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Category: Speeches

  • Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what diplomatic progress has been made by the international community in delivering peace in Syria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    On 11 February, the Foreign Secretary took part in the latest round of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich. At that meeting ISSG foreign ministers discussed how to support the political process, including through confidence building measures and steps towards a ceasefire, as called for in UNSCR 2254.

    The ISSG agreed the need to implement a cessation of hostilities within a week, to delivering humanitarian assistance to named besieged communities by the weekend of 13-14 February and to facilitate rapid progress in negotiations aimed at political transition. If implemented fully and properly by every ISSG member, this will be an important step towards relieving the killing and suffering in Syria.

  • Ian Mearns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Mearns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Mearns on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support the academies risk protection arrangement is providing to schools affected by the recent floods.

    Edward Timpson

    The Risk Protection Agreement (RPA) will cover all storm related costs, including flooding, incurred by academy trusts which are members of the RPA, in accordance with RPA membership rules. Cover will also be provided for temporary accommodation while their original buildings are being reinstated.

    The RPA service providers are working closely with those schools affected to minimise disruption and complete remedial works in a timely manner to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.

    Further information on the cover provided by the RPA can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/risk-protection-arrangement-rpa-for-academy-trusts-membership-rules

    “

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how the final decision on proposals to centralise all policy functions to one headquarters in London and close the Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place will be made once the consultation on those proposals has finished.

    Joseph Johnson

    The final decisions on whether to centralise all policy functions a single headquarters, and to close the Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place, will be made by the department’s Executive Board following the end of consultation with staff and Trade Unions in May.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK diplomats have taken secondment to the European External Action Service in each year since 2010.

    Mr David Lidington

    Since 2010, there have been 28 UK officials seconded to the European External Action Service (EEAS). Of these, 20 were UK diplomats from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO); 8 were from other government departments. The numbers of diplomats can be broken down by calendar year in which they took up their secondment as follows:

    FCO number of TAs

    2010 5
    2012 2
    2013 6
    2014 2
    2015 5

  • Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-07-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to change the discount rate used to calculate the funding status of defined benefit pension schemes.

    Lord Freud

    The legislation governing the funding of defined benefit occupational pensions schemes is designed to be flexible, allowing the trustees or managers of these schemes to determine which method and assumptions are to be used in their schemes technical provisions. A number of factors come into play in scheme funding decisions and the Pensions Regulator provides useful guidance for trustees in its codes and supporting guidance and statements.

    In determining the discount rate to be used, trustees must act prudently taking into account the yield on assets held by the scheme and / or the market redemption yields on Government bonds or other high-quality bonds.

    There is no standard actuarial method and set of assumptions that must be used, however, should the Regulator have concerns about a funding plan it can intervene.

  • Poulter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Poulter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the budget for Health Education England (a) was in each year since 2012 and (b) will be for 2017-18.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    In 2012-13, the strategic health authorities nationally were allocated £4.879 billion to spend on education and training in the National Health Service. This budget was transferred to Health Education England (HEE) from 1 April 2013 when it assumed full operational responsibilities for workforce planning, education and training.

    From 2013 to 2016, HEE received the following annual budget allocations from the Department: £4.867 billion in 2013/14; £4.933 billion in 2014/15; and £4.912 billion in 2015/16.

    For the current year, HEE’s revenue allocation is £4.995 billion as at 31 July 2016. Further in-year capital and revenue allocations will be made to HEE later in this financial year.

    HEE’s budget for 2017-18 is yet to be determined through the Departmental business planning process.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of foreign nationals convicted of a crime in the UK were deported to their country of origin in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    The following table shows the number of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) who have been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to a period of imprisonment and subsequently referred to Immigration Enforcement for consideration of removal action.

    Whilst we aim to deport foreign national offenders at the earliest opportunity not all of those referred to the Home Office will meet the deportation threshold, some may later be confirmed as British or exempt from Immigration Control and some will be successful at appeal. Removal may also be delayed as some offenders will repeatedly refuse to comply with the deportation and documentation process, deliberately seek to flout the system to disrupt our efforts to deport them or attempt to lodge multiple appeals. Factors such as these can lead to deportation being delayed.

    In May 2013, a new system was introduced for recording and monitoring all FNO referrals, even where an offender did not meet the deportation threshold. Prior to this, referrals of those who did not meet deportation criteria were not routed through a central system so this data was not centrally recorded. The introduction of this system therefore shows an increase in the referral numbers from 2012/13 onwards.

    Financial year

    Number of referrals to Immigration Enforcement

    Number of removals

    2010/11

    6,452

    5,367

    2011/12

    7,326

    4,539

    2012/13

    6,874

    4,720

    2013/14

    10,786

    5,118

    2014/15

    10,461

    5,277

    2015/16 (to Sept 2015)

    5,262

    2,855

    The National Offender Management Service operate on a nationality self declaration basis, which means that not all those referred for action will be in scope for removal. Some offenders may later be confirmed as British nationals or exempt from immigration control.

    The removals shown are not a representative proportion of those referred in the same period. Those referred will not always be removable in the same year due to sentence length. The removals data will include those who have been referred prior to the period shown in the table.

    Please note that figures prior to the 2011/12 financial year precede the implementation of a later reporting application and as such were not subject to the same level of data assurance for data recorded after 2011/12.

  • Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average response time was for a 999 call in each of the last 10 years; and what the average response time was for 999 calls made to the Humberside Police from (a) across the force area, (b) North Lincolnshire and (c) East Yorkshire in the last 12 months.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the average response times for 999 calls. Information on average 101 call waiting times since April 2014, provided by forces, including Humberside Police, can be found at: www.Police.uk

    The Home Office does not hold information on call waiting times for individual forces which pre-dates April 2014 or about calls made to forces from local areas. This information is held by forces.

    “

  • Lord Condon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Condon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Condon on 2016-01-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made regarding Chief Constable David Shaw’s Use of Force Data Review.

    Lord Bates

    Further to the Noble Lord’s previous question HL2559, the Home Secretary has received the conclusions of Chief Constable David Shaw’s Use of Force Review and will report on its recommendations shortly.

  • Baroness Drake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Drake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Drake on 2016-02-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase private pension saving by the self-employed.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The 2005 Turner Commission recommended that the self-employed should be able to join a pension in an easy and cost-effective fashion. Therefore the Government-backed pension provider, the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) offers low-charge pension schemes to the self-employed, as well as to all employers.

    Automatic enrolment has been a huge success to date with almost 6 million eligible workers people now enrolled. We will be reviewing automatic enrolment in 2017. We are keen to identify issues that should be addressed within the review and will be working with stakeholders to determine its scope.

    The Government also recognises that the self-employed might benefit from saving in different ways to employees. In 2011 the Government introduced carry forward of annual allowances, which allow individuals with irregular earnings to use any unused Annual Allowance from the previous three years to contribute more to their pension in particular years, if this suits them better than making more regular pension contributions.