Tag: 2015

  • Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the additional costs of maintenance and other in-service costs that will be incurred by retaining the Vanguard submarines in service for approximately five years longer than envisaged in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    As set out in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, we have assessed that we can safely manage and maintain the Vanguard boats until the Successor submarines are introduced into service in the early 2030s. The marginal costs associated with maintaining the submarines can be contained within the existing running cost of the deterrent, which is around 6% of the defence budget per year.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost of using external agencies for recruitment to senior Civil Service posts in his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

    Mark Lancaster

    Where external recruitment to Senior Civil Service (SCS) posts is required, recruitment agencies and head-hunters may be engaged to assist with campaigns. The costs of agency services include search, advertisement, response handling, assessment and support to selection panels.

    Details of spend on SCS recruitment with external agencies and head-hunters, by calendar year, are as follows:

    Calendar Year

    Spend

    2010

    £121,000

    2011

    £144,000

    2012

    £284,000

    2013

    £373,000

    2014

    £583,000

    2015 (to 31 March)

    £33,000

    Note: information held by the Ministry of Defence extends to 31 March 2015 only; from 1 April 2015 recruitment for SCS posts has been managed centrally by Civil Service Resourcing.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

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

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

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    A Special Adviser has accompanied the Secretary of State only once on an overseas trip since May 2015. The practice of Special Advisers accompanying the Secretary of State on overseas visits where there is a business need is long-established and has operated as such under various administrations including the previous Labour administration.

  • Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-11-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure that more women progress to senior levels in the financial services industry.

    Harriett Baldwin

    As part of the Productivity Plan, the Government has asked Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money, to lead a review into representation of women in senior managerial roles in the financial services industry. Her review will report next year.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in each local authority in the Greater Manchester area have been transferred from tax credits to universal credit.

    Priti Patel

    The process of transferring people from Tax Credits to Universal Credit (UC) has not yet begun.

    We are rolling out Universal Credit (UC) in a careful and controlled manner – an approach that was endorsed by the Major Projects Authority. Our plan is that existing benefit and tax credit claimants will be migrated to UC by 2020/21. Further details will be made available in due course.

  • Angela Rayner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Angela Rayner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will provide financial assistance to councils to enable them to acquire new social housing to replace properties bought through the Right to Buy policy.

    Brandon Lewis

    The 2012 Reinvigorated Right to Buy gave councils, for the first time, the ability to use additional receipts from Right to Buy sales to provide new affordable homes. Councils have up to three years to start building and if these receipts are not used within this timeframe they must be returned to the Homes and Communities Agency (or to the Greater London Authority in London), who will issue the funding as grant to provide new affordable housing.

    We urge councils to progress their building plans in order to help provide much needed affordable housing for their local communities.

  • Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they were consulted and informed about the US decision to lift its arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus, and by whom; how and when that decision is to be implemented; and what assessment they have made of the impact of that decision on the current Cyprus talks process.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We understand that, contrary to media reports in Cyprus, the United States (US) government has not decided to lift its International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrictions on its defence trade with the Republic of Cyprus. The US has amended Section 1276 of its National Defence Authorisation Act so that the US Departments of State and Defence are required to submit a report to Congress assessing the US-Cyprus security relationship, including the impact of US trade constraints on defence-related goods and services to the island. This does not affect the US ITAR restrictions on defence trade with the Republic of Cyprus.

  • Chris Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Chris Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Green on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to review the transport provision on the A5225.

    Andrew Jones

    Transport provision on the A5225 is a matter for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and its constituent local highway authorities, and my Department therefore has no plans to review this provision. I understand that as part of the development of its Key Route Network, Greater Manchester is currently undertaking a baseline assessment of its highway network, including primary routes between Wigan and Bolton.

  • Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in preventing the bullying, harassment and abuse of LGBTI people in immigration detention centres, in the light of the recent inquiry into the use of immigration detention in the UK by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration, and of concerns expressed by the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group.

    Lord Bates

    We take the welfare of our detainees very seriously and no form of ill-treatment or discrimination is tolerated.

    On 9 February 2015 the Home Secretary announced an independent review of welfare in detention, led by Stephen Shaw CBE, which will focus on vulnerable detainees.

    We will come back to this House before Committee stage of the Immigration Bill to respond to this report.

    Guidance for staff in the immigration detention estate is being updated to include a new detention services order on the care and management of LGB detainees in immigration removal centres and the existing detention services order on transsexual detainees will be updated to include guidance on intersex detainees.

  • Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2015 to Question 13685, if she will make an assessment of the monetary benefits arising from implementation of the revised EU Waste Framework Directive in each of the last four years.

    Rory Stewart

    An assessment of the costs and benefits of the revised Waste Framework Directive in England and Wales was carried out when laying the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 which transposed the Directive. The assessment was published and is still available on the Legislation.gov webpages. This is the most up to date assessment of the impacts of the Waste Framework Directive, and contains a year-by-year breakdown of the expected costs. As waste is a devolved issue, the Devolved Administrations carried out and published their own impact assessments, which are similarly available online.

    The European Commission are expected to publish on December 2 proposals to amend the revised Waste Framework Directive. Once those proposals are published, we will submit another explanatory memorandum to the House, assessing the potential costs and benefits of those changes.