Category: Speeches

  • Pete Wishart – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Pete Wishart – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pete Wishart on 2014-03-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on Scotland’s justice system of the UK Government opting out of EU justice measures and then negotiating its re-entry into specific measures.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government is clear that there is no need for there to be an operational gap after 1 December, and is negotiating on that basis. Other Member States support the UK position and are keen for this process to be concluded as swiftly as possible to provide certainty for all involved.

    The Government has engaged with the Devolved Administrations throughout this process at Ministerial and official level. The Immigration and Security Minister (James Brokenshire) visited Edinburgh last year, where he met the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill, representatives from the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland and the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC. I plan to visit Edinburgh to discuss this matter further later this year.

  • David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the change in waiting times for an initial decision for Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa applications in the last year; what the average waiting time is for an initial decision for a Tier 1 application; and what assessment she has made of the economic effect of the time taken for such decisions on economic growth.

    James Brokenshire

    The average waiting time for a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) customer in the financial
    year 2013-14 was 125 calendar days. The number of days taken to process
    applications dropped by 50 days over the course of the financial year and
    processing times continue to decrease.

    A record number of applications were decided in the financial year 2013-14, and
    there is nothing to suggest that processing times are deterring entrepreneurs
    from applying.

    Month Despatched

    Average Calendar Days Between Application Raised Date and Despatch Date

    Apr-13

    131

    May-13

    148

    Jun-13

    142

    Jul-13

    129

    Aug-13

    134

    Sep-13

    126

    Oct-13

    96

    Nov-13

    108

    Dec-13

    114

    Jan-14

    141

    Feb-14

    97

    Mar-14

    81

    Overall Average / Total Cases

    125

  • Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gould of Potternewton on 2014-03-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that the current legislation against female genital mutilation provides sufficient protection against the practice, whether carried out in the United Kingdom or abroad.

    Lord Faulks

    The Government is committed to tackling and preventing the harmful and unacceptable practice of female genital mutilation.

    The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 extended significantly the protection that the law affords to victims of this unacceptable practice. However, to deal with perpetrators of these offences, cases must be reported to the police and the evidential and public interest tests for prosecution must be met. At the time of mutilation, victims may be too young and vulnerable, or too afraid, to report offences. They may also be reluctant to implicate family members. These barriers to prosecution cannot easily be overcome. Therefore it is important to find ways of building a case that do not necessarily rely on the testimony of child victims.

    As part of cross-government work, the Ministry of Justice is already considering suggestions made by the Director of Public Prosecutions for strengthening the criminal law on female genital mutilation to make successful prosecutions more likely.

    We welcome the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into this area and will give careful consideration to any additional recommendations for legislative change that may be made by the Committee when it reports in due course.

  • David Amess – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    David Amess – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of failure to return a completed abortion notification form in each of the last five years.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. However, not all offences are individually reported within the centrally held data. It is not possible to separately identify from this centrally held information convictions resulting from failure to return a completed abortion notification form. This information may be held by the individual courts in England and Wales and as such it can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Lord Davies of Stamford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Davies of Stamford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Davies of Stamford on 2014-03-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the level of cuts to funding for tertiary education students aged 18 in Lincoln and the East Midlands.

    Lord Nash

    On 13 March we announced that we would mitigate the impact in academic year 2014/15 of the reduction in funding for 18-year-olds that we announced at the spending round in June 2013.

    Without this mitigation, the reduction in funding for 18-year-olds would have led to a reduction of around 2% of total funding for 16- to 18-year-olds in the East Midlands and 3% in Lincoln.

    The mitigation policy that we have just announced is to ensure that no institution will lose more than 2% of its 16- to 18-year-old funding in academic year 2014/15 as a result of the reduction in funding for 18-year-olds, and Lincoln College (the only further education college in Lincoln) will benefit from this mitigation. This will give schools and colleges more time to adapt to the change, including for those students who are already on courses.

  • Marcus Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Marcus Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Marcus Jones on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in schools in Nuneaton will receive free school meals from 2014-15.

    Mr David Laws

    The information requested is not available. Receipt of a free school meal is dependent upon eligible parents or pupils making an application, and it is not possible to predict how many will do so.

    We do, however, recognise that 631 pupils in reception, year 1 and 2 were known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals in Nuneaton constituency in January 2014. This was 18.7% of all pupils in those year groups. With the introduction of universal infant free school meals in September 2014, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 will be eligible for a free school lunch.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Emily Thornberry – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2014-03-25.

    To ask the Attorney General, when the next inspection of the Services Prosecuting Authority is planned by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

    Oliver Heald

    There are currently no plans for HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate to carry out an inspection of the Service Prosecution Authority

  • 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 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether Joint Services Publication 398 on UK Rules of Engagement has been amended to reflect use of remotely piloted aircraft systems.

    Mr Mark Francois

    JSP 398 was updated on 21 October 2013, replacing the previous 2004 edition. Rules of engagement govern how force can be applied in any given operation. They are not tailored to weapon system types per se, but are written to be applied as appropriate to the full spectrum of weapons systems available to UK Forces. Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are governed by the same rules and regulations as any other weapons system; therefore the amendment of JSP 398 did not require any special provision to reflect the use of RPAS by UK Forces.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-03-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department issues guidance to local authorities on how best to make use of unutilized foster carers.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The Department for Education has not issued guidance to local authorities on how best to make use of unutilised foster carers. Local authorities are required, under Section 22G of the Children Act 1989, to take steps that secure, so far as reasonably practicable, sufficient accommodation within the authority’s area that meets the needs of children that the local authority is looking after, and whose circumstances are such that it would be consistent with their welfare for them to be provided with accommodation that is in the local authority’s area (‘the sufficiency duty’).

    Since April 2013 the Department has been working with consortia of local authorities and sector partners to:

    1. develop and test innovative solutions for the recruitment and retention of foster carers
    2. identify gaps in the capacity of the foster carer workforce
    3. develop effective strategies for recruiting and retaining foster carers.

    We will be sharing the lessons learned and disseminating any tools that have been developed during the project more widely following testing.

  • Kate Green – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kate Green – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-06-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what support his Department provides to reserve military personnel forced to leave military service as a result of injury sustained in the course of duty.

    Anna Soubry

    The provision of healthcare for veterans in the UK is the responsibility of NHS(England) and the Devolved Administrations. For NHS(England) this is the responsibility of individual GP-led Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs). The comprehensive services CCGs commission reflect local priorities and the aspirations of the Armed Forces Covenant.

    When mobilised, a Reservist has the same entitlement to healthcare provided by Defence Medical Services as a Regular Service person. The Defence Medical Rehabilitation Programme provides rehabilitation for injured or ill personnel, including Reservists mobilised for operations. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is extending rehabilitation services to Reservists injured during training; which will facilitate their return to fitness.

    The MOD also provides War Disablement Pensions under the War Pensions Scheme if Reservists are no longer serving in HM Armed Forces and their disablement arose before 6 April 2005. The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme provides compensation for any injury, illness or death which is caused by service on or after 6 April 2005.

    Help and advice is available to all veterans, including Reserves, from Veterans UK (formerly the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency). Information about how to claim a war pension or AFCS is available from Veterans UK at www.veterans.uk.info, or email veterans.help@spva.gsi.gov.uk or free helpline 0808 1914 2 18. Veterans UK can signpost individuals to other sources of assistance including the Veteran’s Welfare Service, which provides dedicated welfare support to veterans (including Reserves), their families, and dependants.