Category: Speeches

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 22981, if he will ask Ofcom to publish an assessment of whether the 26 per cent of BT’s ducts identified as being empty in the report, Telecoms infrastructure access – sample survey of duct access, published in March 2009, reflected the proportion of BT’s ducts that were able to have fibre blown through them without further civil works in the superfast broadband rollout.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    I understand from Ofcom that the sample surveyed in the Ofcom report ‘Telecoms infrastructure access – sample survey of duct access’, published in March 2009, provided an indicative rather than representative assessment of the potential spare capacity in BT’s ducts.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department last reviewed the arrangements at RAF Northolt on the safety of residents living under the flight path and nearby vicinity; and if he will make a statement.

    Mark Lancaster

    Military safety regulations mandate that a continual assessment of air safety risks are carried out. This provides not only internal assurance of operating procedures and air safety standards, but considers wider safety aspects such as the risks to individuals’ off-station.

    The Ministry of Defence (MOD) actively manages air safety via this system, across all of its aerodromes, publishing any mitigated or permitted deviations via the individual stations’ Defence Aerodrome Manual.

    For MOD aerodromes that accept commercial/civilian flying activity, these processes have additional Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) oversight and assurance. Commercial operators are required to have similar safety management systems by the CAA, including those operating into RAF Northolt. The MOD and the CAA requires commercial operators to satisfy themselves that RAF Northolt is suitable for the safe operation of their particular aircraft.

  • Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Green of Deddington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many illegal entrants were detected (1) on arrival at a UK ferry port, and (2) subsequent to having entered in a vehicle that had arrived at a UK ferry port, in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Our records currently indicate that the number of clandestine entrants detected at UK ferry ports was:

    2013 756

    2014 1,480

    2015 1,305

    As part of recent changes to the way data is recorded, management information from April 2011 has been refreshed and may differ from the data released in earlier responses.

    Previous figures provided for PQ 21106 showed that, at that time, our records indicated that 678 detections had been made at seaports in 2013. Under the new improved recording and reporting system, this figure has been updated to 756.

    Clandestine entrants detected in-country with a declared port of departure that is a ferry port:

    2013 676

    2014 1,343

    2015 1,630

    This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics. Because the source of this data is a live operational system, operational reports taking data from the system at different times will continue to reflect slightly different numbers.

    As part of recent changes to the way data is recorded, management information from April 2011 has been refreshed and may differ from the data released in earlier responses.

    Immigration controls operate at Calais, and as such detections at Dover are normally counted as in country. For the purposes of this question, detections at Dover are counted as "at a UK ferry port".

    For part (2), data on the ferry port of departure has been used as a proxy for port of arrival, as the latter is not recorded.

    Regarding part (2), it must be noted that data for port of departure is incomplete: over the three year period there are more than 15,000 clandestines detected in country with no port of departure recorded. The data for part (2) excludes clandestine entrants whose declared port of departure is Coquelles, as this is a rail port.

  • Mark Williams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Mark Williams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Williams on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her Department’s policy is on restricting the import of cheap, inferior-quality coal to the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The decision of where to source coal is a commercial decision for companies. Through our efforts to decarbonise our electricity system, we are increasing the diversity of our energy mix and reducing our reliance on unabated coal.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the safe levels of acetaldehyde to which workers in the chemical industry can be exposed.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no plans to commission an assessment of the levels of acetaldehyde that workers are exposed to in the UK chemical industry.

    Acetaldehyde has been assigned a Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL). WELs are concentrations of hazardous substances in the air, averaged over a specified period of time, referred to as a time-weighted average (TWA). Two time periods are used; long-term (8 hours) and short-term (15 minutes). For acetaldehyde these are concentrations of 37 milligrams per cubic meter (mg.m-3) and 92mg.m-3 respectively.

    Substances that have been assigned a WEL are subject to the requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH). COSHH requires employers to prevent or control exposure to hazardous substances. Under COSHH, control is defined as adequate only if a) the principles of good control practice are applied; b) any WEL is not exceeded; and c) exposure to asthmagens, carcinogens and mutagens are reduced as low as is reasonably practicable. As part of the assessment required under regulation 6 of COSHH, employers should determine their own working practices and in-house standards for control of exposure.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2016 to Question 45149, how many climate change experts are employed by his Department; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The Department’s activity to tackle climate change cuts across the work of various teams and is undertaken by officials across a number of professions, including policy advisors, scientists, engineers and economists. In addition the Department has access to a range of experts from outside the Department including academia and organisations such as the Met Office Hadley Centre. Consequently, it is not possible to provide an exact number of officials who could be called climate change experts.

  • Phil Boswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Phil Boswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phil Boswell on 2015-10-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the finding of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in its report, Is Britain Fairer, published in October 2015, that up to 2013 there was a decline in both earnings and full-time employment for younger workers, despite them being more likely to be better qualified than previous generations.

    Nick Boles

    Since 2013 employment has risen by over a million people and the UK’s employment rate is at a record high. The Government is creating employment opportunities for all age groups. Since the first quarter of 2010, youth unemployment has fallen and 229,000 more young people are in employment.

    Skills remain important for delivering better employment outcomes for younger workers. The lifetime benefits to apprentices are between £48,000 and £74,000 for Level 2 and between £77,000 and £117,000 for Level 3 Apprenticeships. The average graduate of higher education will earn over £100,000 more over their lifetime than a similar individual who completed their education with 2 or more A levels. The Government is therefore ensuring further and higher education providers are more responsive to the needs of employers, and that young people get the rights skills for the job market.

  • Lord Falconer of Thoroton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Falconer of Thoroton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much revenue has been raised from call charging associated with the legal aid telephone gateway.

    Lord Faulks

    Between March 2014 and January 2015 the LAA phased out the use of 0845 access numbers for CLA and replaced them with 0345 numbers.

    This means there is a single national point of contact for CLA without callers having to pay extra to call them.Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to a 01 or 02 number and count towards inclusive minutes in the same way as 01 and 02 calls. This applies to calls from any type of line including mobile, fixed line or payphone.

    The LAA provides clear information about the costs of making a call. Individuals can also check whether they may qualify for legal aid via a free digital service on gov.uk before requesting a call back. They also have the option of asking CLA staff to make a return call.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the cost to the public purse was of the promotion of democracy and human rights through the Arab Partnership Fund in 2014-15.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    The Arab Partnership was created in 2010 and became a key part of the Government’s response to the Arab Spring. This initiative comprised two parts: the FCO-led Arab Partnership Participation Fund and the DFID-led Arab Partnership Economic Facility. Between 2011 and 2015 the Arab Partnership Participation Fund provided funding totalling £42,803,007 for projects in the region. In financial year 2014/15 the fund provided £10,512,791 of which £8,498,003 was allocated to projects promoting human rights and democracy across the Middle East and North Africa region.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the report produced by Ernst and Young for his Department in February 2012 on development options and safety standards at RAF Northolt recommended that an Engineered Material Arresting System be installed at RAF Northolt; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 28 January 2016 to Question 24027. The Mott MacDonald report referenced in that previous answer was an Appendix to the Ernst and Young study of February 2012.