Tag: 2015

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the Indian government on re-opening border crossings to Nepal since discussions were held between the British and Indian ambassadors to Nepal on border blockages on 30 October.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 November 2015 to question 15614 which can be located at: www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers. In addition to this answer, I discussed the blockage at the border with the Indian Foreign Secretary during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to the United Kingdom.

  • Karin Smyth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Karin Smyth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, who he was accompanied by at a cost to the public purse on each of his official overseas trips since his appointment.

    Jane Ellison

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State is generally accompanied by an official from the Department and/or a member of staff from his private office when he is travelling on official business.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what care pathways are in place at each sexual assault referral centre; and what the average waiting time is for access to those pathways for (a) adults and (b) children under 18.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England has set out care pathways for adult and child Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) services in its `Commissioning Framework for Adult and Paediatric Sexual Assault referral Centre (SARC) Services’, published in August 2015. Pathway services are wide-ranging, including safeguarding, social care, housing, other medical support and therapeutic counselling. The framework is now being rolled out across England and outlines the expected core service.

    Data on waiting times into care pathways or therapeutic services in SARCs or referred to by SARCs, is not collected centrally.

  • John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department has allocated to meeting the UN targets on family planning; and in which countries such funding has been allocated.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    In 2014, the most recent year for which figures are available, UK spending on Family Planning was £203 million, exceeding our 2012 London Summit commitment to double our yearly spend in this area. We are currently developing our plans for the new spending review period, but in the past the majority of our country offices have had family planning programmes.

    Multilateral, regional and civil society funding reaches many more countries. As well as a large commitment to the UNFPA Supplies programme (£356m until 2020), DFID also supports the FP2020 Secretariat, work on shaping reproductive health markets through the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition

  • David Davis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Davis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times action has been taken against a service provider for non-compliance with a warrant served under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 since 2001.

    Mr John Hayes

    The Government works closely with communication service providers to ensure they can give effect to warrants which help our security and intelligence and law enforcement agencies to disrupt, investigate and prosecute terrorists and criminals.

    It would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on relationships with companies regarding interception warrants or whether specific companies had failed to give effect to an interception warrant.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department allocated to the Winter Weather Repair Fund in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15; and what funding it has allocated to that fund in (i) 2015-16 and (ii) 2016-17.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport is providing over £6.1 billion funding to local highway authorities in England between 2015 and 2021 for local highways maintenance. This includes repairing roads that might be damaged due to severe winter weather. This funding includes £50 million per annum from 2016 to 2021 for a dedicated Pothole Action Fund as announced in the recent Spending Review.

    This is additional to the funding of over £4.7 billion the Government provided to local highway authorities between 2010 and 2015 for highways maintenance, including £168 million to tackle potholes across the country, as well as £183.5 million we provided in 2014 to help repair roads damaged by the winter floods of 2013/14. Between 2010 to 2015 the maintenance funding was 27% or £1billion higher than in the previous five years.

  • Andrew Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many decisions on further submissions related to asylum claims that are outstanding have been waiting for longer than (a) one year, (b) two years and (c) three years for a decision.

    James Brokenshire

    There is not a formal service standard for deciding further submissions from failed asylum seekers. The Home Office is balancing resource between those failed asylum seekers with no leave to remain who have made further submissions on the one hand and, on the other, those who were granted a limited period of leave following the refusal of their application who have outstanding applications for Further Leave.

    With regard to further submissions lodged by failed asylum seekers, there is dedicated resource in place to decide cases in the existing stock of further submissions and to also decide new submissions quickly, wherever possible within 5 days of their being lodged. With regard to cases in the stock of further submissions, the Home Office is prioritising cases where applicants are in receipt of asylum support and cases where the applicant may be removed from the United Kingdom in the eventuality their submission is refused. The Home Office will also give priority to further submissions case that have been outstanding for the longest period of time.

    The figures in the below table relate to failed asylum seekers who had outstanding further submissions as of 30 June 2015:

    Timescale (Years) Total

    1 – 2 2383

    2 – 3 1426

    3 or more 1267

    Total 5076

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to make a final decision about airport expansion in the South East.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    On 10 December, the Government accepted the Airports Commission’s case for expansion in the South East. We agree with the Commission’s shortlist of three options, all of which it concluded were viable. The Government will now conclude a package of further work by the summer, and will ensure that the timetable for delivering additional capacity set out by the Commission does not alter.

  • Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation officers have been employed by the National Probation Service since its establishment in each month in that period, and for each such month in each region of England.

    Andrew Selous

    Information on the number of probation officers employed in each NPS Division is published quarterly in the National Offender Management Service Workforce Statistics Bulletin. The information on probation officer numbers can be located in table 11 of the publication, which can be found at the link below:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-12-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Government’s decision to withdraw £1 billion in funding from carbon capture and storage projects on the future of energy-intensive industries in the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The provision of ring-fenced capital support for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) was judged against other Government funding priorities as part of the Spending Review. Government has not taken the Spending Review decision lightly. The Government continues to view CCS as having a potential role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK’s power and industrial sectors. Neither CCS Competition project proposed to capture CO2 from energy intensive industries.

    The detailed design and implementation of CCS policy changes have yet to be determined. The Industrial 2050 Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency Roadmaps reports published in March 2015 identified a potential role for industrial CCS technologies in decarbonising the steel, oil refining, chemicals and cement sectors. DECC and BIS continue to engage with the energy intensive industries and academics to develop decarbonisation Action Plans by the end of 2016 as the second phase of this process.

    The Government remains committed to working with energy intensive industries including those in the Northern Powerhouse area. DECC provided £1million funding to Tees Valley Unlimited as part of the 2013 City Deal agreement to undertake an Industrial CCS feasibility study based on the chemicals and steel industry in the Teesside cluster and we continue to support that work. The devolution deal for Tees Valley, published in October this year, also included a commitment to explore how it can continue to develop its industrial CCS proposals.