The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 25292, to which countries RAF Reaper or Watchkeeper drones have been deployed on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sorties since 5 February 2016.
Penny Mordaunt
From 5 February until 4 April 2016, UK Reapers have been deployed on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations in Iraq and Syria.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations the Government is making to the UN on incorporating a human rights mandate into the renewal of the UN peacekeeping force in Western Sahara.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We are not advocating that the United Nations Security Council pursue the incorporation of human rights monitoring as part of the MINURSO mandate. The international community monitors human rights through other means; there was a technical visit by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in April 2015, a visit by the UN’s Independent Expert on Human Rights in January 2016 and there is an upcoming visit of the Special Rapporteur on Torture.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Young of Cookham on 2016-06-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when local authorities have to make the first payment under section 69 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Before any determination is issued and any payments made under that determination, regulations on the definition of higher value assets must first be passed by both Houses of Parliament. We are currently working on the detail of the regulations.
We shall consult with local authorities and other stakeholders before issuing the determination.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of locating the Security Industry Authority outside London; and what alternative locations have been considered for that authority.
Brandon Lewis
The Security Industry Authority is already considering options for a move from Holborn as part of its planning around estates.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Northover on 2016-10-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent ageing and older people in developing countries remain an issue of concern for the Department for International Development, why this matter no longer forms part of the Department’s ministerial portfolios, and whether ageing still forms part of the Department’s Inclusive Societies work.
Lord Bates
The Department for International Development’s (DFID) Inclusive Societies department leads the Department’s work on ageing. The Minister of State, Rory Stewart, has responsibility for Inclusive Societies department’s work.
Many DFID programmes reach and include older people, for example on health systems strengthening and eye care, or specific programmes for the poorest including supporting slum dwellers in Tanzania or supporting widows resulting from the Genocide in Rwanda.
Ageing also features in DFID country level poverty analyses as a key factor in understanding poverty. In addition to this DFID is taking a global leadership role to push for better quality and use of age disaggregated data to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals leave no one behind. DFID hosted a series of high profile events on this subject in May and is working towards the publication of an action plan detailing next steps early in 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joanna Cherry on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to improve the availability of off-patent drugs for novel uses through non-legislative measures.
George Freeman
Clinicians can already prescribe off-patent drugs off-label on clinical grounds if they judge this is the right thing to do to meet the individual clinical needs of their patients.
The Government is keen to accelerate the adoption of innovative medicines and increase the innovative use of existing medicines where the evidence reports clinical benefits and cost effectiveness to patients. To that end, we are seeking a number of initiatives to provide innovation but whilst supporting the aims of the Private Member’s Bill on this subject, we do not believe the proposed mechanism is either practicable and desirable.
We are working with NHS England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the General Medical Council and the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency to ensure that there is better information available to support clinicians who wish to prescribe off-patent drugs for off-label indications, and to ensure that new evidence is picked up more quickly and reliably and translated into clinical practice and can be fed through into licensing applications.
A huge amount of work is also going on in the Accelerated Access Review which will support the “pull” of innovation through to clinical practice.
As part of the debate on the Access to Medical Treatments Bill, we are working with officials in the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the Health and Social Care Information Centre to see how the power in the Bill, if it were to pass, could address the lack of provision of information on new uses for existing medicines via the power to create a database of innovations in order to support evidence-based prescribing.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations by Save the Children in its report Nowhere safe for Yemen’s children: The deadly impact of explosive weapons in Yemen, particularly regarding the enhanced protection of children, their families and communities, and the steps that should be taken by the UK to press all parties to the conflict to agree an immediate ceasefire and stop the use of explosive weapons.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We are very concerned by reports of any civilian casualties as a result of the ongoing fighting in Yemen. A political solution is the best way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and protect Yemen’s children, their families and communities. The UK is actively supporting the UN’s efforts to achieve a lasting ceasefire and a return to the political transition in Yemen.
We have regularly raised our concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities and received assurances that they are complying with International Humanitarian Law (IHL). We continue to engage with Saudi Arabia on those assurances and have offered advice and training to demonstrate best practice and to help ensure continued compliance with IHL.
We are also concerned by reports of alleged IHL violations by Houthi-Saleh and pro-government forces, including attacks on civilians in Aden and Taiz; intimidation of UN ships attempting to dock at Aden; the use of schools and hospitals for military purposes; the use of child soldiers; and the targeting of aid workers and restrictions on humanitarian access. We have also raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with IHL and international human rights law.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tebbit on 2016-01-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made towards agreement within the EU on updating the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (‘the Directive’) has been agreed and was formally adopted in June 2015. Member States now have until June 2017 to transpose its requirements into national law. The Government plans to publish a consultation on transposition of the Directive by early Spring which will run for a full 12 weeks. We will consult on areas where the Directive gives us options or discretion on how we transpose its provisions as well as areas where we can improve the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism regime.
We will continue to consider any further changes to this regime in response to emerging threats.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which national homelessness prevention and reduction schemes received direct funding from central government (a) in 2015-16 to date and (b) in each financial year since 2009-10; and what the cost of these schemes to the public purse was in those years.
Mr Marcus Jones
Since 2010 we have invested over £500 million to enable local authorities and the voluntary sector to support those vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. Our initiatives have included funding:
The Government has provided £470 million funding for homelessness prevention over the last Spending Review period. Salford City Council was allocated the following amounts based on the homelessness prevention funding formula within the Local Government Finance Settlement:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 24423, what recent reports he has received on the disappearance of Mr Lee Po in Hong Kong; and whether he has had further discussions with (a) the Chinese authorities and (b) the booksellers or their families since that Answer.
Mr Hugo Swire
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), made clear in his six monthly report to the House published on 11 February (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/six-monthly-report-on-hong-kong-july-to-december-2015) that ‘our current information indicates that Mr Lee was involuntarily removed to the mainland without any due process under Hong Kong SAR law. This constitutes a serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong.’ The Foreign Secretary raised the case with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in London on 4 February. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Secretary of State, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne) also raised the case with the Chinese Chairman of the Politics and Law Commission, Meng Jianzhu, on 25 February. The Government continues to call on the Chinese Government for Mr Lee’s immediate return to Hong Kong. Despite formal requests which we continue to make, we have not been granted consular access to Mr Lee. We also stand ready to provide consular assistance to Lee Po’s family.