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Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what satellites currently use facilities at West Freugh for data transmission.

Mr Philip Dunne

The satellite reception capability at the West Freugh site is currently used to receive satellite observed environmental data (meteorological, oceanographic and observed weather) from several different satellite sources. I am withholding details of specific satellites as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

01/11/2022
Mike Kane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2014-04-29.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support the Government is giving to credit unions to help extend access to fair credit.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government is supportive of credit unions and has taken a number of steps to assist them, most recently including:
- The Department for Work and Pensions investment of up to £38 million in an expansion project for credit unions. The project aims to help credit unions expand and grow, enabling them to provide financial services to more people.
- From 1 April this year the Government increased the cap on the maximum interest rate a credit union can charge for loans from 2% to 3% per month. This will allow credit unions to make more loans to their members without making a loss. Even if they choose to charge the higher rate of interest the cost of borrowing from a credit union will still be significantly cheaper than many high cost lenders.
The Government intends that these measures will help the credit union sector go from strength to strength, so it can be a viable option for financial services provision for an even wider range of consumers.
01/11/2022
Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to the oral Answer of 6 February 2014, Official Report, column 348W, on Colombia, what discussions he held with (a) business, (b) government and (c) civil society representatives regarding the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Action Plan on Business and Human Rights during his visit to Colombia in February 2014.

Mr Nick Clegg

I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the answer I gave on 11 February, Column 691. In addition to this, all members of the business delegation who accompanied me were briefed on Human Rights issues before the visit.

01/11/2022
Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to the oral Answer of 6 February 2014, Official Report, column 348W, on Colombia, which representatives of Colombian trades unions he met during his visit to Colombia in February 2014.

Mr Nick Clegg

I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the answer I gave on 11 February, Column 691. In addition to this, all members of the business delegation who accompanied me were briefed on Human Rights issues before the visit.

01/11/2022
Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his assessment is of the effect of his Department’s Action Plan on Business and Human Rights since its launch in September 2013.

Mr William Hague

The UK Action Plan on Business and Human Rights was the first country plan produced, setting out how the Government will implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We reported progress in implementation in the recently launched Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights Report.

Internationally the UK’s plan has shown our commitment to the widespread uptake of the UN Guiding Principles. Other countries have sought our guidance and advice in developing and producing their own plans.

The Action Plan has set out our expectations of UK business and industry on business and human rights, to encourage initiatives to introduce human rights due diligence and remedy measures into their policies and operations. The Companies Act now requires listed companies to report on their human rights impacts, and The Home Office published a draft Modern Slavery Bill last December to strengthen law enforcement capability to combat human trafficking and labour exploitation.

We are committed to reviewing the effectiveness of our Action Plan in 2015.

01/11/2022
Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what meetings he has had with (a) representatives of the Colombian government, (b) Colombian civil society and (c) Colombian businesses to discuss his Department’s Action Plan on Business and Human Rights since its launch in September 2013.

Mr William Hague

I visited Colombia in February this year and discussed business and human rights in my meetings with President Santos, and in meetings with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Trade, and with civil society. I welcomed the development of the Colombian national policy on business and human rights during these meetings and raised the importance of protecting Trade Unionists and human rights defenders. We have a strong partnership with the government of Colombia on implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in the context of the November 2011 Joint Declaration on Human Rights by the Prime Minister and President Santos.

In addition, British Embassy officials in Bogota have had several meetings with the Colombian government, civil society and businesses in Colombia to discuss the UK Action plan on business and human rights in line with our commitment to working for widespread international uptake of the UN Guiding Principles and to developing partnerships with other countries to progress this.

Last year, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office funded a project to assist Colombia in drafting its national policy. The Colombian public policy on business and human rights has been formed as a result of consultation across 33 regions and involving over 19,000 people.

01/11/2022
Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance his Department issues on what criteria schools should use when deciding whether to employ an individual who does not possess a formal teaching qualification as a teacher.

Mr David Laws

The Department for Education does not issue guidance prescribing the criteria that schools should use when employing teaching staff.

The latest school workforce statistics (November 2013) show that the overwhelming majority (96%) of teachers in state-funded schools hold qualified teacher status.

Headteachers are best-placed to make decisions about the qualifications, skills and experience they need in their teaching staff. They are held to account for those decisions through inspection and the publication of school performance data.

01/11/2022
Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of the emails sent by his Department to schools on 3 April 2014 setting out guidance on keeping children safe have not been opened by the recipient to date.

Mr Edward Timpson

On 3 April the Department for Education published updated statutory guidance on safeguarding, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’. On the same day, we emailed all headteachers a letter from the Secretary of State drawing their attention to the guidance. We will be publishing this on the website in due course.

The letter was emailed to 31,660 addressees in 25,035 schools. As of 30 April, 13,285 (43.1%) recipients had opened the email, and 9,402 (30.5%) recipients had clicked through to the guidance on safeguarding.

Other records show that the guidance has been seen by a greater number of people. Between 3 and 29 April the web page hosting the guidance received 65,729 page views. The Department also published 5 tweets in support of the publication. These achieved a total reach of 639,315, and the embedded links were clicked 755 times.

The guidance will also be highlighted in the summer term 2014 schools’ email and Need to Know timelines that will be sent to all schools in May. Schools can also access relevant information through social media, and messages from the Education Funding Agency and the National College for Teaching and Leadership. The Department also sends regular emails to all local authorities.

Officials have also promoted the guidance through various stakeholder groups that work with the Department, including the Headteacher Reference Groups and the Education Forum; members of the latter include chairs of local safeguarding children boards. And they have written to head and teacher unions who met Ministers in January to discuss female genital mutilation and broader safeguarding issues.

01/11/2022
Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost to the average UK saver of delaying the pensions charge cap from April 2014 to April 2015.

Steve Webb

There has been no delay to the default fund charge cap. The Government has announced that it will put in place a charge cap set at 0.75% of funds under management for the default funds of all schemes used for automatic enrolment from April 2015. This means we will deliver on the timetable in our consultation document to have a full cap for all qualifying schemes in place by April 2015.

01/11/2022

Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people made requests of the pension tracing service to find lost pension pots in each year since May 2010; and how many of these were successful.

Steve Webb

Table below shows the total number of Pension Trace requests and those which were successful. Successful Pension Traces are where we are able to provide a customer with contact details of the pension administrator for the particular company or employer they had worked for.

1^st April 10 to 31^st March 11	Total 76,453 Successful 66,586
1^st April 11 to 31^st March 12	Total 77,757 Successful 67,068
1^st April 12 to 31^st March 13	Total 107,335 Successful 94,354
1^st April 13 to 31^st March 14	Total 144,169 Successful 126,904

Source:

The data is from the Pension Tracing System

01/11/2022