Tag: 2016

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of the coal burnt in UK coal-fired power stations originated in Russia in the first nine months of 2015.

    Andrea Leadsom

    DECC does not hold figures on the proportion of coal burnt in UK coal-fired power stations, by country of origin. However, from January to September 2015, 16,784 thousand tonnes of steam coal (mainly used by coal-fired power stations) were imported into the UK, while coal used for electricity generation was 22,512 thousand tonnes during the same period.

    The USA provided 3,231 thousand tonnes of steam coal imports, 19% of all steam coal imports, while Russia provided 7,237 thousand tonnes (43%)

    Source:

    Energy Trends tables 2.1 and 2.4, available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solid-fuels-and-derived-gases-section-2-energy-trends

    “

  • Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville on 2016-03-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people are in need of affordable homes and whether those homes are for rent or to buy.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Department does not publish forecasts of affordable housing need.

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his European partners about asylum for Yazidi women who were enslaved by Daesh to allow them to access medical and psychological support.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We regularly discuss the plight of Yazidi women and girls in Iraq and Syria with our European partners. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) discussed the humanitarian implications of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Syria with members of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in December 2015.

    The UK is committed to supporting the victims of Daesh’s brutality. In Syria and the wider region, the Department for International Development (DFID) is funding specialised services for survivors and those at risk of gender-based violence. This includes safe spaces, psychosocial support, cash assistance and reproductive healthcare. In Iraq, DFID has deployed two experts to work with the UN to improve the humanitarian response to sexual and gender-based violence.

    Over the course of this Parliament we are resettling 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees to the UK. Resettlement is only one strand of our efforts in the region. It is complemented by the UK’s significant humanitarian aid programme and diplomatic efforts to end the conflicts. We believe that this approach is the most effective way to ensure that the UK’s help has the greatest impact for those who remain in the region. To date, we have pledged over £2.3 billion of humanitarian assistance in response to the Syria crisis, and provided an additional £79.5 million to Iraq to help support the most vulnerable.

  • 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 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department plans to spend on walking in each year from 2016 to 2021.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department’s spending on walking programmes is stated in the table below.

    Programme

    2016/17

    2017/18

    2018/19

    2019/20

    2020/21

    Total

    Walking

    £97.0m

    £89.8m

    £69.3m

    £44.5m

    £23.3m

    £323.9m

    The totals shown above include the Department’s Sustainable Transport Transition Year and Access Fund plus spending by local bodies on walking projects using sums from within current Local Growth Fund and Integrated Transport Block allocations. Not all of the Local Growth Fund is currently allocated, so as future allocations of the Local Growth Fund are made to Local Enterprise Partnerships, the amount supporting walking projects through to 2020/21 is likely to rise.

    In addition to the above, from within the record £6 billion allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, this funding can help maintain footways cycleways. Further, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding will be based on footway and cycleway lengths.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2016 to Question 40362, (a) for what reason the Government has concentrated gamma interferon testing outside the high risk areas and (b) what assessment she has made of the effect of the reduced number of gamma interferon tests in high risk areas on the incidence and spread of bovine TB.

    George Eustice

    Supplementary interferon gamma blood testing improves the detection of infected cattle in TB affected herds in the Low Risk and Edge Areas of England reducing the risk of TB taking hold in parts of the country where the disease is not yet endemic.

    Information published by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on gov.uk shows more supplementary interferon gamma tests in the High Risk Area in each of the years 2012 to 2015 than in 2009. We continue to explore options for wider deployment of this test in the High Risk Area.

    www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532709/ATIC0882.pdf

    “

  • Lord Clement-Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Clement-Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Clement-Jones on 2016-09-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role the legal domestic ivory market in the UK has in facilitating illegal trade in ivory.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    A number of proposals on elephant and ivory related issues will be discussed at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to be held in South Africa between 24 September 2016 and 5 October 2016. This will include discussions on the existing global ban on the trade in ivory, which the UK is committed to maintaining, and the role of domestic ivory markets in illegal trade. Officials have engaged in substantial discussions with counterparts from other EU Member States on these and other issues over several months in formulating the EU and Member State position at the CITES Conference. The UK will continue to play a full role in these discussions.

    The then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, Rory Stewart, discussed the issue of the closure of domestic ivory markets with the Government of the United States (US) during a trip earlier this year. In addition officials in Defra are in regular contact with their US counterparts and have discussed the US measures on a number of occasions.

    The Government has been actively exploring options with relevant parties about how to implement the UK Government’s manifesto commitment to press for a total ban on ivory sales and the steps to be taken in respect of the UK’s ivory market. On 21 September 2016 the Secretary of State announced plans for a ban on sales of items containing ivory dated between 1947 and the present day, putting UK rules on ivory sales among the world’s toughest.

    The Government will consult on plans for the ban early next year, seeking views from conservationists, traders and other relevant parties to ensure clear rules and guidance for those operating within the law, while cracking down on illegal sales. This will complement the existing UK ban on trade in raw ivory tusks. Trade in raw tusks presents the greatest risk of poached ivory entering the legal market.

    TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring organisation, has recently published its independent report – A Rapid Survey of the UK ivory market. Although not an exact comparison with a survey conducted in 2004, TRAFFIC’s survey found the number of market stalls offering ivory for sale had declined by approximately two-thirds and the number of items offered for sale had halved. No new or raw ivory was seen in any of the physical market outlets or online platforms— only one ivory item seen for sale was reportedly from after the legal cut-off (1947) for antique ivory being sold without CITES documentation within the EU. Ivory is a key UK wildlife crime priority with an enforcement action plan in place to tackle risk. For example, UK Border Force through Operation Quiver has in particular successfully targeted ivory sent through postal systems.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what role the UK Commission for Employment and Skills will have in 2016 in monitoring or contributing to the programmes to increase the number of apprenticeships and traineeships set out in his Department’s document, English Apprenticeships: Our 2020 Vision, published in December 2015.

    Nick Boles

    UKCES’s main support for the Department in respect of English Apprenticeships in 2016 is its ongoing work to map the new apprenticeship standards against frameworks and Standard Occupational Classification codes to help identify the remaining gaps in standards coverage.

    As announced in the 2015 Spending Review, in order to prioritise funding to allow the core adult skills participation budgets to be protected in cash terms, Whitehall Departments will be withdrawing their funding for UKCES during 2016-17. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is working with UKCES and other stakeholders to manage the implications of this decision.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, (a) how many people applied for disabled facilities grants, (b) how many such applications were successful and (c) what the average grant award was in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Department for Communities and Local Government does not collect information on the number of people who applied for a Disabled Facilities Grant or the number of successful applicants. Information on the number of grants completed and the average cost per grant for the years 2009-10 to 2014-15 is provided in the table below.

    2009-10

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Number of grants completed

    44,102

    45,383

    43,986

    36,874

    42,586

    33,922

    Average grants awarded

    £3,356

    £3,724

    £4,547

    £5,966

    £4,227

    £5,453

    The above data is provided by local housing authorities in their annual Logasnet returns. LOGASnet is the Department of Communities and Local Government’s web-based data capture and payments system. The data is not audited by DCLG.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to promote trade opportunities for UK business in high-growth markets.

    Anna Soubry

    I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Solihull (Julian Knight) on 25 February 2016 to Question 26214.

    “

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he, his Ministers or his officials have had with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Taiwan’s intention to join that bank; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    Neither I, other Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers, nor my officials have discussed Taiwan’s intention to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with representatives of that Bank.