The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phil Boswell on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 20474, whether any businesses in receipt of funding from the apprenticeship programme for the creation of apprenticeships in the retail and commercial enterprise sector subject area have employed staff using zero-hours contracts in the last two years.
Nick Boles
We do not hold this information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24086, how many cases were referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privacy Council as the final court of appeal by Commonwealth realms in 2013 and 2014.
Mr Hugo Swire
The number of cases referred by Commonwealth realms to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the final court of appeal was 15 in 2014 and 19 in 2013.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many import extradition requests from Category 2 territories were passed to the International Criminality Unit of the Home Office in each year since 2009-10; how many such requests were authorised by her to be sent to Category 2 territories for hearing in their courts; and in how many of those cases the foreign court ordered extradition.
James Brokenshire
“Category 2 territories” refers to countries designated as extradition partners under Part 2 of the Extradition Act 2003. Not all the information requested is held centrally. The tables below set out the information which is centrally held by the Home Office.
Figures for the numbers of people extradited or requests refused in a particular year may include those for whom a request was made in a previous year.
Import extradition requests involving Category 2 territories
|
Year |
Requests submitted to the Home Office for Category 2 territories |
Requests sent to Category 2 territories |
Number of people extradited to the UK |
|
2009 |
35 |
35 |
26 |
|
2010 |
33 |
33 |
19 |
|
2011 |
49 |
49 |
22 |
|
2012 |
32 |
32 |
25 |
|
2013 |
23 |
23 |
26 |
|
2014 |
37 |
37 |
11 |
|
2015 |
45 |
45 |
26 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress her Department has made in its programme to increase the use of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets among children under five years of age and pregnant women in Uganda.
Mr Nick Hurd
Results from the 2014-15 internationally recognised Malaria Indicator Survey indicate that the proportion of children under five in Uganda who slept under treated nets had gone up from 42% in 2009 to 74%; and that the proportion of pregnant women who slept under a treated net had gone up from 47% in 2009 to 75%. The UK has been a significant contributor to bed nets in Uganda. We have funded procurement and distribution of 5 million bed nets and distributed an additional 4.5 million bed nets.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2016 to Question 34910, what the completion rate is for recruits who start on an apprenticeship.
Penny Mordaunt
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is able to provide the following information on completion rates for Level 2 and Level 3 Apprenticeships in the Armed Forces by Academic Year for 2011-12 and 2012-13. For information on completion rates for apprenticeships in 2013-14 and 2014-15, I will write to the hon. Member shortly.
|
Level 2 Apprenticeships – 1 August 2011- 31 July 2012 |
Level 2 Apprenticeships – 1 August 2012- 31 July 2013 |
Level 3 Apprenticeships – 1 August 2011- 31 July 2012 |
Level 3 Apprenticeships – 1 August 2012- 31 July 2013 |
|
|
Army |
4,507 |
3,116 |
1,682 |
1,763 |
|
Royal Navy |
2,182 |
2,006 |
339 |
334 |
|
Royal Air Force |
764 |
693 |
665 |
618 |
|
Total |
7,864* |
5,891* |
3,134* |
2,893* |
*total numbers include apprenticeships completed by Service personnel and MOD civilian staff.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the level of income that the Health and Safety Executive will receive from commercial sources in each year up to 2019-20.
Justin Tomlinson
HSE estimate the total level of income from commercial sources will be £17m in 2016/17. Future year income estimates will be determined as part the business planning process and included as part of the published Business Plan.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hague of Richmond on 2016-09-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has had with the government of the USA relating to the ban on commercial trade in African elephant ivory that came into effect in that country on 6 July.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has conducted informal discussions with representatives of the arts and antique sector on the scale of legal trade in ivory currently taking place. An accurate assessment is challenging as records for antiques may not necessarily record an item as containing ivory where this is only a small component of a larger item. Extrapolation from available data indicates that sales of items containing ivory may be worth in the order of several tens of millions of pounds per annum.
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring organisation, has recently published its report: “A Rapid Survey of the UK ivory market”. Although not an exact comparison with a survey conducted in 2004, TRAFFIC’s survey found the number of market stalls offering ivory for sale had declined by approximately two-thirds and the number of items offered for sale had halved. No new or raw ivory was seen in any of the physical market outlets or online platforms; only one ivory item seen for sale was reportedly from after the legal cut-off (1947) for antique ivory being sold without Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) documentation within the EU. Ivory is a key UK wildlife crime priority with an enforcement action plan in place to tackle risk. For example, UK Border Force through Operation Quiver has in particular successfully targeted ivory sent through postal systems.
We are actively exploring options with interested parties and other Government Departments about how to implement the UK Government’s manifesto commitment to press for a total ban on ivory sales. The UK has successfully lobbied for the EU-wide adoption of the existing UK ban on trade in raw ivory tusks, which was agreed through European Council Conclusions on an EU Action Plan on Wildlife Trafficking adopted in June. Trade in such tusks presents the greatest risk of poached ivory entering the legal market. In addition, these conclusions urged EU Member States to consider further measures to put a halt to commercial trade in ivory from elephants.
A substantial number of proposals on elephant and ivory related issues will be discussed at the Conference of Parties to CITES to be held in South Africa between 24 September and 5 October 2016. This will include discussions on the existing global ban on the trade in ivory, which the UK is committed to maintaining, and the role of domestic ivory markets in illegal trade. The UK is, and will continue to, play a full role in these discussions.
In relation to the confirmation by the USA Government to limit commercial trade in African elephant ivory to items more than 100 years old, with some exemptions, the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, Rory Stewart, discussed this issue with the USA Government during a trip earlier this year. In addition officials in Defra are in regular contact with their US counterparts and have discussed the US measures on a number of occasions.
Finally on the Elephant Protection Initiative, this has grown from 5 to 14 members since the London Conference in February 2014. A Ministerial-level meeting of members to agree governance arrangements took place in Addis Ababa in September 2015. Range states have been supported to develop their National Elephant Action Plans and through these a number of priority conservation projects have been funded.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2016 to Question 47528 and the Answer of 17 October 2016 to HL 2020, if he will provide further detail on the consideration of responses to questions seven and 11 and summary paragraphs 45 and 67 of the consultation on housing benefit reform, Cm 8152, where there are references to meeting appointed housing needs through locally administered funding; and if he will make a statement.
Caroline Nokes
We received a number of responses to questions 7 and 11 on the consultation CM8152, along with the other questions in the consultation, which the Government considered at the time. There was a range of views, comments and suggestions, from a range of stakeholders, relating to the proposition that local authorities should administer funding for supported housing and that supported housing should be removed from Housing Benefit altogether.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Drax on 2016-01-13.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for the UK of any introduction of a financial transaction tax under the EU enhanced co-operation procedure.
Harriett Baldwin
The Member States participating in negotiations to introduce a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) under enhanced co-operation are yet to agree many fundamental aspects of the tax. Until these are agreed the implications for the UK will not be clear.
The Chancellor has been clear since the enhanced co-operation FTT was first proposed that any new tax must respect the rights of non-participating Member States, including the UK. We continue to follow the negotiations closely, and remain prepared to challenge the FTT at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) if our legal concerns with the Commission’s original proposal are not addressed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recent finding by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that pre-exposure prophylaxis could reduce HIV rates in men who have sex with men by between 40 and 60 per cent; and what steps he is taking to make pre-exposure prophylaxis available to people in this group.
Jane Ellison
NHS England is working with local authorities, clinicians, patient representatives and Public Health England to consider the clinical and cost effectiveness of providing Pre-exposure prophylaxis to at-risk groups to prevent them acquiring HIV. This includes a full review and analysis of published literature in this area.