The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Chairman of Committees what plans there are for the House of Lords to support Fairtrade Fortnight.
Lord Laming
Catering and Retail Services stock a range of Fairtrade products, including tea, coffee, cake, biscuits and bananas. That Department will be raising awareness of these lines during Fairtrade Fortnight and running related promotions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Drew Hendry on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what provisions the UK has adopted to comply with the new EU directive on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks; and how the UK plans to apply that directive in relation to new build homes.
Mr Edward Vaizey
DCMS is responsible for transposing the EU Broadband Cost Reduction Directive, and will produce regulations to ensure the Directive comes into force by 1 July 2016. The Directive will ensure that public communications networks can request information about a broad range of physical infrastructure that may be suitable for rolling out networks, and can request access to such infrastructure on fair and reasonable terms. There will also be enhanced transparency of planned civil works and a requirement to coordinate works funded through public means.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Bahrainian counterpart on the arrest and sentencing of Ebrahim Sharif by that government.
Mr Philip Hammond
We have raised Ibrahim Sharif’s case with the Government of Bahrain. We regularly discuss human rights and reform with the Government of Bahrain, and call on the Bahraini Government to act proportionately in all such cases to protect the universal rights of freedom of expression and assembly. I most recently raised the issue of human rights when I met with the Bahraini Foreign Minister on 4 February.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2016 to Question 29811, on further education, how many meetings have been held for area reviews in (a) Birmingham and Solihull, (b) Greater Manchester, (c) Sheffield City Region, (d) Tees Valley, (e) Sussex, (f) Solent and (g) West Yorkshire in each of the last nine months.
Nick Boles
A wide range of meetings are held within each area review, which is a locally owned process designed to meet the needs of each local area. Bilateral meetings will often take place, for instance, between individual colleges which might be exploring restructuring options. Local stakeholders will often meet in smaller groupings to discuss particular issues or themes, for example local enterprise partnerships and local authorities may have set up separate meetings. Additionally, some local stakeholders will seek meetings to ensure their involvement at particular points, for example local MPs once recommendations emerge.
The number and type of meetings are likely to vary with each review, depending on local provision, circumstances and issues as well as local interest in engaging with the review work. The following focuses on the formal meetings which are a core part of the area review process and would therefore be consistent across the country.
A number of formal area review steering group meetings have taken place in each area since September 2015. No steering group meetings were held prior to September 2015. Meetings held between September 2015 and March 2016 are as follows:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the emergency operations capability of Public Health England.
Jane Ellison
The Department and Public Health England (PHE) have specific responsibilities for planning and managing the response to emergencies and health protection incidents and outbreaks in an extended team that works across government. The Department commissions PHE to exercise specific functions on behalf of the Secretary of State under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, including a duty to ensure effective plans are in place, take part in national exercises, and co-ordinate responses. The Secretary of State has cross-government responsibility to provide assurance on the health system’s emergency preparedness. Thus PHE is required to complete an annual assurance exercise for the Department to ensure arrangements are in place for a sustainable and interoperable response in the event of an incident, emergency or business continuity event.
The PHE National Emergency Operations Centre operates when the response requires national leadership and co-ordination. It coordinates PHE’s activities and as one of its functions produces briefings and situation reports for Ministers, the Cabinet Office briefing room system and officials.
PHE was established in 2013. The National Emergency Operations function was previously carried out by the former Health Protection Agency. Therefore the Department has not been able to specifically identify the historical costs of creating the National Incident Coordination Centre in 2011.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-06-09.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to require regular audits of the accuracy of records held by credit ratings agencies on UK nationals’ credit history; and if he will make a statement.
Harriett Baldwin
When consumer credit regulation transferred from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 1 April 2014, the Government decided that, given their central role in helping to inform responsible lending decisions, CRAs should be directly regulated by the FCA. As such, every credit reference agency’s fitness to trade is being assessed as part of the FCA’s robust authorisation process
Information on a credit report should be purely factual; for example, if arrears were incurred, those lenders who share data through the credit reference agencies will have recorded them.
A credit reference agency is able to correct factually inaccurate information. However, it is the original lender or organisation that supplies credit to a consumer that provides the agencies with the information held on a credit report. Where inaccurate information has been reported to a credit reference agency, a consumer must contact the lender in the first instance.
If a problem with inaccurate data is not resolved satisfactorily with a lender, consumers are able to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is able to investigate and take action where necessary. The ICO is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights, and it enforces the Data Protection Act.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he has taken steps to support the Northern Ireland Executive in the regeneration of coastal areas in Northern Ireland.
James Brokenshire
I have visited some of the coastal communities in Northern Ireland and aside from their general beauty I have seen how vital they are to local economy. Since its launch in 2012 the UK Government’s Coastal Communities Fund has helped coastal towns across the UK to strengthen their appeal as places to live, work and visit. In Northern Ireland 11 awards have been made, worth £2.5m.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-10-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Royal Parks have not yet completed the construction of the sections of the East-West London Super Cycle highway which are planned to pass through Hyde Park and St James Park; and when it is expected that the work will be complete and open to cyclists.
Lord Ashton of Hyde
The East West Cycle Superhighway is a Transport for London (TfL) project carried out by their contractors. The Royal Parks has issued licenses to TfL to permit the work to take place within the parks. Part of the cycle route in Hyde Park is already open. TfL estimates that the remainder of the Hyde Park route will be open in the New Year.
The work in St James’s and Green Parks is being planned in stages and the complete route should be finished by next summer although parts may be open sooner.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to enable refugees from the Middle East and other war zones who have close family connections with the UK to come to this country safely to apply for protection.
Lord Bates
There is no provision in our Immigration Rules for someone to be given permission to travel to the UK to seek asylum or humanitarian protection. However, we recognise that families may become fragmented because of the nature of conflict and persecution and the speed and manner in which those seeking asylum often flee their country of origin. Our refugee family reunion policy allows immediate family members of a person in the UK with refugee leave or humanitarian protection status – that is a spouse or partner and children under the age of 18, who formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin – to reunite with them in the UK.
We also operate three discretionary resettlement schemes for recognised refugees for whom resettlement is the most appropriate answer. We operate these schemes in partnership with the UNHCR: Gateway; Mandate; and the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme. Under the Syrian VPR Scheme we are working closely with the UNHCR to resettle close family groups where at least one member qualifies under the scheme.
We are also making a significant contribution to support refugees and their families in other ways. The UK has contributed over £1 billion in humanitarian aid in response to the Syrian crisis and we intend to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees displaced to neighbouring countries over the lifetime of this Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 2 December (HL3987), for each of the last five years and this year so far, (1) how many children who are dependants of British citizens and persons who are living legally in the UK have made asylum claims to the French authorities; (2) how many of those have been accepted; and (3) of those, how many have subsequently been reunited with their parents or other responsible family members in the UK.
Lord Bates
The UK does not hold statistical information of the number of asylum applications made in France by dependent children of British citizens or persons living legally in the UK or how many of these applications have been accepted by the French. Statistics for transfers of asylum applicants from France to the UK on the basis of family ties are not routinely recorded.
We will consider any request made to us by the French asylum authorities to take responsibility for an asylum applicant in France because they have close family in the UK in accordance with the terms of the Dublin Regulation concerning the principle of family unity and the best interests of the child. This is subject to an applicant first claiming asylum in France. If they do not wish to claim asylum, individual migrants in France as in any other country, are entitled to apply under the Family Reunion provisions to join relatives in the UK by making the appropriate application.