The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on his Department’s expenditure of the UK leaving the EU.
Michael Fallon
None.
Tag: 2016
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Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in the Middle East on steps to tackle the refugee crisis in that region.
Sir Desmond Swayne
The UK is at the forefront of international efforts to support over 4.8 million Syrian refugees to remain in host countries in the region until it is safe to return to Syria, and to support host countries to accommodate them.
As part of this, we are working in partnership with host countries to help them to expand job and education opportunities for refugees in a way that will enable them to better support themselves and give them skills for the future, and we are helping host countries to cope with the impact of refugees on local services.
The UK co-hosted the “Supporting Syria and the Region” conference in London in February, at which neighbouring governments made bold commitments to open up their labour markets to refugees, to improve regulation and the investment climate in their countries, and to ensure all children in their countries have access to quality education.
The Secretary of State for International Development continues to lead engagement with regional partners on tackling the refugee crisis, including by delivering on the commitments made at the London Conference, which will help to create 1.1 million jobs and provide quality education to 1.7 million children by the end of the 2016/17 school year. At the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in April she convened meetings between regional governments, the UN and World Bank and held bilateral discussions with key Ministers. And at the World Humanitarian Summit in May, she and other London Conference co-chairs convened a meeting of all interested parties to discuss and review progress.
Looking forward, we will be using UN General Assembly in September as an important moment to review progress with key leaders on the Syria Conference implementation, including how all parties are all delivering on their commitments to support refugees in the region.
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Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what advice his Department offer local authorities on issuing Hackney carriage or private hire driver licences to people based outside their local authority area.
Andrew Jones
Local authorities can issue licences to prospective Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle drivers irrespective of where the driver lives. The Department provides Best Practice Guidance for local authorities to help them develop their own standards for taxi and PHV operators, drivers and vehicles.
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Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the Iraqi army have been trained by British servicemen since 2003.
Penny Mordaunt
Since 2003, the UK has played an important role in delivering training to the Iraqi Army through a range of training, mentoring and advisory activities. Due to the varied nature of the training it is not possible to give an exact figure of the numbers trained, but we do have figures for some specific areas of training.
Between 2004 and 2009 – as part of Operation TELIC – British Service personnel in the south of Iraq trained over 20,000 Iraqi Army soldiers. During this period the UK also supported the NATO training mission in Iraq, with British Forces providing advice and training to the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. The UK was the lead for officer education and training, and British mentors provided training and advice to the Iraqi Security Forces.
Under Operation SHADER, during 2015 and 2016, the UK has trained approximately 5,000 members of the Iraqi Army. This training has mainly focused on the delivery of Counter-IED training to support the Iraqi Security Forces in defeating Daesh.
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Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students are taught in schools rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding in (a) Calder Valley constituency and (b) West Yorkshire.
Nick Gibb
As at 31 August 2015, 78% of pupils attended maintained schools and academies that were rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding in Calder Valley parliamentary constituency. This percentage has increased from 2010 when it was 74%, representing an increase of 1,531 more pupils attending good or outstanding schools.
In West Yorkshire[1], 76% of pupils attended maintained schools and academies that were rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding as at 31 August 2015. This percentage has increased from 2010 when it was 60%, representing an increase of 69,359 more pupils attending good or outstanding schools.
The percentages above include children attending all open primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, nurseries and pupil referral units as at 31 August 2015.
[1] West Yorkshire consists of five local authority areas: Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.
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Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how often he reviews the level of threat to each of the UK’s overseas territories.
Penny Mordaunt
The Ministry of Defence undertakes regular assessments of potential threats to each of the UK overseas territories and ensures that we retain an appropriate level of defensive capability to address any such threats. We remain vigilant and committed to the protection of our overseas territories.
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Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has received any representations from NHS staff who feel they are being harassed outside NHS buildings by protesters.
Ben Gummer
There have been no representations from National Health Service staff who feel they are being harassed outside NHS buildings by protesters.
Although protesters are democratically entitled to make their views known on abortion and other issues and can do so outside NHS hospitals and other NHS buildings, we would condemn any harassment of NHS staff, patients and others. We would expect NHS trusts, as responsible for providing a safe environment for all using their facilities, to work with the Police and other agencies as appropriate to ensure they have adequate arrangements in place to prevent harassment of staff and patients. If staff are subject to criminal activity such as physical assaults, these should be reported so that employers can take appropriate action.
Currently, NHS trusts have access to Security Incident Reporting Systems which helps NHS Protect measure the nature and scale of security incidents across the NHS, not just those involving physical assaults on staff but also those involving non-physical abuse and theft of/damage to NHS assets.
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Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-05-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of whether UK citizens would retain the automatic right to hold the European Health Insurance Card during the period prior to the completion of Article 50 negotiations relating to the Lisbon Treaty in the event of the UK voting to leave the EU.
Alistair Burt
The procedure governing a country’s departure from the European Union is set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. This provides for a period of two years for the negotiation of exit terms. EU law would continue to apply to the departing Member State until the Article 50 agreement had entered into force, or for two years if no agreement had been reached and no extension to the two year period had been granted. A request for an extension could only be granted with the unanimous agreement of the remaining Member States. The Government’s position is that the United Kingdom will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.
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Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2016-07-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) planned and (b) unplanned cancellations of train services operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) under the emergency timetable introduced from 11 July 2016 would place GTR in breach of the level of cancellations set out in the Remedial Plan agreed between GTR and his Department in February 2016.
Claire Perry
Under the Franchise Agreement, where GTR can provide the evidence that cancellations are due to official or unofficial industrial action, they can claim Force Majeure, which they have done. The Govia Thameslink Railway Franchise Agreement in Schedule 7.1 sets out the performance benchmarks and financial regime that is in place in relation to cancellations. A copy of the Franchise Agreement can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/govia-thameslink .
The department is monitoring the position on a regular basis.
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Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made with the government of France on developing the scale and scope of the unmanned combat aerial vehicle programme agreed in January 2014.
Harriett Baldwin
The two year £120 million UK/France Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) Feasibility Phase commenced in October 2014 and is due to be completed in January 2017. In Amiens in March 2016, we agreed with the French Government to extend the Feasibility Phase through 2017. As well as developing jointly our understanding of the required technologies for future combat air systems, this will further define the scope of the next phase of the UCAS programme which is due to begin in late 2017 and will develop two full-scale UCAS demonstrators by 2025.