Tag: 2016

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 18 December (HL4511), whether the Queen Elizabeth class will always deploy with its fully integrated defence capability.

    Earl Howe

    The defence capability employed to protect the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers will be dependent on a variety of factors such as, but not limited to, the specific task, whether it is a national or coalition commitment, threat levels and theatre of operations.

  • Lord Boateng – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Boateng – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Boateng on 2016-01-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of recent civil disturbances in Burundi on livelihoods and resilience and the role of the African Union and the East African Community in providing peace, reconciliation and economic growth in Burundi.

    Earl of Courtown

    The UK is deeply concerned by the situation in Burundi. The recent civil disturbances have led to the flight of over 234,000 refugees to neighbouring countries. There are an additional 15,000 internally displaced people. The UN reports that 36 per cent of houses are now food insecure, with 7 per cent severely food insecure. This has a devastating impact on the livelihoods of those individuals and the resilience of those left behind to further confrontation and economic hardship.

    The East African Community (EAC) has mandated Uganda to facilitate a dialogue between the various parties in Burundi. Leadership from the EAC is important in securing peace and reconciliation. The UK strongly supports the EAC-led dialogue but insufficient progress has been made so far. The parties met for the first time on 28 December, but the Government of Burundi is refusing to engage with the opposition so no date can be set for a second round of talks. We continue to press the Government of Burundi to engage fully in talks.

    The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), visited Burundi in mid-December 2015 where he pressed the government to engage in inclusive dialogue to end the violence. He again pressed the Foreign Minister for action when they met at the recent African Union (AU) Summit. The summit also provided an opportunity to lobby a range of AU members on the importance of regional leadership in resolving the situation in Burundi. Until there is peace and reconciliation, there will be limited opportunity to successfully support economic growth in Burundi, which has collapsed since the start of the crisis.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) conducted on the potential effect of a UK withdrawal from the EU on (a) relationships between his Department and its counterparts in other EU member states and (b) the effectiveness of pan-European justice mechanisms; and what assessment his Department has made of the results of that research.

    Dominic Raab

    On 19 February, the Prime Minister set out the Government position on remaining in the European Union.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if she has made an assessment of the effect of the group calling itself the new IRA on the security situation in Northern Ireland.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    The threat from Northern Ireland related terrorism in Northern Ireland is considered to be SEVERE. This means an attack is highly likely.

    The so-called new IRA is one of a small number of dissident republican groupings that aspire to undermine Northern Ireland’s democratic institutions through the use of violence. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and MI5 work tirelessly to limit the threat that these groupings pose.

    This Government will always give its fullest possible backing to the PSNI and other agencies who do such an effective job in keeping people in Northern Ireland safe and secure. Under this Government there will be no let-up in our efforts to ensure that terrorism does not succeed.

    I report regularly to the House on the threat from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism. The most recent is available at:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2015-12-15/HCWS394/

    “

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of junior doctors who work at weekends; and if his Department will provide data on the number of (a) weekends and (b) part weekends worked in each month by junior doctors.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department does not routinely collect this information. However NHS Employers conducted a survey of employers in January 2016, which asked what percentage of junior doctors worked 1 in 4 weekends or more frequently. The data returned reflected a snapshot (rather than the last six months).

    Based on a response from 14 employers in England, 40% worked more frequently than 1 in 4 Saturdays.

    Our manifesto commitment, which was translated into the mandate that shaped the contract negotiation, was for the National Health Service to standardise urgent and emergency care, it is not about elective care. It is true that some hospitals do elective work at weekends. That is part of the trust’s local decision-making and it is right for the hospital to make that decision.

  • Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients are registered at each GP surgery in Manchester, Withington constituency; what the capacity of each of those surgeries is; and how many of those surgeries are oversubscribed.

    Alistair Burt

    These data are not collected centrally.

    Data on numbers of patients registered with general practitioner (GP) practices is published quarterly by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) in a report entitled ‘Number of Patients Registered at a GP Practice’. The latest available version is April 2016 and is available from the HSCIC website at:

    http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB20480

    “

  • Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2016-07-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the authority of Nottinghamshire Police to categorise wolf-whistling as a hate crime rather than a public nuisance; and whether they consider that such a decision may derogate from the seriousness of classification of hate crime.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The five strands of monitored hate crime (race, religion, sexual orientation transgender identity and disability) are the minimum categories that police officers and staff are ex-pected to record. There are, however, many other groups in society who have been targeted with hostility and crime. Any specific incidents of Hate Crime are an operational matter for the police.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that UK-based science research teams can employ foreign researchers without restriction.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Immigration reforms since 2010 have explicitly taken account of the needs of scientists and researchers. The Government has consistently enhanced the treatment of scientists and science in the immigration system.

    In Tier 2, the skilled work route for non-EEA nationals, PhD-level occupations have higher priority when allocating places within the annual limit. These occupations are also exempted from the £35,000 earnings threshold for settlement applications, and we have relaxed the Resident Labour Market Test to allow the best candidate to be appointed, regardless of nationality.

    We have introduced the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route for world leaders in science, engineering, humanities, the arts and digital technology.

    The Tier 5 (Temporary Work) route contains further provisions which enable sponsored researchers to participate in international research collaborations

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the latest assessment available to the Department of Health or NHS England of the annual loss of bed days to the NHS owing to the inability to discharge people from acute hospitals who do not need clinically to be occupying a bed in those hospitals; what is the estimated cost of such occupancy; and what assessment has been made of the cost-effectiveness of the NHS purchasing accommodation directly in nursing or residential care homes for such patients when a local authority is unable to do so.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The latest figures show that between April and October 2015, there were 1,041,587 delayed transfer of care. The Department has made no formal estimate of the costs of delayed discharge to the National Health Service or of the cost-effectiveness of the NHS purchasing accommodation directly in nursing or residential care homes for such patients when a local authority is unable to do so.

    It is recognised that such delayed discharges do use resource which could be deployed elsewhere, and all parts of the NHS and those with responsibility outside it, are continually looking for ways in which to reduce the number of delays.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to develop agriculture education links with countries that would benefit from UK expertise.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The Department for International Development has supported Partnership Projects covering agriculture and veterinary sciences, across 17 developing countries linking UK Universities and developing country institutions. We have funded research programmes for collaborative projects between UK researchers and partners in Africa and Asia at postgraduate level.