Tag: 2015

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2015-11-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the recent report from B’Tselem about the closure policy imposed in Jerusalem, what discussions they have had with the government of Israel regarding the new restrictions placed on Palestinians living in East Jerusalem that limit their movement.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We remain deeply concerned about restrictions on freedom of movement in East Jerusalem. Our Ambassador in Tel Aviv raised this issue with Israeli National Security Advisor Cohen on 2 November. Our Consul-General to Jerusalem also raised this issue with the Mayor of Jerusalem on 28 October.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions a special adviser in his Department accompanied a Minister on an overseas trip since May 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    Special Advisers have not undertaken any overseas trips with Ministers since May 2015.

  • Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what efforts they have made to promote diversity in the composition of the judiciary by reference to (1) socio-economic status, (2) ethnicity, (3) gender, and (4) age.

    Lord Faulks

    The Government fully supports a more diverse judiciary and has taken steps to improve representation, whilst still appointing the best people for the job.

    In Courts and Tribunals the representation of women has risen to 32.3% of the judiciary, compared to 28.8% in 2012. Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation has risen to 7.4 % from 6.8% over the same period.

    The Government works with its partners in the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission and the legal professions through the Judicial Diversity Forum to take action to increase the diversity of the judiciary at all levels.

    Recent initiatives include:

    • Supporting the judiciary in the implementation of the ‘New Route to the High Court’ scheme. This offered high quality candidates support to apply for a Deputy High Court Judge selection exercise launched in July 2015. As this programme was aimed at encouraging diversity, places on this support scheme were limited to women, BAME candidates and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.
    • Holding outreach events, targeted at under-represented groups, such as ‘Women in the Judiciary: Making it happen’.

    This work builds on significant legislative changes which:

    • Introduced the equal merit provision into the final stage of the judicial appointments process, which allows diversity, in terms of gender and ethnicity, to be taken into account when two applicants are of equal merit. This has already been applied in seven JAC recommendations between October 2014 and March 2015;
    • Extended salaried part-time working to the High Court and above to increase flexibility and make it easier to balance home and work life; and
    • Introduced a statutory duty for the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice to encourage judicial diversity.
  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what planning he has undertaken to ensure that any UN airstrikes in Syria are (a) co-ordinated with all participating countries and (b) do not harm UN relations with the Russian Federation.

    Michael Fallon

    UK airstrikes are undertaken as part of the Global Coalition’s counter-Daesh campaign and are coordinated by the Coalition’s Combined Air Operations Centre based at Al Udeid in Qatar. UK aircraft also abide by the provisions and procedures in the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Russia which aims to prevent flight safety incidents over Syria and Iraq.

  • Baroness Smith of Basildon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Baroness Smith of Basildon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 2015-11-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will (1) produce a (a) Green Paper, and (b) White Paper, and (2) consult with Parliament, prior to recommending any legislative changes to parliamentary procedures following Lord Strathclyde’s review of the powers of the House of Lords.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston):

    Lord Strathclyde is being supported in his review by a panel of external experts and a small secretariat of civil servants in the Cabinet Office. The secretariat does not include political advisers. The expert panel comprises Sir Stephen Laws, former First Parliamentary Counsel; Jacqy Sharpe, a former Clerk in the House of Commons and Clerk to the Joint Committee on Conventions; and Sir Michael Pownall, former Clerk of the Parliaments.

    Several reviews have examined the powers of the House of Lords, including the Royal Commission on the reform of the House of Lords (2000) and the Joint Committee on Conventions referenced above (2006).

    The review led by Lord Strathclyde is due to consider how to protect the ability of elected Governments to secure their business in Parliament in the light of the operation of certain conventions. The review will consider in particular how to secure the decisive role of the elected House of Commons in relation to its primacy on financial matters; and secondary legislation.

    Ministers regularly discuss a wide range of issues with the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service.

    Lord Strathclyde will determine the way in which the review is undertaken and the content of his recommendations, including any definitions required. It is not possible to provide an estimate of the cost of the exercise at this stage, but neither Lord Strathclyde nor his panel of experts will be paid a fee. Lord Strathclyde is expected to seek views from a wide range of Parliamentarians, parties and groups in undertaking his review, and has issued a letter to all Parliamentarians inviting their input. He is also seeking views from the Clerk of the Parliaments and the Clerk of the House. Lord Strathclyde will report to the Prime Minister, and the Government will decide how to proceed upon receipt of his recommendations.

  • Emma Lewell-Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Emma Lewell-Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that supply chain contracts from the Beatrice offshore wind project will create jobs in the UK.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Department, together with UKTI and BIS, work closely with the Beatrice offshore wind farm developer to ensure that UK companies are able to bid for contracts in an open and fair competition process to maximise the UK content in the wind farm.

    Offshore Wind Developers have committed to achieving their vision statement of providing over 50% UK content in UK offshore wind farms. There is an agreed industry standard methodology in place for the Industry to measure and record the UK content in each offshore wind farm. The industry publishes the anonymised and consolidated results to allow the sector and the public to track the sector’s progress towards fulfilling their vision.

  • Baroness Stern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Baroness Stern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Stern on 2015-11-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the 20 new Protector” drones to be procured under the Scavenger Programme will be the General Atomics certifiable Predator B or any other model or variant.”

    Earl Howe

    No decision has yet been made on the choice of platform to meet the Protector (formerly Scavenger) requirement. This will be determined as part of the main investment decision, which is scheduled for 2016.

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he expects that the trial will begin of Michael Misick, former Prime Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

    James Duddridge

    We expect the trial to start this week.

  • 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 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the likely impact of freezing the earnings repayment thresholds for 24+ Advanced Learner Loans on the Resource Account and Budgeting charge of outstanding debt which will be written off for 24+ Advanced Learner Loans.

    Nick Boles

    We estimate the RAB charge under option 1 (freeze threshold for all Plan 2 loans, existing and new borrowers from April 2016 to April 2021) will decrease by about 5 percentage points from the current level of 55% to 50%.

    Further information on the impact of freezing the earnings repayment thresholds for 24+ Advanced Learning Loans on future repayments is shown in the Consultation on freezing the student loan repayment thresholds, which has been published here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/freezing-the-student-loan-repayment-threshold

    “

  • Ian Blackford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ian Blackford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Blackford on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what evidence his Department holds on the prevalence of off-label prescribing among (a) specialist clinicians, (b) GPs, (c) nurses and (d) other medical professionals.

    George Freeman

    The Department does not hold the information requested. The Health and Social care Information Centre has published information on prescribing data by British National Formulary chapter.

    Where clinically appropriate, off-label prescribing is supported in guidance given to prescribers by both the General Medical Council and by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Prescribing in this way is part and parcel of normal every day clinical practice. It is very common in paediatric and palliative care.

    Discussions relating to the Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill are considering how a potential database covering off-label use could be constituted.