Tag: 2014

  • Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2014-04-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Northover on 18 March (WA 16) on women’s rights in Afghanistan, what are the details of the funding already being allocated to tackling violence against women in Afghanistan; and what proportion it constitutes of the total budget for work in Afghanistan by the Department for International Development.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    Two programmes directly address violence: £3M towards a joint programme with Australia to improve the implementation of laws designed to protect women and girls affected by violence; and £19.9M DFID support to the Tawanmandi programme with grants to Civil Society Organisations, where at least £2M of grants from 2014 will go to organisations primarily focused on the elimination of violence against women and girls.

    Violence is also indirectly addressed through a long term approach of promoting women’s rights, empowerment and education. DFID has a wide range of programmes supporting this agenda, e.g. £4.5M nation-wide support to women’s political participation and the £47M Girls Education Challenge fund improving access to education for 250,000 marginalised girls.

  • Roger Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Roger Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Williams on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much beef was imported into the UK from (a) the Republic of Ireland, (b) the rest of the EU and (c) non-EU countries in each of the last 18 months.

    George Eustice

    The following tables provide details of UK imports of beef and veal as recorded in the Official Overseas Trade Statistics for the period January 2012 – April 2014.

    Thousand Tonnes

    Thousand Tonnes

    Imports from

    Month

    2012

    2013

    2014

    Imports from

    Month

    2012

    2013

    2014

    Irish Republic

    January

    12.3

    12.1

    13.3

    Non EU

    January

    1.6

    2.6

    2.2

    February

    13.7

    10.8

    12.2

    February

    1.3

    1.7

    1.5

    March

    14.9

    13.0

    16.2

    March

    1.2

    1.4

    1.5

    April

    12.9

    11.9

    13.5

    April

    1.4

    2.3

    2.1

    May

    12.5

    12.4

    May

    2.1

    2.6

    June

    11.8

    14.9

    June

    3.1

    3.5

    July

    11.3

    12.2

    July

    2.2

    3.5

    August

    12.4

    11.7

    August

    2.2

    3.1

    September

    13.8

    14.9

    September

    1.9

    2.8

    October

    15.0

    15.6

    October

    2.2

    3.5

    November

    14.0

    15.1

    November

    2.0

    2.5

    December

    15.1

    16.4

    December

    1.7

    2.0

    Irish Republic annual total

    159.7

    161.0

    Non EU annual total

    23.0

    31.7

    Rest of EU

    January

    3.8

    3.9

    3.4

    February

    4.1

    3.2

    3.4

    Ó Crown Copyright

    March

    4.4

    2.9

    3.3

    Source: HM Revenue and Customs

    April

    4.4

    3.5

    4.1

    2013 & 2014 data is subject to amendments

    May

    5.3

    3.9

    June

    4.3

    3.3

    EU data based on EU 28

    July

    4.8

    4.1

    August

    4.7

    3.7

    September

    4.2

    3.9

    October

    5.1

    4.4

    November

    4.4

    4.6

    December

    3.8

    4.2

    Rest of EU annual total

    53.4

    45.6

    “

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Margaret Ritchie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects the Competition Commission’s inquiry into the car insurance industry to report.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Competition Commission is required to publish its final report by 27 September 2014.

  • Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Government’s written submission to the European Court of Justice which was the subject of the hearing before the Court in April 2014 about the EU application to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights.

    Damian Green

    The European Court of Justice held a hearing on 5-6 May 2014 before a full court in proceedings under article 218 (11) of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union regarding the European Commission’s request for an Opinion on the compatibility of the draft Accession Agreement with the EU Treaties.

    I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to him on 10 December 2013, Official Report, Column 123W.

    My subsequent letter to the European Scrutiny Committee of 20 December 2013, as referenced in the Committee’s Twenty-ninth Report of session 2013-2014 of 8 January 2014, clarifies the basis on which documents in the proceedings are confidential.

    My most recent letter to the European Scrutiny Committee of 18 June 2014 outlines that the UK’s oral submissions supported the compatibility of the draft Accession Agreement with the EU Treaties, and sought to encourage the Court to robustly test the draft Accession Agreement and its implications while steering clear of making any findings that prejudge the content of the internal EU rules.

  • Simon Kirby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Simon Kirby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he has taken to prevent benefit fraud; and if he will make a statement.

    Esther McVey

    The level of fraud in the benefit system is relatively low at 0.7% of total benefit expenditure. However, any loss to the public purse due to fraud is unacceptable, which is why the Department is working across Government – and with the private sector – to further reduce the level of loss due to benefit fraud.

    We have made considerable progress since the Fraud and Error Strategy was published in 2010. In terms of prevention, this includes using Real Time Information in the Universal Credit pathfinders to prevent fraud and error on new claims before payments are issued. In addition we recently announced a package of measures which, amongst other things include extending these checks to other benefits.

    We are also testing the effectiveness of communications to help change attitudes to benefit fraud and to encourage people to routinely report changes of circumstances.

  • Julian Huppert – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julian Huppert – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Huppert on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent from its research and development budget over the last five years; and how much such spending is planned for (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    Revenue expenditure from the Department’s research and development budget is shown in the following table:

    £ million

    2009-10

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    provisional

    2014-15

    planned

    885

    960

    952

    985

    1,004

    1,077

    A budget figure for 2015-16 has not yet been set. This will happen as part of standard business planning later in the year.

  • Aidan Burley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Aidan Burley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Aidan Burley on 2014-04-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions officials in his Department have had with their EU counterparts on (a) VAT rates on e-books, digital magazines and newspapers and (b) application of reduced rates; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Gauke

    Officials discuss a variety of VAT issues with the European Commission and the officials of other Member States.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Hendrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many registered nurses were made redundant by each NHS health trust in England in 2013.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The number (Headcount basis) of Qualified Nursing Staff made redundant, from National Health Service trusts, during 2013 is estimated in the attached table.

    In November 2013 there was a record full time equivalent number of qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff in the NHS of 312,900.

    The 489 redundancies represent just 0.14 % of the total Qualified Nursing workforce in Hospitals and Community Health Services.

    The data used in this reply has been extracted from the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Data Warehouse which is a monthly snap shot of the live ESR system. This is the Human Resources and payroll system that covers all NHS employees other than those working in General Practice, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and organisations to which functions have been transferred, such as local authorities. ESR was fully rolled out across the NHS in April 2008. The ESR data used in this response is not centrally validated and its reliability is subject to local coding practice.

    Redundancies are identified as those individuals with a reason for leaving of either voluntary or compulsory redundancy. Only those individuals coded as Qualified Nurses, Midwives or Health Visitors are included in the figures. Only redundancies from NHS Trusts are included in these figures, it is possible that Qualified Nurses were also made redundant from other NHS bodies.

    ESR reports based on the current organisation structure. This means that if organisations merged during 2013 it is possible that redundancies from, now defunct, organisations are recorded as being from the newly created organisation.

  • Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-04-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on the safety of the Armenian community in Kessab.

    Hugh Robertson

    We remain deeply concerned about the safety of Armenians and members of all other minority groups in Syria. We believe that the majority of Kessab’s inhabitants, including most of the ethnic Armenian population, left the town because of fighting in the area. Our understanding is that they have mainly joined other Armenian communities in Syria and neighbouring countries. They join the more than 9 million Syrians of all faiths and ethnicities who have been driven from their homes by the ongoing conflict.

  • 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 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she expects to respond to the recommendations of the Report by the Joint Committee on the Draft Modern Slavery Bill by the time of Second Reading of that Bill.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government’s response to the report from the Joint Committee on the draft
    Modern Slavery Bill was published on 10 June 2014. Copies of the report are
    available in the House Library.

    The response was also published on the Gov.UK website:
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-modern-slavery-bill–2