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Tag: 2014

  • Tim Farron – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tim Farron – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2015-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Mexican counterpart on (a) the kidnapping of students in Iguala in September 2014 and (b) human rights in that country; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We have been closely monitoring the tragic events in Guerrero and both Ministers and officials have raised the case with their Mexican counterparts. I personally raised the case of the missing students in Iguala with the Mexican Foreign Minister during the UK-Mexico High Level Political Talks that took place in Mexico in November 2014.

    We stand ready to support the Mexican government in their efforts to tackle violence and impunity and will continue to engage in constructive bilateral dialogue on human rights issues.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the sex was of the complainant and the accused in each case of stalking reported after the implementation of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012; and what proportion of such cases which were investigated resulted in the accused being (i) charged with the offence and (ii) cautioned.

    Lynne Featherstone

    The Home Office does not hold this information centrally. The Home Office has received data on the number of stalking offences recorded in England and Wales since April 2014 as a separate offence category but these data do not contain
    information on the sex of the victim or the perpetrator. Prior to April 2014, stalking offences under Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 were included within the harassment offence classification.

    The latest available statistics show that between April and June 2014 there were 695 stalking offences recorded by the police in England and Wales.

    The Ministry of Justice hold separate data for the number of cautions that have been issued for stalking. Between the implementation of the Protection of Freedoms Act in January 2013 and 30 June 2014 there were 57 cautions given for
    stalking. This comprised of 49 given to males, 7 given to females and 1 where the gender was not stated.

    Neither the Home Office nor the Ministry of Justice hold information on the number of individuals charged.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were sentenced to a custodial sentence of 12 months or less for each offence by each Crown Court in the latest year for which figures are available.

    Mike Penning

    The information you have requested cannot be extracted from our raw data due to the extensive nature of what you have requested. I will therefore write to my honourable Friend as soon as it is available.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-01-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government who is responsible for co-ordinating the services and provisions needed by those sleeping rough.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The Department of Communities and Local Government has the lead on tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. Formed in 2010, the Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness brings Departments together to ensure that Departments across Government play their part in tackling both the causes and consequences of homelessness. Throughout this Parliament, the group has worked together to coordinate action on the issues facing homeless people.

    The Government have increased spending to prevent and tackle rough sleeping and homelessness making over £500 million available, giving councils the funding and tools needed to take action against rough sleeping locally.

    There are a range of initiatives and projects in place to help rough sleepers, prevent single homelessness and to help those who have been homeless find and sustain accommodation.

    Thousands of vulnerable people, including military veterans, who have slept rough or faced with the prospect of doing so have been given the help they need through No Second Night Out and Streetlink. By using Streetlink the public can help connect rough sleepers to the local services available so they can get the help they need to get them off the streets. Since 2012 Streetlink has made nearly 21,000 rough sleeping referrals to councils with over 9,000 having positive outcomes (such as accessing services) of which nearly 1,800 have had a specific housing outcome.

    We have supported the roll-out of No Second Night Out nationally through the £20 million Homelessness Transition Fund for the voluntary sector ensuring rough sleepers are found quickly and that they do not spend more than one night on the street. In 20 key rough sleeping areas outside London 67% of rough sleepers were helped off the streets after a single night according to homelessness charities.

    We have launched an £8 million Help for Single Homeless Fund for local authorities which will improve council services for single people facing the prospect of homelessness. 34 projects, working across 168 local authorities, will provide support for up 22,000 single homeless people.

    Finally, the Government is helping single homeless people find and sustain accommodation in the private rented sector through our £13 million funding to Crisis. By 2016 we expect the Crisis scheme to have helped 10,000 single homeless people since it started in 2010.

    We work closely with Homeless Link, who represent homelessness charities across England, and attended the launch of their homelessness manifesto at a recent parliamentary reception.

    It is not for the Government itself to respond to the manifestos produced by Non-Governmental Organisations and pressure groups ahead of the general election, but we welcome the broader contribution to the debate.

  • Lord Greaves – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Greaves – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-01-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients presented themselves to the Accident and Emergency and Urgent Care Units at the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital respectively in each month in the last two years; and in each month how many of those patients were admitted for treatment.

    Earl Howe

    Information is not available in the format requested.

    Information showing quarterly accident and emergency activity and admissions at the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust between Q4 2010-11 and Q4 2014-15, is shown in the attached tables.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-01-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are proposing in relation to banks that have missold business loans to customers.

    Lord Deighton

    Business lending is not, and never has been, within the scope of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) conduct rules. The position that has traditionally been taken in the UK is that the terms and conditions of contracts between businesses (e.g. loans) are not generally prescribed by government. The government is committed to regulating only where there is a clear case for doing so, in order to avoid putting additional costs on lenders that would ultimately lead to higher costs for businesses customer.

    However, the smaller end of the business community does receive regulatory protection. In the UK, loans to the smallest businesses (sole traders, partnerships consisting of 2 or 3 partners and unincorporated businesses) of less than £25,000 are treated as regulated consumer credit agreements (CCAs).

    This protects consumers, typically in their dealings with banks where there is the potential for consumer detriment. Around three quarters of the 4.8 million UK SMEs are sole traders, partnerships consisting of 2 or 3 partners and unincorporated businesses.

    For those loans which are not treated as CCA loans, there is also a clear route of recourse for businesses that feel they have been mis-sold a business loan to pursue. A business’ first recourse should be to its bank’s customer complaints department. This is a route that has been taken by a number of customers. The FCA’s rules require the banks to properly investigate all complaints and, through ongoing supervision, it continues to monitor the banks’ complaint handling process.

    Furthermore, micro businesses with a turnover of less than 2 million Euros and fewer than 10 employees have recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS is an independent, non-governmental body, established under statute to provide for the proportionate, prompt and informal resolution of complaints against financial services firms. It provides a free, independent dispute resolution service for bank customers and has a special team looking at this issue. Its decisions are binding on the firm concerned.

    Beyond this, businesses are expected to be responsible for ensuring that contracts they make with other businesses are in their interest. However, if a business believes a bank has acted unlawfully, they can seek to take action through the courts

  • Lord Storey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-01-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to increase the attention paid to vocabulary building within literacy syllabuses in the national curriculum from pre-school onwards.

    Lord Nash

    The Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets out that literacy development during the early years involves encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Both the reading and writing literacy goals in the Statutory Framework set out the skills that most children should meet by the end of the foundation stage. Children must also be given access to a wide range of reading materials to ignite their interest.

    The importance of vocabulary development is emphasised and integrated throughout the National Curriculum framework. This covers both general vocabulary development and the subject-specific language that pupils need to be able to use to progress in, for example, mathematics and science. Both the reading and writing domains of the English programmes of study emphasise the importance of building pupils’ vocabulary, so they understand and can use a wide range of words.

    The approach to developing vocabulary is first through securing word reading and comprehension and secondly through pupils developing an understanding of how words and meaning can be created using prefixes and suffixes. Morphology and etymology are emphasised at key stage 2 to further develop pupils’ capacity for understanding and developing vocabulary. This is brought together in the appendix to the English programmes of study covering vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, which also sets out the terminology that pupils should be taught to use to discuss their writing.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2015-01-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why, in the light of the demand for track access exceeding the availability of train paths on the East Coast Main Line, open access operators are paying discounted variable track access charges.

    Baroness Kramer

    Existing Open Access Operators are charged the same Variable Track Access charges as franchised operators with the exception of the Capacity Charge. This is because implementing the full Control Period 5 (CP5) rates would equate to a real term average increase of 450% in the Capacity Charge from which Open Access Operators have no protection. In light of the Office of Rail Regulation’s statutory duties to promote the use of the railway network, protect the interests of users of railway services and to promote competition in the provision of railway services, they deemed it appropriate to hold Capacity Charge at CP4 rates for both existing services and any new entrant Open Access Operator in line with European law and their statutory duties. Any additional services introduced by existing Open Access Operators will be charged at CP5 rates.

  • Lord Warner – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Warner – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-01-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 6 January (HL3868), whether evidence that an individual persistently undertook, permitted or financed illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories triggers consideration as to whether that individual’s conduct is not conducive to the public good.

    Lord Bates

    All foreign nationals seeking entry to the UK must satisfy either an entry clearance officer overseas, or an immigration officer at the port of arrival, that they fully meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules in the category of entry sought and that, by their own actions, they have not brought themselves within scope of the general grounds for refusal set out in Part 9 of the Immigration Rules.

    The Government takes a range of measures to prevent foreign nationals from coming to, or remaining in, the UK where their presence is not conducive to the public good. An individual may be refused entry to the UK under the Immigration Rules and the Home Secretary also has the power to exclude foreign nationals from the UK. The power to exclude is broad but may include circumstances involving national security, unacceptable behaviour, extremism, international relations or foreign policy, and serious organised crime. These decisions are made according to the individual circumstances of each case taking into a consideration a range of factors.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department takes into account reports produced or evidence submitted by non-governmental human rights organisations in deciding on claims for asylum made on the grounds of political persecution or a risk to someone’s life.

    James Brokenshire

    In reaching decisions on asylum claims, caseworkers have access to a wide range of published country of origin information produced by the Home Office, which includes reference to reports produced or submitted by national or
    international human rights organisations.