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Tag: 2016

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the economic, ecological and public health effects on the UK of aquatic invasive species introduced by shipping discharging ballast water.

    George Eustice

    Defra has commissioned or undertaken a number of assessments that inform our understanding of the impacts of aquatic invasive species. These include, but are not limited to:

    • Risk assessments for non-native species to understand the risk of arrival, establishment, spread and impact of such species.
    • A study in 2010, ‘Economic Cost of Invasive Non-native Species to the British Economy’, which looked at the costs associated with aquatic invasive species, though it did not separately identify the cost of those introduced in ballast water;
    • Work in 2012, modelling the risk of introduction and spread of non-native species in the UK and Ireland. This project identified areas, such as ports, which present greatest risk for the introduction, establishment and spread of such species, through pathways including ballast water; and
    • A study in 2013 identifying those invasive non-native species most likely to arrive, establish and pose a threat to native biodiversity in Great Britain within the next 10 years.

    Defra also supports a database, the Great Britain Non-native Species Information Portal. This provides information on more than 3,700 non-native species including where they are present and the likely means by which they have arrived in this country.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reasons the Government did not meet Olivier Bancoult, Chair of the Chagos Refugees Group, during his recent visit to the UK.

    James Duddridge

    I am not aware of any invitations to the government to meet Mr Bancoult during his recent visit to the UK. Officials who were asked whether they might wish to meet Mr Bancoult were concerned about the propriety and appropriateness of doing so at a time when he is litigating against the Government.

  • Lord Oates – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Oates – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Oates on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the current gap in donor funding to tackle the food shortages in Ethiopia, and what steps they are taking to encourage other donor countries to meet their obligations.

    Baroness Verma

    Britain is working closely with the Government of Ethiopia and the international community to ensure adequate funding for drought response activities. Britain’s overall funding for the drought to date is £145 million, making the UK the second largest donor.

    In December, the Government of Ethiopia and the United Nations launched an appeal for 2016 to fundraise $1.4 billion (~£923 million) to respond to the drought in Ethiopia. By the beginning of May, 66% of the required funds had been raised.

    DFID is working closely with other donor governments to monitor the response and to lobby for support for the Government of Ethiopia and the UN appeal. Most recently, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Hurd discussed the current crisis with EU Commissioner Stylianides and in particular how to encourage others to step-up. DFID has also been working closely with the Ethiopian Government to support their leadership of the humanitarian response. To date, the Government of Ethiopia has allocated $381 million (~£269 million) to address the crisis. This is commendable.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the likely cost to the public purse of additional staff to be recruited from outside the civil service to work on preparations for negotiation of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

    Mr David Davis

    A new Department for Exiting the European Union has been established by the Prime Minister. The staffing requirements for the new department, and their costs, are now being identified.

  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens have raised the issue of poor treatment by Israeli authorities at border crossings and entry points with the (a) UK Government, (b) embassy in Tel Aviv and (c) consulates in Jerusalem and Ramallah in the last 12 months.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Since January 2016, 15 British nationals have alleged poor treatment by Israeli authorities at border crossings.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-01-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on accumulated pension wealth on the lifetime allowance basis.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government does not hold its own records on total accumulated pension wealth, only on pension contributions. For the purposes of the Lifetime Allowance, officials have used data from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, which includes estimates of pension wealth.

    The Government assessed the effects of changes to the Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance by considering how many people would have to reduce their saving in response to these reductions. This methodology was agreed with the OBR.

    The reduction in the Lifetime Allowance will affect only 4% of savers currently approaching retirement. The Lifetime Allowance will be reduced to £1 million from April, but the average pension savings of someone approaching retirement is only £85,000.

    Just 1% of savers make contributions of £40,000 per year, the level of the Annual Allowance since April 2014. The average saver contributes £6,000 per year.

    The introduction of the Tapered Annual Allowance for individuals who earn over £150,000 in April 2016 will impact less than 2% of people saving into a pension.

    The Government laid out its modelling on the effect of changes to the Annual and Lifetime Allowances on pension contributions in its policy costings documents at the March and Summer Budgets 2015.

    For changes to the Lifetime Allowance, the Wealth and Assets Survey was used to estimate pension wealth, and this was projected forward using assumed pension contributions and estimates of the real rate of return on pensions savings taken from the OECD and the Government Actuary’s Department.

    For the Tapered Annual Allowance, modelling used estimates from the Survey of Personal Incomes, HMRC operational data on personal pension contributions, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and the Occupational Pension Scheme Survey.

  • Lord Truscott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Lord Truscott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the experience in Oklahoma in the US, they plan to commission a detailed study into the potential correlation between fracking in the UK and more frequent earthquakes.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    Waste water re-injection in the US has been linked to seismic activity, but this technique has not been proposed in the UK and the Environment Agency will not permit re-injection of waste water into any formation at this stage.

    In the UK, we have over 50 years’ experience regulating the onshore oil and gas industry. Our regulator regime is robust and we have strong controls in place to mitigate the risk of any seismic activity in the UK.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Prevent strategy.

    Mr John Hayes

    As part of the Prevent Strategy we have trained over 450,000 frontline workers in spotting signs of radicalisation. In Channel, hundreds of people have been successfully provided with support. 130 community based projects were delivered in 2015, up from 70 in 2014, reaching over 25,300 participants. Our local coordinator network has dramatically increased its reach, working with over 2,790 different institutions and engaging nearly 50,000 individuals over the course of 2015.

    Following referrals from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, social media providers removed 58,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material in 2015, compared with 46,000 in 2014. This brings the total to 140,000 since February 2010 when the police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit was set up.

    We report on Prevent delivery annually through the CONTEST Annual report. The next report will be published shortly.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether a timetable has been agreed for the review of the General Dental Practitioners contract.

    Alistair Burt

    The current dental contract reform prototypes are testing a new way of providing preventative care, including the right balance of payment incentives. Subject to evaluation of the prototypes, a reformed dental contract could begin to be rolled out nationally from 2018/19 onwards.

  • The Earl of Sandwich – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The Earl of Sandwich – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Sandwich on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of (1) prisoners, and (2) young offenders, suffer from mental health problems; and of those, how many suffer from (a) illegal drug addiction, and (b) prescribed drug dependence.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    72% of adult male prisoners and 71% of adult female prisoners may have two or more mental disorders including personality disorder, psychosis, anxiety, depression or substance misuse according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

    According to the cross-government report Healthy Children, Safer Communities (2009), more than one third of people held in the children and young people’s secure estate, including those held in young offender institutions, have diagnosed mental health disorders. A copy of this report is attached.

    The ONS also reports that about 55% of individuals entering prison have a drug problem. Data on prescribed drug dependence in prisons is not collected centrally.