Blog

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he made his most recent assessment of UK compliance with (a) the Cluster Munitions Convention, (b) the Arms Trade Treaty and (c) the EU Consolidated Arms Export Criteria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    a) The UK provides an annual report to the Secretary-General of the UN on its compliance with the CCM. The UK submitted its last report on 29 April 2016. It completed destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions in December 2013, more than 5 years ahead of the schedule set by the Convention.

    b) The UK has signed and ratified the Arms Trade Treaty and is applying its standards through implementation of robust and transparent national export controls of all conventional arms and ammunition. As part of its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, the UK recently submitted its first annual report (covering 2015) to the Treaty Secretariat ahead of the 31 May 2016 deadline.

    c) Each year the Government submits a report to Parliament on the UK’s Strategic Arms Export Controls. The most recent report, covering 2014, was published on 23 July 2015. The Government considers that it complies fully with the Consolidated Criteria.

  • Baroness Whitaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Baroness Whitaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Whitaker on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether UK cluster bombs have been sold to the government of Saudi Arabia; and if so, when.

    Earl Howe

    The Governments of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed an agreement in August 1986 that covered the supply of BL-775 cluster munitions to the Royal Saudi Air Force. The last of these were supplied in early 1989. We are not aware of the sale of any other UK cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to work to establish a Digital Powerhouse Contract Portal, as recommended in the recent report The Digital Powerhouse: The innovation potential of tech clusters in the North, and to add central government contracts to that portal once established.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    There are no current plans to do this.

    The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) have published the attached detailed guidance on the new transparency requirements for publishing on Contracts Finder.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend specifically to look at providing funding to make the North a testbed for experimental technology, as recommended in the recent report The Digital Powerhouse: The innovation potential of tech clusters in the North.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Government funding is already being used to develop and trial innovative new technology in the North. £170 million has been invested in the Hartree Centre to broaden and deepen the use of High Performance Computing in industry and academia – and has since attracted inward investment of over £200m from IBM and other high-tech industry. Government has also confirmed £45 million of research funding for six new Next Generation Digital Economy Centres – including one led by Newcastle University – to drive the development of new digital technologies. The centres have secured over £22 million additional funding and support in kind that will boost the impact of these centres. In addition, £9 million has been invested in the CityVerve Internet of Things Smart City demonstrator in Manchester to trial "Internet of Things" applications on a large scale.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider publishing central government data on procurement history and key performance indicators to help tech communities understand the opportunities available to them, as recommended in the recent report The Digital Powerhouse: The innovation potential of tech clusters in the North.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    On 12 May, the Cabinet Office committed to implement the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in the Crown Commercial Service’s operations by October 2016. This is part of the UK’s Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18. The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has also begun a consultation on a number of proposals to update the Local Government Transparency Code 2015.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations in the recent report The Digital Powerhouse: The innovation potential of tech clusters in the North.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    We are considering these recommendations and will respond in due course.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether elderly and disabled patents are being discharged from hospitals without adequate on-going care arrangements in place in order to free up beds for other hospital admissions.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    No patient with on-going care and support needs should be discharged from hospital without appropriate arrangements for meeting those needs being put in place. We expect the National Health Service and local authorities to work together to ensure that patient safety and social care needs are taken into account when decisions are made to discharge patients from hospital.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the shortfall in resources available to enable elderly and disabled patients to be discharged from hospitals with adequate provision in place for their appropriate care at home or elsewhere.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    No-one should stay in hospital any longer than they need to and this Government is determined to ensure that health and social care are properly funded. As well as funding the National Health Service’s own plan for the future with £10 billion, we are giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion extra for adult social care by 2019/2020 through the new Social Care Precept and additional social care funding in the Better Care Fund.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for social and community cohesion of people living in poverty.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    Building a strong economy and increasing employment are the surest way to lift people out of poverty and build strong and cohesive communities. The latest figures show a record 31.6 million people are now in work making a real difference to families on the ground with the number of children in workless households at a record low.

    Britain has a claim to be the most successful multi-faith, multi-racial democracy in the world. The Community Life Survey 2014-15 shows a well-integrated society with 87 per cent of people reporting they belong strongly to Britain and 86 per cent that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together. But we know deep seated inequalities remain between some minority groups and the majority population, and have set in train work to address these inequalities:

    • a review by Louise Casey into boosting opportunity and integration in the most isolated and deprived communities to inform a major new Cohesive Communities Programme;
    • a 2020 vision to increase Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic opportunities, such as take up of apprenticeships and employment; and
    • plans to publish a Life Chances Strategy, announced in January, setting out a comprehensive plan to fight disadvantage and extend opportunity.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to take any action to ensure that local authorities comply with their legal duty to provide to homeless families temporary accommodation that is safe and suitable.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Housing Act 1996 requires that local housing authorities must ensure that all temporary accommodation they secure is suitable. Not to do so is unlawful. Households in temporary accommodation have the legal right to seek a review of any decision to place them in unsuitable accommodation. If households are unsatisfied with the response then they have redress to the courts.

    To help frontline decision makers make those decisions right first time DCLG fund the National Homelessness Advice Service to provide free expert advice, training and support to homelessness professionals. In December 2015 Government also provided a £5 million fund to help the 25 councils facing the most significant homelessness pressures to ensure people are moved from temporary accommodation and into suitable homes as soon as possible.

    Households leaving temporary accommodation now spend, on average, less time in temporary accommodation than they did in 2010. The numbers of households in temporary accommodation remain well below their peak, when they hit 101,000 in 2004.