Tag: 2016

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what meetings (a) she and (b) Ministers of her Department have had with (i) arms manufacturers, (ii) tobacco manufacturers and (iii) representatives of the Israeli embassy since the period covered in the Cabinet Office’s most recent ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings data release.

    Andrea Leadsom

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to her by my rt. hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 26th February 2016 to Question 27634:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-22/27634/.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school places in Romford.

    Edward Timpson

    Supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of this Government’s top priorities. That’s why we’ve committed to spending £7 billion on new school places up to 2021, which, along with our investment in the free schools programme, we expect to create 600,000 new places.

    Havering local authority, which is responsible for school places in Romford, received £23 million of basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create 2,583 new primary places and 1,960 new secondary places between 2010 and 2015.

    Havering has also been allocated a further £58 million to create the places required by the 2019/20 academic year.


  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will take steps to secure an Autism Access Award from the National Autistic Society for the parliamentary estate.

    Tom Brake

    The House of Commons started work on this earlier in the year, as reported in the Head of Diversity and Inclusion’s quarterly update to the House of Commons Commission in January. The National Autistic Society has conducted its mystery shopping part of the accreditation. We are aiming to submit our evidence for the remainder of the assessment by June this year.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will suspend the sale of arms to countries of the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition following the coalition’s alleged use of cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict.

    Anna Soubry

    The UK Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously. All export licence applications are carefully assessed on a case by case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. A licence will not be issued if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the Criteria.

    The suspension of licences will be considered by my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in circumstances where in the light of new evidence and information it would be considered that a proper risk assessment against the Consolidated Criteria would be difficult. At this time he considers that he does have sufficient information from a range of sources for a proper risk assessment to be made against the Criteria.

    The UK ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 4 May 2010 and does not licence the export of these weapons.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the Report of the Transparency Taskforce, published in May 2016, on the costs and hidden fees associated with investments and pensions.

    Richard Harrington

    The Government remains committed to increasing transparency and ensuring that members of pension schemes are able to obtain information about the costs and charges which they bear.

    Governance bodies of defined contribution workplace pension schemes are obliged, under existing requirements, to assess costs and charges. We and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are actively considering how to achieve greater transparency and standardisation of transaction costs, and the FCA plans to publish a consultation later this year.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-10-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the effect leaving the EU will have on the level of Welsh farming subsidies.

    Mr David Gauke

    The UK Government will guarantee EU funding for structural and investment fund projects in Wales, including agri-environment schemes, signed before we leave the EU. It will be for the Welsh Government to make an assessment of which projects should be pursued in areas of its competence, and this guarantee will apply to any such projects. The agricultural sector in Wales will receive the same level of funding that it would have received under Pillar 1 of CAP until the end of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework in 2020.

    As a result of these steps taken by the UK Government, individuals and organisations in receipt of EU funds now have a greater degree of certainty about funding over the coming years. The UK Government will work with the Welsh Government to consider future funding arrangements for once the UK has left the EU.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Prime Minister, what steps the Government has taken to meet the conditions set out in the motion passed by the House on 2 December 2015 on ISIL in Syria.

    Mr David Cameron

    I refer the right hon. Member to the oral statement made by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) on 16 December 2015, Official Report, column 1566.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees were referred to her Department by the UN High Commission for Refugees under (a) the Gateway Protection Programme, (b) the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme and (c) the Mandate Refugee Scheme in each year since 2009-10; and how many such refugees in each year and for each scheme her Department refused after carrying out checks.

    James Brokenshire

    We do not report on how many people have been identified for resettlement in the UK under these schemes. Not all referrals translate into arrivals for a variety of reasons. In some instances, refugees choose to withdraw, for example, following the death of a family member, marriage or childbirth. Furthermore the Home Office also retains the right to reject individuals on security, war crimes or other grounds. In addition we do not currently differentiate between cases that are refused or withdrawn and therefore do not hold the information on refusals in the format requested.

    Notwithstanding this, the Home Office is committed to publishing data on arrivals through the resettlement programmes in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 25 February 2016 and will cover the period October-December 2015. These numbers will be updated each quarter.

  • Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has had discussions with the Israeli government on the displacement of Bedouin people from townships in the Negev.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    I discussed the Bedouin in the Negev with Head of the Joint List MK Ayman Odeh during my visit to Israel on 18 February. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv are following developments closely, and we continue to encourage the Israeli authorities and Bedouin communities to work together to identify satisfactory solutions.

  • Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to tackle human trafficking into the UK at source.

    Karen Bradley

    We are committed to tackling all forms of modern slavery, including human trafficking. The Government has secured commitment from other governments and institutions, including the UN, the Commonwealth and the EU, to tackle modern slavery. We have successfully lobbied for the establishment of the first ever UN Sustainable Development Goal to end modern slavery. We are also working bilaterally with priority countries to deepen law enforcement cooperation.

    The Work in Freedom programme is helping to prevent trafficking of girls and women from South Asia. We have also supported the work of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, who has visited source countries and identified further opportunities for prevention activity. Our world-leading Transparency in Supply Chains provision in the Modern Slavery Act 2015 will encourage business to eradicate slavery from global supply chains.