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Tag: 2014

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to protect civil liberties whilst tackling Islamic extremism across the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The government is committed to disrupting extremism and we use the full force of the law to do so, including proscribing groups concerned in terrorism, prosecuting the perpetrators of hate crime and excluding preachers of hate from the UK. We also remain committed to protecting fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of speech. That is why it is vital that we challenge those extremist ideas that also form part of a terrorist ideology, and threaten these freedoms. Central to this is challenging those behaviours and views which run counter to our shared values, which include freedom of speech, democracy, the rule of law, equality of opportunity and treatment, and the rights of all men and women to live free from persecution of any kind.

  • Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by her Department since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.

    Dr Andrew Murrison

    My Department does not hold records of duplicate supplier payments. The system currently operating in the Northern Ireland Office registers invoice numbers and will not allow two invoices with the same reference number to be paid. To manually search through the invoices received and paid from 2010 to date would incur disproportionate cost.

  • Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what timescale the upgrade of the Halton Curve will follow.

    Claire Perry

    The Government is providing £10.4m, in support of the Liverpool City Region Growth Deal, to fund the reinstatement of the Halton Curve. The scheme is currently being developed by Network Rail and detailed proposals are expected to be available early next year. Final sign off of funding for the scheme will be for the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and delivery is expected in 2016/17.

  • Chuka Umunna – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chuka Umunna – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 292W, on Royal Mail, how many staff of the Shareholder Executive worked on the privatisation of Royal Mail.

    Matthew Hancock

    The 17 core staff referred to in the Answer of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 292W, were all from the Shareholder Executive working on the Royal Mail Initial Public Offering.

  • Jon Trickett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Jon Trickett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2014-07-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the broadband infrastructure for businesses in rural areas.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Government is investing £780 million, with local match funding, to provide superfast broadband coverage to 95% of UK premises, including in rural locations. Coverage will include both business and residential consumers. In addition, the Government has also launched 8 pilot projects to explore options for improving coverage of superfast broadband beyond 95%, including to the most hard to reach areas of the UK.

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department spent in legal fees during the judicial review brought against his Department on the solar farm at Ellough Airfield, Suffolk.

    Kris Hopkins

    Planning casework is a quasi-judicial function of the department, and as was the case under the last Administration, it attracts a high volume of legal challenges. This is particularly the case in light of the long-term growth of both judicial review and the growing creep of European Union directives, regulations and case law.

    Yet to place the Department’s spending in context, I would observe that the Department spent £1.7 million in external lawyers’ fees in 2009-10 (excluding Treasury Solicitors), in 2013-14, the figure had fallen to £699,000.

    The proposed application for a sizeable solar farm development in Suffolk was refused by Waveney District Council. That decision was appealed by the developer, was recovered for Ministerial decision, and that appeal was refused by the Secretary of State. The decision letter outlines the reasons, but particular issues included the effect upon the character and appearance of the countryside.

    The appellant, Lark Energy, challenged the decision in the High Court; four of the five grounds of challenge were rejected by the Court. The challenge however succeeded on just one ground – a technical point of law on the application of the statutory test for appeals under the relevant planning legislation. The Department spent £6,596 (ex VAT) in defending this challenge. The appeal is now back with the Department for re-determination.

    Equally, I would observe that a week later, the High Court upheld the decision of the Secretary of State in a recovered appeal to refuse a proposed six turbine wind farm on the Somerset Levels, following its initial refusal by Sedgemoor District Council. The applicants, Ecotricity, were ordered to pay the Department’s costs (which may be in the region of £9,000).

    All decisions on recovered appeals are taken by the Secretary of State on their merits, following due process and after careful consideration of both the public inquiry evidence and the independent Inspector’s recommendation.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost is of the Weapon Handling and Launch System and Submerged Signal Ejector support contract.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Weapon Handling and Launch System support contract, which includes Submerged Signal Ejector support, has an agreed fixed price of £22 million to provide defined technical and logistic support until 31 March 2019. The contract also allows for further tasking of the support contractor by the Ministry of Defence and the purchase of consumable spares when required at an additional cost.

  • 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 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to his Department’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2014-2017, in what way, as part of the implementation of that plan, women’s participation at grassroots level will be measured.

    Mark Simmonds

    My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary, along with the Secretaries of State for International Development and Defence, launched the 2014-2017 National Action Plan (NAP) at the Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict Summit earlier this month.

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, working with Department for International Development and Ministry of Defence, is committed to ensure that the promotion of women’s participation in conflict resolution is an integral part of our overseas conflict policy and forms one of the main focuses of the NAP. The NAP outlines several ways we will do this, for example providing financial and capacity building support to civil society organisations promoting women and girls’ participation in peacebuilding.

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has also funded and helped to facilitate workshops in two of the NAP’s focus countries (Afghanistan and Burma) with another being held in a third (Somalia) in the next few months. The workshops have been well attended by civil society groups that, in many cases, represent the views of women from the grassroots level.

    Measuring participation of women from grassroots level is challenging; there is a lack of baseline and country-level data on women in peace and security issues. With this in mind, the UK has allocated specific funding to the external and independent monitoring and evaluation of this NAP.

  • Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the proposed changes to the social care system in the Care Act 2014 Part 1 regulations on adults with autism.

    Norman Lamb

    The Care Act 2014 will reform the care and support system for everyone, including adults with autism. The core principles of the Care Act 2014 and the regulations and statutory guidance which support its implementation are to maintain the wellbeing of people who have care and support needs and support them in living independent lives.

    The draft regulations and guidance were co-produced with stakeholders, and this included engaging with the National Autistic Society. The Department is currently consulting on the regulations and statutory guidance that will support the implementation of the Care Act 2014. The public consultation started on 6 June and runs until 15 August 2014.

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre does not collect any data on the number of adults with autism receiving support under the current, or proposed, social care systems and therefore are unable to provide a response. The national eligibility criteria being introduced under the Care Act 2014 will allow local authorities to maintain levels of access for service users when they move from the current framework to the new care and support system in April 2015.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contract or temporary employees were employed in (a) the Case Resolution Directorate and (b) the Case Assurance and Audit Unit in each year of those bodies’ existence; and what proportion of the overall staff of such bodies were contract or temporary employees.

    Karen Bradley

    The Case Resolution Directorate (CRD) employed a total of 350 temporary staff
    during the summer 2011. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of how many
    contract/ temporary employees were employed for each year that CRD was in
    existence.

    The Case Assurance and Audit Unit (CAAU) employed 98 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
    staff in 2011, 134 FTE staff in 2012 and 224 FTE staff in 2013. It is not
    possible to break this down by how many were contract/temporary employees or
    employed full time. FTE means that part time employees are counted by the
    proportion of full time hours they work, so that staff working half the time of
    an equivalent full time colleague would count as 0.5 FTE.