Tag: 2016

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will take steps to ensure that military personnel based in Cyprus have the cost of flights for them and their family to return to the UK on leave fully covered by the allowances provided, even at peak travel times.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Get You Home (Overseas) allowance enables eligible Service personnel and any spouse, civil partner or dependent children to return to the UK by assisting towards the costs of return journeys to the UK or, in the case of non-British passport holders, to their country of domicile. Get You Home (Overseas) is calculated by the Ministry of Defence based upon an average of economy class airfares obtained from Expedia three times per year – summer, Christmas and Easter. The flight route used is from the overseas location to the UK and prices are sourced from the internet one month prior to the date selected as the date of travel. The current rate for Cyprus is £337 per person. Analysis by British Forces Cyprus for the peak summer period indicates that the allowance fully covers the cost of a routine economy flight.

  • Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government’s policy is on supporting proposals for a new Libyan government involving restoration of a monarchy and a return to the 1951 Libyan Constitution.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK, along with our international partners, is focused on working closely with the Government of National Accord (GNA) as the only legitimate government in Libya. It is clear the GNA, agreed after more than a year of political talks between a range of Libyan parties, enjoys clear majority support as the institution to govern the country.

    It is for the Libyan people to decide whether they want to pursue proposals for the restoration of the monarchy and return to the 1951 Libyan Constitution. There is no strong evidence that these proposals have broad support at this time.

  • Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-05-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the regulatory impact of the Financial Conduct Authority authorisation of insolvency practitioners.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The government consulted extensively on its reforms to the consumer credit market prior to the transfer of regulation from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in April 2014. The result of that consultation included the exclusion for insolvency practitioners when acting in reasonable contemplation of being appointed as an insolvency practitioner (IP).

    It remains the government’s view that when an insolvency practitioner is no longer acting in reasonable contemplation of being appointed as an IP, they must be authorised by the FCA if they wish to continue providing debt advice. There are no immediate plans to review this exclusion. However, the government does maintain an interest in the impact of regulation on the debt advice market.

    The FCA is thoroughly assessing every debt management firm’s fitness to trade as part of the authorisation process. The size of the debt advice market will not be known until this process is complete. The government will stay in contact with the FCA throughout the authorisation process to monitor the impact on customer journeys and capacity.

    For IPs concerned about the potential burden of FCA authorisation, the FCA has been clear that it takes a proportionate approach to setting fees. This includes imposing tiered fees based on the income a firm generates from its credit activities, ensuring that the smallest firms pay the lowest fees. There also remain other options for smaller firms to consider, including the appointed representative regime.

  • Simon Hart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Simon Hart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Hart on 2016-06-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 22080, when the Environment Agency will be consulting on the proposals to modernise the rod licence service.

    George Eustice

    The Environment Agency advertised its proposed changes to the rod licence structure and duties on 6 May 2016 in the London Gazette, Welsh newspapers and in the angling press. The Environment Agency also consulted stakeholders through focus groups, newsletters, publications, websites, telephone calls and their stakeholder forum, the England Fisheries Group, prior to advertising the changes in England and Wales.

  • Kevin Foster – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Foster – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Foster on 2016-09-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed new junior doctors’ contract on ensuring safe working hours.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The new contract includes stronger limits on working hours and patterns of work and a robust oversight mechanism to ensure that prompt action is taken if needed. This will be an integral part of how trusts meet their statutory obligations to keep staff and patients safe. Required action includes a review of work schedules to ensure safe working, payment for additional work done and fines where the limits in the contract are breached. There are no such protections under the current contract. For instance, at present, junior doctors can be asked to work up to 91 hours a week, up to seven night shifts in a row and every weekend under the current contract. The Guardian of Safe Working Hours will be tasked with ensuring that rotas reflect the hours that juniors work and they are within the new contractual limits.

    These limits under the new contract are a maximum of 72 hours per week (compared to 91 currently), and the limit on average weekly hours will remain 48 hours (and be limited to 56 hours where a doctor opts out of the Working Time Regulations).

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people under 18 have been admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm in each year since 2010.

    Alistair Burt

    While information on the number of children and young people admitted to hospital as a result of self-harm is not available, the table below shows the total number of admissions in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

    The table provides a count of finished admission episodes with an external cause of self-harm and a patient age between 0-17 years for 2009-10 to 2014-15. This is a count of admissions, not people as the same person may have been discharged on more than one occasion during the same year.

    Year

    2009-10

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Admissions

    12,944

    13,995

    13,231

    14,780

    19,577

    19,647

    Source Hospital Episode Statistics data

    In 2013, specific guidance around the recording of self-harm codes on patients admitted via accident and emergency was issued to all providers. This may explain the increase between 2012-13 and 2013-14; which means that figures between these two years cannot be fairly compared.

  • Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that local fire authorities install deaf awareness alternative smoke alarms in homes which make use of warning lights rather than sound as a warning system when requested.

    Mike Penning

    We expect local fire and rescue authorities to determine how to allocate their resources to best protect their communities from the risks from fire. Although each authority delivers a range of community fire safety interventions designed to prevent and reduce the risk from accidental dwelling fires, all also carry out a programme of home fire safety visits. In some cases, these visits, which offered tailored fire safety advice in the home, are focussed specifically on those who may be particularly vulnerable, including older people and those with disabilities. Fire and rescue authorities will, in certain circumstances, offer to provide and install free smoke alarms to households without them. This will include alarms designed specifically for those who may be deaf or have other hearing difficulties. How fire and rescue authorities decide where best to target their home fire safety visits and what fire safety equipment, if any, would reduce most effectively the risk to the household is a local matter based on a local assessment of risk.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support his Department is providing to the Lebanese government to prevent recruitment to terrorist groups from the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    As part of the UK’s global work countering terrorism and extremism, the UK is supporting Lebanon to prevent the recruitment of individuals to violent extremist groups. This support includes supporting moderate Sunni religious voices in Lebanon, training young Muslim leaders on countering extremist narratives, and supporting the reform of the Lebanese school curriculum to educate young people on tolerance and citizenship values. This financial year we are spending £1.15 million within the camps to support Palestinian youth networks to bolster community stability and build resilience against extremism. This includes supporting young people in the development of solutions to community-level problems, increasing civic participation, developing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and the production of youth-led counter extremist narratives.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage Sudan and South Sudan to engage in dialogue to overcome disputes relating to the border between the two countries.

    James Duddridge

    I am concerned at the recent increase in tensions between Sudan and South Sudan. As part of our ongoing discussions with the governments of both countries, we have consistently stressed that dialogue is the only means of resolving the border-related disputes. We have also raised our concerns about recent tensions in the UN Security Council and continue to support the efforts of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel to encourage both sides to re-engage in negotiations.

  • Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-05-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of cybercrime attacks and their impact on the UK economy.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The most recently published crime statistics for England and Wales show that in the year ending December 2015 of the 617,618 fraud offences reported to the National Fraud Investigation Bureau, 14,347 (2.3%) were recorded under the Computer Misuse Act (i.e. cyber-dependent offences). This figure represented a 6% decrease compared to the year ending December 2014.

    While overall crime has fallen by more than a quarter since 2010, it is also changing. An accurate national picture is critical to informing our response to cyber crime. That is why the Office for National Statistics have now published, for the first time, initial experimental estimates of the numbers of cyber crimes committed.

    Based on a preliminary field trial, ONS estimate 5.1m fraud incidents and 2.5m incidents of computer misuse crime per year. Following the success of this trial, new questions relating to fraud and cybercrime were introduced onto half the survey sample from October 2015 and will be reported on a quarterly basis from later this year.