Tag: 2014

Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-05-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what recommendations the Chairperson-in-Office and the Secretary General of the Organisation for Securityand Co-operation in Europe have made to the member states concerning Ukraine.

Baroness Warsi

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been at the forefront of the international response to the crisis in Ukraine over recent months. The crisis has been a regular topic of discussion on the Organisation’s agenda since the Permanent Council met to discuss it in special session on 3 March. Both the Permanent Council and the Forum for Security and Co-operation have discussed Ukraine on numerous occasions since then.

The OSCE has launched a number of initiatives to contribute towards de-escalation of the crisis. On 21 March the Permanent Council agreed to the deployment of a Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine. That Mission, which includes a UK Deputy Chief Monitor and nine UK staff, swiftly deployed across the country with a mandate to gather information, report on the security situation and assess how best to meet the concerns of all parties. The Mission is providing regular reporting and recently played a key role in the negotiation of the safe release of the Vienna Document unarmed military inspectors who had been detained in Slavyansk. In Geneva on 17 April the US, the EU, Ukraine and the Russian Federation agreed that the Mission should have a role in verifying the implementation of agreed steps towards de-escalation. The Government fully supports this Mission’s work and is actively backing it with both finance and personnel. The UK has so far contributed over £1 million and is currently the second biggest contributor to the Mission’s core costs.

In addition to the SMM, the OSCE has been active in Ukraine through the work of its autonomous institutions, the High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Representative on Freedom of the Media, while there has been a rolling programme of visits by unarmed military inspectors under the Vienna Document 2011. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is sending a large scale mission of 1000 observers to monitor the Ukrainian Presidential Elections on 25 May. The UK will be providing 10% of the total number of observers with 10 Long Term Observers and 90 Short Term Observers.

There are no current plans for an OSCE Summit, while the next formal Ministerial Council is due to take place in Basel, Switzerland on 4-5 December 2014. However the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), has been in regular contact with OSCE Chairman and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, most recently when they met in Vienna on 6 May, while the Minister for Europe, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington), spoke by telephone to OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier on the same day.

01/11/2022
Lord Judd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2014-05-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the 38 recommendations made by UNICEF in its March 2013 report on children in Israeli military detention have been implemented by the government of Israel; and what discussions they have had with that government on the number that are yet to be implemented.

Baroness Warsi

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s most recent progress report on children in Israeli military detention, published in October 2013, indicates that Israel has taken some positive steps but does not give an assessment as to how many of the recommendations UNICEF consider to have been implemented.

We continue to urge the Israeli authorities to take action on the recommendations made in the UNICEF report and the earlier independent report by senior British lawyers. Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Mr Robertson), wrote to the Israeli Attorney General on this issue on 31 March.

01/11/2022
Lord Jopling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House of Lords

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jopling on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Leader of the House, in the light of the answers on 6 May to written questions tabled by Lord Mendelsohn, what steps he will take to ensure that the replies to written questions answer the question which was put as fully as possible.

Lord Hill of Oareford

As Leader of the House, I have a particular responsibility to encourage departments to be punctual in answering written questions, but the content of each answer is a matter for the minister concerned. The Ministerial Code says that “Ministers should be as open as possible with Parliament and the public, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest”.

01/11/2022
Mrs Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Sharon Hodgson on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what steps the Government is taking to raise the number of people registered to vote.

Greg Clark

The Government is introducing online registration as of 10^th June in England and Wales which will make it more convenient to register to vote.

In addition, five national organisations and every Electoral Registration Officer in Great Britain are sharing £4.2 million funding aimed at maximising the rate of voter registration, as part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration. These organisations have received funding to find new ways of reaching a range of under registered groups such as young people and encouraging them to register to vote.

01/11/2022

Virendra Sharma – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been diagnosed with (a) liver disease and (b) viral hepatitis in each of the last 10 years.

Jane Ellison

Data is not collected on new cases of liver disease. Liver disease covers many individual diseases caused by different factors, such as alcoholic liver disease, fatty liver disease as well as hepatitis related diseases. The identification of new cases will take place in different settings, from general practice to hospital outpatients.

The nearest proxy measure that we have is hospital admissions. However, hospital admissions only reflect the most serious cases when people are admitted to hospital. The number of hospital admissions for liver disease rose from 35,581 in 2001-02 to 57,682 in 2011-12, an increase of 62%.

Hepatitis A, B, C and E are viruses that affect the liver. Where tests can differentiate acute from chronic infections, data is presented as newly acquired infections and where not, data is presented as newly diagnosed cases. Hepatitis surveillance data for 2013 will be available in August 2014.

Cases of confirmed newly acquired hepatitis A virus infection are reported by laboratories to Public Health England.

Table 1: Hepatitis A laboratory reports (newly acquired infections), England (2002-2012).

Year

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Number of hepatitis

A reports

1,278

999

610

469

374

344

341

359

252

279

Data on acute hepatitis B infections are reported both from laboratories and from Health Protection Teams to Public Health England. Reporting in this way commenced in 2008.

Table 2: Reports of acute hepatitis B infections (newly acquired infections), England (2008-2012)

Year

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Number of hepatitis

B reports

620

597

512

589

554

Laboratory reports of newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis C are reported to Public Health England.

Table 3: Laboratory reports of hepatitis C (newly diagnosed cases), England (2002-2012)

Year

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Number of hepatitis

C reports

4,809

5,570

6,240

6,295

6,961

7,808

8,407

8,862

7,882

9,917

10,873

Note:

At present serological tests are not able to differentiate between acute and chronic cases of hepatitis C infection. Therefore, laboratory reports of hepatitis C contain both recently acquired infections and past infections. For this reason the data represent newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis C as opposed to newly acquired infections.

Laboratory reports of confirmed cases of hepatitis E are reported to Public Health England. Surveillance began in 2003.

Table 4: Laboratory reports of hepatitis E (newly acquired infections), England (2003-2012)

Year

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Number of hepatitis

E reports

122

145

294

239

161

168

166

258

435

530

01/11/2022

Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of the telephone to confirm continued entitlement to electoral registration; and which local authorities use telephones for that purpose.

Greg Clark

The Electoral Commission collates information on canvass responses (including responses by telephone) as part of its assessment of Electoral Registration Officers’ performance. This data can be found on their website at –

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/performance-standards/performance-in-running-electoral-registration.

“

01/11/2022
Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 6 September 2010, Official Report, column 304W, on electoral register, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to provide for penalties against local authorities which fail to provide sufficient funding and resources to enable electoral registration officers to fulfil their statutory responsibilities.

Greg Clark

Section 54 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 sets out that any expenses properly incurred by an ERO in the performance of their functions must be paid by the local authority that appointed them.

01/11/2022
Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps have been taken by the Electoral Commission to inform hon. Members of the performance of electoral registration officers in their (a) constituency and (b) local authority.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that it notified all hon. Members of the performance of electoral registration officers (EROs) through a written statement announcing the publication of its assessment report on 31 March 2014. The Commission also writes individually to every MP who has an ERO within their constituency who has failed to meet at least one performance standard

01/11/2022
Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2014, Official Report, column 576W, on Equality and Human Rights Commission, if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidance referred to in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Equality and Diversity Workforce Report 2010-11 which has been provided to all managers on how to manage a diverse workforce through organisational change.

Mrs Helen Grant

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an independent body and is responsible for its own staff management, including diversity training. The guidance papers requested are internal documents that were not intended for wider publication. However, I have asked the EHRC to send copies to the Hon Member.

01/11/2022
Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of magistrates’ use of two year sentencing powers; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright

A Detention and Training Order, the main custodial sentence for children and young people, can be up to 24 months in length and is available to magistrates sitting in the Youth Court. The Government has not made an assessment of magistrates’ use of this order.

There are a range of disposals available to magistrates when dealing with children and young people which are designed to address offending behaviour. Through our reforms this Government has taken steps to improve the youth sentencing framework.

01/11/2022