The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Wheatcroft on 2014-05-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many women prisoners had GCSE C-grade or equivalent in English and maths on being imprisoned in (1) 2010, (2) 2011, and (3) 2012; and how many had such qualifications upon release.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We do not centrally hold information on the prior attainment of prisoners or their qualifications upon release.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Ministers had with the Iranian government on the imprisonment of (a) Rasoul Abdollahi, (b) Saeed Abedini, (c) Ebrahim Firozi, (d) Behmain Iranal, (e) Alireza Seyedin, (f) Maryam Naghash-Zargaran, (g) Farshid Fathi and (h) others imprisoned for their religious beliefs in Iran.
Hugh Robertson
We remain deeply concerned about the detention and treatment of all prisoners of conscience in Iran and the ongoing discrimination against Christians and other minority religious groups. We have called publicly for the Iranian government to end all persecution of individuals on the basis of their faith. The UK’s non-resident Chargé d’Affaires raised the issue of freedom of religion with the Iranian authorities during his last visit to Iran on 12 March.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Avebury on 2014-05-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why data on the presence of asbestos were not covered in the Property Data Survey Programme in United Kingdom schools; and what are their plans for removing any remaining asbestos from United Kingdom schools.
Lord Nash
The Property Data Survey gathers high-level condition data across the state-funded educational estate in England only. The surveyors employed on the programme are general building surveyors and they perform a visual, non-intrusive survey. In comparison, considerably more detailed surveys are required to assess asbestos and that is why asbestos is not included as part of the Property Data Survey.
The Department for Education does not have a programme for the phased removal of all asbestos from schools in England. Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations, the employer – either the school or local authority – has clear responsibilities to manage asbestos containing materials in schools safely. The advice from the Health and Safety Executive is that it is safer to leave undisturbed or undamaged asbestos in place and to carefully manage it rather than to risk disturbing or damaging asbestos unnecessarily. If asbestos is managed effectively, as required by the regulations, the safest and most effective way to plan for its removal is when existing buildings are refurbished or replaced.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to catch and control magpies and hooded crows.
George Eustice
Defra is not taking action to catch or control magpies or hooded crows.
Like all wild birds in Great Britain, magpies and hooded crows are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Within England, general licences are issued by Natural England permitting users to kill or take magpies for a range of purposes, such as the protection of public health and safety. These may be relied upon by landowners and other authorised persons as long as they are satisfied they have met the conditions of the licence.
In the UK, the hooded crow is found primarily in Scotland and Northern Ireland and is not normally resident in England. As nature conservation is a devolved matter, the Department of the Environment Northern Ireland and the Scottish Government should be approached regarding their wildlife legislation and policy for the control of magpies and hooded crows.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Avebury on 2014-05-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government by what date they will revisit the decision on whether to include Gypsies and Irish Travellers as an ethnic category in the NHS National Data Dictionary; and what account they have taken of the recommendation by the National Inclusion Health Board to the Health and Social Care Information Centre to use the 2011 Census ethnic category classifications in national data collection.
Earl Howe
NHS England, in collaboration with other bodies, will shortly produce guidance that advises on the codes for data collection, including those for ethnicity. National Health Service organisations continue to use the 2001 codes in order to support consistency with other data systems within the NHS. NHS organisations can choose to use either the 2001 or the 2011 categories.
Additional codes can be included as appropriate at a local level to reflect the demographic make-up of the local population. This allows local monitoring to take place in a way that supports service planning, decision-making, and key processes such as the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
We envisage this position will be revisited, with decisions to change this advice based upon the breadth of utilisation of the new coding system.
The Department, Public Health England and NHS England are together considering the findings and recommendations in the report from the National Inclusion Health Board.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to control mink.
George Eustice
The Government is not undertaking any nationwide action to control mink. However, landowners are free to control mink on their land as long as they do so humanely and within the law. Advice on controlling mink can be obtained from Natural England. As a non-native species, it is an offence to release mink into the wild and I would encourage landowners to control them wherever practical.
The Environment Agency is not directly involved in any mink control programmes in England. It does, however, contribute a small amount of annual funding to the Wildlife Trusts and some other local organisations towards the cost of local water vole conservation projects. Some of these projects may involve an element of mink control. The Environment Agency is one of a number of contributors to these projects.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by on 2014-05-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the value of the grey economy”
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of ticks in deer; and what steps he is taking to tackle ticks in deer.
George Eustice
Defra has not made an assessment of the prevalence of ticks in deer but I am aware that they are widespread. The Deer Initiative, which is part funded by Defra, provides advice on ticks on its website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what economic links there are with Burma; and what the value of (a) exports to and (b) imports from Burma was in the last year for which figures are available.
Mr Hugo Swire
Building a sustainable economy in Burma, including increased responsible international investment, is key to economic growth, alleviating poverty, improving livelihoods and improving stability. As set out in the ‘UK Activities in Burma’ document published on 8 April alongside a Written Ministerial Statement, the Government is working to encourage and support Burma to remove barriers to becoming a stable, prosperous and democratic country with a sustainable economy that benefits all its people and created a positive climate for domestic, international and UK trade and investment.
We are active in several areas including:
– establishing a UK Trade and Investment office in Burma to provide practical support to British companies;
– establishing a UK Financial Services Task Force to support the development of sound financial structures and products;
– funding two specialist economists from the International Growth Centre to support the Myanmar Development Resource Institute in providing high quality advice to government;
– providing £1.1m to support Burma’s application to the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative which will help improve the transparency and accountability of the revenues from Burma’s natural resources.
– supporting work to strengthen Burma’s accountancy profession, to tackle financial crime and to increase local community involvement in investment decisions.
UK exports of goods to Burma in 2013 were worth £44m (a 243% year on year increase) and imports from Burma were worth £65m (a 44% year on year increase). The top UK exports were transport equipment and road vehicles whilst the top imports were clothing.
In 2012, the last year for which total goods and services figures are available, UK exports of goods and services to Burma were worth £20.8m and imports from Burma were worth £46m.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Barnett on 2014-05-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 26 March (HL Deb, col 528), what was the basis on which he described the sale of the student loan book for £160 million as value for money for the taxpayer”; and what was the original value of the loans.”
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Mortgage Style loans offered for sale had a face value of around £890 million.
The sale of the Mortgage Style Loan Book was value for money as the purchase price exceeded the value of retention to Government.
The real value of the book is below the face value of the loans because of the subsidised nature of the loans and their age. These loans attract low interest rates and have an earnings threshold for repayment. The age-related write off combined with the earnings threshold means some borrowers never repay.
The sale of Mortgage style Loans also allowed the Student Loans Company to focus on its core business of supplying income contingent loans (ICR) to current students and collecting repayments from those loans.