The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households have seen their income from benefits reduced by (a) 10, (b) 20 to 49 and (c) 50 per cent or more as a result of benefit changes since May 2010.
Esther McVey
The requested information is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the process was by which Arqiva arrived at its decision not to proceed with the proposed Fownhope mast.
Mr Edward Vaizey
DCMS officials provided Arqiva with the latest data on notspots, updated by Ofcom for 2014 with information from the Mobile Network Operators. This shows that coverage has improved in Fownhope since the inception of the project. The Mobile Infrastructure Project can intervene in areas where there is no mobile coverage from any operator, and where the cost of the build of a mast, considered alongside the numbers of premises that would benefit from the additional coverage, provides value for money. Unfortunately this is no longer the case for the proposed mast location in Fownhope, and Arqiva made a recommendation to officials to not proceed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 2014-04-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to promote ethnic minority recruitment to the police.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach
Improved diversity in policing is absolutely necessary to cut crime in a modern, diverse society, while building the trust and confidence of local
communities. It is important police forces reflect the communities they serve. While progress has been made to increase diversity of the workforce, the Government has said that there is still more for forces to do.
This Government’s reforms have already made improvements, for example we set up the College of Policing which has embarked on a major programme to improve the recruitment, retention and progression of black and minority ethnic officers. Locally Police and Crime Commissioners will ensure that the public’s priorities on crime and community safety are acted upon.
The Home Office is actively engaged with the College and forces to ensure that this work is given appropriate priority and that learning, best practice and opportunities are identified and shared.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many ships from the Royal Navy were present in the recent joint manoeuvres with the Ukrainian navy.
Mr Mark Francois
None.
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.
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 |
|||||||||||||
“
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.
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.
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.
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.