The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent reports she has received of changes in the backlog for processing (a) new passport applications and (b) passport renewals.
James Brokenshire
Ministers receive regular reports on the performance of Her Majesty’s Passport Office.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Marlesford on 2014-03-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 20 March (WA 49), what steps they are taking to prevent civil servants from exposing to public view in the street classified government documents in their possession.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
The Cabinet Office Security Policy Framework (SPF) provides guidance on all security matters.
The Framework can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/security-policy-framework
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he plans to take to enable vulnerable witnesses to be able to give evidence remotely.
Damian Green
The Crown courts and Magistrate Courts provide the facility to allow vulnerable victims and witnesses to give evidence to the trial court by secure video link from a different court.
In addition, a number of police stations also have video facilities that link into the court. As part of the action plan to increase video usage across the Criminal Justice System, we intend to examine how best to extend use of remote links for vulnerable, intimidated and other ‘priority’ victims, as defined by the Victims’ Code.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparison he has made with other OECD countries of the effects on pedagogy of giving one to one tablets to every pupil in secondary schools.
Elizabeth Truss
The Department for Education has reviewed evidence on the effects of one-to-one tablet schemes on pedagogy, and more broadly within education, from the UK and Australia. Positive effects on pedagogy cited within the studies considered include: improvemements to lessons and homework, characterised by more creative and engaging tasks; more and better quality feedback to pupils; and improvements in monitoring and assessment.
The Department will continue to review international research in this area, such as that being undertaken by the Creative Classroom project of the European Schoolnet organisation. This study is looking at the effects of one-to-one tablet use, in 45 secondary schools, and across eight European countries.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average ambulance response times in (a) Doncaster, (b) Barnsley, (c) Rotherham and (d) Sheffield was in each year since May 2010; and what the national average response time was in each of those years.
Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.
Information is not available before 2011.
Table: The median ambulance response times to treatment for category A1 (red 1 and red 2 calls require staff to arrive at the scene of the incident within eight minutes in 75% of cases) calls for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, April 2011 to April 2014
|
Month |
Median time to treatment for Category A calls (in minutes) |
|
April 2011 |
5.4 |
|
May 2011 |
5.2 |
|
June 2011 |
5.2 |
|
July 2011 |
5.3 |
|
August 2011 |
5.2 |
|
September 2011 |
5.2 |
|
October 2011 |
5.3 |
|
November 2011 |
5.2 |
|
December 2011 |
5.4 |
|
January 2012 |
5.0 |
|
February 2012 |
5.3 |
|
March 2012 |
5.1 |
|
April 2012 |
4.9 |
|
May 2012 |
5.0 |
|
June 2012 |
5.1 |
|
July 2012 |
5.3 |
|
August 2012 |
5.3 |
|
September 2012 |
5.5 |
|
October 2012 |
5.5 |
|
November 2012 |
5.5 |
|
December 2012 |
6.0 |
|
January 2013 |
5.7 |
|
February 2013 |
5.7 |
|
March 2013 |
5.5 |
|
April 2013 |
5.3 |
|
May 2013 |
5.2 |
|
June 2013 |
5.3 |
|
July 2013 |
5.6 |
|
August 2013 |
5.6 |
|
September 2013 |
5.5 |
|
October 2013 |
5.6 |
|
November 2013 |
5.7 |
|
December 2013 |
5.9 |
|
January 2014 |
5.5 |
|
February 2014 |
5.7 |
|
March 2014 |
5.6 |
|
April 2014 |
6.4 |
Source: Ambulance quality indicators, NHS England
www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators
Notes:
1. Category A calls are defined as those that are the result of immediately life threatening incidents.
2. It is not possible to calculate the median time to treatment for England from the medians for individual Ambulance Trust.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking on the decision to allow the sale and consumption of alcohol in a motorway service area.
Norman Baker
The Licensing Act 2003 bans the sale of alcohol at certain motorway service areas but this ban does not extend to all of them. At motorway service areas which are not covered by the Act, the grant of premise licences for the sale of alcohol in any particular case is at present a matter for the local licensing authority.
The Government included motorway service areas as part of the public consultation on the Alcohol Strategy in 2012/13. The Government’s response to this consultation was published in July 2013 and stated that this issue would be considered further, and it is under active consideration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of 13 May 2014, Official Report, columns 200-3WH, what representations he has made to the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo on the recent acquittal of 14 officers of the armed forces of that country on charges of mass rape and murder.
Mark Simmonds
I welcome efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to prosecute perpetrators on charges of mass rape and murder – but more must be done to deliver justice for the victims. I met with the Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the DRC in London last week when he was attending the Global Summit on Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict. I emphasised to him that ending impunity was fundamental to tackling the scourge of sexual and gender-based violence. He confirmed his Government’s commitment to tackling sexual and gender based violence and to ending impunity for the perpetrators.
The British Embassy in Kinshasa sponsors a range of projects to tackle sexual violence in the DRC focusing on security sector reform and improving service provision for survivors. During his visit to eastern DRC in March 2013 the Foreign Secretary announced over £1 million in funding to a range of organisations tackling rape and sexual violence. The UK has supported the deployment of an international expert to build capacity of health and legal professionals to address accountability and the investigation and documentation of sexual violence crimes.
The Foreign Secretary has publicly called on the Congolese authorities to continue in their efforts to seek out and prosecute the remaining perpetrators. Senior officials at our Embassy in Kinshasa have, jointly with EU Heads of Mission and independently, also raised the issue directly with the Government of the DRC.
The International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, which was field tested in the DRC, was launched at the Global Summit on 12 June. I hope that the Protocol will be deployed widely, helping to ensure that more and more perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence the world over will be brought to justice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he take steps to extend the requirement to apply sanctions set out in Council Regulation (EU) 269/2014 to the (a) Bailiwick of Jersey and (b) Bailiwick of Guernsey.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The Crown Dependencies are not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown. This means they have their own directly elected legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and their own courts of law. It is therefore not for the UK to extend the application of the Sanctions set out in the Council Regulation (EU) 269/2014. Equivalent measures have been implemented by the Crown Dependencies, who have kept Her Majesty’s Government updated about their activities in this area.
Her Majesty’s Government does not routinely request information on the value of particular assets held in the Crown Dependencies.
The UK and the Crown Dependencies recognise the importance of working together to promote the application of high international standards and implementing sanctions and asset freezing measures.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the value of London Midland’s rolling stock contract with Angel Trains after the direct award of the franchise for the period September 2015 to June 2017.
Stephen Hammond
Negotiations for the direct award of the West Midlands franchise are yet to commence and the Department has not made any estimate on the value of London Midland’s contract with Angel Trains. It should be noted that the value of rolling stock contracts are a commercial matter between the operator and the rolling stock owner.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jake Berry on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been allocated to Lancashire County Council to repair potholes in (a) Lancashire and (b) Rossendale.
Mr Robert Goodwill
From the £200 million to help fix potholes on the local road network announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the March 2014 Budget, £168 million will be for local authorities in England. This funding will be made available through a bidding exercise and it will be for Blackburn and Darwen Council to submit a bid to the Department. Guidance on how councils can apply for this funding will be made available in the coming weeks.
The Department for Transport has agreed to provide £90.1 million to Lancashire County Council for road maintenance during the financial years from 2011/12 to 2014/15. This funding can be used to help repair potholes.
Rossendale falls within Lancashire County Council’s area of responsibility and we do not allocate any funds directly to the Borough Council for road maintenance.