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Tag: 2015

  • Gloria De Piero – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Gloria De Piero – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Written Statement of 16 July 2015, on Individual Electoral Registration (IER), HCWS 127, which local authorities have received any of the additional £3 million funding; and how much such additional funding each local authority has received so far to target their non IER registered carry-forward electors.

    John Penrose

    The following table shows the local authorities who have received funding to target non IER registered carry-forward electors. We are currently in the process of agreeing funding to a further 57 local authorities.

    Local Authority

    Allocation

    Birmingham City Council

    £75,939.20

    Lambeth, London Borough of

    £42,500.00

    Bristol City Council

    £39,425.00

    Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

    £30,025.60

    Sheffield City Council

    £22,693.60

    Brent, London Borough of

    £17,603.20

    Newham, London Borough of

    £15,116.80

    Kensington and Chelsea, Royal Borough of

    £14,128.00

    Bury Metropolitan Borough Council

    £13,612.80

    Cheshire West and Chester Council

    £12,000.00

    Sevenoaks District

    £11,357.00

    Harrow, London Borough of

    £10,792.00

    Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

    £10,699.20

    Wandsworth, London Borough of

    £10,677.60

    Cheshire East Borough Council

    £10,292.00

    Nottingham City Council

    £9,845.60

    Ealing, London Borough of

    £9,611.70

    Barking and Dagenham, London Borough of

    £8,885.60

    Southampton City Council

    £8,244.80

    Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council

    £8,234.40

    Camden, London Borough of

    £8,056.00

    Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council

    £7,785.00

    Islington, London Borough of

    £7,619.20

    Plymouth City Council

    £7,572.00

    Windsor and Maidenhead, Royal Borough of

    £7,518.40

    Cornwall Council

    £6,380.72

    Portsmouth City Council

    £6,252.00

    Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council

    £6,216.00

    Maidstone Borough Council

    £5,892.00

    Oxford City Council

    £5,881.60

    South Somerset District Council

    £5,801.60

    Greenwich, London Borough of

    £5,492.00

    Vale of White Horse District Council

    £5,252.80

    Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council

    £5,200.00

    West Lancashire Borough Council

    £5,000.00

    Winchester City Council

    £5,000.00

    Salford City Council

    £4,841.35

    Swindon Borough Council

    £4,612.00

    Mendip District Council

    £3,917.60

    Crawley Borough Council

    £3,751.20

    Allerdale Borough Council

    £3,566.60

    Peterborough City COuncil

    £3,019.00

    Kettering Borough Council

    £3,000.00

    Isle of Wight County Council

    £2,306.90

    Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council

    £2,150.00

    Rugby Borough Council

    £2,006.10

    Lewes District Council

    £2,000.00

    Swale Borough Council

    £2,000.00

    South Kesteven District Council

    £1,987.15

    Preston City Council

    £1,970.00

    St Albans District Council

    £1,580.00

    Derbyshire Dales District Council

    £1,500.00

    Rutland County Council

    £1,464.80

    Gloucester City Council

    £1,450.00

    Dover District Council

    £1,428.20

    Rother District Council

    £1,247.64

    Bracknell Forest Borough Council

    £1,209.90
  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-09-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure remittances flow through secure and accessible channels to Somalia.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Treasury has worked closely with industry and regulators to ensure that remittances continue to flow from the UK to Somalia.

    The Treasury plays a leading role in the Action Group on Cross-Border Remittances, which brings together participants from industry, Government, regulators and international partners to maintain a continued dialogue on the withdrawal of banking services from the money service business sector, in order to develop a shared understanding of the expectations of all parties and help support remittance flows.

    Over the past two years, the Action Group has overseen a number of initiatives to boost compliance in the Money Service Business (MSB) sector, and to give greater confidence to banks offering services to this sector:

    • The group has worked closely with the supervisors to develop revised guidance for the MSB sector, and for those offering banking services to the sector, including a statement from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in April 2015 clarifying the FCA’s expectations with regards to Banks’ management of money-laundering risk.

    • The National Crime Agency has worked collaboratively with the banking and MSB sectors to improve understanding and manage risk.

    • Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the supervisor of MSBs, more than doubled the number of compliance visits to MSBs in 2014, and launched an e-learning product to improve MSBs’ understanding of their obligations under the Money Laundering Regulations.

      Alongside this work in the UK, the Government is also supporting targeted capacity building in Somalia, delivered through the World Bank. This includes a specific focus on improving regulation of the Somali remittance sector and supporting the drafting and introduction of necessary financial crime legislation. This goes hand-in-hand with our longer term programme to support the formalisation of the financial sector in Somalia.

      These actions both in the UK and Somalia are intended to safeguard the vital remittances that flow between the two countries. The Action Group continues to monitor UK-Somalia remittance corridor closely and is reassured that there is currently no evidence to date of an interruption in the flow of remittances between the UK and Somalia, or any significant increase in remittance costs. This is a resilient and responsive market and the Government remains committed to supporting it and the diaspora communities that rely on these services.

      Updates on the work of the Action Group can be found on the gov.uk website:

      https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/action-group-on-cross-border-remittances

  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on redundancy schemes in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The table below shows the annual costs for military and civilian Voluntary Early Release Scheme and redundancy payments for the last five financial years.

    Financial Year

    MOD Annual Report and Accounts Figures (£million)

    2010-11

    £189.22

    2011-12

    £293.79

    2012-13

    £180.82

    2013-14

    £218.72

    2014-15

    £141.68
  • MiDavies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    MiDavies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by MiDavies on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many confirmed cases of bovine tuberculosis there were in each of the last five years.

    George Eustice

    Statistics on the incidence of tuberculosis in cattle within Great Britain are published monthly on GOV.UK

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/incidence-of-tuberculosis-tb-in-cattle-in-great-britain.

    “

  • George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of people with sight loss in the UK and (b) likely number of people who will have sight loss in 2050.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.

    Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.

    Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 20091, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.

    Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published2 for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’3 sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.

    1 http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf

    2 http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

    3 http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

    “

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) financial implications for her Department and (b) potential risks to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and the public of proposals to give PCSOs powers of arrest.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office has no plans to give powers of arrest to police community support officers (PCSOs); we have therefore made no assessment of the consequences of making such a change.

    On Wednesday 9 Septemer 2015, my Right Honourable friend the Home Secretary launched a consultation on reforming the powers of police staff and volunteers. The proposals set out in the consultation document seek to make police staff and volunteers more flexible in their roles by enabling Chief Constables to designate them with a wider range of powers, ensuring that they have the police powers necessary to do their job. The consultation also proposes a list of core powers that will be exclusively available to Constables, including Special Constables, and this list includes the power of arrest.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what procedures are in place in his Department to consider the implications of a decision by the Court of Appeal that a sentence has been unduly lenient; and what steps his Department takes in relation to the judge in the case concerned as a result of such a ruling.

    Mike Penning

    Whether or not a judge has correctly applied the law is a matter for the Court of Appeal alone. It is the responsibility of the Government to uphold the independence of the judiciary and that includes the judicial decision making process.

    The unduly lenient scheme currently allows anyone to ask for a Government Law Officer to consider referring a sentence to the Court of Appeal for consideration that it was unduly lenient. The scheme applies to all indictable-only offences and a specified selection of either-way offences sentenced at the Crown Court.

  • Mark Pritchard – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Mark Pritchard – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to amend the Blue Badge scheme to allow badges to be awarded to those with severe cognitive disabilities.

    Andrew Jones

    The Disabled Persons (Badges for Motor Vehicles) (England) Regulations 2000 allow badges to be awarded to people with any permanent and substantial disability which causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking, which may include those with cognitive disabilities. The Government has no plans to amend the eligibility rules for Blue Badges.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2015-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether road safety targets are at present set for local authorities; and, if not, whether they have considered reinstating them.

    Baroness Kramer

    The Government has not set road safety targets for local authorities, and is not considering reinstating them. However, local authorities are free to set their own targets if they find this useful.

    The fact that the Government has not set a target does not mean that it does not consider road safety to be a high priority. The strategic framework includes forecasts of the casualty numbers that we might expect to see through to 2030 from the measures implemented by Government, and the actions of local authorities.

    While we believe that previous road safety targets have been useful we do not consider that over-arching national targets are necessary for road safety in Great Britain. This is because we do not believe that further persuasion is needed on the importance of road safety. We expect central and local government to continue to prioritise road safety and continue to seek improvements.

  • Lord Morrow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Morrow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Morrow on 2015-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, if the draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 are passed, any person created by the procedures provided for by that legislation will be followed-up in the way recommended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s Expert Panel on page 5 of their report, Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception: update, 2013.

    Earl Howe

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 will not come into force until 29 October 2015. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will consider how best to apply a monitoring framework to clinics awarded a licence to carry out mitochondrial donation treatment, against which it would inspect.

    The HFEA will announce its proposals for the regulation and monitoring of mitochondrial donation treatment cycles following the approval of regulations by Parliament.