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Tag: 2016

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people claiming asylum from Yemen have had that claim refused and have subsequently been removed from the UK in each of the last five years; and to which country each of those people have been removed.

    James Brokenshire

    The attached table shows the number of enforced and voluntary departures for nationals of Yemen, who had claimed asylum at some point, in each of the last five years and their destination.

    The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons removed or departed voluntarily from the UK within Immigration Statistics. The data on removals and voluntary departures by destination are available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: October to December 2015, table rv.06 from GOV.UK on the statistics web pages at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 14 of the Queen’s Speech 2016: background briefing notes, if he will define the terms (a) very remotest properties and (b) contributing to the cost of broadband installation in rural areas; and if he will estimate the number of properties in Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency in that category.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Work is ongoing on the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the reasonable cost threshold. The independent telecoms regulator Ofcom will provide technical analysis and recommendations to help inform both of these, as well as identify the premises likely to be within the USO footprint. These are expected to be predominantly in rural areas, but there will also be urban and suburban homes and businesses eligible to request a connection under the USO.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the requirements for the Great Northern and Thameslink services to be Driver Only Operation contained in the Invitation to Tender for the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) Franchise apply to all other services across that franchise; what agreement is in place between GTR and his Department on Driver Only Operation; and if he will place that agreement in the public domain.

    Paul Maynard

    The requirements the Department specified for Driver Only Operation in the Invitation To Tender can be seen in that document on page 74. Govia proposed changes beyond what was specified in the Invitation to Tender in their bid. These were then contractualised in the Franchise Agreement as an obligation for the operator to fulfil. A copy of the Invitation To Tender and redacted Franchise Agreement is available on the DfT website.

  • Henry Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Henry Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations the Government has made to the US Department of Transportation on progress made on authorising Norwegian Air UK Ltd services from Gatwick and other British airports to the US, as permitted by the EU-US Air Transport Agreement in December 2015.

    Mr John Hayes

    The Government made a formal representation on this issue to the US Department of Transportation on 11 February 2016, which is recorded in the US DoT docket DOT-OST-2015-0261. Ministers and officials continue to make representations on this matter as and when opportunities arise.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 December 2015 to Question 19474, in what circumstances her Department plans to recompense spousal visa applicants whose application is not determined within the eight-week postal service standard.

    James Brokenshire

    Generally, the Home Office will not recompense a customer whose spousal application is not considered within the eight week postal service standard.

    The Home Office aims to process all straightforward applications, that is those that have complied with the application process including provision of mandatory information, evidence and biometrics, within eight weeks of receipt.

    There are a variety of reasons why a spousal application may take longer than the publicised service standard. As such the Home Office service standard reflects that and does not allow for all cases to be decided within that publicised standard.

    If the Home Office cannot make a decision within the service standard, the Home Office will write to customers to inform them of the next steps and when they are likely to receive a decision.

    It is open to a customer to submit a complaint if their application is not considered within the service standard. These claims are considered on an ex-gratia basis under the complaints procedure. Any compensation would be handled based on individual customers’ exceptional circumstances, and as such these are considered on a case-by-case basis.

  • Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government has taken to increase the number of BAME (a) executive and (b) non-executive staff of (i) NHS trusts, (ii) clinical commissioning groups and (iii) related arms length bodies since 2012.

    Jane Ellison

    In 2014, NHS England, in partnership with the National Health Service and arm’s length bodies, developed a Workforce Race Equality Standard which requires NHS organisations to demonstrate progress against a number of indicators of workforce race equality, including a specific indicator to address the low levels of Black and Minority Ethnic representation at Board level.

    Since April 2015, the Standard has been included in the NHS contract for providers, and it will feature in the new assessment framework for clinical commissioning groups for 2016/17. The Standard has also been included in the Care Quality Commission’s inspections of provider organisations.

    In addition to supporting the implementation of the Standard, the arm’s length bodies are also applying it to their own workforces. Further information on the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard can be found at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/gov/equality-hub/equality-standard/

    The Department keeps diversity in focus throughout the appointments process for non-executives of arm’s length bodies. The Department’s “Non-Executive Appointments Diversity Action Plan” is published annually which outlines progress and actions to improve the diversity of public appointments and can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445660/Diversity_Action_Plan_14_15.pdf

    Cabinet Office publishes annual diversity statistics on new public appointments made by United Kingdom Ministers at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diversity-in-public-appointments#history

    “

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what meetings (a) she and (b) Ministers of her Department have had with (i) arms manufacturers, (ii) tobacco manufacturers and (iii) representatives of the Israeli embassy since the period covered in the Cabinet Office’s most recent ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings data release.

    Andrea Leadsom

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to her by my rt. hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 26th February 2016 to Question 27634:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-22/27634/.

    “

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school places in Romford.

    Edward Timpson

    Supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of this Government’s top priorities. That’s why we’ve committed to spending £7 billion on new school places up to 2021, which, along with our investment in the free schools programme, we expect to create 600,000 new places.

    Havering local authority, which is responsible for school places in Romford, received £23 million of basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create 2,583 new primary places and 1,960 new secondary places between 2010 and 2015.

    Havering has also been allocated a further £58 million to create the places required by the 2019/20 academic year.


  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will take steps to secure an Autism Access Award from the National Autistic Society for the parliamentary estate.

    Tom Brake

    The House of Commons started work on this earlier in the year, as reported in the Head of Diversity and Inclusion’s quarterly update to the House of Commons Commission in January. The National Autistic Society has conducted its mystery shopping part of the accreditation. We are aiming to submit our evidence for the remainder of the assessment by June this year.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will suspend the sale of arms to countries of the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition following the coalition’s alleged use of cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict.

    Anna Soubry

    The UK Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously. All export licence applications are carefully assessed on a case by case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. A licence will not be issued if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the Criteria.

    The suspension of licences will be considered by my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in circumstances where in the light of new evidence and information it would be considered that a proper risk assessment against the Consolidated Criteria would be difficult. At this time he considers that he does have sufficient information from a range of sources for a proper risk assessment to be made against the Criteria.

    The UK ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 4 May 2010 and does not licence the export of these weapons.