Tag: 2016

  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 29 April (HL7747), whether the regulations regarding rights of way provisions that will be subject to affirmative resolution will also be subject to any further public consultation.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The changes to the public path order regime that the Government is introducing were part of a full public consultation carried out in May 2012. We are now implementing those changes through amendments to the Local Authorities (Recovery of Costs for Public Path Orders) Regulations 1993. We are consulting further with both the Stakeholder Working Group and local authorities on the detail of the amendments.

  • Lord Foulkes of Cumnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Foulkes of Cumnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Foulkes of Cumnock on 2016-07-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Baroness Verma on 27 June (HL Deb, cols 1358–59), when they plan to provide a briefing to members on transport services to St Helena.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Baroness Verma offered a briefing for Peers from DFID officials. Arrangements are being made for such a breifing to take place after the summer recess

  • Jenny Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jenny Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jenny Chapman on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on the Better Health Programme and predecessor programmes examining the future configuration at Darlington Memorial Hospital to date.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Funding for this programme is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

    The Better Health Programme, previously Securing Quality in Hospital Services, has been funded by five CCGs (Darlington; North Durham; Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield; Hartlepool and Stockton; South Tees). Final annual costs for each year are in the table.

    Table: Final annual costs for the Better Health Programme

    Year

    Final costs (£)

    2013/14 (Securing Quality in Hospital Services)

    555,875

    2014/15 (Securing Quality in Hospital Services)

    425,748

    2015/16 (Better Health Programme)

    580,000

    2016/17 (Better Health Programme) 1

    3,100,000

    1 Planned cost for the full year. The increase is primarily due to additional costs for financial modelling of options, stakeholder communications and engagement and overall programme management.

  • Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if police forces will be required to provide information to the Disclosure and Barring Service where a person has been arrested and bailed pending an investigation into their alleged offences.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Secretary issues guidance to chief officers of police under section 113B(4A) of the Police Act 1997, which they must have regard to in making decisions about providing information from police records for inclusion in enhanced criminal record certificates.

    This guidance extends, for example, to information held by the police relating to someone being arrested and bailed.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 19830, when he plans to report on his review of the UK National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.

    Mr David Lidington

    We are currently finalising the review of the UK National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (BHR) and intend to publish it shortly. We are honouring the commitment made by the previous Coalition Government, showing our ongoing commitment to BHR. The plan covers the work of a wide range of Government departments and we have consulted widely as part of the process of updating the plan. The UK is the first country to go through such a revision process.

  • John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children arrived in the UK from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    The question has been interpreted as referring to unaccompanied asylum seeking children arriving in the UK.

    During 2015, there were 11 asylum applications from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, excluding dependants, received from nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Figures on asylum applications for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) are published quarterly by the Home Office in the Immigration Statistics release.

    A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics October to December 2015, is available from:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 31461, when he plans to respond to Question 24897, tabled on 29 January 2016 by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham for answer on 3 February 2016.

    Joseph Johnson

    I have replied to my hon Friend.

  • Baroness Barker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Barker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Barker on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there will be UK ministerial attendance at the UN High Level Meeting for ending AIDS in June.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK government will be represented at the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on ending AIDS at the UN headquarters in New York in June 2016 and the International AIDS Conference in Durban in July. Precise attendance has still to be finalised.

  • 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 2016-07-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an estimate of the cost of their monetary policy on the solvency of pension schemes, and whether they plan to use the profit made from quantitative easing to strengthen the financial position of the Pension Protection Fund.

    Lord Freud

    The UK’s monetary policy framework gives operational responsibility for monetary policy to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Decisions on setting monetary policy are for the judgement of the Monetary Policy Committee.

    The Government is sensitive to the fact that there will be those who gain and those who lose from any particular monetary policy decision. Such distributional effects typically balance out over the course of a policy cycle.

    Over the last six years low interest rates have helped households and businesses through challenging economic times. Furthermore, as the Bank of England has explained in its article entitled "The distributional effects of asset purchases" published in its 2012 Q3 Quarterly Bulletin: "Without the Bank’s asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off. Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. Many more companies would have gone out of business. This would have had a significant detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society."

    The Pension Protection Fund is financially sustainable and there are no plans to further strengthen it. The PPF 2015/16 annual report said that the Fund has over £22 £23 billion assets under management and is 115 116.3 per cent funded.

  • Edward Argar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Edward Argar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Argar on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation on the ground in Yemen.

    Rory Stewart

    Yemen is one of the most serious and complex humanitarian crises in the world. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 21.2 million people in Yemen require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs for food, water, sanitation, and healthcare, or protect their fundamental rights. Yemen is also experiencing an economic crisis, which has driven up food and other prices, and reduced people’s purchasing power.

    Ultimately, only an end to the conflict will address the humanitarian crisis. The UK is working closely with other countries to de-escalate the conflict and is providing significant support to UN-led peace talks. The UK is also working with the UN and other countries to improve commercial and humanitarian access to and within Yemen.

    The Secretary of State recently co-hosted an international event on Yemen to shine a spotlight on the humanitarian crisis. At the event, the UK announced a further £37 million, bringing our total humanitarian support for Yemen to £100 million for 2016/2017.