison in England and Wales to a prison in their state of nationality in the last five years on both a compulsory and voluntary basis.

    Year of Transfer

    Voluntary Transfer

    Compulsory

    2009

    40

    2010

    46

    2011

    33

    2012

    40

    2013

    38

    5

    With the implementation of the Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA (The EU PTA) by the United Kingdom in December 2011 prisoners can be transferred on a voluntary or compulsory basis. Since the implementation of the EU PTA in December 2011 a total 18 EU Member States, including the United Kingdom, have brought the EU PTA in to force.

    Compulsory Prisoner Transfer Agreements can be difficult to negotiate, but we remain determined to secure them wherever possible. In January this year we signed a compulsory transfer agreement with Nigeria and last year we signed an agreement with Albania. We expect to see prisoner transfers to both these countries before the end of this year.

    We are also working hard to increase the number of Foreign National Offenders removed from prison under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) and the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS). In 2013, we removed nearly 2,000 FNOs under ERS and under TERS, which we introduced in May 2012, we have removed 237 prisoners to date.

    The numbers reported here are drawn from a Prison Service Case Tracking System. Care is taken when processing these cases but the figures may be subject to inaccuracies associated with any recording system.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department will be attending the high-level Ministerial Dialogue on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action on 6 June 2014 in Bonn, Germany; what the Government’s aims are in such talks; and if he will make a statement.

    Gregory Barker

    The UK is represented at senior official levels at Bonn. It is a mid-year meeting paving the way for the Lima Conference of Parties (COP) in December and ministers do not usually attend the Bonn meetings.

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times a Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Team has been used since May 2010; and how many deployments have occurred in situations where 20 or more people faced redundancy.

    Esther McVey

    The Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service works closely with employers and people facing redundancy to ensure they have access to all the help and information they need. The service aims to address the impact of job losses on workers and on the local community by helping people move into new jobs as quickly as possible.

    The number of people in work has increased by 1.35 million since 2010 – over a million of these jobs are full-time – and the employment rate is now 72.3%, the highest it has been since 2008.

    The level of redundancy is 55,000 lower than in 2010.

    7,506 employers have accepted redundancy support from the Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service since May 2010. Of these employers, 6,075 involved potential redundancies of 20 or more employees

  • Robert Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Robert Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Smith on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans his Department has to provide assistance to people with cold-related health conditions who are struggling to pay their heating bills.

    Gregory Barker

    The evidence is clear that living in cold homes can have a substantial range of negative health impacts. We have a strong package of policies already delivering assistance to those in need. These include:

    – the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) which funds efficient boilers and insulation measures to low income and vulnerable households and is now guaranteed until at least 2017;

    – the Warm Home Discount scheme, which gave over 1.2m of the lowest income pensioners £135 off their electricity bills in winter 2013/14, and supported more than 2m households in total;

    – Winter Fuel and Cold Weather payments which provide support to pensioners and vulnerable low income groups; and

    – the Big Energy Saving Network which is providing outreach to consumers, helping them understand tariffs and switching options as well as how they could benefit from energy efficiency programmes available to them.

    In July 2013 DECC published the document Fuel Poverty: a framework for future action, this stated Government’s intention to continue to prioritise ‘vulnerable’ fuel poor households (i.e. those containing an elderly person, a child or someone who is long term sick or disabled) within fuel poverty policies.

    We have been discussing links between fuel poverty and health with colleagues in the Department of Health, and Public Health England, at all levels, including Ministerial, as part of our preparation for a new fuel poverty strategy.

  • Yasmin Qureshi – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Yasmin Qureshi – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2014-04-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what time limit he has set for medical assessments for personal independence payments.

    Mike Penning

    We are committed to ensuring personal independence payment (PIP) claimants receive high quality, objective, fair and accurate assessments. Since the introduction of PIP new claims in April 2013, we have been closely monitoring all aspects of the process.

    As personal independence payment (PIP) is a new benefit, processes are currently bedding in. Our latest analysis is telling us that the end-to-end claimant journey is taking longer than expected. We are working closely with the assessment providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary steps to improve performance, speed up the process and ensure claimants receive a satisfactory experience. We are also seeking to ensure that all the steps in the process run as smoothly as possible and that there are no barriers in our processes and systems that contribute to claims taking longer than necessary to progress.

    Whilst there are no statutory (legal) requirements to complete action on a claim to PIP within a specified time, we have set both personal independence payment assessment providers a target for the length of time to complete assessments of 30 working days.

    Any delays experienced in the new claims process will not affect the date from which claimants are paid; all successful claims will be paid from the date the claim was initially made or the date the qualifying period is met, whichever is the later.

    As for the administration of all benefits, a claimant is free to complain about the service they have received from the Department for Work and Pensions. Complaints about the service received from our assessment providers should be made direct to the relevant assessment provider. A complaint may result in a special payment if the claimant has experienced unfair treatment or suffered financially.

    The Department has robust expectations for provider performance and contracts include a full set of service level agreements setting out expectations for service delivery, including quality of assessments and the number of days to provide advice to the Department. Officials meet regularly with both assessment providers to discuss performance. The contracts include a range of remedies and failure to meet contractual obligations will result in the Department applying service credits in line with the contract.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what steps he is taking to disseminate the lessons learned from the data mining pilots for the introduction of individual electoral registrations; and if he will make a statement.

    Greg Clark

    The Government published its results in March 2012 and July 2013 and can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/60723/FINAL-Data-Matching-Evaluation-Report-new.pdf

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223850/Data_Mining_Evaluation_FULL_Report_FINAL.pdf

    The Electoral Commission also produced their assessment of the pilots. Their reports can be found at:

    http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/162106/Data-mining-pilot-evaluation-report.pdf

    http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/146836/Data-matching-pilot-evaluation.pdf

    “

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the statement on 19 March by the President of Turkey that the internal peace process should be completed, by giving democratic rights and equal citizenship to the Kurdish people together with freedom for the press and other media.

    Baroness Warsi

    We welcome the comments made by President Gül regarding the Kurdish population in Turkey, which we assess as an important reaffirmation of the Turkish government’s commitment to finding a sustainable solution to the Kurdish issue.

    We have been encouraged by the efforts on both sides to reach a solution and welcome the continuing ceasefire, as well as the President Gül’s approval of the democratisation package in March.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what use his Department has made of the National Wellbeing Index introduced by the Office for National Statistics in formulating policy since the introduction of that Index in 2011; and what policies his Department has introduced to improve national wellbeing as defined in that Index since 2010.

    Norman Lamb

    The Department has worked closely with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the development of the Measuring National Wellbeing Framework. Given the experimental nature of the data it is too early to use it specifically to formulate policy. However, some examples of relevant work taken forward by the Department include:

    – working in partnership with ONS to include a measure of mental wellbeing into the Measuring National Wellbeing Framework;

    – including wellbeing questions on a range of health surveys, for example the Health Survey for England, Health Behaviours of School-aged Children, the trial of a local level survey of 15 year olds, and the current wave of the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey;

    – including wellbeing as a key indicator in the Public Health Outcomes Framework;

    – publishing a narrative and a series of factsheets on why wellbeing matters to health policy;

    – publishing a report on the predictors of wellbeing across the lifecourse;

    – conducting two wellbeing workshops with policy makers to allow them to consider their policies from a wellbeing perspective; and

    – co-founding a collaborative studentship with the University of Warwick on positive genetics using twin data to explore how genetics are related to wellbeing.

    Wellbeing will also be considered in the forthcoming Chief Medical Officer’s annual report.