The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the number of businesses was that traded goods internationally through export or import in 2014.
Anna Soubry
Data on the number of businesses in Great Britain engaging in international trade in goods can be found on the ONS website in the ‘Exporters and Importers in Great Britain, 2014’ release, published on 12 November 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Heald on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the quality and rigour of checks made by locum agencies of the character and credentials of staff to be provided to the NHS or social services; and if he will make a statement.
Ben Gummer
Providers of regulated health and social care services must be registered with the Care Quality Commission and comply with certain fundamental standards, including those relating to the employment of fit and proper persons.
In the National Health Service, employing organisations have the overarching responsibility for auditing and monitoring compliance of third party suppliers of temporary workers (including locum doctors) to ensure that they operate to the same level of standards in relation to undertaking pre-appointment checks as outlined by the NHS Employment Check Standards. Under the framework agreements, all external staffing providers (including contractors and agencies) are required to provide assurances that they have robust recruitment processes in place in line with the NHS Employment Check Standards.
Care workers also routinely use agencies to secure employment or apply to care homes and care providers directly. Employers in the care sector have a duty of care to patients and their families to take all appropriate action to ensure employees have the appropriate credentials to enable them to work in the sector. In cases of direct payment, where the council pays the care-recipient directly to employ a carer, this responsibility falls to the care recipient.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister for Housing and Planning of 14 December 2015, Official Report, column 1278, if he will call in for his determination the application by Dorset County Council to grant itself planning permission for a new school on land in the green belt adjoining Marsh Lane, Christchurch, on grounds of its departing from the recently approved Local Development Plan.
Brandon Lewis
The County Council intends to consider the application at its planning committee on 28 January. Should it be minded to approve the proposal, the Council would then refer the application to the Secretary of State due to the scale and location of the development proposed in the Green Belt. If the application is referred, the Secretary of State would then consider whether to call in the application.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to embed the Family Test into its policy making.
James Brokenshire
I refer the honourable member to my answer given to Parliamentary Question 15845 in response to a question tabled on 10 November by my honourable friend for Eastbourne.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what funding has been received by organisations in Northern Ireland from the Community Covenant Grant Scheme.
Mark Lancaster
All of the applications from Northern Ireland under the first round of the 2015-16 Small Grant Covenant Grant Scheme were successful, amounting to just over £35,000. This is in addition to the £80,000 already awarded under the now closed Community Covenant Grant Scheme.
This funding is in addition to the £35 million of Libor money which the Chancellor agreed to transfer to support the Armed Forces community. The fund has supported 96 charities and good causes in a variety of ways across the UK. We anticipate that the Armed Forces community in Northern Ireland will benefit from a number of UK-wide projects which have received funding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions she has had with the Northern Ireland executive about (a) the licensing of road hauliers and (b) tackling transportation of illicit fuel.
Mr Ben Wallace
Ministers in the Northern Ireland Office have not had any direct discussions with the NI Executive about (a) licensing of road hauliers and (b) tackling transportation of illicit fuel. Matters relating to (a) the road hauliers and (b) tackling transportation of illicit fuel are for the DVA and HMRC respectively.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions her Department has had with the Arctic Methane Emergency Group on ways to mitigate methane emissions from disruption of methane hydrates caused by climate change in the Arctic.
Andrea Leadsom
The Department has had no such direct discussions with the Arctic Methane Emergency Group. The best practical way to limit methane emissions due to the destabilisation of methane hydrates is to keep the rise in global temperatures as low as possible. The UK government’s recent push to secure an ambitious global climate deal was rewarded on 12 December in Paris, where the world witnessed a historic step forward to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. A global agreement of 195 countries, including the world’s largest emitters, have now committed to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of disability living allowance applications for children diagnosed with ADHD have been rejected in each of the last five financial years.
Justin Tomlinson
The requested data is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on bilateral relations of recent decisions by China to construct new islands on coral reefs in disputed waters.
Mr Hugo Swire
Whilst the UK takes no position on the underlying sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, we are concerned about the impact of any unilateral actions, such as large scale land reclamation, and the risk these may pose to freedom of navigation and regional stability.
We have raised these issues with China through our regular bilateral dialogue. We have also called on all parties to exercise restraint and pursue the settlement of disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to refrain from activity likely to raise tensions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harris of Haringey on 2015-11-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, how many cases of individuals imprisoned for defaulting on their council tax were appealed to the High Court, and in how many of those cases the appeals were upheld.
Lord Faulks
Data showing how many people were imprisoned for non-payment of council tax in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are presented in the table below:
|
Year |
Total |
|
2012 |
107 |
|
2013 |
108 |
|
2014 |
89 |
Notes:
These data are sourced from the Libra Management Information System (MIS). As such this data set is not subject to the same levels of quality assurance as national statistics
In extracting this data only offences of complaint for council tax committal application have been included where the court hearing date occurred within each year reported (i.e. between 1 January and 31 December).
It should also be noted that, although committals to prison are reported as occurring within a particular financial year, the non-payment of council tax itself may relate to a previous financial year or even a period covering more than one financial year.
Committal to prison for non-payment of council tax can be challenged through a judicial review in the High Court. The table below shows the number of judicial reviews relating to imprisonment for non-payment of council tax in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and the outcomes.
|
Year |
Number of Judicial Reviews |
Upheld |
Refused |
|
2012 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2013 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
2014 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Notes:
These data were obtained from a manual check of judicial reviews carried out specifically to answer this question.