Category: Speeches

  • Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the decision of the House of 20 April 2016, on recognition of genocide by Daesh against Yazidis, Christians and other religious minorities, what steps he is taking to implement that resolution.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    This Government shares the House of Common’s condemnation of Daesh atrocities against minorities, and the majority Muslim populations of Iraq and Syria. The Prime Minister, the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) has said he believes there is a very strong case to answer, but ultimately it should be a matter for judicial authorities.

    We will do all we can to support the gathering and preservation of evidence that could in future be used in a court to hold Daesh to account. And we are continuing to deliver our comprehensive strategy to defeat Daesh and thereby stop them from preventing more atrocities. Addition as per PQ 35349.

  • Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Turkish counterpart on the treatment of minority religious groups in Turkey.

    Mr David Lidington

    We have noted the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling and regularly discuss issues concerning freedom of religion and belief, including those of the Alevi community, with our Turkish interlocutors. We will continue to do so. The Turkish government continues to improve protections for all religious minorities in Turkey. We welcome the continuing implementation of the Law on Foundations which has seen a number of properties returned to minority community foundations or the payment of compensation. As we highlighted to Turkey through the 2015 UN Universal Periodic Review of human rights, we would like to see Turkey implement legislation that increases protection of the rights of persons belonging to all minority religious groups, including the status of their places of worship.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils attending state-funded (a) grammar schools and (b) schools that are not grammar schools (i) are eligible for free schools meals and (ii) have special educational needs.

    Nick Gibb

    The Government does not collect data on pupils who have social educational needs.

    The number and proportion of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals are set out below.

    Eligible for and claiming FSM

    State-funded grammars

    2.5% (4,237 of 166,517 pupils)

    Non-selective state-funded secondary schools

    13.8% (416,279 of 3,026,901 pupils)

    Source: January 2016 school census return. The data includes all pupils on roll, including those over 16.

    The consultation document Schools that work for Everyone proposes that we should seek to identify and support those families which are ‘just managing’; those on modest incomes who might not be in receipt of benefits but nevertheless are just about managing. The document also proposes that we should place conditions on new selective schools so that they attract more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, and that they should work with non-selective schools to raise standards for all pupils.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2016 to Question 48291, what bids his Department received for the provision of specialist steel required for the pressure hulls for the Successor submarine programme.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The management of the steel procurement process for the Successor programme is the responsibility of the Prime Contractor, BAE Systems. The Ministry of Defence conducted a technical assessment during the BAE Systems tendering process to ensure bids met specifications.

    There were four bids received in total. I am withholding details of the bidding firms as the disclosure of this information would be prejudicial to commercial interests.

    Other stages of construction will include grades of steel manufactured by British suppliers and we encourage them to take the opportunity to bid.

    85% of BAE Systems supply chain for the new submarines is based in the UK.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of criticism from the British Retail Consortium that proposed changes in business rates are inadequate.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The Government announced at Budget 2016 the biggest ever cut in business rates in England – worth £6.7 billion over the next five years. All ratepayers will benefit from the package and 600,000 of the smallest businesses, including many retailers, will not have to pay business rates again.

  • Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2015 to Question 13951, which foreign military awards have been approved for members of the UK armed forces to wear; and what criteria are applied in determining such approval.

    Mark Lancaster

    The UK Armed Forces have a distinguished history of serving with great courage and professionalism in a wide-range of conflict situations; over the years various foreign military awards have been approved for acceptance and some of these have also been approved for wearing. A full list of the qualifying criteria for, and permission to wear, campaign medals, foreign medals and medals awarded by international organisations is available in Joint Service Publication 761 which can be found at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/396186/JSP761_honours_awards.pdf

    Information on the numbers of UK Service personnel or veterans who have been awarded the NATO Africa Medal is not held by the Ministry of Defence as this is administered by NATO.

    “

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will automatically exempt people (a) who are homeless, (b) with mental ill health and (c) in other at-risk groups from benefit sanctions.

    Priti Patel

    The sanctions process encourages benefit claimants to do everything they can to find work. Evidence shows that they have a positive impact on behaviour – over 70% JSA & over 60% ESA claimants say that sanctions make it more likely they will follow the rules.

    Jobseekers are only asked to meet reasonable requirements, taking into account their circumstances and capability, including mental health conditions, disability housing status and caring responsibilities. These requirements are clearly explained and agreed by jobseekers with their Work Coach and set out in their Claimant Commitment.

    As we already have a number of flexibilities in place, we will not be automatically exempting people who are homeless, who have mental health issues, or other vulnerable groups from benefit sanctions.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-01-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the claim by Aegis Europe that granting market economy status to China could put more than one million European jobs at risk.

    Lord Maude of Horsham

    A report by the Economic Policy Institute, on which the claim by Aegis Europe draws makes some significant omissions, uses some questionable assumptions and does not take account of a number of potential positive or mitigating effects in reaching its estimates. We understand that the European Commission will be undertaking a detailed assessment of the economic impacts of granting MES as part of their consideration of this issue.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 11 January 2016 on £1.4 billion of funding for mental health services, what proportion of that funding will support children in care and care leavers.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government is committed to making the full £1.4 billion investment available over the course of this Parliament to improve mental health services for children and young people.

    In line with guidance published by NHS England, all clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have produced Local Transformation Plans (LTPs) for children and young people’s mental health and these have all now been assured and funding allocated for implementation. These plans required all key partners to agree locally how best to meet the mental health needs of children and young people in their local populations and should cover the whole spectrum of need, which includes improving access to mental health services for vulnerable groups such children in care and care leavers so that they can receive high quality mental health care when they need it. It is for local partners to decide how much of the funding which will be allocated to CCGs to improve local services throughout the five years will be spent specifically on children in care and other vulnerable groups. However, this will be based on an assessment of local needs and set out in the LTPs.

    The Government’s overall strategy to improve outcomes for care leavers is set out in the Care Leaver Strategy: A cross-departmental strategy for young people leaving care report (October 2013), and a one-year-on document, Care Leaver Strategy: One year on progress update, (October 2014) that reported on progress made and set out how the Government intends to further improve support for care leavers. The Government intends to publish its refreshed Care Leaver Strategy later this year.

    The Local Government Association has produced a spreadsheet giving details of every LTP which can be found using the following webpage address:

    www.local.gov.uk/camhs

    “

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

    Lord Moonie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moonie on 2016-03-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many EU nationals work in the NHS in England.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre collects data on the number of staff working in National Health Service hospital and community health services in England.

    Nationality is a self-reported field within the NHS electronic staff record system. Of those individuals who declared their nationality, 1,050,034 (93.5%) are European Union nationals (this includes 994,693 British nationals and 55,341 other EU nationals). There are a further 73,681 (6.5%) non United Kingdom and non EU nationals.