Tag: 2015

  • 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

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  • 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 steps UK diplomatic posts in China have taken under his Department’s 2010-2015 Strategy for the Abolition of the Death Penalty.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We have continued to urge the Chinese authorities to reduce their use of the death penalty, and did so during the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue in April. Through our network of diplomatic posts, the UK is working with Chinese legal experts and the Chinese judiciary to support legislative and judicial reforms to limit the use of the death penalty. We have supported a number of specific projects with the purpose of encouraging debate on the death penalty, providing information about global trends, and proposing alternatives in penal policy.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made with delivering £22 billion of efficiency savings in the NHS identified in its five-year forward plan.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government is committed to investing £10 billion to fund the National Health Service’s own plan for the future, and the NHS needs to deliver efficiency savings in order to live within its means.

    Since May 2015, the Government has taken action to help hospitals clamp down on excessive agency staffing costs, use of management consultants and fees charged by lawyers. Lord Carter’s interim report has outlined how hospitals can save around £5 billion by reducing variations in the way operations and treatments are carried out. Further programmes at work are under way in partnership with NHS England and others.

    The Department is working together with the health service, our partners and patients to further develop the programme required to fully achieve the efficiency savings set out in the Five Year Forward View.

  • 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 guidance her Department issues to police forces on the presence of social workers at the questioning of 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.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Bridget Phillipson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of changes in police officer numbers on the ability of police to respond to anti-social behaviour.

    Mike Penning

    The number of police recorded incidents of anti-social behaviour has declined year-on-year from 2.7 million incidents in 2011/12 to 1.9 million in the year ending June 2015. The number of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded by police in England and Wales in the year ending June 2015 decreased by 9% compared with the previous year. However, we recognise that anti-social behaviour continues to blight too many communities. This is why new and more flexible powers were introduced in the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 to make it quicker and easier for police forces and local authorities to protect communities from unacceptable behaviour.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the value for money of its contracts with the private sector.

    Mike Penning

    As part of improving the MoJ’s overall commercial capability a Contract Management Improvement Programme has been running across the department since early 2014, in order to implement and embed best practices in contract management. As part of this programme we have established new governance committees to strengthen our assurance of major contracts.

    We have also renegotiated or retendered a number of our significant contracts to improve value for money from our private sector contractors.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of global shipping tonnage that will be registered in the UK in 2020.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department has not produced estimates of the future size of the UK Ship Register (UKSR). The Government is committed to supporting the UK maritime sector and improving the UKSR. The Maritime Growth Study, published on 7 September 2015, contained a number of recommendations relating to the ship register.

    The Government will respond formally to the report by the end of 2015, but is taking immediate action in response to some recommendations. This includes the establishment of a Ministerial Working Group for Maritime Growth and taking steps to support the improved operation of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) such as appointing a commercial director to lead the UKSR separately from the Agency’s regulatory functions and a business case exploring the costs and benefits of options for more significant reform of the MCA.

  • Peter Dowd – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Peter Dowd – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Dowd on 2015-10-21.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the progress of the Northern Powerhouse.

    Greg Hands

    This government is determined to maximise the potential of the North of England and reduce the decades-old gap between London and other cities. Employment in the Northern Powerhouse has risen by over 260,000 since the 2010 election, and in the last year alone there are 71,000 fewer people unemployed. We will continue to strengthen the Northern Powerhouse to ensure that this progress is sustained, bringing further benefits to people in the North, as well as the wider UK economy.