The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether (a) Serco and (b) G4S will be permitted to bid for community rehabilitation company contracts.
Jeremy Wright
G4S and Serco decided to withdraw from the competition to select lead providers of rehabilitation services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 March 2014, Official Report, columns 322-3W, on unmanned air vehicles, whether the training of UK personnel in the six countries identified has involved unmanned aircraft actively engaged in operations.
Mr Mark Francois
Training of UK personnel in the six countries identified has not involved unmanned aircraft actively engaged in operations. Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) training has only ever occurred in non-operational environments, specifically the countries listed in my previous answer on 27 March 2014. Army UAS actively engaged in operations have always been, and continue to be, remotely piloted solely by fully trained personnel operating on the ground in the country in which the operation is active. This has only been in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what circumstances offenders can choose not to attend a parole board meeting when a victim reads a victim personal statement.
Jeremy Wright
The victims of serious violent and sexual offences, where the offender has been sentenced to 12 months or more, may opt into the statutory Victim Contact Scheme, operated by the National Probation Service. Where they do so, they will be informed of a Parole Board review and offered the opportunity to make a Victim Personal Statement (VPS). The VPS provides victims with a valuable opportunity to tell the Parole Board how the offence has affected them or their family, both at the time it was committed and since, and how they think the offender’s release would affect them. The VPS can contribute to a better and more informed hearing, as it may enable more robust questioning of the offender about the offence, remorse and victim empathy.
The independent Parole Board is responsible for the conduct of parole hearings. The normal practice is that the offender will not be present when the victim reads his/her VPS, but there may be circumstances where he/she will be. In many cases, the victim does not wish the offender to be present during the reading. Whilst the conduct of an individual hearing is for the Chair of the Panel of the Parole Board, the Chair cannot insist that the prisoner attends to hear the VPS being read if s/he does not wish to do so. No estimate has been made centrally of the proportion of offenders present at the hearing when the VPS is read out.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Tami on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what involvement his Department had in overseeing the activities of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in awarding the Magnox/RSRL contract; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fallon
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is responsible for running the competition to secure a new Parent Body Organisation for Magnox Ltd and Research Sites Restoration Ltd in line with its statutory duties and responsibilities under the Energy Act 2004. The competition is run in strict accordance with UK and EU procurement regulations. Oversight and governance is provided by the NDA’s Competition Programme Board, on which the Government is represented by the Shareholder Executive (on behalf of DECC), HM Treasury and Infrastructure UK. Formal Government approval will be required before the contract can be awarded in September.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps the Electoral Commission is taking to increase the number of British overseas electors registered to vote.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that it runs public awareness campaigns to encourage British expatriates to register to vote; the most recent took place ahead of the European elections this year.
Two briefing notes, which included details of the campaign, were circulated to hon. Members in advance of the elections. These notes are available on the Commission’s website here:
· www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/164449/Elections-May-2014-briefing.pdf
The Commission intends to run a similar campaign ahead of the 2015 General Election. It is currently evaluating the performance of its 2014 campaign to identify improvements that could be made for the General Election campaign. The Commission will ensure that a copy of the evaluation is sent to the hon. Member when it has been completed.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the threat to the UK’s environment from invasive alien plant species.
Dan Rogerson
The Non-Native Species Framework Strategy for Great Britain sets out our mechanism for addressing non-native species, including plants. The strategy includes a comprehensive risk assessment mechanism to assess the potential negative impacts of non-native species, including threats to the environment. To date 126 risk assessments have been completed or are in progress. Of these, 58 are plant species.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average duration has been of the assessment period for each claim for personal independence payment from a person diagnosed with a terminal illness in each of the three months to June 2014.
Mike Penning
I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the Written Answer I gave him on 18 June, Official Report, column 629W. Information on clearance times is not currently available. Statistics on clearance times are intended for future publication.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage his counterparts in other EU member states to support and commit resources to the EUFOR RCA mission in the Central African Republic.
Mark Simmonds
I welcome the launch of the EU Force (EUFOR) military operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) on 2 April. EUFOR will help the African-led International Support Mission to CAR (MISCA) and French (Sangaris) forces to provide security in Bangui until a hand-over to MISCA or a possible UN Peacekeeping Operation can take place. I discussed the importance of the mission with Ministerial colleagues in the margins of the EU-Africa Summit in Brussels on 1-2 April. The UK has played a strong role in the planning for EUFOR, and is discussing the possibility of providing airlifts to help EUFOR’s deployment. Ongoing reports of violence in CAR demonstrate the importance of this mission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many cases child support arrears have been written off under the Child Support Management of Payments and Arrears (Amendment) Regulations 2012 since November 2012; and how much has been written off in such a fashion.
Steve Webb
The circumstances, provided for in The Child Support Management of Payments and Arrears (Amendment) Regulations 2012, in which debt can be written off are:
– Where the Parent with Care (PWC) requests it;
– Where the Non-resident Parent (NRP) has died prior to 25/01/2010, or no further action can be taken to recover debt from the estate;
– Where the PWC has died;
– Where there is Interim Maintenance Assessment (IMA) debt and the IMA was in place between 5th April 93 and 18th April 95, and the assessment cannot be adjusted in light of a parent’s actual income for this form of debt when it arises over that period; or,
– Where the NRP has been told that no further action would ever be taken to collect the debt.
Since the introduction of the write off powers in November 2012 the Department has written off the following amounts:
– Financial year ended 31 March 2013 £1,133,310
– Financial year ended 31 March 2014 £15,480,677
The Department does not hold information on the number of cases this relates to.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pamela Nash on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrians have been brought to the UK under the Vulnerable Person Relocation Scheme to date.
James Brokenshire
The first group of Syrian refugees arrived in the UK on 25 March as part of the
Government’s Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) Scheme. The next group of
refugees are expected to arrive this month, with further groups to follow on a
regular basis. Whilst there is no set quota we predict that the VPR scheme will support several hundred people over the next three years.