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Tag: 2015

  • David Anderson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how her Department took into account the planned Chinese government involvement in the construction of new nuclear energy facilities in its impact assessment on removal of market support mechanisms for wind and solar energy.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Chinese investment in new nuclear power stations was not a factor in our assessment of the impact of changes to government support for renewables.

  • Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2015 to Question 12951, whether all directly employed and contracted staff of his Department are contractually permitted to write to him about their employment conditions or pay without having investigatory proceedings instigated against them.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    Staff directly employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) may write to me on any issue without investigatory proceedings being instigated against them. The FCO obliges its contractors to adhere to all employment legislation and encourages its contractors to have appropriate measures in place to manage its employees. No disciplinary measures were taken against Interserve cleaners who wrote to me.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-11-27.

    To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his Oral Statement of 26 November 2015, Official Report, columns 1489-94, what assessment the Government has made of the potential increased displacement of people in Syria of his proposal to extend military operations to that country; and what the implications of that assessment are for the Government’s policy on the number of Syrian refugees.

    Mr David Cameron

    Coalition airstrikes have been on-going since September 2014. Airstrikes may cause some local level internal displacement and disruption; but it is the conflict that is the main cause of suffering and displacement of civilians in Syria.

    The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have pledged over £1.1 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. We are the second largest bilateral donor after the US. UK support has reached hundreds of thousands of people in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. By the end of June 2015, UK support inside Syria and in the surrounding region had, for example, delivered almost 20 million food rations that feed one person for a month; over 2.5 million medical consultations; and relief items for 4.6 million people.

    The UK is supporting refugees to remain in host countries in the region, and supporting host countries to accommodate them As part of this, we are working in partnership with host countries to help them to expand job and education opportunities for refugees in a way that will enable them to better support themselves and give them skills for the future, and we are helping host countries to cope with the impact of refugees on local services.

    We will continue the work parallel with proposals to expand military operations in the country.

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how the Government plans to use its membership of the UN Security Council to facilitate diplomatic negotiations on the protection of civilians in Syria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Protection of civilians in Syria, as well as those who have been forced to flee the country, is a priority for the UK. In the Security Council we have co-sponsored a number of humanitarian resolutions that call for an end of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the use of barrel bombs, starvation as a method of warfare, and obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid. Specifically, the UK played a key role in negotiating Resolution 2191, which has allowed the UN and its partners to deliver aid across Syria’s borders to people who were previously denied access, including food for 2.1 million people and medical supplies for 2.5 million people. The UK is the second largest bilateral donor, providing over £1.1 billion to those most in need in Syria and neighbouring countries. This is our largest ever response to a crisis. The long term protection of civilians requires an end to the conflict in Syria and a political settlement based upon the principles of the Geneva Communiqué. We continue to pursue this objective, including through the new political process which began in Vienna on 30 October.

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what powers they have to insist that recipients of British development aid should respect freedom of conscience and religion, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK attaches great importance to ensuring that people of all faiths can participate fully in society and live without fear of abuse or discrimination. DFID works closely with the FCO to raise concerns about freedom of religion with partner governments to ensure that all citizens can claim their rights. The UK’s development and humanitarian aid is not targeted at specific groups but at the poorest, regardless of race, religion, creed, or nationality.

    Before providing aid to a foreign government, DFID assesses the government’s commitment to four partnership principles, one of which concerns human rights. DFID provides aid to governments where we are satisfied that they share our commitments to reduce poverty and to respect human rights.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of how many additional GPs will be needed to supply the Battersea-Nine Elms development; and how many such GPs are planned to be provided.

    Alistair Burt

    We are advised by NHS England that it is working with its co-commissioning clinical commissioning groups to assess the requirements of the new development utilising the existing infrastructure and the requirements for an estimated population of in excess of 30,000 over a 10 year plus timeframe.

    We understand that new models of delivery of primary care services are being investigated with an estimate of around 15 additional general practitioners required to serve the final population numbers.

  • Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made, for each local authority in the Yorkshire and Humber region, of whether the social care budget will meet future demand in the period between 2015 and 2020, in the light of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    No such assessment has been made. It is for local authorities to allocate funding to individual services from their overall budget. In recognition of increasing demand for social services, the Spending Review announced an ambitious plan to integrate health and social care across the country by 2020, and a £3.5 billion package to support local authorities with responsibility for adult social care to meet the needs of their local population. This includes giving councils the additional freedom to introduce a social care precept onto council tax bills, which local authorities in Yorkshire and Humber with responsibility for Adult Social Care services can choose to take up from 2016-17.

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the General Medical Council on their revalidation programme.

    Ben Gummer

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health meets the General Medical Council regularly and has discussed their revalidation programme with them.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect on high streets of ending small business rate relief.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Chancellor announced at the Autumn Statement that the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief will continue for a further year and therefore apply for the whole of 2016-17. Approximately 600,000 properties are benefitting, with 400,000 paying no business rates at all.

  • Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Hilary Benn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been identified for resettlement in the UK as part of the vulnerable Syrian refugee resettlement programme since 20 September 2015.

    Richard Harrington

    UNHCR identifies and proposes Syrian refugees for the VPR scheme from among the whole of the registered refugee population in the region, over 4 million people. This includes people in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities. Approximately 430,000 registered refugees meet UNHCR’s vulnerability criteria.

    We will not be giving a running commentary on how many people have been identified for resettlement in the UK. Not all referrals translate into arrivals for a variety of reasons. We therefore do not consider it would be appropriate to provide this figure.

    Notwithstanding this the Home Office is committed to publishing data on arrivals through the resettlement programme in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 26 November 2015 and will cover the period July-September 2015. These numbers will be updated each quarter.