Tag: 2016

Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the government of China on the case of the disabled rights lawyer Ni Yulan who has recently been placed under house arrest in that country.

Mr Hugo Swire

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office monitors the human rights situation in China closely, and we are concerned by the treatment of Ni Yulan, both her house arrest and the credible reports of harassment of her and her family. A senior British diplomat met Ni Yulan in March. Five diplomats from other countries were prevented from visiting Ni at her home last month. We will continue to press the Chinese authorities for access. We plan to raise Ni’s case at the next round of the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue.

More widely, I remain concerned by the harassment and detention of human rights defenders in China. We continue to urge the Chinese authorities to respect and protect freedom of expression and association, in line with its constitution and the international frameworks to which China is a party.

January 1, 2023
Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-07-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many NHS maternity units have been closed in each of the last six years.

Ben Gummer

This information is not held centrally.

The Government is clear that the redesign of front-line health services, including maternity services, is a matter for the local National Health Service, where clinicians are best-placed to make the decisions in the best interests of their patients.

All such decisions are locally led and any proposed changes to services are subject to meeting the four tests for service change: they must have support from general practitioner commissioners, be based on clinical evidence, demonstrate public and patient engagement, and consider patient choice.

January 1, 2023
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-09-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 12 May (HL8175), what steps they are taking to make country of origin labelling mandatory for all milk and dairy products.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

At present, most milk and dairy products are labelled with their origin on a voluntary basis.

We are continuing to work with the food industry to explore what more can be done to make it easier for consumers and food businesses to know when they are buying British.

January 1, 2023
Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees from the Syrian conflict resettled in the UK to date have been relocated from (a) refugee camps in Turkey, (b) refugee camps in Jordan, (c) refugee camps in Lebanon, (d) refugee camps in Syria, (e) other refugee camps and (f) a site that is not a refugee camp.

Richard Harrington

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) identifies and proposes refugees for resettlement under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme from among the whole of the registered refugee population in the region. This includes people in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities.

The Home Office is committed to publishing data as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 25 February 2016 and will cover the period October-December 2015. This information will not include details of where refugees have been resettled from.

January 1, 2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support the Marrakesh Declaration, signed on 27 January 2016.

Mr David Lidington

The Government welcomes the Marrakech Declaration, which issued from a gathering of Muslim scholars and intellectuals from over 120 countries in January 2016. In particular we welcome its call for cooperation among all religious groups to go beyond mutual tolerance and respect, and instead to provide full protection for the rights and liberties of all. We also welcome the call for Muslim scholars and intellectuals around the world to develop a jurisprudence which is inclusive of diverse groups; for governments to review educational curricula that instigate aggression and extremism and to support initiatives to fortify relations and understanding among the various religious groups in the Islamic World. We stand ready to help governments and civil society in Muslim majority countries in whatever way we can, and encourage them to put the words of the Declaration into action.

January 1, 2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) has been spent on health care in (a) England and (b) the UK in each year since 1997; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of GDP that will be spent on health care over the next five years.

Alistair Burt

Spend as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is usually reported on a United Kingdom basis. HM Treasury publishes UK health spend figures as a percentage of GDP which are shown below. Note this excludes private health expenditure.

Spend on health in UK as % of GDP –

1996/97 – 5.0%

1997/98 – 5.0%

1998/99 – 5.0%

1999/00 – 5.0%

2000/01 – 5.2%

2001/02 – 5.6%

2002/03 – 5.8%

2003/04 – 6.2%

2004/05 – 6.5%

2005/06 – 6.7%

2006/07 – 6.6%

2007/08 – 6.7%

2008/09 – 7.2%

2009/10 – 7.8%

2010/11 – 7.6%

2011/12 – 7.4%

2012/13 – 7.5%

2013/14 – 7.5%

2014/15 – 7.4%

Source: Table 4.4 HMT, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2015.

The Spending Review settlement, delivered by the Chancellor on 25 November, set the Department’s overall budget for the remaining years of the parliament and the level of funding that will be available to the National Health Service. It set absolute spending totals, not spending as a percentage of GDP, providing certainty for financial planning over the period. The Department has not therefore made forecasts for health spending as a share of GDP for future years.

GDP figures are calculated on an economy wide basis, so GDP figures for England are not available to calculate spend on health care in England as a share of English GDP.

January 1, 2023
Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Commissioners have been appointed to run local authority children’s services since January 2015.

Lord Nash

Commissioners are appointed where Ofsted find persistent or systemic failure by a council to deliver children’s services to an acceptable quality.

Persistent failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate more than once within a five year period. Systemic failure is defined as a council being rated inadequate across the board on all key Ofsted judgements.

Commissioners are appointed to direct the improvement of children’s social care services; the Council’s leadership and management of them; and, increasingly, to review whether these services should be removed from council control in order to secure more rapid and sustainable improvement.

Since January 2015 the Secretary of State has appointed five Children’s Services Commissioners.

January 1, 2023
Gerald Kaufman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Kaufman on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he intends to answer the letter to him dated 23 March 2016 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regards to Mr C Costigan.

Jane Ellison

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health responded to the Rt. hon. Member’s letter of 23 March 2016 on 22 April 2016.

January 1, 2023
Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-07-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of existing regulations on drones; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government’s primary responsibility is the safety and security of our citizens. That is why we apply one of the highest regulatory safety standards for commercial aviation in the world.

There are existing regulations in place that require users of drones to maintain direct, unaided visual contact with their vehicle and to not recklessly or negligently cause or permit an aircraft to endanger any person or property. Guidance on tackling the risks of criminal drone use has been provided to constabularies across the UK.

The Department and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) work with a wide range of industry partners across the aviation sector, (including manufacturers, airports, and airlines), to ensure our understanding of potential hazards to aircraft remains up-to-date and mitigations effective. Further work is underway to better understand the risk posed by flying drones close to commercial planes to ensure that regulations remain fit for purpose.

Awareness and education on current restrictions are vitally important. The Civil Aviation Authority is undertaking activities to raise awareness of the basic safety requirements, including an ongoing ‘Dronecode’ safety awareness campaign, issuing safety leaflets at the point of sale, publishing an animated video on their website, and running ‘small UAS’ Risk and Hazard workshops with industry as part of the Mid Air Collision Programme.

January 1, 2023
Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department is taking steps to identify businesses that engage in labour exploitation.

Margot James

The Immigration Act 2016 creates a new Director of Labour Market Enforcement. They will be responsible for overseeing and setting priorities for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, National Minimum Wage enforcement and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. This will strengthen efforts to identify businesses that engage in labour exploitation.

To enable more effective enforcement, we are creating:
- A new intelligence hub so that enforcement is targeted at areas of risk; and
- A new regime of Labour Market Enforcement undertakings and orders, backed up by a criminal offence and custodial sentence, to allow us to tackle repeat labour market offenders and rogue businesses.
We have already reformed the Gangmasters Licensing Authority into the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority with the ability to tackle labour exploitation.
January 1, 2023