UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Speeches

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of staff on the payroll of her Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.

    George Eustice

    All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules. Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

    More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Lord Harris of Haringey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Harris of Haringey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harris of Haringey on 2015-11-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, in how many instances people have been imprisoned for defaulting on payment of their council tax.

    Lord Faulks

    Data showing how many people were imprisoned for non-payment of council tax in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are presented in the table below:

    Year

    Total

    2012

    107

    2013

    108

    2014

    89

    Notes:

    These data are sourced from the Libra Management Information System (MIS). As such this data set is not subject to the same levels of quality assurance as national statistics

    In extracting this data only offences of complaint for council tax committal application have been included where the court hearing date occurred within each year reported (i.e. between 1 January and 31 December).

    It should also be noted that, although committals to prison are reported as occurring within a particular financial year, the non-payment of council tax itself may relate to a previous financial year or even a period covering more than one financial year.

    Committal to prison for non-payment of council tax can be challenged through a judicial review in the High Court. The table below shows the number of judicial reviews relating to imprisonment for non-payment of council tax in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and the outcomes.

    Year

    Number of Judicial Reviews

    Upheld

    Refused

    2012

    0

    0

    0

    2013

    0

    0

    0

    2014

    2

    0

    2

    Notes:

    These data were obtained from a manual check of judicial reviews carried out specifically to answer this question.

  • Lord Condon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Condon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Condon on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what new arrangements have been made in 2015, nationally, regionally, or locally, for police forces formally to share operational or support functions.

    Lord Bates

    Chief Constables and PCCs are best placed to consider whether and how their forces’ operational or support functions should be shared. The number of collaborations continues to increase, with at least 4 new alliances involving 9 forces announced in 2015.

    Regional Organised Crime Units, the National Crime Agency and local law enforcement continue to develop specialist capabilities to tackle a range of threats, including serious and organised crime, child sexual abuse and cyber crime. The Government supports the current review by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners into where specialist policing capabilities best sit, and how they should be delivered, to provide a common basis for future collaboration decisions.

    To continue to strengthen and improve mutual aid arrangements, the National Police Coordination Centre is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing to develop consistent national standards.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the universal credit in-work conditionality pilots track outcomes for people who are no longer in receipt of that credit.

    Priti Patel

    We will track the outcomes of all people who participate in the In-Work Progression Randomised Control Trial, including those who are no longer claiming Universal Credit.

  • Lord Mawson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Mawson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the policy of the police to support complainants of child sexual assault who are under 18 years of age with specially trained officers, what assessment they have made of the case for extending the use of specially trained officers to support all children and young people under 18 years of age who are brought into police custody, and what plans, if any, they have to make such a change.

    Lord Bates

    The Government is committed to ensuring that children and young people are protected and treated appropriately in all circumstances while in police custody. As set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 Codes of Practice C&H, every child or young person taken into police custody on suspicion of committing an offence must be provided with an Appropriate Adult, whose role it is to safeguard their rights and welfare. In addition, a parent or legal guardian must be informed of their detention.

    It is the responsibility of the chief officer of each force to adhere to the safeguards set out in PACE and its Codes of Practice. Police forces should ensure that officers interviewing child victims, including victims of sexual assault, are trained to apply the relevant College of Policing and Ministry of Justice guidance. The College of Policing’s Advanced Professional Practice on ‘Concern for a Child’ is clear that the police should always consider the services of a registered intermediary when a vulnerable child victim is interviewed.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will ask her German counterpart to supply the Government with emissions data from new ultra super-critical coal-fired power stations in that country; and if she will place that data in the Library.

    Andrea Leadsom

    I have no plans to ask for emissions data from new ultra super-critical coal-fired power stations in Germany.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2016 to Question 30445, to which regions the 173 volunteer Enterprise Advisers have been appointed.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is continuing to make excellent progress to transform the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement experiences for young people, including growing its Enterprise Advisers Network. The CEC is responsible for the administrative resources provided to the network. We therefore suggest contacting the company directly for detailed information about the network, including regions to which Enterprise Co-ordinators and Advisers have been appointed. The CEC can be contacted at info@careersandenterprise.co.uk.

    “

  • Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of fast broadband and mobile phones in sending diagnostic information between patients in their own homes and medical practitioners.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Government supports the wider use of information technologies in health and social care and the creation of a paperless National Health Service by 2020.

    Investments in health technology were announced in the autumn statement and will help patients and staff access the services they need and facilitate use of online services and apps including those that enable communication between patients and their medical and other health and social care practitioners.

    The Government welcomes the recommendations to increase take-up of internet enabled services that were made by Martha Lane Fox in December 2015. These recommendations will inform the delivery of the National Implementation Board’s contribution to the implementation of the NHS strategic plan for England outlined in the NHS Five Year Forward View.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate her Department has made of the number of refugee children currently receiving an education in Syria; and what assessment she has made of the quality of that education provision.

    Rory Stewart

    The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) estimates that a total of 5.4 million Syrian children and youth (aged 5-17 years) inside Syria are in need of educational assistance. The UK works closely with UNICEF and other partners to protect access to education across the whole of Syria, improve safety in and around schools, and maintain the quality of teaching and learning as far as is possible in an active war-zone. However, it is not possible systematically to measure the quality of learning and teaching inside Syria in the way that the UK does in more stable countries. UK education assistance has supported around half a million children inside Syria.

    UK funding supports the provision of vital learning materials, remedial and alternative education for children who have lost months or years of schooling, and access to the official exams that enable children to secure higher education and jobs. UK support is also helping teachers to stay in the teacher workforce.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress her Department has made on developing a futures market for UK dairy farmers.

    George Eustice

    Analysis recently completed by Defra, working with HM Treasury and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), has identified that futures markets have a role to play in tackling price risks, improving price transparency and encouraging the development of longer-term contracts across the supply chain. We are now working closely with AHDB’s Volatility Forum to see how this work can be taken forward, although it would be for the financial exchanges to come up with a specific proposition. It is encouraging that some UK dairies are already offering their farmers opportunities to trade on futures markets