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  • Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in talks with Spain to prevent excessive delays at its border with Gibraltar.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), suggested ad hoc talks, involving all relevant parties, to address practical issues (including the delays at the border) to the Spanish government in April 2012. We are actively discussing this proposal with the Governments of Gibraltar and Spain and hope it will be possible to hold talks soon.

    In the meantime, we are maintaining strong diplomatic pressure on the Spanish government to end disproportionate and unlawful checks at the border. We have also asked the European Commission to continue to monitor the situation and urge Spain to return their checks at the border to proportionate levels.

  • Lord Rooker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Rooker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rooker on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any department, executive agency or non-departmental public body has a banking arrangement with the Co-operative Bank.

    Lord Deighton

    Treasury policy is to hold Exchequer funds safe and secure at the Bank of England and to minimise balances held with commercial banks. The Treasury has been working with departments in recent years to minimise balances held in commercial accounts.

    Government Departments and most public bodies bank with the Government Banking Service, which is a directorate within HM Revenue and Customs. GBS is a shared service which manages contracts and supports banking services to Government departments using cost-efficient and modern commercial banking platforms. The balances held by the Government Banking Service are utilised to reduce the Government’s daily borrowing requirement and in turn its financing costs.

    In the rare circumstance where banking is required outside of the contract then the Department concerned must seek Treasury approval to open separate commercial accounts. This will normally be when third party-funds are being managed or the banking service requirement is complex. The Treasury provides an annual update to the Public Accounts Committee on monies held outside the Exchequer / Government Banking Service. The most recent update was published on 13th January 2014 and can be found at

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/270747/36048_Cm_8774.pdf

    From the information provided by departments we can confirm that the Forestry Commission and National Forest Company have a banking relationship with the Co-operative Bank.

    “

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they gave to (1) the death of detainee Christine Case, and (2) allegations of sexual assault, at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in permitting Serco to retender to run that facility; and whether they will disclose the tender documents submitted by all applicants who entered bids to run (1) Harmondsworth, and (2) Colnbrook, Immigration Removal Centres.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    I apologise it has not been possible to answer this question within the usual ten day deadline. I will write to the Noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, before the summer recess and will place a copy of that letter in the House library.

  • Andy McDonald – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andy McDonald – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations he has received on the number of children with autism informally excluded from school.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The Secretary of State has received several recent parliamentary questions about the informal exclusion of children with autism. Officials from the department have also met with Ambitious about Autism in March 2014, to discuss its concerns about this issue, raised in the report, Ruled Out.

    The government’s view remains clear. No child should be unlawfully excluded. Ofsted and the department would take seriously evidence that a school had acted unlawfully in excluding a pupil. In addition, most children on the autism spectrum would be considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010. Where disabled children are discriminated against through unlawful exclusion their parents can make a claim to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). The Tribunal has wide ranging powers, including the power to require the reinstatement of a pupil.

    Awareness of autism and appropriate skills are essential to meeting the needs of autistic children. The reforms we are introducing through the Children and Families Act will provide for earlier and better assessment of children and young people’s needs. We’re also investing more than £3 million of funding over two years to raise awareness of autism and help schools and colleges deliver the support these children and young people need. This includes £1.5 million for the Autism Education Trust to provide tiered training to early years, school and further education college staff, as well as £440,000 to the National Autistic Society, part of which is being used to provide advice to professionals and parents on exclusion.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Sudan regarding the arrest of the National Umma Party leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Minister for Africa, my Hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mr Simmonds), wrote to Professor Ibrahim Ghandour, adviser to the Sudanese President, urging al-Sadiq al-Mahdi’s release. The Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development, my Hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), also raised this issue with the Foreign Minister of Sudan on 20 May. Following the arrest, the British Embassy in Khartoum issued a statement expressing our concerns and highlighting that such actions undermine the President of Sudan’s initiative for a National Dialogue. We have made clear that the process for National Dialogue needs to be inclusive and this can only be achieved if senior political and community figures are able to speak freely.

  • Lord Stevens of Ludgate – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Stevens of Ludgate – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stevens of Ludgate on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the European Union’s balance of trade with the United Kingdom of any United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union.

    Lord Deighton

    The Government has made no assessment of the impact on the European Union’s balance of trade with the United Kingdom of any withdrawal from the European Union.

    The EU represents a market of over 500 million people with a combined GDP of around £10.5 trillion. It is the largest single market in the world.

    The EU is the UK’s most important trading partner; 45% of our exports are destined for the EU and seven of the UK’s top ten individual trading partners are EU member states.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what rules currently govern the disclosure of European Union information; and whether any past or present rule, or any proposed rule, bans disclosure of information disadvantageous to the European Union.

    Lord Faulks

    Access to documents held by the European Union (EU) is governed by Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (the Regulation), which provides a public right of access to documents held by these three institutions. The Regulation has also been extended to further EU institutions through other instruments. Information relating to the EU may also be requested from UK public authorities under domestic information rights legislation, including the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

    Neither the Regulation nor domestic legislation contain provisions which prohibit the disclosure of information simply because its release would be disadvantageous to the EU, and there are no plans to introduce such a measure. However, both the Regulation and domestic legislation provide a range of exemptions, often subject to a public interest test, which permit bodies subject to them to withhold genuinely sensitive information from disclosure where release would undermine legitimate interests specified in that legislation. These include, for example, exemptions which may be relied upon to protect international relations, commercial interests or the decision-making processes for making EU legislation.

  • Lord Colwyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Colwyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Colwyn on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in preventing a shortfall of dental foundation training places from occurring in 2014 and in ensuring that positions will be found for final year students who have yet to be allocated a place.

    Earl Howe

    Health Education England (HEE) are funding more training places than the number of students forecast to graduate from dental schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 2014 recruitment. London Shared Services is leading the recruitment process on behalf of HEE for the Dental Foundation Training programme and they are currently half way through this process.

    HEE have said that more places will become available as a result of students who have accepted posts and are now deferring or have failed their final examinations.

  • Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what public funds were spent on infrastructure improvement works on each road in the strategic road network in each of the last 10 years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Public expenditure figures for each road on the strategic road network are not available. The Highways Agency publish annual accounts which are laid before Parliament which are available from the Library of the House and from the Agency’s website at: http://www.highways.gov.uk/about-us/corporate-documents/strategic-corporate-documents/annual-report-2012-2013/

    Over the last ten years, total expenditure on the maintenance, management and enhancement of the strategic road network in each year was as follows:

    £m

    2004/05

    1,598

    2005/06

    1,927

    2006/07

    2,330

    2007/08

    2,330

    2008/09

    2,416

    2009/10

    3,003

    2010/11

    2,597

    2011/12

    2,349

    2012/13

    1,897

    2013/14

    2,284

    Table showing Highways Agency total operational DEL (departmental expenditure limits) excluding accounting items such as depreciation.

  • Dominic Raab – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Dominic Raab – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dominic Raab on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Ministers for Women and Equalities, how often Section 159 of the Equality Act 2010 has been used by employers in relation to recruitment or promotion of an individual with protected characteristics in each year since 2011.

    Mrs Helen Grant

    The information requested is not collected or held centrally.