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Tag: 2014

  • Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the Passport Office to ensure it continues to meet the deadlines for applications to be processed and returned during the holiday period.

    James Brokenshire

    Her Majesty’s Passport Office looks to ensure that adequate resources are in place to meet demand whilst ensuring that resources are proportionate to that demand. Contingencies are in place to coincide with peak periods of demand e.g. school breaks and summer holidays.

    This primarily involves staff working overtime but also includes, as required, the redeployment of resources to support passport application examination staff and to assist in the handling of customer contact.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will require banks and their financial institutions to release further personal and business lending data by postcode; and if he will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    In July 2013 the Government announced that it had reached an agreement with the major UK banks to publish lending data across 10,000 individual postcodes.

    The first dataset was published in December 2013 and shows the outstanding stock of lending that has been committed to customers across three categories; loans and overdrafts to SMEs, mortgages and unsecured personal loans (excluding credit cards).

    The data will allow challenger banks, smaller building societies, credit unions and community development finance institutions (CDFIs) to find areas where there is a lack of lending so they can offer finance to those customers who are crying out for support to help their business grow.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what total income was received by the Passport Office in fees for (a) fast track and (b) premium service (i) in 2013 and (b) between 1 January and 31 May 2014.

    James Brokenshire

    Table A sets out the requested information in respect of how many telephone
    calls were received during the requested periods.

    Table B shows income received in fees for premium and fast track services.

    Table C provides information on the number of full time equivalent staff
    employed by HM passport Office on 31 December for each of the years from 2010 –
    2013.

    Table D sets out the number of first time passport applications and the number
    of passport renewals received during each month between January 2013 and May
    2014.

    In the period between 1 January and 31 May 2014, 31,188 straightforward
    passport applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office were not
    processed within the 3-week target.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many reported cases of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged 13 to 16 under section 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 were not prosecuted because of the 12 month statute of limitations for that offence in the last (a) year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years.

    Oliver Heald

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold records of the number of cases reported to the police or of the number the police decide not to proceed with. A record is held of the number of cases where the CPS has been asked to make a charging decision and the decision made; either to charge or take no further action.

    However, no central records of the alleged offence(s) considered at the pre-charge decision are held by the CPS. To obtain details of the number of allegations of unlawful sexual intercourse offences considered and those which do not proceed, either by way of decision to take no further action or discontinuance following charge, due to the 12 month Statute of Limitations would require a manual exercise of reviewing individual case files to be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people have applied to join the Royal Navy cadet force in each of the last five years.

    Anna Soubry

    The number of people who made a formal application to join the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Combined Cadet Force in each of the last five years is shown in the following table:

    2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
    Adult Volunteers 50 40 40 40 50
    Cadets 300 570 1140 1720 1650

    In accordance with convention these figures have been rounded.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the government of Brazil on the issue of the recent increase in the number of disappeared persons in that country.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We have regular discussions on human rights with the Brazilian government. Most recently the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Right Honourable Friend, the Member for Richmond (Yorks)(Mr Hague) raised this during his second visit to Brazil in February for the Strategic Dialogue. The UK also holds regular discussions of Human Rights and public security through the EU namely, initiatives, the Brazil- EU Human Rights Dialogue, the last of which was held on the 25th of April in Brasilia.

  • David Winnick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    David Winnick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Winnick on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall North dated 30 April 2014, ref 2014/0036207, on behalf of a constituent.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The hon. Member wrote to Peter Lauener, Chief Executive of the Education Funding Agency, on 30 April 2014 about admissions arrangements at Walsall Academy. He copied his letter to my Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State. Mr Lauener replied to the hon. Member on 14 May.

  • Maria Eagle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Maria Eagle – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what meetings (a) the Prime Minister and (b) officials in his Office had with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) on the pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset in 2013; what advice he has given to the NFU on communications with the media during the commencement of the culls; and if he will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    Meetings were held with the National Farmers Union in the six months prior to the start of the pilot culls in 2013.

    There was no media blackout during the pilots. Defra and the National Farmers Union continued to make spokespeople available to talk to the media throughout the period in which culling was taking place.

    However, both the National Farmers Union and Defra were always clear that operational information that could compromise the effectiveness of the cull or the safety of those involved would not be disclosed during the operation.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the major factors that could change the unit production cost of the Joint Strike Fighter.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Ministry of Defence has a comprehensive understanding of all major factors that effect unit production cost. These are constantly managed as part of our procurement and risk management process.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what co-operation programmes between the UK and Thailand there are; and what steps he has taken to review that co-operation.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The UK and Thailand have strong bilateral ties which are exemplified by a range of activities and programmes across the political, commercial, and cultural spectrum, for example strong trading and tourism links. We want our bilateral relationship to prosper, but in view of the rapid and serious deterioration of the democratic environment, we are reviewing the scope of our cooperation with Thailand. We are particularly concerned by restrictions on the freedoms of assembly, association and expression, and by the large numbers of arbitrary detentions we have seen since the coup was announced.