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Tag: 2015

  • Ben Howlett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Ben Howlett – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Howlett on 2015-10-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to improve air quality in order to assist people with lung diseases.

    Rory Stewart

    We are fully committed to complying with EU Air Quality Standards as soon as possible. We have already committed over £2 billion since 2011 in transport measures to improve air quality. On 12 September we launched a public consultation on our draft revised Air Quality plans for nitrogen dioxide, which set out a range of local, national and European actions to lower levels of harmful emissions. The consultation closes on 6 November 2015.

    Government departments and agencies work together to prioritise action and offer the best advice to vulnerable groups to help mitigate the health effects of air pollution. Our daily air quality forecast includes accompanying health messages to the public based on advice provided by Public Health England.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-10-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will amend building regulations to ensure that building extensions are fully accessible for people with disabilities.

    James Wharton

    Part M of the Building Regulations requires that extensions to buildings other than dwellings provide suitable independent access to an extension where reasonably practicable. These requirements do not apply to extensions to dwellings, however. We have no plans to amend the Regulations but will keep this under review.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-10-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Prime Minister’s oral statement of 7 September 2015, Official Report, column 30, on counter-terrorism, whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s legal adviser was consulted on the legal basis for the military action against Reyaad Khan in Syria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Successive Governments have upheld the principle of legal professional privilege, which means they do not disclose whether legal advice has been sought, or the content of any such advice that may have been obtained. I would also refer you to the Attorney General, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam’s (Jeremy Wright) answer of 12 October (PQ 10450).

  • Kevan Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kevan Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2015-10-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-UK overseas armed forces personnel have been recruited or loaned from other countries’ armed forces to serve in the UK armed forces over the last five years; and what were the countries of origin of those personnel.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The attached tables show the number of non-UK armed forces personnel by rank and nationality which have been recruited into the UK Regular Armed Forces.

    The information in respect of the number of non-UK armed forces personnel who have been loaned by other countries will take time to collate and I will write to the hon. Member shortly.

  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that there are adequate numbers of school places in Hendon constituency.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities are responsible for planning and securing sufficient school places in their area; supporting them in this is one of this government’s top priorities. We allocate basic need funding to local authorities to help create new school places where they are needed. The London Borough of Barnet has been allocated £27.9 million for the period 2015-18. Barnet also received £68.7 million of basic need funding between 2011 and 15, which is an increase of 49.5 million compared to the amount spent by the previous government in the period 2007-11.

    The money allocated to Barnet since 2011 has helped to create 7,136 new school places between 2010 and 2014. In addition, Watling Park School, a primary free school that opened in September 2015, is due to provide 420 additional primary places once at full capacity.

    Information on basic need allocations can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations-2015-to-2018

    “

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage Palestinian Authority officials to address the issue of incitement to violence.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We deplore all incitement to violence and have urged the leadership of both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to avoid engaging in or encouraging the type of action and language which will make it more difficult to achieve a peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict. We continue to support the reinstatement of the Tripartite Committee as the appropriate channel to deal with allegations of incitement from either side. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) also raised the importance of calming tensions when he spoke to President Abbas on 9 October.

  • Fabian Hamilton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Fabian Hamilton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fabian Hamilton on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Chinese government on the death in custody of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I raised the case of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche during Westminster Hall Debates on Tibet on both 18 June and in December last year. I urged the Chinese authorities to consider him for release on medical parole. We were saddened by reports that Tenzin died in detention on 12 July.

    We supported and encouraged the EU statement of 15 July, which said the EU expected the Chinese authorities to investigate and make public the circumstances surrounding Tenzin’s death. We will continue to raise our related concerns at the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue, through the EU, and as part of our wider relationship with China.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2015 to Question 7630, how many GP practices in each pathfinder area have signed up to care.data to date in total.

    George Freeman

    The information requested is provided in the following table:

    Pathfinder clinical commissioning groups.

    GP Practices

    Blackburn with Darwen

    23

    Leeds

    15

    West Hampshire

    30

    Somerset

    56

  • Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training her Department provides to police officers and social workers for interviewing children and vulnerable adults who are possible victims of child abuse.

    Karen Bradley

    Tackling abuse is a priority for this Government. We will continue the work of overhauling how our police, social services and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children. To this end, we have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat like serious and organised crime, which means police forces now have a duty to collaborate with each other across force boundaries to safeguard children.

    The provision of police training is an operational matter. The College of Policing and the National Policing Lead for child protection and abuse investigation have set the requirement for all forces to train all new and existing police staff to respond to child sexual exploitation and abuse, including call handlers, Police Community Support Officers, police officers, detectives and specialist investigators.

    The College of Policing has issued Achieving Best Evidence guidance and training for all officers engaged in interviewing children and vulnerable witnesses. This includes training on the sensitivity needed when dealing with victims and witnesses who may be vulnerable as well as working with partners – such as social workers – and their involvement in interviews.

    Specialist courses for child sexual abuse and rape specialist investigators also expand on these requirements in relation to interviewing children and vulnerable adults.

    The role of social workers in these investigations, including their training, is a matter for the Department for Education. The guidance issued by DfE in March 2015, “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, sets out how social workers and their managers, as well as other agencies including the police, should work together and follow the Achieving Best Evidence guidance.

    The Department of Health are responsible for the training of social workers working with vulnerable adults who may have been sexually abused as children or in adulthood.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of legislation to prevent stone theft.

    Mike Penning

    We have received no recent representations from local authorities in Yorkshire on this issue.

    Existing legislation provides the police and courts with sufficient powers to respond to stone theft.