Tag: 2016

  • Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Executive Summary of the HMG Strategy for Abolition of the Death Penalty 2010-2015, as revised in October 2011, what steps his Department is taking to help impose further restrictions on countries which continue to practise the death penalty as part of their judicial process; and what progress on the imposition of such restrictions has been made to date.

    Mr David Lidington

    The British Government published in 2014 “Guidance on Overseas Security and Justice Assistance” which controls and restricts the supply of justice sector assistance to countries which retain the death penalty. The Government has also successfully urged the European Commission to introduce regulations banning the export of any equipment or chemicals intended to carry out executions.

  • Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2015 to Question 1705, if she will make it her policy to collate information centrally on the number of police stations and police custody cells that closed.

    Mike Penning

    The Government has no plans to place an unnecessary bureaucratic burden on locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) or Chief Constables by requiring this information to be reported centrally. Decisions about the most effective use of available resources, including the number and operating hours of police stations and the number of custody cells, are a matter for the Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable locally (the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the Commissioner in the case of the Metropolitan Police and the Corporation and the Commissioner in the case of the City of London Police), tailored to the needs of the local community.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much (a) Network Rail and (b) the Highways Agency spent on hire cars in (i) 2014-15 and (ii) 2015-16 to date.

    Claire Perry

    Network Rail has spent the following on car hire:

    2014-15: £8,020,720

    2015-16: £8,346,337 (year to date)

    Highways England (Formerly the Highways Agency) has spent the following on car hire:

    2014-15: £631,902

    2015-16: £752,847 (year to date)

  • 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 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which defence procurement projects the Government has been involved in that (a) have included other EU member states and (b) have been EU-led.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The defence procurement projects which have included other EU member states are given in the table below.

    Project

    EU Member States

    A400M

    Belgium/France/ Germany/Spain

    ACCOLADE (Technology Demonstrator Programme for Ships)

    France

    FASGW-Future Air to Surface Guided Weapon

    France

    Harrier

    Italy/Spain

    Hercules TriStar

    Denmark/Italy

    Lightning II

    Denmark/Italy/Netherlands

    Meteor

    France/Germany/Italy/Spain/ Sweden

    MMCM – Maritime Mine Counter Measures

    France

    NLAW- New Light Anti-Tank Weapon

    Sweden

    PAAMS – Principal Anti-Air Missile System

    France/Italy

    SMERAS (NATO Submarine Rescue System)

    France

    Tornado

    Germany/Italy

    Typhoon

    Germany/Italy/Spain

    There are no defence procurement projects which are EU led.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received of the potential effects of the grazing bill being considered by the Nigerian National Assembly on land rights in Biafra.

    James Duddridge

    The UK fully supports the territorial integrity of Nigeria and President Buhari’s commitment to work for a secure and prosperous Nigeria for all Nigerians. We are committed to working with Nigeria to help tackle threats to Nigeria’s security and to address the underlying causes of instability which exist within Nigeria. We do not assess that there is institutionalised persecution of the Igbo or any other peoples by the Nigerian authorities.

    We are not aware of any patterns of land confiscation in Nigeria by the Nigerian Government. Nigeria does face the challenge of inter-communal violence between farmers and herdsmen over land, farming rights, grazing routes and access to water. We are aware that the Nigerian legislature is currently debating a bill on grazing routes and reserves for Nigerian herdsmen. Part of that debate focuses on balancing the rights of land owners with the requirements of herder communities.

    Through our development assistance the UK supports initiatives to reduce these conflicts and build bridges between communities. We will continue to work with the Nigerian Government, non-governmental organisations and civil society to improve the security situation and human rights for all the people of Nigeria.

  • 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 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people under the age of 18 have died after receiving the HPV vaccination in the last three years.

    George Freeman

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collects reports of suspected side effects to vaccines and medicines via the Yellow Card Scheme. It is important to note that a report of a suspected side effect does not necessarily mean the vaccine or medicine was the cause of the reported event, and coincidental illness can also be a factor. Such reports remain under continual review by the MHRA in order to detect possible new risks.

    The MHRA has received one suspected side effect report with a fatal outcome temporally associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine which occurred in the last three years. A link with the vaccine has not been established. There has been no suggestion from safety monitoring so far in the United Kingdom that the vaccine has been responsible for any deaths.

    More than three million girls have been vaccinated in the UK with HPV vaccine since 2008, and tens of millions more have been vaccinated globally. As with all vaccines, safety remains under continual review, and HPV vaccine has a very good safety record.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will provide additional funding for battery and fuel cell electric vehicles research and development.

    Mr John Hayes

    The government allocated more than £600 million to support the uptake, development and manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles in the 2015 Spending Review. Our comprehensive package of support includes funding provision for research and development projects, and the scope of a new competition launched on 5 September 2016 includes battery and fuel cells.

    Further details are available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-competition-low-emission-vehicle-systems-idp13.

    The UK already provides one the most comprehensive support packages for ultra low emission vehicles anywhere in the world. We shall keep the funding requirements for the OLEV program under constant review.

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  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what overseas visits he has made since his appointment.

    Mr David Jones

    The Prime Minister has been clear we will not give a running commentary on our EU exit negotiations. We will ensure that we engage closely with all relevant interlocutors.

  • David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many highly specialised technologies are awaiting assessment by NHS England which were not selected for consideration by NICE’s highly specialised technology appraisal process.

    George Freeman

    NHS England is currently developing a refined process for the prioritisation of proposed new investments in specialised services and highly specialised services.

    The number of technologies to be routinely commissioned by NHS England will be determined by the new process.

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been prosecuted for bringing fraudulent claims in whiplash cases in each of the last five years.

    Dominic Raab

    Information on prosecutions for fraudulent whiplash claims is not held centrally, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

    The Government remains concerned about the number and cost of personal injury claims and the impact they have on motor insurance premiums. At 760,000 (of which 690,000 were for whiplash) in 2014/15, personal injury motor claims volumes are still at historically high levels, being some 50% higher than in 2006 when there were around 520,000 such claims.

    The Insurance Fraud Taskforce published their final report on 18 January which was supportive of the Government’s proposals to tackle fraudulent and unnecessary claims. The Government will consider their recommendations closely.

    The Association of British Insurers regularly publishes data on the number of detected fraudulent claims made, and the most recent published data can be found here: https://www.abi.org.uk/News/News-releases/2015/07/You-could-not-make-up-Savings-honest-customers-insurers-expose-3-6-million-worth-insurance-frauds

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