Tag: 2016

  • Lord Hamilton of Epsom – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hamilton of Epsom – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hamilton of Epsom on 2016-02-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they contribute to the EU programme of assistance to the Palestinians; what is the gross annual amount of funding for that programme, and what percentage of that funding the UK’s contribution, if any, represents; and what percentage of that programme’s funding is provided to the Palestinian Education Authority.

    Baroness Verma

    The EU is a major donor to both the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, providing over €290 million in 2016 to the Palestinian people, including the refugees who live outside Occupied Palestinian Territories in the camps of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The UK contributes to the EU budget as a whole, not individual instruments within it. The UK’s share on EU expenditure in EU instruments is approximately 14.5%. The EU funding to the Palestinian Authority is through the PEGASE mechanism, providing the salaries for vetted civil servants only.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the average amount of unused food thrown away by households in the last 12 months.

    Rory Stewart

    Through the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the Government continues to work with the grocery sector to reduce household food waste. The Love Food Hate Waste programme helps UK households to reduce food waste and save money through awareness raising and consumer advice. There has been a 15% (1.3 million tonnes) reduction in household food waste between 2007 and 2012.

    WRAP launched Courtauld 2025 on 15 March, which builds on the progress we have already made. This new agreement includes a target to reduce food and drink waste arising in the UK by 20% by 2025 (calculated as a relative reduction per head of population).

    For the average household, the price of avoidable food and drink waste is £470 per year. For the average household with children, the cost of avoidable food and drink waste is £700 per year.

    The total amount of food thrown away by the average household is 260 kg per year. 160 kg of this is avoidable waste. For the average household with children, this figure rises to 390 kg per year, including 240 kg of avoidable food waste.

    These are the latest available figures, applying to 2012. WRAP aims to publish updated figures for household food waste later this year.

  • 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 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects the decision on the business case for Liaison and Diversion services to be announced by HM Treasury.

    Alistair Burt

    Liaison and Diversion services are currently provided to over 50% of the population of England. Full roll out by 2020/21, as recommended by the “Five Year Forward View for Mental Health” report published in February 2016, is subject to a decision from HM Treasury on the full business case. A formal response is expected from HM Treasury in the next few days and an announcement will be made shortly thereafter.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK aid for the conflict in Yemen benefits its intended recipients; and what proportion of the £85 million of aid for Yemen committed in the last year has been used to support children.

    Sir Desmond Swayne

    The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We work with trusted and impartial partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places. We regularly monitor and review our programmes and have an independent monitoring programme to provide independent assurance on what we are delivering.

    In 2015/16 DFID provided the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with £6 million, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) with over £21 million and Save the Children with over £3 million. Amongst other activities, our funding helped treat over 150,000 children under 5 with severe acute malnutrition and screen 140,000 children for childhood infections. It also helped support and refer displaced children and enabled 3,500 refugee children and Yemeni children from their host communities to resume education. DFID has also supported education in Yemen through the Social Fund for Development (SFD). Since 2010, more than 240,000 children have attended schools supported by SFD.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the Skills Funding Agency proposals to reduce 16-18 apprenticeship funding on the number of 16-18 apprenticeships delivered.

    Robert Halfon

    The introduction of the levy will mean that many more employers will offer many more apprenticeships opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds than they would have otherwise done. Our funding proposals will introduce a simpler pricing system with a maximum cost for each type of apprenticeship, regardless of age or location.

    Our proposals for how apprenticeships will be paid for in England in the future include incentives for taking on 16-18 year old apprentices – funding 100 per cent of apprenticeship training costs for small employers (with fewer than 50 staff) that don’t pay the levy when they employ 16-18 year old apprentices; and providing a £1,000 cash payment to both the employer and training provider to help with the extra costs of supporting apprentices in this age group.

    As a result of the levy we will be investing £2.5 billion in apprenticeships; that’s double what was spent on apprenticeships in 2010-11.

    Employers will have an incentive to employ apprentices to maximise the use of their levy funds and they will have control over funding for apprenticeships training. The generous co-investment rate will help them if they want to take on more apprentices than covered by their levy funds.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications his Department has received for modifications and adapted housing in each year from 2000 to date; and whether data on such applications is available before 2000 and to what date.

    Mark Lancaster

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 15 September 2016 to Questions 45414 and 45461.

  • Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance has been issued to police forces on monitoring and recording Gypsy and Traveller status as separate ethnic categories.

    Mike Penning

    The use of Census categories for ethnicity is assessed each year as part of the Home Office’s process of agreeing each year’s Annual Data Requirement (ADR) of mandatory collections of statistical data from the police. This process includes consideration of the need, use, burden and data quality issues for each data collection. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) have previously advised against the transition to the new Census categories due to the significant burden that this would place on forces to change IT systems and processes.

    The ADR collections currently use the Census 2001 ethnicity framework, and there are no plans at present to move to the Census 2011 framework, which would add a separate category of ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’.

    The guidance given to police forces on providing data to the Home Office is based on the Census 2001 ethnicity framework. It is, however, a decision for individual forces as to how they monitor and record ethnicity data for their own purposes.

  • Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Clwyd on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will establish an independent inquiry into the cases of 792 miners in Wales who were arrested during the miners’ strike in 1984.

    Mike Penning

    There are no plans to establish an independent inquiry into the cases of 792 miners in Wales who were arrested during the miners’ strike in 1984.

  • Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Browne of Belmont – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2016-02-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken over the past five years to disrupt and intercept the supply of illicit drugs into UK prisons.

    Lord Faulks

    Prisons in England and Wales take a zero tolerance approach to illicit drugs. We have a comprehensive range of security measures and searching techniques in place to detect drugs, and to prevent smuggling into prisons. We are about to pilot the use of body scanners to reveal drugs concealed within the body, we have introduced specific dog training to allow dogs to detect new psychoactive substances (NPS) and will introduce widespread drug testing of prisoners for NPS as part of the national mandatory drug testing programme in April 2016. We have also made it illegal to smuggle NPS into prisons. We are working with the Department of Health and others to improve our understanding of the risks NPS present for offenders and to provide appropriate information, guidance and support to offenders and those working with them in prison. Anyone caught with any drugs in prison will be severely dealt with. Punishments available include closed visits, loss of privileges and up to 42 days added to their time in custody. Where prisoners are caught with controlled drugs, we will work with the police to consider prosecution and a further sentence.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the expected cost is of replacement of the Emergency Services Network in Greater Manchester; and how that project is to be funded.

    Mike Penning

    The Emergency Services Network (ESN) transition is being managed regionally. Greater Manchester is part of the North-West Region, incorporating North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside Fire & Rescue Services, as well as Cheshire Constabulary, Cumbria Constabulary, Greater Manchester Police, Lancashire Constabulary and Merseyside Police. The Core costs of operating the network are initially borne by the Home Office, but shared by the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of Health, Welsh and Scottish Governments. The Non-core costs of connecting to the network and utilising it will be borne by local Emergency Services organisations and exact costs in Greater Manchester will be dependent upon take up of device and connection numbers to meet local operational needs. Taken together, the Core and Non-core costs of ESN are projected to cost £5 billion over the 15 year operating life of the network, saving in the region of £3 billion on the costs of the current Airwave service.