Tag: 2016

Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2016 to Question 38323, whether an annual record is kept by his Department of locations visited by Ministers and officials of his Department; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Mark Francois

No separate annual record of locations visited by Ministers and officials is kept by this department. However, details of Ministers meetings with external organisations are published online as part of our transparency agenda. Details can be found at:

http://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-communities-and-local-government&publication type=transparency-data

01/01/2023
Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to accelerate family reunification for unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government began work to implement the ‘Dubs amendment’ immediately after the Immigration Bill gained Royal Assent. Over 30 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act have been accepted for transfer since it received Royal Assent in May, the majority of these have already arrived in the UK.

We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities and others to speed up existing family reunification processes or implement new processes where necessary for unaccompanied children. We have seconded a UK official to Greece, we have a long-standing secondee working in Italy and will shortly be seconding another official to the French Interior Ministry to support these efforts.

We have established a dedicated team in the Home Office Dublin Unit to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children. Transfer requests under the Dublin Regulation are now generally processed within 10 days and children transferred within weeks. Over 120 children have been accepted for transfer this year from Europe. We also continue to consult local authorities about the transfer unaccompanied refugee children from Europe to the UK, where it is in their best interests.

01/01/2023
Biography information for Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Lord Beecham on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, of the 700 employers named and shamed” by them since October 2013 for failing to pay the minimum wage

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The National Minimum Wage naming and shaming scheme represents the end point of civil sanctions against employers who fail to pay at least the appropriate rate of minimum wage to their workers. Where there is evidence that an offence has been committed the case will always be considered for criminal investigation which may in turn result in prosecutions. But criminal investigations are reserved for the most serious cases of non-compliance.

Our number one priority is getting workers the money they are owed and the civil route is more successful in achieving this. Criminal investigations by HM Revenue & Customs and prosecutions by the Crown Prosecution Service will not necessarily result in arrears of wages being paid back to the workers. This would require further civil prosecutions following the Courts’ ruling.

Under the civil route, employers are not only faced with reputational consequences, but also face a financial penalty for breaking the law.

01/01/2023
Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether local record management instructions exist to augment paragraph 2.11.2 of JSP441 Defence Records Management Policy and Procedures at (a) MOD Grantown-on-Spey, (b) MOD Llanrwst, (c) MOD Fairbourne and (d) MOD Crickhowell.

Mark Lancaster

In accordance with JSP441, para 2.11.2, the Senior Information Officer (SIO) is to ensure that local management instructions exist to augment those contained in JSP 441 and that they are to be reviewed to ensure consistency with JSP 441. At all of the establishments listed the relevant SIO provides guidance and all staff undertake annual IT training.

01/01/2023
Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to introduce independent checks to ensure that rented properties are genuinely abandoned within the provisions of the Housing and Planning Bill.

Brandon Lewis

The new abandonment procedure will enable landlords to legally regain possession of their property where it has been abandoned, without the need to obtain a possession order. We have introduced a number of safeguards to ensure that tenants are adequately protected against potential misuse of the procedure. These include a requirement that at least 8 weeks or 2 months rent is unpaid and requiring the landlord to serve at least 3 warning notices before they can repossess the property.

01/01/2023
Stephen Metcalfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Metcalfe on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons Highways England have not held consultation events on the proposals for a new Lower Thames Crossing in Stanford-le-Hope, Langdon Hills, Laindon, Dunton and other areas affected by those proposals.

Andrew Jones

The locations, venues and timings for the public consultation events (including five events held on a Saturday) were chosen to ensure that they were accessible to as many people as possible near to the potentially affected areas and the proposed route.

A suitable venue was not available at the required time in Laindon and there was not a suitable venue in Stanford-le-Hope. However, there are public consultation events being undertaken nearby at Basildon and West Horndon. To note, Dunton is within 6 1/2 miles of Basildon and within 5 miles of West Horndon. Likewise, Langdon Hills is within 5 miles of Basildon and within 6 miles of West Horndon. To accommodate as many attendees as possible, the events are two weeks apart, with the events at both West Horndon and Basildon being 17 February 2016 and 1 March 2016 respectively.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect that changes in qualification requirements for studying a BSc in paramedicine will have on recruitment into that profession.

Ben Gummer

There are currently 30 Higher Education Institutions across the United Kingdom delivering Health Care Professions Council approved pre-registration paramedic programmes. Of these, there are now 22 (73%) that are delivering BSc (Hons) degrees.

The commissioned numbers in 2012/13 were 563, in 2013/14 were 722 and in 2014/15 were 853. Planned commission numbers for 2015/16 are 1,124 and for 2016/17 are 1,729. This shows there has been an increase of successful applicants who wish to enter the profession and are undertaking an appropriate pre-registration programme of higher education.

01/01/2023
Baroness Whitaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Whitaker on 2016-04-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, where a dog or horse is being micro-chipped and its owner is of no fixed abode, such as in the case of Gypsies and Travellers, whether they have considered allowing a mobile phone number or address of a friend or relation of the owner to be recorded rather than the owner’s address.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Owners of horses and dogs without a fixed address should provide the address of a family member or close friend with whom they keep in contact. Defra have worked with the veterinary representative organisations on their guidance for vets on microchipping of dogs.

01/01/2023

Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many foreign military sales contracts there have been since 2010; and what the value was of those contracts.

Mr Philip Dunne

The proportion of the defence procurement budget, and the defence budget spent on foreign military sales in each financial year cannot be provided. Under the Foreign Military Sales Agreement (FMS), Her Majesty’s Government commits to FMS cases with the US Government which then places contracts with industry to deliver our requirements. Additionally, FMS cases typically cover differing periods of performance, thereby making estimation of the commitment that would fall within each financial year unreliable.

The number of new cases, together with their values, committed to under FMS for each financial year is given in the table below. They do not equate to actual expenditure, accruals or contractual commitments and include contingency provisions.

Financial Year	No. of new cases	Value of new cases ($millions)
2009-10	22	995
2010-11	30	111
2011-12	33	284
2012-13	23	137
2013-14	25	301
2014-15	26	328
2015-16	32	245
2016-17 to date	6	13
Totals	197	2,414

01/01/2023

Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to (a) track and (b) report progress made against the Sustainable Development Goals by applying the Food Insecurity Experience Scale.

James Wharton

DFID helped to establish the use of the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. This is the method the UN’s Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators has recommended for tracking and reporting on the prevalence of food insecurity for Global Goal 2.

DFID is in the process of reviewing its results framework and is also considering ways to apply the Food Insecurity Experience Scale in relevant programmes. For example, this year DFID supported the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme to agree a new Monitoring and Evaluation framework which will use the Food Insecurity Experience Scale to track progress on food security for households supported by the programme.

01/01/2023