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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to prevent armed opposition fighters funded by Western countries from using their arms and training against unintended targets, or acting in a way that contradicts the Government’s overall strategy in the Middle East, in particular in Syria.

Earl Howe

The US-led programme to Train and Equip members of the moderate Syrian opposition, to which the UK has contributed, incorporated a screening process to determine the suitability of candidates. The training programme itself was designed to reinforce positive behaviours and on completion, successful candidates were required to make a formal declaration committing themselves to the fight against ISIL. Efforts continue to be made to monitor the activities of such individuals and the groups to which they are affiliated, to mitigate the risk that they engage thereafter in activities inconsistent with the aims of the programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 October (HL2528), why it was possible to vote daily in the Great British High Street of the Year competition for up to 30 days, and from multiple email addresses; who decided that voting should be allowed to take place in that way; and what assessment they have made of the impact of that decision on the outcome of the competition.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Great British High Street Competition was an initiative launched by the Future High Street Forum, a group bringing together retailers and sector experts to lead work to support high streets. The Great British High Street Competition, now in its second year, is overseen by a sub-group of the Forum.

The results of the Great British High Street Competition will be decided on by the combination of two scoring mechanisms. The first element will be based on scoring from a visit from our independent panel of judges which includes expert senior representatives from Boots, Costa, Google and the Post Office.

The second part of the scoring is based on the outcome of a public vote which allows people to vote every day but from a single email address. The decision was based on advice from analysts and social media experts, which included Facebook, LinkedIn and Yahoo, and was introduced in order to allow the finalists to build local campaigns which generate interest across the course of the campaign and not just on one day. It was also designed to allow towns with varying populations to compete. Ministers had no role in this decision.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish the team in Colne and their competitors, every luck. We received 230 entries of an excellent standard so to reach the final is a huge achievement. The competition is shining a light on all the wonderful, hard work going on around the country and, once the competition is over, we look forward to continuing to work with all of the finalists to share and publicise their great work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest estimate of the number of people registered as parliamentary electors in more than one constituency in the United Kingdom; and what proportion of those are so registered (1) because they are students, (2) because they occupy more than one home, (3) because they work away from their main residence, and (4) for other reasons.

Lord Bridges of Headley

It is not possible to provide an estimate of the number of people registered as parliamentary electors in more than one constituency as this information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent the level of recorded crime in a police force’s area affects the amount of funding allocated under the proposed new formula for funding of police forces.

Lord Bates

The proposed police funding model is based on a set of objective indicators that correlate strongly with long term patterns of crime.

As we set out in our consultation on a proposed new funding model, we believe it is not appropriate to directly base force level allocations on crime statistics as these are directly influenced by police activity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the discovery of an illness similar to Lyme Disease, caused by the tick-borne bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi, which is reported to be resistant to antibiotics.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Public Health England (PHE) regularly reviews the scientific literature and in response to reports of B. miyamotoi being present in ticks in other countries, PHE has studied relevant ticks in England, finding that three out of 954 ticks studied contained B. miyamotoi, compared to 40 that were positive for the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease. The public health significance of B. miyamotoi has been unclear, but accumulating published evidence from around 50 human cases, suggests it can cause disease in man, most commonly a febrile illness.

To date, no human infections with Borrelia miyamotoi have been reported in the United Kingdom. All cases of B. miyamotoi infection reported in the scientific literature to date made a full recovery following treatment with appropriate antibiotics.