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Tag: 2015

  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the likelihood of a possible deal to unify Cyprus.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Government is a strong supporter of the UN-facilitated settlement process, and will do whatever we can to help. On 19 November the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, visited Cyprus and met President Anastasiades and Mr Akinci, commending both for their courageous leadership and urging them to take the bold steps needed to secure a historic agreement. As the Secretary of State said last week, there now exists a ‘real opportunity’ to end four decades of division on the island.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to support more programmes or competitions for university students and recent graduates to encourage them to embrace entrepreneurship.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    This Government fully supports the promotion of entrepreneurship in higher education. In 2013/14, the Higher Education – Business and Community Interaction survey found that there were over 4,600 new graduate start-ups, up from 2,357 in 2009/10.

    The Government is championing closer collaboration between universities and business through the National Centre for Universities and Business which is supported by HEFCE, the Research Councils and Innovate UK. Higher Education Innovation Funding, delivered by HEFCE, also supports university collaboration with industry, the commercialisation of research, and promotes entrepreneurship, enterprise education and broader knowledge exchange.

  • Nick Hurd – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nick Hurd – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Hurd on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the direct and indirect cost to the UK economy of disability through blindness and visual disorders.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has not made a recent estimate of the direct and indirect cost to the United Kingdom economy of disability through blindness and visual disorders.

  • 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 2015-10-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to ensure and monitor the security and wellbeing of individuals deported from the United Kingdom to potentially dangerous home countries.

    Lord Bates

    The Home Office does not routinely monitor the treatment of individuals once removed from the UK as they have been found not to need protection and therefore that they are not at real risk of harm. Each case is considered on its individual merits including, where relevant, the reasonableness of internal relocation.

    Returns are only undertaken when the Home Office and courts deem it is safe to do so.

  • Kit Malthouse – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kit Malthouse – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kit Malthouse on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK police forces have a dedicated unit dealing with the prosecution and identification of (a) sexual offences against children and (b) other online offences; and which UK police forces also hold specialist expertise in child protection and safeguarding.

    Karen Bradley

    Tackling child sexual abuse including online child sexual exploitation is a top priority for this Government. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement, setting a clear expectation on police forces to safeguard children, collaborate across force boundaries, share intelligence and share best practice.

    The College of Policing and the National Policing lead have set the requirement on all forces to train all new and existing police staff including police officers, detectives and specialist investigators to respond to child sexual abuse.

    We are committed to supporting the police to tackle these horrendous crimes. We have made £1.7 million available to fund Operation Hydrant, which co-ordinates the handling of multiple non-recent child sexual abuse investigations specifically concerning institutions or persons of public prominence, and up to £1.5 million to support a new network of regional co-ordinators and analysts to oversee the implementation of the National Policing Plan for tackling child sexual exploitation.

    The Government will also continue to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure they have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber-dependant crime and cyber-enabled fraud, including support for the Regional Organised Crime Units, who have a dedicated Cyber Crime Unit each. As the Chancellor also announced last week, spending on the UK’s cyber security programmes will be almost doubled over the next five years, with £1.9 billion funding.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-10-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the use of capital punishment, in particular regarding the case of Fatemeh Salbehi, and what assessment they have made of the report by Amnesty International that over 700 executions have occurred in Iran this year.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The British Government opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances. There has been no real improvement in the human rights situation in Iran, and in some cases, such as use of the death penalty, the situation appears to have worsened. We have made our position clear to Iran both publicly and privately, and continue to urge Iran to abide by its international commitments to ensure all Iranians enjoy the rights and freedoms they are entitled to.

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998 on society and communities in Northern Ireland; and if she will make a statement.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    The Government was elected in May with a clear mandate to implement its manifesto commitment to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights.

    We believe that it is entirely possible to do that in ways that are consistent with the Belfast Agreement.

  • 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 2015-10-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the new Ministerial Code, whether the duty of ministers to comply with the law continues to include international law and treaties.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Ministerial Code is normally updated and reissued after a General Election. The updated Code makes clear that Ministers must abide by the law. The obligations of Ministers under the law including international law remain unchanged.

    Information relating to internal discussions and advice is not disclosed.

  • Rebecca Pow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Rebecca Pow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Pow on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with his ministerial counterparts on ensuring that road and rail links through Somerset are protected by stronger flood defences and mitigation measures.

    Claire Perry

    The Department for Transport continues to meet regularly with Somerset County Council to discuss a number of issues related to transport, including resilience. The Minister with responsibility for roads, my Hon Friend, the Hon Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), recently sent a letter to all local highway authorities in England with respect to this including reminding councils of their duties in respect to clearing drains and gullies to prevent the risk of surface water flooding on the local road network . In addition the Department for Transport provided over £22 million, as part of the Government response to the flood events of 2013/14 and the Somerset Flood Action Plan. This funding helped in raising the main road into Muchelney and also installing four culverts at Beer Wall to reduce the risks of flooding and local communities being cut-off in the future.

    Following flooding incidents in 2012-14,Network Rail iscurrently implementing a £31million package of schemes to improve the resilience of the Great Western route through the Thames Valley and the West of England. Work has already been completed at Whiteball Tunnel, near Taunton.

  • Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-10-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the estimated cost to answer a media query to the Government and whether they impose a limit on the number of questions a member of the media can ask in a week.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Government receives a large number of media queries each day, which are received and managed by the relevant department.

    The amount of time each media query takes depends on many factors and variables, so it is not possible to estimate an average cost or time. No restriction is placed on the number of queries a journalist can make.