Tag: 2016

Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to work with the Palestinian Authority to promote gender equality in the Palestinian territories.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office works closely with other government departments, including the Department for International Development (DFID), and with the Palestinian Authority to enhance gender equality in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. DFID has supported interventions to tackle violence against women and girls by working with the Palestinian security and justice sectors. Under the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programme, we attach great importance to gender sensitivity in project design and implementation. Our Consulate General in Jerusalem host events to celebrate the achievements of Palestinian women, including during last year’s International Day of Women.

01/01/2023
Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what impact assessment his Department has carried out on the effects of reductions in the universal credit work allowance on employees of his Department.

Priti Patel

The impact of the work allowance change cannot be considered in isolation – it is part of a broader package of measures announced at the Summer Budget, such as the increase to the personal tax allowance and introduction of the national living wage, which strengthens incentives to find work and better paid jobs.

01/01/2023

Lord Berkeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what (1) proportion, and (2) volume, of excavated spoil from each of the Thames Tideway Tunnel construction sites will be transported from them by river.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

The Development Consent Order for the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT) requires 100% of the specified materials to be transported by river for construction sites on the Thames foreshore, unless an approved derogation is in place. Derogations could include periods when it is not possible to use river transport due to factors such as river closures, incidents, weather and supply chain failures, and for material not suitable for river transport such as contaminated material that needs specialist disposal or material that is too wet for safe transit without specialist vessels.

The commitment to transportation by river from the construction sites was secured through the River Transport Strategy, which was included in Thames Water’s application for Development Consent for the Tunnel, although it only applies to specific material listed in the Strategy (including excavated material from the main tunnel at main tunnel drive sites and material excavated from the shafts at foreshore sites).

Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (operating as Tideway), the company appointed to design, finance, build and operate the TTT, has estimated the proportion and volume of excavated spoil that will be transported by river from each of the TTT construction foreshore sites (see Table 1 below). The percentages shown for each site demonstrate the anticipated effect of derogations on the amounts of excavated spoil they will be able to transport by river.

However, Tideway and appointed mains works contractors have made commitments to maximise their use of river transport and are therefore working on opportunities to increase the extent of river transport further in liaison with the Local Authorities, Greater London Authority, Port of London Authority and Transport for London.

Table 1 – Excavated specified material percentage and volume by river transport

SITE	% of all excavated specified material transported by river	Volume to be transported by river (m3)
Putney Bridge Foreshore	90%	14,000
Carnwath Road Riverside	90%	353,400
Cremorne Wharf Depot	90%	9,000
Chelsea Embankment	90%	44,400
Kirtling Street	81%	693,600 *
Heathwall Pumping Station	82%	16,300**
Albert Embankment	90%	56,300
Victoria Embankment	90%	27,900
Blackfriars Bridge	90%	72,100
Chambers Wharf	90%	416,100
King Edward Memorial Park	90%	57,500

*excludes shaft and excavated material from ‘other’ minor structures, due to restricted river frontage

**excludes ‘excavated material from ‘other’ minor structures’, due to site constraints

01/01/2023

Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-02-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to respond to the European Parliament’s call for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, and if so, how.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

It is up to individual member states, not the European Parliament, to make national arms export licensing decisions.

The Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application.

We are able to review licences and suspend or revoke as necessary when circumstances require.

The Government is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.

01/01/2023
Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department’s agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.

David Mundell

Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. This would include some senior civil servants, such as ambassadors and chargés d’affaires.

The Government’s view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed. The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.

01/01/2023
Lord Clark of Windermere – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Clark of Windermere on 2016-04-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with National Grid in relation to the erection of pylons to carry power through the Lake District National Park from the proposed nuclear generation station adjacent to Sellafield.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

Government holds regular discussions with National Grid across a range of energy matters. Some of these include factual updates from National Grid on its proposed major electricity transmission projects. When this occurs, Ministers and officials do not provide any views to National Grid due to the role DECC Ministers would play in the determination of any development consent applications.

01/01/2023
Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of a tribunal hearing for a benefits claimant who had been sanctioned for not complying with work search requirements in the last 12 months; how many such tribunals there were in each of the past five years; and what the total cost was of those tribunals in each of the past five years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The information requested is not held centrally.

01/01/2023
Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase public awareness of the role of social workers.

Edward Timpson

Social workers perform some of the hardest roles in society and that is why it is already a graduate profession. Government is continuing to invest in social work education and training, including through the highly successful Step Up to Social Work and Frontline programmes, both of which aim to bring high calibre graduates into child and family social work, and Think Ahead, which offers a new route for graduates and career-changers into adult mental health social work.

Improving the quality and status of child and family ‎social work is a high priority. Higher standards, including through the introduction of a national system of assessment and accreditation will help provide greater assurance that social workers have the necessary knowledge and skills for the demanding work they do. The Government does not, however, have any specific plans to increase public awareness of the role of social workers.

Government does not collect data on the number of cases held by social workers on a weekly basis. The department expects to publish caseload information, for the first time, relating to the year ending 30 September 2016, in February 2017.

01/01/2023
Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how (a) much funding from the public purse has been allocated to and (b) many full-time equivalent staff were employed by (i) UK Visas and Immigration and (ii) the UK Human Trafficking Centre for their work in relation to the National Referral Mechanism in each of year since 2009-10.

Sarah Newton

Staff in the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit (MSHTU, formally UKHTC), and the Home Office UKVI who engage in work related to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) often undertake additional or different work based on changing priorities. It is therefore not possible to provide figures on the budget and full-time equivalent staff dedicated to the NRM function.

01/01/2023
Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to prepare for the outcome of the EU referendum.

Anna Soubry

The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in the United Kingdom – so we get a better deal for our country and secure our future. We are confident that the right agreement can be reached.

01/01/2023