The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel from each branch of the armed forces took part in cold weather training in each of the last six years.
Penny Mordaunt
The UK Armed Forces conduct a wide range of training to operate in cold weather environments. Information on the full range of activities is not held centrally in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which EU (a) legislative and (b) other proposals his Department is leading negotiations on for the Government in the Council of the EU.
Mr David Gauke
HM Treasury is responsible for measures relating to the Economic and Financial Affairs Council. This includes economic policy, taxation issues, financial markets and capital movements, the EU budget, economic relations with countries outside the EU, and coordination of EU positions for international meetings such as the G20, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.
The Department provides Explanatory Memoranda to Parliament on any proposals defined by the terms of reference of the parliamentary EU scrutiny committees, which can be found online.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-09-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that all children complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education by 2020.
James Wharton
The UK Government is committed to ensuring all children are able to complete a full cycle of quality education. Between 2011 and 2015 DFID supported over 11 million children into primary and lower secondary school (7.5 million children in countries considered fragile), and training 380,000 teachers through our multilateral partners. In 2015, the UK again committed to support a further 11 million children in the poorest countries to gain a decent education by 2020.
DFID is also supporting up to one million of the world’s poorest girls through DFID’s Girls Education Challenge (GEC). In July, DFID co-hosted the first, hugely successful Girls’ Education Forum in London and announced a further £100 million through the GEC to continue this support and help an additional 175,000 of the poorest, most marginalised adolescent girls in the world to get a decent education.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an estimate of the collective cost to small and medium-sized enterprises to recover overdue payments in each of the last five years.
Anna Soubry
We know that the collective cost of late payment has been, and remains, a significant burden for small and medium sized businesses. Small businesses spend too much valuable time and resource chasing late payments, which impacts on their ability to invest in growth.
The Department does not hold the information required to make an estimate of the collective cost to small and medium-sized businesses to recover overdue payments in each of the last five years. As late payment affects so many different types of business in different ways, no single survey gives a full picture of the impact of late payment on small and medium-sized businesses. The three sources that we look to as an indicator of late payment are the SME finance monitor, the regular BACs survey and Experian’s late payment index.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his US counterpart on the lease extension of the military base on Diego Garcia.
James Duddridge
We have been clear that we want to see US presence continue. However, the Government has not yet held discussions with the US about continuing the agreement relating to Diego Garcia.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord McKenzie of Luton on 2016-03-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve health and safety risk management skills in the construction sector.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Government’s role in Health and Safety is to set the framework in which companies have to operate. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 sets out general duties that employers owe to their employees. This is supplemented by more tailored regulations embodying the requirement to assess risks and identify measures required to deal with them. These include the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015, which integrate health and safety into the management of construction projects throughout the entire supply chain.
In addition to the general framework for health and safety law, the Health and Safety Executive regulates health and safety in hazardous industries, including construction, through the use of permissioning regimes. These regimes include those set out in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
Safety requirements for the sector are established by construction employers and representative bodies. Many of the requirements are embedded in qualifications, training courses and basic health and safety tests required by the sector to obtain skills cards, such as the Construction Skills Certification Scheme. Courses such as the Site Supervisors’ Safety Training Scheme are endorsed by Build UK as the standard training for all supervisors working on member sites.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-04-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of officials of his Department resigned in each of the last six years.
Mike Penning
The table below sets out a) the number of and b) proportion of Ministry of Justice staff who have resigned over the past six years.
|
Calendar Year |
Total No. Of Resignations |
Proportion |
|
2010 |
2128 |
3% |
|
2011 |
1942 |
3% |
|
2012 |
1788 |
3% |
|
2013 |
1784 |
3% |
|
2014 |
2213 |
3% |
|
2015 |
2517 |
4% |
The information includes staff within Ministry of Justice Headquarters, National Offender Management Service, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service, Office of the Public Guardian and Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. Scotland Office and Wales Office staff are in scope for the years 2010-2011, UK Supreme Court staff are in scope for the years 2011-2012 and staff within the Legal Aid Agency are included from 2013.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s definition is of a cyber act of war.
Penny Mordaunt
There is no set definition for an act of war, cyber or otherwise.
An "act of war" and "armed conflict" are not defined within the Geneva Conventions. It is a matter of interpretation as to whether the threshold (within the context of surrounding circumstances) between a skirmish and a state of armed conflict has been crossed. Most cyber activity is criminal in nature. A key requirement to determining if there is an armed conflict taking place would be the deliberate intervention of members of a state’s armed forces.
In determining if ‘cyber’ activity constitutes an armed attack, the UK view is that cyber-attacks can be considered as armed attacks if their consequences are essentially the same as those of a conventional kinetic attack. For example, theft of intellectual property would generally be considered to be a criminal act. However, if cyber-activity was performed on a scale which had sufficiently serious consequences for a developed economy, many States – including the UK – would likely regard this as an "armed attack".
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what EU directives related to his Department’s responsibilities are awaiting transposition into UK law.
Mr Mark Francois
The following Directives are awaiting transposition by DCLG into UK law:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-09-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what permissions have been sought by (a) NATO, (b) the US and (c) any other country to fly remotely piloted aircraft systems in UK airspace in the last two years.
Mr John Hayes
The Secretary of State for Transport has not received any requests for such permissions in the last two years.