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  • Lord Crisp – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Crisp – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to review the current visa categories and visa application processes to help foster international research collaborations, in particular in the health and science sectors.

    Lord Bates

    Our current immigration policies, categories and processes already explicitly take account of the needs of academics, scientists and researchers. We have consistently protected and enhanced the treatment of these roles in the immigration system, even whilst restricting migration in other spheres.

    In Tier 2, the skilled work route, we have given PhD level roles, which include academics, scientists and researchers, higher priority when allocating places within the annual limit and relaxed rules relating to recruitment and settlement. We have introduced the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route for world leaders in science, engineering, humanities, the arts and digital technology, and several universities and research organisations are making use of this route. The Tier 5 (Temporary Work) route contains provisions to enable sponsored researchers to participate in international research collaborations, and for overseas medical and dental post-graduates to undertake training in the UK.

    The immigration system also supports the health sector, with several health professions, including doctors in emergency medicine, included on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). Nurses have been added to the SOL as a temporary measure, pending a full review of the evidence by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).

    We keep all immigration routes under review to ensure they are working effectively in line with the Government’s migration objectives. For the future, we have commissioned the MAC to advise on restricting Tier 2 to genuine skills shortages and jobs which require highly-specialised experts, but with sufficient flexibility to include high value roles and key public service workers. We await the MAC’s report with interest and will consider it carefully before making any significant changes.

  • Lord Crisp – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Crisp – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to review their current immigration policies to enable universities, research institutes, and other science and health-based organisations to recruit talent globally.

    Lord Bates

    Our current immigration policies, categories and processes already explicitly take account of the needs of academics, scientists and researchers. We have consistently protected and enhanced the treatment of these roles in the immigration system, even whilst restricting migration in other spheres.

    In Tier 2, the skilled work route, we have given PhD level roles, which include academics, scientists and researchers, higher priority when allocating places within the annual limit and relaxed rules relating to recruitment and settlement. We have introduced the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route for world leaders in science, engineering, humanities, the arts and digital technology, and several universities and research organisations are making use of this route. The Tier 5 (Temporary Work) route contains provisions to enable sponsored researchers to participate in international research collaborations, and for overseas medical and dental post-graduates to undertake training in the UK.

    The immigration system also supports the health sector, with several health professions, including doctors in emergency medicine, included on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). Nurses have been added to the SOL as a temporary measure, pending a full review of the evidence by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).

    We keep all immigration routes under review to ensure they are working effectively in line with the Government’s migration objectives. For the future, we have commissioned the MAC to advise on restricting Tier 2 to genuine skills shortages and jobs which require highly-specialised experts, but with sufficient flexibility to include high value roles and key public service workers. We await the MAC’s report with interest and will consider it carefully before making any significant changes.

  • Lord Avebury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Avebury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Avebury on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations to the UN Security Council members in the Human Rights Watch report of 26 November, What Military Target Was in My Brother’s House: Unlawful Coalition Airstrikes in Yemen.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We are aware of the report released by Human Rights Watch on 26 November and its recommendations to the international community. The UN Security Council has made clear that sanctions will be applied to those individuals or entities who have been designated or listed for engaging in or providing support for acts that threaten the peace, security and stability of Yemen. We take all reports of alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in Yemen by any side to the conflict very seriously. We have raised our concerns with the Saudi Arabian government and have received assurances of IHL compliance and continue to engage with them on those assurances. We have also raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with IHL and international human rights law. We agree that all parties to the conflict have a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to allow and facilitate humanitarian access to facilitate immediate access to life-saving supplies both into and within Yemen. The Resolution on Yemen adopted at the September session of the Human Rights Council commits the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights to work with the Government of Yemen and produce an oral report on developments to be given at the next session in March 2016, and a written report to be published and presented to the Council in September 2016. We remain deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Yemen and will continue to work with all parties to find a political solution to the conflict.

  • Lord Avebury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Avebury – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Avebury on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have investigated claims by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that weapons supplied by the UK, such as Paveway IV missiles, have been used by Saudi Arabia to attack civilian targets in Yemen; and whether they have taken legal advice about the UK’s responsibility for such attacks under international humanitarian law.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Ministry Of Defence monitors incidents of alleged international humanitarian law (IHL) violations using available information which in turn informs our overall assessment of IHL compliance in Yemen. We consider a range of evidence from government sources, foreign governments, the media and international non-governmental organisations. We are aware of reports, including from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, of alleged violations of IHL by the Saudi Arabian-led Coalition. We have received repeated assurances from the coalition that they are complying with IHL and we continue to engage with them on those assurances. The Saudi Arabian authorities have their own internal procedures for investigations and we encourage them to be open and transparent in this. The UK operates one of the most rigorous and transparent export control regimes in the world. All exports of arms and controlled military goods are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application which include consideration of the risk of the goods being used to commit violations of human rights or international humanitarian law.

  • Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of Innovate UK’s catapult networks.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    This Government is committed to the Catapult network and has prioritised core funding support for the network in the recent Spending Review. It has already expanded the network by announcing, in July, that a Medicines Technologies Catapult would be established and developed at Alderley Park in Cheshire.

    Innovate UK will be publishing its revised Strategy for 2016-20 in the spring and this will set out plans for evaluation of the Catapult network.

  • Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many catapult networks have been established by Innovate UK; what is the focus of each network; and how much funding they are providing to each network.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Innovate UK has established a network of 10 Catapult Centres covering a broad range of markets and technologies and Government investment will be around £557 million by 2015/16 but the future allocation between the individual catapults has not yet been finalised”. The Catapults are:

    High Value Manufacturing Catapult – seven individual centres working together to bring their expertise in different and complementary areas of high value manufacturing to provide an integrated capability and embraces all forms of manufacture using metals and composites, in addition to process manufacturing technologies and bio-processing.

    Cell Therapy Catapult – working to grow a viable and sustainable cell therapy industry in the UK.

    Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult – focused on development of commercially viable technologies applicable to offshore wind, wave and tidal power.

    Satellite Applications Catapult – helping UK businesses to develop new satellite-based products and services.

    Digital Catapult – working to position UK business to lead the introduction of radically new applications and experiences across the increasing breadth of internet services.

    Future Cities Catapult – helping to make cities to become smarter and more forward thinking.

    Transport Systems Catapult – supporting UK industry in exploiting the massive global market for new products and services that will drive the integration of transport and its systems and help UK businesses to develop effective and sustainable solutions to transport needs for both freight and people.

    Energy Systems Catapult – working to deliver economic value to Britain by making the transformation of the UK’s energy systems sector attractive to companies that are developing and growing new technology-based products and services by creating a critical mass of world class independent engineering and social science expertise in energy systems

    Precision Medicine Catapult – working to simplify and accelerate precision medicine product development and implementation, building the necessary partnerships between different therapeutic, diagnostic and informatics players in the sector, supporting existing and new companies and attracting inward investment by global life science companies

    Medicines Technologies Catapult – still being established, but will work on the development of new technologies that better predict the response of humans, animals and environment to chemicals (for example prescription drugs, pesticides and cosmetics).

  • Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what key market sectors have been identified for priority assistance by Innovate UK.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Innovate UK consults widely to prioritise technology areas for investment and carefully considers issues such as global market opportunity and UK research excellence and business capability.

    Innovate UK’s current priority areas are agriculture and food, built environment, digital economy, emerging technologies, enabling technologies, energy, health and care, high value manufacturing, resource efficiency, space applications, transport and urban living. Following the Government’s Spending Review, Innovate UK is considering its strategy for business-led innovation support across the UK’s technology areas for the next Spending Review period, which will be presented to Ministers in spring 2016.

  • Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when Innovate UK will publish its strategy for 2016–20.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Innovate UK intends to publish its Strategy for 2016-20 in the spring. This will be followed by the publication of Innovate UK’s Delivery Plan for 2016-17. This timetable takes account of the timing of the recent Spending Review.

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  • Henry Bellingham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Henry Bellingham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Bellingham on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress he has made on the auto-enrolment of people onto workplace pensions.

    Justin Tomlinson

    DWP’s latest evaluation report on Automatic Enrolment shows that since it’s introduction in 2012, participation in workplace pension saving by eligible workers in the private sector has increased by 21 percentage points.

  • Helen Hayes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Helen Hayes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of freezing local housing allowance on working families in privately-rented accommodation.

    Justin Tomlinson

    As Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation levels are close to zero, the impact of freezing Local Housing Allowance rates will have no impact in 2016/17 when compared to the counterfactual of uprating by CPI. (In future years, 30 per cent of the savings from the ‘freeze’ will be used to create further Targeted Affordability Funding to help those areas where rent increases are causing a shortage of affordable accommodation.)