Tag: 2016

  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure the economic empowerment of women in the developing world.

    Justine Greening

    The economic empowerment of women is a top priority for my Department. In September 2015 at the UN General Assembly and Post-2015 Summit, the UK and UNWomen hosted the event Transforming Economies: Empowering Women and Girls. The Call to Action launched at this event secured over 150 commitments to action from governments, development institutions, civil society and the private sector. These will all help deliver the Global Goal targets for women’s economic empowerment.

    We support a wide range of programmes to increase women’s opportunities for employment, ownership and control over economic assets and ability to start and run businesses. Since 2011, DFID have helped 2.5m women to improve their land and property rights and 35m women to access financial services.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Leeds North West of 12 January 2016 on meeting hon. Members with constituencies along the River Wharfe.

    Rory Stewart

    The Secretary of State received five letters in January from the hon. Member for Leeds North West about the recent flooding in Leeds. The Secretary of State met him and all Members for Leeds constituencies on 20 January to discuss the flooding in Leeds, as well as flood defences on the nearby River Aire (to which the River Wharfe is a tributary). The Secretary of State will be responding to the specific points raised by the hon. Member for Leeds North West within the next week. In the meantime, I can confirm that I am happy to meet MPs with constituencies along the River Wharfe

  • Lucy Allan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lucy Allan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Allan on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle cyber harassment.

    Karen Bradley

    Legislation is in place to deal with internet trolls, cyber-stalking and cyber harassment, and perpetrators of grossly offensive, obscene or menacing behaviour. Through the Criminal Justice Act 2015, we have strengthened two communications offences which can be used to prosecute misuse of social media: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, giving the police longer to investigate either offence, and increasing the maximum penalty for the former to two years imprisonment.

    Through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, we have brought together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups to work in partnership to help keep children and young people safe online.

  • Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she is taking to ensure that farmers receive fair pricing for their dairy produce.

    George Eustice

    The £26.2 million aid package we secured from the European Commission has helped to provide some immediate relief. A number of supermarkets have also pledged to pay a premium over and above the current market price.

    Longer term, we are working to develop futures markets in the dairy sector to help farmers manage risk.

    At the most recent council meeting in the EU, the UK supported a package of new measures to try to help the dairy sector recover.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much her Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on infraction proceedings in each of the last 10 years.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    I refer the hon Member to the answer given by my Rt hon Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General today to UIN 36288.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the importance of the Corsellis Brain Collection for promoting research into brain diseases for the treatment of patients in the NHS.

    George Freeman

    The Department has not made any specific assessment of the importance of the collection for promoting research into brain diseases.

    The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. Every effort is being made to ensure as much of the collection as possible is available to researchers and the West London Mental Health Trust has been working with BRAIN UK (an initiative funded by the Medical Research Council which co-ordinates the distribution of tissue across the country) to support this.

    As part of this strategy the Trust has therefore decided to publicise the decision to close the collection and invite requests from appropriate academic departments for tissue relevant to their research and teaching programmes, and to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some 7,500 out of 8,500 specimens have identified destinations as a result of this process, to departments across the United K and in the Netherlands, in Canada and in Hong Kong. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.

    The UK Brain Bank Network, which is funded by Government through the Medical Research Council, has established a national network of UK brain tissue resources (banks) for researchers to access. The Network currently involves 10 brain banks across the UK which now hold over 14,000 well characterised brains.

  • Lyn Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lyn Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lyn Brown on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that the human rights of Turkish people imprisoned as a result of the failed coup in July 2016 are respected; and what reports he has received on the alleged abuse of those prisoners by the Turkish authorities.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The Government condemns unreservedly this failed coup. In the aftermath of the coup attempt we have emphasised the need for Turkey to respect human rights, including press freedom, and the rule of law. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has also raised concerns about reports of ill-treatment in detention. The Turkish Government’s response to the coup attempt should be lawful and proportionate, and undertaken in line with Turkey’s international obligations.

  • Mrs Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Mrs Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what services are being provided to HS2 Ltd by the Maclean Partnership; and what the cost of those services has been to date.

    Andrew Jones

    McLean Partnership have provided two forms of service to date; executive search at a cost of £588,750, and provision of administrative and payroll services for interim staff at a cost of £286,306.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the total amount of time passengers were delayed on rail services from the Sussex coast into London Victoria in 2015.

    Claire Perry

    This data has never been collected, but consideration is being given to how to do so across the network.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24112, if he will make an assessment of responsibility for damage to cultural property in Yemen.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    We remain concerned about any damage to cultural property in Yemen and are aware of reports of alleged damage by actors in the conflict. Yemen and many members of the Saudi-led coalition are parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict and to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. We have raised our concerns regarding protection of cultural property with both the government of Yemen and the Saudi Arabian government.