Tag: 2015

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the Ministry of Justice has made of whether there is a correlation between alcohol consumption and criminal activity.

    Lord Bates

    Alcohol is a contributory factor in crime and disorder. The Home Office has estimated that alcohol-related crime costs society around £11.4 billion per year.

    The Crime Survey for England and Wales data from 2013/14 showed that around half (53%) of all violent crimes are alcohol-related, with two-thirds (64%) of all violent crimes involving strangers attributable to alcohol-consumption. Alcohol is also associated with over a third (36%) of domestic violence incidents.

    There is also a link between non-violent crime and alcohol. 36% of penalty notices for disorder in 2014/15 were issued for being drunk and disorderly. Alcohol is closely associated with anti-social behaviour with nearly one fifth of adults (18%) perceiving people being drunk or rowdy as a problem in their local area in 2014/15.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) adults and (b) children undertake appropriate health checks to prevent diabetes complications.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England (PHE) supports local authorities to implement the mandated NHS Health Checks programme. A routine part of NHS Health Checks involves assessing a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes and, for those at risk a diagnostic test is carried out for confirmation of diabetes.

    The NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Programme aims to reduce the risk of sight loss among people with diabetes through early detection and timely treatment, if needed, of diabetic retinopathy.

    The Healthy Child Programme ‘Pregnancy and the first five years of life’ provides five core reviews for all pregnant women and young children and provide a framework for health promoting and primary prevention activities around behaviours such as breast feeding, healthy nutrition, physical activity and healthy weight which will influence a child’s future health including onset of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The reviews are followed up with early intervention and targeted support for families where additional needs have been identified. The Healthy Child Programme ‘0-19’ provides advice and guidance including healthy weight management, nutrition, physical activity and support children with additional health needs including diabetes.

    Improving outcomes for those with diabetes is of great concern to the Government. We will announce our plans in due course.

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what statutory duties local authorities have to provide library and library-related services.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 places a duty on local authorities to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. It is for individual local authorities to determine how best to provide this.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent in legal costs on the Information Rights Tribunal case on the Reducing Regulation Sub-Committee Freedom of Information request.

    Mr Oliver Letwin

    Litigation and Counsel’scostswill be accounted for at the end of the process.

  • Lord Falconer of Thoroton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Falconer of Thoroton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of the end of the Advice Services Transition Fund in December 2015.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The fund is a Big Lottery Fund programme, to which Government contributed 50% of the budget. As the fund comes to a close, the Big Lottery Fund will be monitoring how organisations have met their agreed outcomes and will be supporting the dissemination of learning amongst the ASTF partnerships and beyond.

  • Nick Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the effect of tax credits on farmers.

    George Eustice

    The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on this issue. However, the NFU has written directly to the Chancellor about tax payments and the National Living Wage. Ministers and Defra officials meet regularly with representatives of the farming industry to discuss a range of issues affecting farm businesses.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps the Government has taken to reduce the incidence of money-laundering in the UK.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government’s Anti-Money Laundering regime has a clear aim: to make the UK financial system a hostile environment for illicit finances, whilst minimising the burden on legitimate businesses and reducing the overall burden of regulation.

    In Europe, we worked hard during the negotiation of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive to encourage European partners to match our level of ambition in combatting money laundering. The Directive was formally adopted in June 2015 and it will be transposed into UK law by June 2017. The Government plans to publish a consultation on the changes early next year. The consultation will run for a full 12 weeks. We will consult on areas where the Directive gives us options or discretion on how we transpose its provisions.

    Domestically, HM Treasury and Home Office have worked closely together to draw up the UK’s first National Risk Assessment (NRA) of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, which was published on 15 October 2015. The NRA is the next step in ensuring that our anti-money laundering regime is robust, proportionate and responsive to emerging threats. The NRA found that while the UK’s response to money laundering and terrorist financing risks is well developed, more could be done to strengthen the UK’s anti-money laundering regime. The Treasury and Home Office are working together on a comprehensive Action Plan to address these issues, to ensure that the UK continues to lead the global fight against illicit financial flows.

  • Imran Hussain – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Imran Hussain – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the contribution of the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the hon. Member for East Devon, of 22 October 2015, Official Report, column 1264, what training was provided to the election observers supported by Government funding referred to in that contribution.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The United Kingdom funded the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in training and deploying some 5000 Burmese civil society observers throughout the country. These national observers were trained to evaluate the quality of the electoral process at polling stations and to rapidly report incidents on the day. The presence of national and international observers was a key part of the United Kingdom’s strategy for deterring fraud in Burma’s elections on 8 November.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals applying for leave to stay in the UK who successfully appealed against a rejection from UK Visas and Immigration through the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) have not yet been issued with the right to stay in the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office considers applications on their own merits and takes great care to get decisions right first time, recognising the difficulty that errors can cause legitimate applicants. Where applicants are granted leave to remain the UK, we take all reasonable steps to issue their visas accordingly. The requested information cannot be accurately defined on our internal systems. To provide this information a manual reconciliation of existing work in progress and appeals implementations would be required. Manual reconciliation of individual cases would incur a disproportionate cost.

  • Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2015 to Question HL381, what steps he has taken following allegations of breaches of bribery and corruption laws by Soco International in Virunga National Park; what guidance his Department provides on the exploration of natural resources by UK listed companies operating in national parks and UNESCO wold heritage sites; and if he will make a statement.

    James Duddridge

    We are aware of allegations of breaches of bribery and corruption laws made against Soco International in relation to its activities in the Virunga National Park, and have ensured that the relevant law enforcement agencies both here and in the Democratic Republic of Congo are aware of the allegations.

    Foreign investment in sectors such as hydrocarbons and the extractive industries can play a vital role in boosting the development of countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, helping lift people out of poverty. Such investment must be conducted responsibly and sustainably, in compliance with local law and conforming to international standards. The government encourage all British companies to uphold the highest of standards, but where they do not it is important that allegations of wrongdoing are investigated and perpetrators are held to account. Anyone with evidence of serious fraud, bribery or corruption should pass this to the Serious Fraud Office.

    The government also encourages UK companies to observe the international standards for responsible conduct of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and provides a National Contact Point for the Guidelines complaint process. It was under the UK National Contact Point process that World Wildlife Fund and SOCO reached their 2014 agreement for SOCO to end its operations in Virunga.