The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the total cost of disposal of Nimrod MR4A associated material at RAF Kinloss.
Mr Philip Dunne
The current net cost of removal of Nimrod MR4A material is £86,000. However, we expect the final net cost to be lower since some of the material removed from site has yet to be sold.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Willis of Knaresborough on 2014-03-31.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, following the repeal of European Union Directive 2009/40/EC and the agreement of a new directive at Strasbourg on 11 March with regard to the periodic roadworthiness testing of motor vehicles and their trailers, it will be the United Kingdom Government or the European Union Commission that will decide how the new directive is implemented.
Baroness Kramer
The European Union Commission does not have a role in deciding how to implement the new Directive. We are already compliant with the new Directive in most areas and will implement appropriately in the remaining areas in consultation with all parties impacted by changes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many meetings he has had with his Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser in the last 12 months.
Elizabeth Truss
As was the case under previous administrations, details of internal meetings are not normally disclosed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of local authorities who will hold a referendum as a result of raising council tax by two per cent or more for 2014-15.
Brandon Lewis
[Holding Reply: Thursday 3 April 2014]
The DCLG statistical release of 26 March 2014 showing the levels of council tax set by local authorities in England for 2014-2015 is available at:
It shows that no local authority in England is required to hold a council tax referendum in 2014-15 (table 11).
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Walley on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which UN peacekeeping missions established since 1990 do not have a human rights mandate.
Mark Simmonds
21 out of 51 peacekeeping missions established since 1990 did not include a human rights mandate to monitor and intervene. Of these 21, only the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is still in operation.
Human rights mandates or components in peacekeeping missions vary depending on the context, and are common in newer peacekeeping missions. The UK Government has supported these human rights mandates wherever possible. This is part of our broader efforts to mainstream human rights into the UN’s peace and security work.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what interruption to commercial and recreational shipping traffic is expected during the dredging of Portsmouth Harbour.
Mr Philip Dunne
Portsmouth is a busy military port, which also manages commercial and recreational traffic flows, and the maintenance of harbour facilities, including dredging, around harbour users’ requirements is routine business.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Zac Goldsmith on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of reports that scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created a virus that closely resembles the 1918 Spanish flu strain; whether he has made an assessment of the potential threat to the UK population arising from that experiment; and whether the Government has made any representation to the US administration on this matter.
Jane Ellison
Public Health England (PHE) was advised that the work undertaken at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been reviewed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, in keeping with the institute’s implementation of the United States Government Policy for Oversight of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern.
As part of this, PHE understand that the research was carried out in secure facilities with high levels of containment. A key finding of the research was that people vaccinated with the current seasonal influenza vaccine (which protects against 2009 H1N1 influenza, a related virus) had some evidence of protection against the novel virus that had been created. In addition, the team showed that the novel transmissible virus is expected to be sensitive to the antiviral medication oseltamivir. Effective counter measures to this novel virus are therefore available.
This research provides information on the mechanisms responsible for adaptation of avian influenza viruses to mammals. Knowing what genes are associated with a potentially severe pandemic strain can help predict the likelihood of a strain emerging and help devise appropriate counter measures.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish (a) the results of the review of each area of the Environment Agency’s existing workloads against enforcement priorities and available budgets and (b) any decisions made about the future workload and priorities of the enforcement and legal caseload.
Dan Rogerson
The Environment Agency’s process of reviewing its baseline total enforcement and legal casework to match its future budget will be used for internal workforce planning and resource allocation. It is, therefore, not intended for publication.
The announcement in the budget statement of an additional £5m for tackling waste crime means that the Environment Agency is reviewing its planning assumptions and associated workload.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if she will review the effectiveness of Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003; and if she will bring forward legislative proposals to extend the scope of these provisions to include complaints on high hedges.
Nick Boles
Part 8 of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 (‘High hedges’) addresses private disputes about tall evergreen hedges adversely affecting neighbouring homes and gardens. We have no current plans to undertake a specific review of this part of the 2003 Act.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what offences were committed by prisoners serving their sentences in open prisons.
Jeremy Wright
Open prisons have been used since 1936, because they are the most effective means of ensuring that prisoners are suitably risk-assessed before they are released into the community under appropriate licence conditions. These prisons also provide effective supervision for prisoners who do not require the security conditions of the closed estate, because they have been assessed as having a low risk of harm to the public and a low risk of absconding by the independent Parole Board and/or NOMS.
Indeterminate sentence prisoners located in open conditions have been rigorously risk assessed and categorised as being of a low enough risk to the public to warrant their placement in an open prison. They will have previously spent time in prisons with higher levels of security, before being transferred to open conditions if recommended by the Parole Board – or directed through NOMS.
The main purpose of open conditions is to test prisoners in conditions more similar to those that they will face in the community. Time spent in open prisons affords prisoners the opportunity to find work, re-establish family ties, reintegrate into the community and ensure housing needs are met. For many prisoners, in particular those, such as ISPs who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody; these are essential components for successful reintegration in the community and therefore an important factor in protecting the public. To release these prisoners directly from a closed prison without the resettlement benefits of the open estate would undoubtedly lead to higher levels of post-release re-offending. The reoffending rates for those released from open prisons are low when compared to all prisoners released from custody in England & Wales.
The requested information is provided in the table below.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.