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  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in which circumstances magistrates are required to send cases to the Crown Court in cases in which their sentencing powers would be sufficient to deal with the cases in their court.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    There are a range of circumstances which would require magistrates to send cases within their sentencing powers to the Crown Court for trial including those involving indictable-only offences; or where the offence concerned is linked to one or more other offences which must be tried in the Crown Court; or where the defendant elects for a jury trial; or, in youth cases, where the offence involves an adult co-defendant who must be tried in the Crown Court.

    In accordance with the Allocation Guideline issued by the independent Sentencing Council, magistrates should take account of any potential mitigation and guilty plea, which would bring a case within their jurisdiction. Where they are uncertain about the adequacy of their powers, they should retain a case and commit for sentence if they later take the view that it falls outside their sentencing powers.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 26 March 2015 to Question 226653, how many times force was used in prisons and how many injuries were sustained by prisoners as a result of the use of force in each (a) private and (b) public sector prison in each category of prison in England and Wales in each year since 2009-10.

    Andrew Selous

    The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department has allocated to initiatives aimed at preventing female genital mutilation overseas in each year since 2009-10; and which countries were supported through such initiatives in each such year.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    DFID’s flagship programme to prevent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), ‘Towards ending FGM/C in Africa and Beyond’, is providing up to £35 million in funding to end FGM in 17 high prevalence countries. The programme includes three core components: work with the UN on challenging social norms and working with governments on policy measures, supporting Africa-led campaigns and a research programme to build the evidence base for tackling FGM.

    The countries covered by this programme are: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Uganda.

    Where applicable some DFID country offices also have their own bilateral programmes. In Sudan for example DFID’s regional programme is complemented by a country specific programme to support the scale up of initiatives to end FGM across the country.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate she has made of the cost in cash terms of the UK maintaining Official Development Assistance at 0.7 per cent of gross national income in financial year 2016-17.

    Justine Greening

    Based on the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s (OBR) Autumn Statement GNI forecasts, the UK is projected to spend £13.6bnm on Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2016 in order to meet the 0.7 per cent of gross national income commitment.

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  • Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when investments pledged under the Ross Fund will be made available for research and development into infectious diseases.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The Ross Fund is a new £1 billion fund that will be used to support the global fight against malaria and other infectious diseases.

    Programmes under the Ross Fund will be led by either the Department of Health or the Department for International Development. Details about the exact nature and timing of investments pledged under the Ross Fund are still under development.

  • Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what discussions her Department has had with the Department of Health on implementation of the Ross Fund.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The Ross Fund is a new £1 billion fund that will be used to support the global fight against malaria and other infectious diseases. Programmes will be led by either the Department for International Development or the Department of Health. By bringing together the range of DFID and DH’s activity into the Ross Fund and ensuring coordination, we can maximise synergies and avoid duplication.

    The accountability and responsibility of delivering on the individual programmes within the Ross Fund is with the respective lead department. The teams in each department are working closely together to ensure there is a complementary approach. A cross-government senior officials group (including Department for International Development and Department of Health) is also meeting on a regular basis to provide strategic direction in global health, including for the Ross Fund.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when she plans to publish the (a) multilateral and (b) bilateral aid review.

    Justine Greening

    The outcome of the Bilateral and Multilateral Aid Reviews will be set out this spring.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support children living in conflict zones to access education.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID’s priority areas in education are to improve learning, to reach all children – especially those in fragile states – and to keep girls in school and learning. The UK is one of the biggest bilateral donors to basic education in low income countries. Between 2010 and 2015 DFID supported 11 million children in school across 21 countries, 7.5 million of them in countries considered to be fragile. DFID has again pledged to support 11 million girls and boys with a decent education between 2015 and 2020. In addition, by 2017, our flagship £355 million Girls’ Education Challenge will enable up to 1 million of the world’s most marginalised girls to benefit from an education of sufficient quality to help transform their lives, including in countries such as Somalia and South Sudan.

    DFID is also supporting initiatives to improve how the international community provides education in emergencies, including conflicts. This includes leadership to establish the ‘No Lost Generation Initiative’ (NLGI) in 2013 to prevent the loss of an entire generation of children to the effects of violence and displacement in the Syria conflict. As part of this support, the UK has allocated £115 million to provide protection, psychosocial support and education for children affected by the crisis in Syria. As a result, over 251,000 children have received formal and informal education inside Syria and in the region, allowing them to catch up on lost learning time and perform well in public school examinations. In addition, a key outcome of the recent ‘Supporting Syria and the Region Conference’, held in London on 4 February, is the commitment that, by the end of the 2016/17 school year,1.7 million children – all refugee children and vulnerable children in host communities – will be in quality education with equal access for girls and boys.

    Ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit in May, DFID is also working with partners to improve how education is delivered globally in humanitarian and protracted crises.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hours were logged as lost by officials in her Department due to delayed rail transportation in 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    We do not hold records centrally on the number of hours logged as lost due to delayed rail transportation across the Home Office.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26579, what estimate he has made of the total cost of the Troubled Families Programme in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

    Greg Clark

    £448 million was made available for the original Troubled Families Programme, which ran from 2012-2015 and successfully helped over 116,000 families.

    The programme was expanded and rolled out nationally in April 2015, to support a further 400,000 families by 2020. The programme secured £200 million for 2015/16, the first year of its expansion; it secured a further £720 million at the Spending Review 2015 to run it until 2020.