Tag: 2016

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-03-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made in providing safe abortion for women who are raped in conflict situations.

    Baroness Verma

    Women and girls raped in conflict situations need access to a comprehensive range of sexual and reproductive health services. The UK funds partners to deliver such services. For example, we are working with agencies such as UNFPA to provide essential sexual and reproductive health care within our humanitarian responses, including in Ukraine and Syria. We encourage other donors and partner agencies to increase provision of sexual and reproductive health services including full implementation of the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP). These may include access to safe abortion services as set out in our policy paper on safe and unsafe abortion.

    The Secretary of State made a commitment at the UN General Assembly in 2015 that in humanitarian crises, DFID calls for proposals will require the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls to be considered. We are working with our partners to operationalise this commitment.

  • Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of claims that women refugees who are in the UK (1) are not guaranteed female interviewers and interpreters who have been trained in sexual violence and trauma, (2) are not always provided with childcare during interviews, and (3) are not given adequate information about their rights.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    When an application for asylum is lodged, all asylum seekers are provided with information, in a range of languages, about the asylum process including appeal rights and other rights and responsibilities. In addition this leaflet, entitled ‘Information about your asylum application’, also includes details of where asylum seekers can obtain information about local legal advisers and local and national voluntary sector organisations who can provide assistance. For instance Asylum Help (part of Migrant Help), is funded by the Home Office and have a presence at many of the initial accommodation sites across the UK as well as providing a multi lingual website and freephone service offering confidential and impartial advice and guidance to adult asylum seekers and their dependants.

    Since April 2015, female asylum seekers are guaranteed a female interviewer at their substantive asylum interview. In addition we also provide female interpreters where operationally possible. All asylum interview officers and decision makers receive training on gender issues during their initial training, this includes information about dealing sensitively with sexual trauma and violence.

    Childcare facilities are currently provided in our Cardiff, Leeds and Solihull interview suites, with similar provisions soon to be made available in Glasgow and Liverpool. We are working towards tendering a national childcare contract to enable facilities to be made available in all our asylum casework hubs.

  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies focuses on the most marginalised children including girls and children with disabilities.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 23rd May to Question number 37287.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve the performance of multi-academy trusts in which disadvantaged pupils perform below the national average for attainment and improvement.

    Edward Timpson

    Academies working together in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) are able to share resources and expertise to support disadvantaged pupils. The department’s analysis shows, as does that of the Sutton Trust, that there are MATs that can perform significantly above average despite high percentages of their pupils being disadvantaged.

    We remain committed to achieving educational excellence everywhere and where there is underperformance, the academy system enables us to take swift action to tackle it. In addition, we are targeting £2.5 billion a year of pupil premium funding to support the most disadvantaged pupils.

  • Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to amending the Annual Data Requirement to replace the 16+1 ethnicity code based on the 2001 census with the 2011 census ethnicity category 18+1, to include Gypsies and Irish Travellers.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The ethnicity categories used for data collections are assessed as part of the Home Office’s process of agreeing the Annual Data Requirement (ADR). This is the list of mandatory data collections required from the police.

    This process includes consultation with a range of stakeholders on the requirements for each data collection, together with consideration of the burdens involved in the collection (e.g. IT costs of implementation for police forces), and the likely quality of the data.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that all financial investment pledged for equal access to quality education at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference will be backed by the necessary political will and policy changes.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4th February, we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.

    At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 18101, at what stage he plans to be able to predict the geographical distribution of funding for cycling outside of London and the eight cycling ambition cities; and what steps he is taking to identify that geographical distribution.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Due to the inclusion of devolved funding when reporting on overall cycling expenditure, spend is usually reported in terms of regions.

    Currently, spend on cycling is £6 per head across England compared to £2 per head in 2010, with spend of £10 in London and the eight Cycle Ambition Cities. Further details of funding programmes will be set out in the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy to be published in summer 2016.

    In the meantime, where funding is already allocated then the geographic distribution is known.

    Where funding has been subject to formula then the geographic distribution will be known at the point the formula weightings are determined.

    Where funding is allocated by competition, then the geographic distribution will be known at the point the results of the competition are announced.

    Where funding is devolved, then its geographic distribution is a matter for the relevant local body.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-03-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is their assessment that 82 per cent of the population of Yemen have humanitarian needs; and what action they are taking to prevent deaths from hunger and disease in that country.

    Baroness Verma

    The United Nations report that 21.2 million people – or 82 per cent of the population – require some kind of humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs or protect their fundamental rights. The UK government uses this UN report as one of its primary data sources.

    The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. The UK is funding the World Food Programme, who are supporting over 580,000 beneficiaries with food assistance. The UK has also provided £21.7 million this financial year to UNICEF, who are providing health and nutrition services through hospitals and mobile clinics.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that employers accord degree apprenticeships the same esteem as traditional university degrees.

    Nick Boles

    The Government wants young people to have the opportunity to access high quality degree level training, whether through a full-time undergraduate route or a world-class degree apprenticeship.

    Both traditional degrees and new degree apprenticeships meet the high quality criteria expected of a higher education qualification. Degree Apprenticeships are designed by groups of employers working with higher education institutions, and provide a valuable route for people to obtain a degree-level qualification alongside training for a career, with the prospect of a job from day one

    Degree apprenticeships will feature in the new communications campaign being launched in May, promoting the benefits of apprenticeships to employers and young people.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding has been received from the European Social Fund via the National Offender Management Service Co-Financing Organisation to help employer roadshows at HM Prison (a) Sudbury, (b) Drake Hall and (c) Wayland.

    Andrew Selous

    Money received from the European Social Fund (ESF) by the NOMS Co-financing Programme is published in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts. No ESF funding has been used to finance employer roadshows at Sudbury, Drake Hall and Wayland prisons. Neither has any ESF money been awarded direct to HM Young Offender Institutions Werrington, Feltham or Cookham Wood.

    It is a condition of any award of core ESF funding to the NOMS Co-financing programme that it has to be spent on front line services for offenders (excluding the administration budget. Because of this, a separate application was made under the Technical Assistance grant to fund, among other things, the setting up and running of the Employers’ Forum for Reducing Re-offending (EFRR). The aim of the Technical Assistance grant is to fund services that will support the objectives of the main programme – employability of offenders. The amount spent from the ESF Technical Assistance fund on the EFRR from 2010 to 2015 was £280,403.