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Tag: 2014

  • Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department is giving to the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict for the campaign to eradicate the recruitment of children by government armed forces by 2016.

    Mark Simmonds

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides funding of £150,000 over three years (January 2013-December 2015) to the Office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict. These funds strengthen the UN SRSG’s capacity to monitor violations committed against children in situations of concern, in line with UNSC Resolutions 1612, 1882, 1998 on children and armed conflict and including countries covered by the UN SRSG’s campaign, such as Burma and South Sudan.

    Children and Armed Conflict is an important personal priority. I am leading a campaign to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and to protect children from becoming victims of sexual violence in five priority countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Chad and Burma. I have raised the issue with a number of leaders, including most recently with the Somali President during a visit in April.

    The UN SRSG will take part in the End Sexual Violence in Conflict Summit, from 10-13 June in London, where she will join a Ministerial roundtable that I am hosting on Children and Armed Conflict.

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Prudential Regulatory Authority will report on details of new bank authorisations.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Prudential Regulation Authority will report on details of new bank authorisations as part of the Annual Report and Accounts.

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households subject to the benefits cap in (a) each parliamentary constituency and (b) each local authority area in Scotland have received transitional support via discretionary housing payment to date.

    Esther McVey

    The information requested is not available.

  • Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the Colombian authorities over the treatment of Huber Ballesteros in the last eight months.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The UK cannot interfere in Colombia’s judicial process but will continue to raise any concerns regarding due process and conditions with the Colombian authorities.

    The Embassy is currently awaiting authorisation from the Municipal Criminal Court to visit Huber Ballesteros in prison.

    To date, the British Embassy has not yet been authorised to visit Huber Ballesteros in prison, this is despite requesting permission on six different occasions.

    No representatives of the British Embassy were able to attend the preliminary hearings in the case of Huber Ballesteros due to unrelated security concerns. His trial will take place on 26 and 27 of June and the British Embassy intends to send Officials to observe this.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will amend the access to work scheme to enable deaf people to employ a full-time salaried support worker.

    Mike Penning

    The Access to Work programme currently allows for support to be organised in this way if it offers the most cost effective and practical solution and there is clear customer need for that level of support. We are taking a close look at the Access to Work programme over the next three months, focussing on how we can assist the largest number of disabled paople in work. We will incude in that process a consideration of how best to address the needs of customers requiring support for a large number of hours each week on an on-going basis.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the minutes of the meetings of the HM Revenue and Customs’ Board and associated sub-committees for a) 2013 and b) 2014.

    Mr David Gauke

    It is HMRC’s policy to publish Board and Executive Committee minutes annually. The HMRC website is due to be updated with these in the next month. HMRC’s Annual Report contains a summary of the key areas of work for each sub-Committee over the previous year.

  • Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the Passport Office to ensure it continues to meet the deadlines for applications to be processed and returned during the holiday period.

    James Brokenshire

    Her Majesty’s Passport Office looks to ensure that adequate resources are in place to meet demand whilst ensuring that resources are proportionate to that demand. Contingencies are in place to coincide with peak periods of demand e.g. school breaks and summer holidays.

    This primarily involves staff working overtime but also includes, as required, the redeployment of resources to support passport application examination staff and to assist in the handling of customer contact.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will require banks and their financial institutions to release further personal and business lending data by postcode; and if he will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    In July 2013 the Government announced that it had reached an agreement with the major UK banks to publish lending data across 10,000 individual postcodes.

    The first dataset was published in December 2013 and shows the outstanding stock of lending that has been committed to customers across three categories; loans and overdrafts to SMEs, mortgages and unsecured personal loans (excluding credit cards).

    The data will allow challenger banks, smaller building societies, credit unions and community development finance institutions (CDFIs) to find areas where there is a lack of lending so they can offer finance to those customers who are crying out for support to help their business grow.

  • 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 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what total income was received by the Passport Office in fees for (a) fast track and (b) premium service (i) in 2013 and (b) between 1 January and 31 May 2014.

    James Brokenshire

    Table A sets out the requested information in respect of how many telephone
    calls were received during the requested periods.

    Table B shows income received in fees for premium and fast track services.

    Table C provides information on the number of full time equivalent staff
    employed by HM passport Office on 31 December for each of the years from 2010 –
    2013.

    Table D sets out the number of first time passport applications and the number
    of passport renewals received during each month between January 2013 and May
    2014.

    In the period between 1 January and 31 May 2014, 31,188 straightforward
    passport applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office were not
    processed within the 3-week target.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many reported cases of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged 13 to 16 under section 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 were not prosecuted because of the 12 month statute of limitations for that offence in the last (a) year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years.

    Oliver Heald

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold records of the number of cases reported to the police or of the number the police decide not to proceed with. A record is held of the number of cases where the CPS has been asked to make a charging decision and the decision made; either to charge or take no further action.

    However, no central records of the alleged offence(s) considered at the pre-charge decision are held by the CPS. To obtain details of the number of allegations of unlawful sexual intercourse offences considered and those which do not proceed, either by way of decision to take no further action or discontinuance following charge, due to the 12 month Statute of Limitations would require a manual exercise of reviewing individual case files to be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.