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  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on NHS general dental services in North Yorkshire in 2008-09 and in each year since.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The information is not available in the format requested.

    The total amount spent on general dental services and personal dental services contracts by the former North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) for 2008-09 to 2012-13 is shown in the following table:

    General and Personal Dental Services

    £000s

    2008-09

    38,857

    2009-10

    40,632

    2010-11

    41,773

    2011-12

    43,438

    2012-13

    46,694

    Source: NHS Summarisation schedules

    Notes:

    1. General dental services cannot be separately identified in the published figures. The total gross expenditure for general dental service and personal dental service contracts is categorised between either independent contractor led contracts or on salaried led services provided by the PCT.

    2. Contractor led contracts are all primary care dental services commissioned from practitioners or corporate bodies where payments are processed on the PCT’s behalf by the Dental Services division of the NHS Business Services Authority. Salaried led services include the cost of any dental or support staff directly employed by the PCT and personal dental services or PCT dental services that are directly managed by PCTs or commissioned from other National Health Service trusts either within or outside their area.

  • Naomi Long – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Naomi Long – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Naomi Long on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policy towards Burma of the recently published brief by the Chin Human Rights Organisation entitled The state of freedom of religion or belief for Chin in Burma, 2013.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We are aware of the Chin Human Rights Organisation and their report on freedom of religion and belief in Chin State. We are currently implementing some of the recommendations that the report makes to the international community, including regularly raising the importance of Freedom of Religion and Belief in discussions with the Burmese government.

    During my visit to Burma in January, I raised the full range of our human rights concerns with senior members of the Burmese government and called for religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue in a speech in Rangoon. Freedom of Religion and Belief was also discussed during the first EU/Burma Human Rights Dialogue in May 2014.

    Our Ambassador and Embassy officials meet regularly with representatives of all faith communities, both in Rangoon and in the wider country, including in Chin State. The UK has provided funding for interfaith dialogue to help build trust between communities – for example a project promoting peace building among youths from different faith groups.

  • Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that the Gloria Greenwood murder and trial of the suspects is discussed during any future visit to the UK by government ministers from St Lucia.

    Mark Simmonds

    Consular officials remain in regular contact with the St Lucian authorities about the investigation into Mrs Greenwood’s death. We will continue to use all appropriate opportunities to press upon them the importance we place on bringing this case to trial, including Ministerial visits to the UK and to St Lucia. Consular officials are keeping Mrs Greenwood’s family updated and continue to provide full consular assistance

  • Anas Sarwar – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Anas Sarwar – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anas Sarwar on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will raise respect for human rights, the rule of law and the case of Mr Alexander Sodiqov with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojidin Aslov during his upcoming visit to the UK.

    Mr David Lidington

    We discuss the importance of respect for human rights and adherence to the rule of law with the Government of Tajikistan at both official and ministerial level whenever opportunity allows.

    We remain deeply concerned by the continuing detention in Tajikistan of Alexander Sodiqov, an academic researcher working for the University of Exeter. Senior Minister of State Baroness Warsi discussed a number of issues, including human rights, the rule of law and the case of Mr Sodiqov, when she met Foreign Minister Aslov on 1 July.

  • Gavin Shuker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Gavin Shuker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Shuker on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of (a) the value of the Senior Pacific Police Leadership Program; and (b) the effect of the level of investment in the program by his Department.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The aim of the Senior Pacific Police Leadership Programme (SPPL), which ran in 2013, was to improve leadership skills, promote ethical policing practices and reinforce the rights of women in the Pacific. The programme was run in partnership with Australia and New Zealand and was well received by the students and their respective governments.

    Twenty-one senior police officers from 15 Pacific Island Countries took part – and it was designed to complement larger scale assistance being provided by our allies in the region.

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spent £23,000 on the SPPL programme. We believe that the SPPL programme has had a positive impact, and helped improve police leadership in the countries which participated. Feedback from our partners in those countries, and from our New Zealand partners who hosted the programme, suggests that the SPPL programme provided a quality of training that would not otherwise be available in the region.

  • Andrew Turner – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Turner – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Turner on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, by what process Tony Blair was appointed to the post of Middle East peace envoy; and who approved that appointment.

    Hugh Robertson

    Tony Blair was appointed by the Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia) as the representative of the Middle East Quartet in June 2007. The Quartet principals (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, High Representative for European Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana) approved his appointment.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 201W, on the Central African Republic, how much funding the UK will allocate to the deployment of the team of experts to the Central African Republic to investigate sexual violence abuses; how many specialists will be deployed from the UK; when the team of experts will be deployed; and if he will make a statement.

    Mark Simmonds

    The UK is providing £279,000 to the African Union (AU) to support the deployment of a multidisciplinary team of African experts, including medical doctors, psychologists, lawyers and police officers. The programme will be managed by the AU Mission in the Central African Republic, MISCA, through Medecins D’Afrique, a Pan-African NGO with expertise in emergency response. The programme is designed to build African capacity to tackle conflict-related sexual violence, and the UK is not providing any experts as part of the deployment. The team will track and report on allegations of sexual violence, for further action by the AU Commission and African governments. We expect the team to deploy shortly.

  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much Government spending there was on public forest estate in each year since 2008-09.

    Dan Rogerson

    Government spending on the public forest estate since 2008-09 has been as follows:

    Financial year

    2008/9

    2009/10

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    £ (million)

    18.7m

    14.3m

    7.9m

    14.6m

    26.1m

    19.9m
  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of Forestry Commission public forest estate there was in Yorkshire and the Humber in each year since 2008-09; and what the make-up of such forest was.

    Dan Rogerson

    The latest figures for area of the Forestry Commission public forest estate in the Yorkshire and Humber region are set out in the table below. The data is organised to show area of coniferous woodland and broadleaved woodland. Land on the public forest estate which does not fall into either of these two categories is shown as ‘other’; this includes open habitats and land waiting to be restocked after felling.

    2009

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    Broadleaved

    2,488

    2,594

    2,680

    2,704

    2,749

    2,782

    Conifer

    15,015

    14,726

    14,446

    14,285

    14,030

    13,923

    Other

    4,267

    4,362

    4,244

    4,259

    4,469

    4,545

    23,779

    23,693

    23,382

    23,260

    23,261

    23,264

  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many onshore wind turbines there were in North Yorkshire in each year since 2008-09.

    Gregory Barker

    The number of onshore wind turbines that have become fully operational in North Yorkshire in the years since the start of 2008 are as follows:

    Number of wind turbines

    Date fully operational

    2008

    8

    22 April 2008

    2010

    12

    4 October 2010

    2011

    2

    1 January 2011

    Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, May 2014