Category: Speeches

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-03-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the empty property business rates for the vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS database owned by (a) his Department and (b) any executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies of his Department in the current financial year.

    Elizabeth Truss

    Since May 2010 the Department for Education has reduced the size of its estate from 30 properties, at a cost of circa £51 million per annum, to 11 properties costing circa £34 million per annum. This is a saving of circa £17 million per annum. The Department is planning to further reduce the size of the estate to 6 properties. This will achieve further annual savings to the Department of circa £2.5 million. The Department also plans to vacate Sanctuary Buildings at lease expiry in 2017.

    The Department for Education, including the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), has the following vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS property database.

    Number of properties

    Business Rates 13-14

    Department for Education

    3

    £79,010.25

    Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

    1

    £9,222.00

    The Department for Education properties are legacy Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) properties which became the Department’s responsibility following the closure of the TEC in the early 2000s. The Department had successfully sub-let a number of facilities, although over the last three years some of the sub-tenants have operated lease break options and the properties are again vacant.

    These properties are advertised on the Government Property Unit’s e-PIMS property database for use by other Government Departments and we are also marketing these facilities to the private sector, via letting agents, to secure new sub-tenants in order to mitigate costs, including business rates. The Department has offered all vacant properties listed above to the Government business incubator initiative and for free schools.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the value of (a) exports to and (b) imports from Egypt was in each of the last three years.

    Hugh Robertson

    According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), UK imports from Egypt were worth £1.36 billion in 2010, 1.41 billion in 2011 and 1.21 billion in 2012. Over the same period, UK exports to Egypt were worth £1.77 billion in 2010, 1.70 billion in 2011 and 1.59 billion in 2012. ONS figures from 2013 will be published in October 2014.

  • Ms Karen Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Ms Karen Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Karen Buck on 2014-03-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many homeless households have been placed in temporary accommodation in each London local authority by councils other than their own in each of the last eight quarters.

    Kris Hopkins

    [Holding Reply: Monday 17 March 2014]

    I refer the hon. Member to my answer to her of 19 December 2013, Official Report, Column 713W.

  • Maria Eagle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Maria Eagle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Answer of 18 March 2014, Official Report, columns 527-8W, on the Bellwin scheme, how much has been (a) allocated to and (b) received by each of the authorities which have registered for funding under the Bellwin scheme.

    Brandon Lewis

    Bellwin provides emergency financial assistance to local authorities to help them meet uninsurable costs they incur when responding to a major emergency in their area. The level of funding over time is causally linked to the scale of flooding or other emergency. As was the case under previous and current Administrations, it operates by local authorities retrospectively claiming spending back.

    As at 9 June, 110 local authorities have registered for the December 2013 to February 2014 severe weather events. They now have until 30 June 2014 to submit their formal claims. However, only 20 local authorities have submitted formal claims so far.

    A table deposited in the Library lists the reimbursement payments that have been made to date. In the remaining cases, the claims have literally just been received or we are waiting for the local authorities to provide supporting information. All valid claims will be paid quickly.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2014-03-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the recent finding in the Demos report, Introducing Generation Citizen, that 84 per cent of 14- to 17-year-olds intend to vote when they attain the age of 18, how they intend to ensure that such intentions to vote translate into first-time voting behaviour amongst young people; and what steps they are taking to ensure that education establishments are committed to registering all 16- and 17-year-olds to vote.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    The new key stage 4 citizenship programme to be taught from September 2014 requires that pupils should be taught about “the different electoral systems used in and beyond the United Kingdom and actions citizens can take in democratic and electoral processes to influence decisions locally, nationally and beyond.”

    The government has also made available £4.2 million funding to all 363 local authorities and valuation joint boards in Great Britain and 5 national organisations. Electoral registration officers have been encouraged to support the delivery of Rock Enrol! in their area, a learning resource which not only provides an opportunity for young people to register to vote, but enables them to discuss the importance of doing so.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many marriages reported as suspicious or sham were (a) same sex marriages, (b) heterosexual marriages and (c) civil partnerships in each year since 2009.

    James Brokenshire

    Sections 24 and 24A of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 place a duty on
    registration officers to submit a report to the Home Office where they have
    reasonable grounds to suspect that a marriage or civil partnership is a sham
    being entered into for immigration purposes. Table 1 shows the
    number of section 24/24A reports received in each year since 2009. Same sex
    marriages only came into effect this year there is therefore no data relating
    to this period, or for civil partnerships before 2011.

    The Home Office Intelligence Management System (IMS) records allegations from
    the public regarding immigration-related offences. Since 30 September 2012 we
    have recorded the following numbers of reports relating to sham marriage as set
    out in Table 2.
    These figures relate to reports identified by the public as possible sham
    marriage.

    Table 1

    Year

    Number of section 24/24A reports

    Of which refer civil partnerships

    2009

    561

    2010

    934

    2011

    1,741

    28

    2012

    1,891

    28

    2013

    2135

    25

    Table 2

    Year

    Number of reports relating to sham marriage recorded on IMS

    2012 (from 30 September)

    984

    2013

    6909

  • 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 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department collects on the number of men and women in prison who have previously been in local authority care.

    Jeremy Wright

    Prisoners are assessed on entry to prison for addiction problems and there is a package of support available to them. The MoJ’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme will provide individual support to all released prisoners. This will include identifying risks and needs for individual ex-prisoners, and providing services to address them.

    The Ministry of Justice does not collect these data centrally on a regular basis. However, a survey of 1,435 adult prisoners sentenced to between one month and four years in 2005 and 2006 (Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction – SPCR) provides self-reported estimates for each question.

    The full reports can be accessed on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/surveying-prisoner-crime-reduction-spcr

    “

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what current RAF airfields have (a) standard airfield concrete runways and (b) asphaltic concrete runways.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    There are no RAF airfields that have a concrete only runway.
    The following RAF airfields have a asphaltic/concrete runway:

    RAF Benson (Joint Helicopter Command Base)
    RAF College Cranwell
    RAF Coningsby
    RAF Leeming
    RAF Leuchars
    RAF Lossiemouth
    RAF Marham
    RAF Odiham (Joint Helicopter Command Base)
    RAF Scampton
    RAF Shawbury
    RAF Waddington
    RAF Valley

  • Julie Hilling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Julie Hilling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Hilling on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 15 January 2013, Official Report, column 715W, on child poverty, what estimate his Department has made of the effect of (a) the new timetable for the implementation of universal credit and (b) changes to work allowances on the level of relative income poverty among (i) children and (ii) adults.

    Esther McVey

    After full roll-out, the Department’s latest analysis suggests that Universal Credit will reduce the number of individuals in relative income poverty by some 600,000; including up to 300,000 children and up to 350,000 adults (numbers do not sum due to rounding).

    This figure does not take into account the expected increase in numbers of people in work as a result of universal credit, and excludes the impact of the minimum income floor for the self-employed which is designed to encourage those affected to improve their income levels and for which the behavioural response is very difficult to model.

    This estimate is not affected by the timetable for the implementation of Universal Credit, and changes to the policy on uprating of work allowances make negligible difference to the impact of Universal Credit on child or adult poverty as measured by relative income.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK has taken to support UN Security Council Resolution 2139 regarding humanitarian access in Syria.

    Hugh Robertson

    The UK played a leading role in ensuring the unanimous adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 on 22 February. Since then, we have regularly echoed the UN Security Council’s demand that all parties to the conflict, in particular the Syrian authorities, implement fully the requirements of UNSCR 2139. We welcome the National Coalition’s commitment to implementing UNSCR 2139 and have encouraged those with influence on the parties to urge them to implement the demands of the resolution. The UK is working closely with P5 colleagues and others in New York on a draft resolution in response to the UN Secretary General’s call for the UNSC to act decisively to address the worsening humanitarian situation.