The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keir Starmer on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to introduce a Victims’ Law since May 2015.
Mike Penning
In the Queen’s Speech we made a commitment to bring forward measures to increase the rights of victims of crime. Further detail on our plans will be published in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the reduction in single-use plastic carrier bag usage in England since the carrier bag charge was introduced.
Rory Stewart
Retailers are required to provide data for the first reporting period ending 6 April 2016 by 31 May 2016. Any assessment the department makes on the reduction of single use carrier bags will be after that point.
In December, Tesco reported a 78% reduction in the number of single-use carrier bags distributed since the introduction of the charge. They also reported an increase of nearly 50% in the number of online shoppers selecting ‘bagless’ deliveries.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil law suits have been brought against her Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.
Karen Bradley
The Home Office deals with thousands of cases every year and litigants frequently rely on arguments based wholly or partly on the Human Rights Act 1998. In most cases, the 1998 Act is relied on in addition to other claims. The Government Legal Department’s records do not, historically, distinguish between cases where the 1998 Act is invoked and cases where it is not. Nor do they record how many suits were settled out of court before a judgment was delivered; or how much has been paid out in such settlements. Consequently, it is not possible to provide the information requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Pincher on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many tonnes of air pollution control residues were captured at municipal energy from waste incineration facilities in 2015; and what estimate she has made of the total tonnes of air pollution control residues that will be generated by municipal energy from waste incineration facilities in 2016.
Rory Stewart
The derogation to allow the landfilling of air pollution control residues that are three times above normal waste acceptance criteria was originally granted because there was a lack of alternative treatment capacity at the time to either treat certain wastes to levels meeting normal waste acceptance limits, to treat the wastes via alternative treatment technologies or to recycle or recover the residues. The availability of sufficient alternative treatment capacity and the costs of that treatment are therefore the two central criteria that the government will use to decide whether or not to remove the derogation.
The Government is making an assessment of the quantity of air pollution control residues produced at energy from waste facilities to inform its decision on whether or not to remove the derogation to allow the landfilling of air pollution control residues that are three times above normal waste acceptance criteria. These figures will be available following the announcement of that decision.
The Government is making an assessment of the costs of the different forms of treatment for air pollution control residues, including their mixing into concrete blocks and their disposal to hazardous waste landfill, to inform its decision on whether or not to remove the derogation to allow the landfilling of air pollution control residues that are three times above normal waste acceptance criteria. These figures will be available following the announcement of that decision.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lady Hermon on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what estimate she has made of the projected savings of closure of the Area Electoral Office in Newtownards, County Down; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Ben Wallace
Management of Electoral Office resources is an operational matter for the Chief Electoral Officer.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has had discussions with the West London Mental Health Trust on future funding of the Corsellis Brain Collection.
George Freeman
The Department has not made any specific assessment of the importance of the collection for promoting research into brain diseases.
The excess costs of maintaining the collection compared with the income from specimen preparation over a number of years have rendered the collection unsustainable as a research resource. Every effort is being made to ensure as much of the collection as possible is available to researchers and the West London Mental Health Trust has been working with BRAIN UK (an initiative funded by the Medical Research Council which co-ordinates the distribution of tissue across the country) to support this.
As part of this strategy the Trust has therefore decided to publicise the decision to close the collection and invite requests from appropriate academic departments for tissue relevant to their research and teaching programmes, and to respectfully dispose of those tissue samples for which no scientific purpose can be envisaged. Some 7,500 out of 8,500 specimens have identified destinations as a result of this process, to departments across the United K and in the Netherlands, in Canada and in Hong Kong. The Trust has obtained the appropriate Human Tissue Authority licenses for this work. We understand that the collection will close by the end of June 2016.
The UK Brain Bank Network, which is funded by Government through the Medical Research Council, has established a national network of UK brain tissue resources (banks) for researchers to access. The Network currently involves 10 brain banks across the UK which now hold over 14,000 well characterised brains.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Benyon on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what levels of UK consular access the government of Iran has granted for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a dual UK-Iranian national. The Iranian Government does not recognise dual nationality for Iranian nationals and therefore does not permit our consular staff to visit British-Iranian dual nationals detained there. Nonetheless we continue to push for consular access to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and for more information about the charges against her – along with assurances that she has access to a lawyer and appropriate medical care.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the (a) salary, (b) postal address and (c) other contact details are of the interim Construction Commissioner for High Speed 2.
Andrew Jones
The salary of the Interim HS2 Construction Commissioner is £575 per day, plus VAT. Correspondence to the Interim Commissioner can be addressed to HS2 Ltd, 1 Canada Square, London, E14 5AB or by email to complaints@hs2-cc.org.uk. The Interim Commissioner can also be contacted via the following website: https://hs2cc.wordpress.com/contact/.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to extend railway network services between London and Okehampton.
Claire Perry
We are absolutely committed to ensuring that the South West has the best infrastructure possible and we are determined to do everything possible to stop damage like we saw in 2014 happening again. That is why we have invested £31 million into improving the resilience of rail routes in the South West, and Network Rail spent £40 million on repairing and strengthening the line at Dawlish after the extreme weather.
We are working with the rail industry and the Peninsula Rail Task Force as they explore the potential for longer-term improvements in the area, including the premise of additional routes to the current mainline route via Dawlish.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24122, when his Department last made an assessment of responsibility for damage to cultural property in Yemen.
Mr Philip Hammond
We remain concerned about any damage to cultural property in Yemen and are aware of reports of alleged damage by actors in the conflict. Yemen and many members of the Saudi-led coalition are parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict and to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. We have raised our concerns regarding protection of cultural property with both the government of Yemen and the Saudi Arabian government.