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Tag: 2016

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether payments made under the Flood Re insurance scheme are subject to any provisions to ensure that homes are (a) rebuilt or repaired to meet standards for improved flood resistance and resilience and (b) not rebuilt on flood plains; and if she will make a statement.

    Rory Stewart

    There is no such duty in relation to payments made by Flood Re. However, Flood Re will consider plans to incentivise the take up of resilience measures through its published transition plan and the insurance industry have committed to discuss options for resilient or resistant repairs as part of the repair process in response to the recent flooding.

    The Flood Re Scheme is only available to properties built before 2009. This cut-off date recognises that new housing development should be located to avoid flood risk, or where development in a flood risk area is necessary, it should be designed to be safe, appropriately resilient to flooding and not increase flood risk elsewhere, in line with the national planning policies in place.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to preserve lapwing habitats.

    Rory Stewart

    The lapwing is listed under Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 as a species of principal importance in England and is consequently a priority for conservation action. Large aggregations of lapwings, along with other breeding and wintering birds, occur on protected sites containing lowland wet grassland, including over 28,000 hectares of Sites of Special Scientific Interest where lapwings are specifically recognised and benefit from targeted management of their habitats.

    Lapwings are a widespread species, and the majority occur outside protected sites in a range of habitats including grassland and open moorland. Under our agri-environment schemes, such as Environmental Stewardship, a range of funded management options has been developed to provide suitable nesting and foraging conditions for lapwings, within and outside protected sites across their diverse habitats, including an option for creating bare-ground nesting plots on arable land. There are currently approximately 7,800 hectares of such plots in place under Environmental Stewardship. The new Countryside Stewardship scheme, launched in July 2015, will continue this important work by providing a Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package, which contains options to improve habitats and provide food for farmland birds such as lapwings. Countryside Stewardship also, for the first time, includes options for capital items supporting the construction of anti-predator fencing, which are likely to increase the survival of lapwing chicks.

  • Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Caulfield on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with the government of Israel on the international delegation of Bishops which was recently refused access to the Cremisan Valley by Israeli security forces during a visit to the construction site of the Separation Barrier.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We have not raised this specific issue with the Israeli authorities. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have raised the issue of the separation barrier through the Cremisan Valley with the Israeli authorities repeatedly, most recently on 1 September 2015.

  • Mike Freer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mike Freer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Freer on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place to monitor the use of HIV innovation funding; and when he plans to (a) conduct and (b) publish his review of the projects that have received such funding.

    Jane Ellison

    In November 2015, the HIV Prevention Innovation fund announced one year’s funding for seven projects led by voluntary sector organisations. Project funding included an allocation for monitoring and evaluation of their activities and projects have been asked to submit regular monitoring reports to Public Health England. Projects will be asked to report the outcome of their work at the end of their contract. These results will be combined into a single report, which will draw out and highlight important learning from all projects, to be presented and published before the end of the 2016/17 financial year.

  • Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Northbourne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Northbourne on 2016-04-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to require all schools, including academies, to provide high quality sex and relationship education as part of their syllabus.

    Lord Nash

    Maintained secondary schools must continue to meet their existing statutory duties. All maintained secondary schools are required to teach sex and relationship education and we expect academies to teach it as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.

    As announced in February, we will continue to keep the status of PSHE under review and work with a group of leading headteachers and practitioners to identify further action we can take to ensure that all pupils receive high quality, age appropriate PSHE and sex and relationship education.

    When any school, including academies, teaches sex and relationship education, they must have regard to the Secretary of State’s statutory Sex and Relationship Education Guidance (2000). The guidance makes clear that all such lessons should be age-appropriate and that schools should ensure young people develop positive values and a moral framework that will guide their decisions, judgments and behaviour.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on the proposals in the European Commission press release, A European Border and Coast Guard to protect Europe’s External Borders, IP/15/6327; and if she will estimate the potential effect of those proposals on the budget of the UK Border Force.

    James Brokenshire

    The proposal for a European Border and Coast Guard builds on provisions of the Schengen agreement in which the UK does not participate; the UK will not therefore be bound by the new regulation, and will receive a refund on any contributions relating to this proposal, in line with its financing share of the EU budget.

    The UK is supportive of steps to increase the security of the external Schengen border – we have a strong interest in effective management of the Schengen external border, not just in combating illegal migration, and cross-border crime but also as part of the EU-wide counter-terrorism effort.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what formal role the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments will have in the UK Government’s negotiations in respect of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

    Mr David Jones

    The Government has made no decisions yet about the format of the direct negotiations with the European Union. In her first two weeks the Prime Minister visited Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland promising the UK Government would fully engage the devolved administrations to ensure we achieve a shared understanding of their interests and objectives. We will work with the devolved administrations throughout the process of preparing the UK position to ensure the interests of all parts of the UK are properly taken into account.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of levels of food insecurity in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

    George Eustice

    The UK currently has a high degree of food security as shown by the UK Food Security Assessment (published in 2010 and reviewed in 2012) which analysed the different global factors affecting UK food supply.

    Global food security is dependent on a number of factors including increasing production sustainably, reducing waste and ensuring open markets around the world to facilitate trade.

    Following a period of higher food price inflation retail food prices have fallen by 7.0% since their peak in February 2014. The proportion of household income spent on food has remained stable at 11% for 2015/16 compared to 2008/09.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 19827, which authority is overseeing the implementation of NICE Quality Standards; and what steps are being taken to (a) monitor progress in developing Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) services against, (b) implement and (c) promote NICE Quality Standard Q581 on IBD.

    Jane Ellison

    The Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a duty on NHS England to have regard to quality standards, published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Quality standards are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high quality service should look like in a particular area of care.

    NHS England would expect providers and commissioners to take into account NICE quality standards, including for inflammatory bowel disease, in designing services locally. However, the quality standards do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the duration of ambassadorial postings (a) where HM Ambassador is a speaker of the official language of the country to which he is posted (b) where HM Ambassador’s primary foreign language is not that of the country to which he is posted.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The majority of Heads of Mission have a tour length of three or four years, unless they are posted to a hardship or conflict post where the tour may be shorter. Around 100 Heads of Mission roles require language skills and are designated “speaker slots”.

    We offer language training to Heads of Mission where this is required. The FCO Language Centre was re-opened in September 2013 to renew the focus and investment in languages as a core diplomatic skill to ensure that we get the right people with the right skills in the right jobs to deliver our foreign policy objectives. The Language Centre gives us a strong platform to grow our language skills as an organisation and develop a pipeline of talent to fill language slots on a continuous basis. It is essential that all our Heads of Mission have the necessary skills, including languages, to do their jobs. Many of our Heads of Mission will return to Posts where they have existing language capability, in these cases we will provide top up or refresher training. Our Head of Mission Appointment Boards take into account language skills as part of the overall assessment of suitability for a role. In some cases the best candidate may not already speak the language and for these roles we will provide longer training to reach the requisite level. We encourage all those who have undergone language training to maintain their language skills throughout their careers.