The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-09-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government at what stage of the process of leaving the EU they will invoke the Vienna Accord on the denunciation of treaties.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Treaty on the European Union contains provision for withdrawal in Article 50. It is this process which accordingly applies and has to be followed for the United Kingdom to leave the EU in accordance with international law.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 21876, what progress her Department has made on its review of the effect of the introduction of tribunal fees; and if she will issue a fixed date for the publication of that review.
Sir Oliver Heald
The review is making good progress and I expect to announce its conclusions in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the statement in his Department’s press release of 1 November 2011, entitled Iain Duncan Smith sets out next steps for moving claimants onto universal credit, on what dates since 1 November 2011 his Department has calculated the proportion of new technology required to deliver universal credit which is complete; and what that proportion was on each of those dates.
Priti Patel
I refer my Rt. Hon. Member to the answer I gave on the 11 January 2016 UIN21335
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2016 to Question 23428, how many claimants of employment and support allowance who had a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease were removed from the work-related activity group because they had died.
Priti Patel
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that information given to patients or donors explaining research to which they have consented on genome editing in human embryos by means of CRISPR-Cas9 will be publicly available.
George Freeman
The Department has not had any discussions with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) after its authorisation of a licence for gene editing of human embryos by means of CRISPR-Cas9 about the process of ethical approval being granted for such a licence.
The Francis Crick Institute, which made the licence application to the HFEA, is intending to place copies of the information given to patients or donors explaining this research on its website, once the final draft has been agreed.
There is no statutory requirement for ethical approval to be in place before an HFEA research licence can be granted. However, the HFEA has developed guidance for its licensing committee that such approval should be in place before a licence is granted and research is allowed to proceed.
In 2012, none of the three licences granted had ethical approval in place and a condition was therefore placed on each licence that licensed research could not proceed until such approval was in place. In 2013, five research licences were granted, all of which had ethical approval in place. In 2014, seven licences were granted, all of which had ethical approval in place. In 2015, one of the 15 licences granted did not have ethical approval in place and a condition was therefore placed on the licence that licensed research could not proceed until such approval was in place.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Since 2012 we have provided £500 per pupil funding to secondary schools for year 7 pupils who did not meet the expected standard in reading or mathematics at primary school. This funding enables schools to deliver additional support, such as individual tuition or intensive support in small groups, for those pupils that most need it.
It is not possible to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level, as the first cohort of pupils to benefit from this funding in 2012 will now be in year 10 and have not yet entered GCSEs.
We provide advice and guidance to schools on how they should use their funding and have published guidance on literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies which schools can consult when making decisions on how to spend their funding. Schools must publish details of how they spend their year 7 catch-up premium funding on the school website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-05-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding reports of gunfire by Israeli forces at farmers trying to access their land near the border east of Khan Younes.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
While we have not made any representations to the Israeli authorities on this specific issue, we have an ongoing dialogue with the Israeli authorities about the Israeli Defence Forces use of live fire.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 13 June (HL433), when they expect the quality assurance of the Home Office’s Case Information Database data relating to sexuality-based asylum claims to be completed, and whether they plan routinely to record asylum claims based on, or relating to, gender identity issues in a way that can be easily aggregated.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The process of quality assuring the data held on the Home Office’s Case Information Database relating to sexuality based asylum claims continues to be undertaken by the Home Office. We are currently looking at ways to expedite this process. There are no current plans to record information where the detail of the asylum claim basis relates to gender identity issues on Home Office databases.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-09-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the findings and recommendations in the report published in June by the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, The Darkest Moment: The Crackdown on Human Rights in China 2013–2016.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
My officials and I have read the report with interest. Although the Government was not asked to give evidence to it and the views stated within it do not reflect Government policy, there is much in the report with which we agree. We are already pursuing an approach consistent with many of the recommendations. For example my ministerial colleagues and I regularly raise concerns about the crackdown on human rights lawyers, repressive legislation, and challenges to freedom of religion or belief. Equally, there are parts of the report which require further investigation to substantiate the claims made, for instance about organ harvesting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with commercial banks and other providers of Radio Frequency Identification-enabled cards on (a) incidents of contactless card fraud and (b) prevention of such fraud.
Margot James
Since his appointment, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has had no discussions with commercial banks and other providers of RFID-enabled cards about incidents of contactless card fraud or their prevention.