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Tag: 2016

  • Neil Parish – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Neil Parish – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Parish on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which local authorities have breached legal air quality limits in the last year.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    Defra uses both monitoring and modelling to assess air quality in the UK. Currently, 156 monitoring stations in the national network report near-real-time data on five key pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Information about these sites and modelled data is available on Defra’s UK-Air website.

    Latest compliance data show that the UK is meeting the EU limit values for all pollutants covered by the European air quality Directives other than those for NO2.

    That is why in December last year, the Government published the national air quality plan for reducing NO2 concentrations through a new programme of Clean Air Zones in five cities in England, including Leeds, Nottingham and Southampton, as well as Birmingham and Derby, along with the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in London. The plan combines targeted local and national measures and continued investment in clean technologies.

    The councils which were observed to have exceedances of the annual mean NO2 limit value in 2015 are in the attached table.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assurances he has received from the government of Saudi Arabia that no British-made equipment was used in recent executions in that country.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK operates one of the most rigorous and transparent arms export control regimes in the world. Each application for an export licence is subject to a rigorous case-by-case assessment against these high criteria. The British Government is satisfied that the current licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria and that we are not in breach of our international obligations. No licence is issued if it does not meet these requirements. This includes the export of arms to Saudi Arabia.

  • Drew Hendry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Drew Hendry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Drew Hendry on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how his Department will monitor implementation of the measures set out in the Government’s British Road Safety Statement, published in December 2015.

    Andrew Jones

    The British Road Safety Statement was published on 21 December 2015. It includes a number of actions to be delivered across government and in partnership with others in private, public and civil society organisations.

    We are currently setting up monitoring arrangements.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Prime Minister, which Government Ministers have had use of Chevening House since May 2015.

    Mr David Cameron

    The Foreign Secretary has use of Chevening.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

    Mr Julian Brazier

    None.

  • Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Owen Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will meet representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Secretary of State has met with a number of his constituents who have raised this issue, and he will be meeting with Tim Loughton, who has been involved in the WASPI campaign, very soon. He is clear that there are no plans to change policy.

  • Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-06-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 6 June (HL Deb, col 626), on how many occasions since its inception has the Pensions Regulator used provisions for dawn raids, and how it determines the circumstances in which such provisions should be employed.

    Baroness Altmann

    The Pensions Regulator has a power to request information which it exercises regularly and successfully. This means that it is often not necessary to use the powers under section 73 (inspection) or section 78 (warrants) of the Pensions Act 2004.

    Under section 78, a justice of the peace may issue a warrant where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there are –

    • relevant documents which would be removed, or made inaccessible, from the premises, or hidden, tampered with or destroyed,

    or that

    • an offence has been committed, or
    • a person will do any act which constitutes a misuse or misappropriation of the assets of an occupational pension scheme or a personal pension scheme.

    This power is only used in extreme circumstances, and such cases usually involve suspicions of wider criminal activity. Since 2004, the Regulator has used its powers to either inspect premises or issue a warrant on five occasions.

  • Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the existing regulatory regime relating to the will writing industry.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    In 2013 the Legal Services Board (LSB) recommended that will writing be made a reserved legal activity, so that only authorised persons under the Legal Services Act 2007 could provide this service. The Government at that time considered that the evidence provided in the LSB report did not adequately demonstrate that reservation was the best solution to the identified problems in the will writing market, or that other measures had been sufficiently exhausted in seeking to address these problems.

    We will consider any recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) when they publish their Legal Services Market Study. The CMA’s interim report published on 8 July made reference to a need to consider possible changes to the current regulatory framework.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he take steps to raise awareness among pregnant women of the (a) risks of alcohol consumption and (b) benefits of zero alcohol consumption.

    Nicola Blackwood

    The new United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ (CMO) low risk drinking guidelines provide the public with the most up to date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking.

    The guideline for women who are pregnant or think they could become pregnant, is that the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all, to reduce risks to the baby to a minimum.

    The UK CMOs’ low risk drinking guidelines can be found at Gov.uk at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-consumption-advice-on-low-risk-drinking

    “

  • Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Emma Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether those who have suffered the loss of a child at birth under the current litigation regime will still be able to claim compensation under a fixed recoverable costs regime.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department is currently preparing to go out to public consultation on the introduction of Fixed Recoverable Costs (FRC) for clinical negligence claims.

    We can confirm there are no plans to limit the amount of damages awarded for clinical negligence claims and so parties will still be able to claim compensation under a FRC regime.