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Tag: 2015

  • Lord Kilclooney – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Kilclooney – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether there would be new trade barriers between the UK and the Republic of Ireland in the event of the UK ceasing to be a member of the EU.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), believes Britain’s best future lies within a reformed EU. He is focused on addressing the concerns of the British people and is confident that the right agreement can be reached.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to include all Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime wildlife crime priorities within the Counting Rules Code 96.

    Mike Penning

    Recorded crime covers all indictable and triable-either-way offences. Additionally, a few closely associated summary offences are included. All wildlife related offences meeting those criteria, whether or not they relate to the priorities of the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime, will fall within the Counting Rules Code 96.

  • Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been spent to date on planning and developing the South East Flexible Ticketing programme.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    To date, £37.64m has been spent on the South East Flexible Ticketing programme. This has facilitated investment by five train operators accounting for 73% of the annual season ticket market in the south east. Commuters on c2c and GTR can already use smartcards on their journeys into London and within the Transport for London boundary. Abellio Greater Anglia and South West Trains will follow early in 2016 and Southeastern later in the year.

  • Cat Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Cat Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support is being provided to refugees currently on the island of Lesbos.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The UK has so far provided around £4.5 million to partners working in Greece, many of which are active on Lesbos. This includes supporting the Red Cross for assistance and emergency first aid to refugees and migrants arriving on the beaches. We are also providing assistance to the IOM and UNHCR who are delivering essential coordination, reception and registration support, as well as direct physical assistance.

    It is right that the vast majority of our support goes to the region, our support is helping to build long term stability and resilience to help refugees build a life in neighbouring countries and prevent them falling prey to people smugglers and traffickers. For this reason, the UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. The UK has pledged over £1.1 billion to date, our largest ever humanitarian response to a single crisis. We are the second largest bilateral donor after the US and have done more than any other European country.

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the new Ebola medal takes precedence over jubilee medals in the order of wear.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Jubilee Medals come ahead of the Ebola Medal for Service in West Africa in the current Order of Wear.

  • Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of night flights to and from Heathrow Airport.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Along with Gatwick and Stansted, the Government sets night flight restrictions at Heathrow, using its powers under s.78 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982.

    These restrictions limit the number of flights between the hours of 23.30 and 06.00 that can take place during a particular season – there are two seasons per annum, winter and summer, which coincide with the use of Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time. Heathrow is limited to 5,800 flights a year during these hours, which translates in to an average of 16 flights per night. Due to a voluntary agreement which prevents scheduled movements before 04.30, most of these flights are from aircraft arriving between the hours of 04.30 and 06.00. It should be noted that these restrictions do not preclude additional aircraft from operating at Heathrow during the night period in the case of emergencies or severe disruption.

    As well as limiting the number of movements allowed within an airline season, these restrictions place requirements on the aircraft that can operate during the night period, and place seasonal limits on the amount of noise energy that can be emitted at Heathrow. Aircraft are certified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) according to the noise they produce and the higher the band an aircraft is certified as the higher quota amount it uses with each movement. The Government has also prohibited the noisiest types of aircraft from using the airport during the night. QC/4 aircraft are not allowed to be scheduled during the night quota period (2330 to 0600), and the highest rated QC/8 and QC/16 aircraft are prevented from operating at all during the entire night period (2300 to 0700).

    The Government will begin consulting next year on a new nights flight regime which will take effect from October 2017.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on Small Business Saturday and its benefits to promoting the value of small businesses to the economy.

    Anna Soubry

    Officials in the department meet with their counterparts in the Northern Ireland Executive on a regular basis, to discuss a range of matters connected to small business, including Small Business Saturday.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of days of work lost because of bullying in the workplace in the last 12 months.

    Justin Tomlinson

    DWP does not tolerate bullying in any form.

    Guidance on our approach to dealing with and managing bullying is available to all employees and managers, and our policy is that all cases of bullying should be reported.

    DWP capture absence data in a format that is standard across the Civil Service, which is by absence ‘type’. Each absence may have a number of underlying causes, therefore it is not possible to estimate the number of days of work lost because of bullying. Nevertheless, DWP’s current Average Working Days Lost stands at 6.28 which is the lowest it has been in the last 12 months, and down substantially compared to 5 years ago when it stood at 8.2.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff by full-time equivalence there were in his Department in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2012-13 and (c) 2014-15; and how many staff by full-time equivalence he expects there will be in his Department in (i) 2015-16, (ii) 2016-17 and (iii) 2017-18.

    Joseph Johnson

    The staff figures (full-time equivalent) for 2010/11, 2012/13 and 2014/15 are set out below:

    Year

    FTE (Core BIS only, not UKTI)

    Source/Notes

    2010/11

    2,781

    Published in the BIS Annual Report & Accounts 2011 (Core Dept (3,373) minus UKTI (592))

    2012/13

    2,692

    Published in the BIS Annual Report & Accounts 2014/15

    2014/15

    2,627

    Published in the BIS Annual Report & Accounts 2014/15

    In the further years of this Parliament, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is expecting to make further headcount reductions in the core Department, in line with our Spending Review settlement and our efficiency programme ambitions. The exact figures for full time equivalents in these years are not available at this stage.

  • Baroness Helic – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Helic – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Helic on 2015-11-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure women’s participation in future peace negotiations in Syria by supporting women’s groups in Syria.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The second meeting of the International Syria Support Group in Vienna on 14 November agreed an outline timetable for Syrian peace negotiations, leading to transitional governance, a new constitution and elections within eighteen months. The International Syria Support Group will now meet on a regular basis, in parallel with Syrian-led discussions facilitated by UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, to take forward this process.

    Ministers and senior officials have made regular representations to the UN Special Envoy and other UN officials to impress upon them the importance of the inclusion of Syrian women’s groups in the peace process. We continue to encourage the moderate Syrian opposition to be gender-inclusive and were pleased that a senior female activist accompanied the Syrian National Coalition President, Khaled Khoja, on his official visit to the UK earlier this month. Our programmes of support to grass roots peace-building initiatives and civil society groups inside Syria support this objective, and are designed to ensure that Syrian women’s voices are heard and that they are represented in political negotiations.