Category: Speeches

Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he made of the (a) time and (b) financial cost to motorists and road hauliers of the 40mph limit on the A14 for recent road improvement works.

Andrew Jones

The work on the A14 involved replacing central reserve safety barriers, necessitating a 40mph speed limit restriction for safety reasons whilst the barrier remained incomplete.

As this was essential safety work Highways England did not carry out an assessment of the delay costs.

01/01/2023
Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 13 July 2016 to Questions 42245, 42246 and 42247, whether his Department plans to collect information on how many NHS maternity units (a) have closed in the last six years, (b) are under consideration by his Department for (i) downgrading and (ii) closure and (c) which are consultant-led have been downgraded in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne

The reconfiguration of local National Health Service services, including maternity units, is a matter to be determined and managed by the NHS.

01/01/2023
Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with Ministerial colleagues at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the future of agri-environment projects jointly funded by the National Lottery.

George Eustice

The Government’s announcement of 3 October has provided further certainty on funding to rural communities while we develop a new approach to supporting agriculture, protecting the countryside and generating growth in the rural economy.

Existing agri-environment agreements and new Countryside Stewardship agreements starting on 1 January 2017 will be guaranteed even after the UK leaves the EU. We will confirm arrangements for entering into new agri-environment funding agreements after 2017 in due course.

Leaving the EU means that we will want to take our own decisions about how we deliver the policy objectives previously targeted by EU funding, including agri-environment schemes. Over the coming months, the Government will review, in conjunction with stakeholders, all EU funding schemes in the round to ensure that any ongoing funding arrangements best serve the UK‘s national interest. Defra will discuss the interface with lottery funding with DCMS and the lottery distributors as part of this process.

01/01/2023
Baroness Jolly – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jolly on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Iraqi interpreters contracted by the armed forces during military operations between 2003 and 2009 have been granted asylum in the UK in each year from 2009 to 2015.

Lord Bates

Information on the previous occupations of asylum applicants is not centrally recorded and is held in an individual’s paper case file or within the notes section of the case information database (CID). Such data are not aggregated in national reporting systems, which would mean this question could be answered only through a disproportionately expensive manual case search to collate the data.

The Home Office publishes immigration statistics annually and quarterly, which are available from the Home Office research and statistics website.

This includes information on asylum applications by nationality. The latest statistics can be found in asylum volume 1, data table as_01 at the following link : https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2015-data-tables

01/01/2023
Lord Warner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what additional income for spending on adult care will be available to each authority with adult social care functions if each of those authorities increases their precept by two per cent in each year from 2016–17 to 2019–20 inclusive, with no change to their baseline forecast spend for 2015–16.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Government announced on 17 December 2015, Official Report, Column 2238-2241, that Local Authorities with social care responsibilities will be able to increase their council tax by up to 2% above the core referendum principles of 2% (4% in total) which is expected to raise an extra £2billion by 2019/20. A breakdown of the £2billion, by how much individual local authorities could raise, has been made and can be viewed at the following link or in the attached document.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486708/Core_spending_power_supporting_information.xlsx

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01/01/2023
Mike Kane – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK Embassy in Israel has taken to monitor attacks on Christian places of worship.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Our Embassy in Tel Aviv is in regular contact with representatives of churches on a range of issues, including to discuss concern about attacks on places of worship. The last attack occurred on 17 January 2016 where the Dormition Abbey compound of the Orthodox Church in the Old City of Jerusalem was vandalised with anti-Christian slogans. The ‘Tag Meir’ organisation has listed 44 cases of vandalism and arson on Christian and Muslim places of worship in Israel and the West Bank since December 2009.

01/01/2023
Lord Higgins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Higgins on 2016-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether EU member states within the Schengen area are issuing a standard form of passport or other document to those they accept as asylum seekers or whether individual countries decide on the format to use; whether they have examined any sample of such document; and if so, whether they will place in the Library of the House any examples they may have.

Lord Bates

Under Article 25 of the Qualification Directive asylum seekers accepted as refugees in an EU member state will be issued a refugee status travel document, in the form set out in the Schedule to the Geneva Convention, for the purpose of travel outside their territory unless there are compelling reasons of national security or public order which prevent this.

It is normal practice for member states to distribute specimen documents between states. All specimen documents are stored securely in the UK.

01/01/2023

Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-03-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many arbitration proceedings were started by Acas (a) in each employment sector and (b) relating to each topic on its database in each year since 2009-10.

Nick Boles

The table below provides details of Acas collective arbitrations between 2009-10 and 2014-15 broken down by employment sector and topic:

	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
Total arbitrations	44	31	21	17	15	19
By sector:
Aerospace	1	0	2	0	0	2
Clothing	0	1	0	0	0	0
Education	3	3	0	0	0	0
Energy	24	11	9	10	9	7
Engineering	0	0	0	1	0	1
Food	0	0	0	1	0	0
Health	1	0	1	0	0	0
Law	0	0	0	1	0	0
Logistics	0	5	4	1	0	3
Manufacturing	0	0	0	0	1	2
Media	1	1	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0	0	3	0
Ports and Shipping	0	0	0	0	0	2
Public	2	4	3	2	1	2
Retail	5	2	0	1	0	0
Security	1	2	0	0	0	0
Transport	2	2	2	0	0	0
Waste	1	0	0	0	0	0
Logistics	3	0	0	0	1	0

By topic:
Annual pay	13	8	2	4	2	6
Other pay / employment conditions	6	2	8	1	1	2
Dismissal / Discipline	24	11	8	10	8	10
Grading	0	2	2	0	0	0
Other	1	8	1	2	4	1

01/01/2023

Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what analysis his Department made of alternatives to the MSI-DSL 30mm gun for deployment on HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Mr Philip Dunne

In December 2003 a competition was launched to provide the Royal Navy with an improved defensive anti-surface warfare capability with the preference being for an automated 30mm gun system. A number of companies entered the competition, and the MSI ‘Seahawk’ system was eventually chosen on the basis of cost, capability and through life support. The MSI weapon system, now referred to as the Automated Small Calibre Gun (ASCG) System, was subsequently selected for fitting to HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Four ASCGs will be fitted on QUEEN ELIZABETH.

01/01/2023
Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for workplace inspections by the Health and Safety Executive in the next four years.

Justin Tomlinson

HSE’s Spending Review 15 funding is based upon achieving growth in commercial income and delivery of planned efficiency savings which will enable HSE to seek to maintain current levels of its core regulatory activities including workplace inspections over the next four years.

01/01/2023