Tag: Andrew Rosindell

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on the human rights situation in Turkey during negotiations on the proposed EU-Turkey refugee deal.

Mr David Lidington

I refer my Rt Hon. Friend to the Written Ministerial Statement made by the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) on 8 March 2016 which detailed his discussions, including on human rights issues, with his EU counterparts during negotiations on the proposed EU-Turkey deal. In addition, in the conclusions adopted by the European Council at its meeting on 17-18 March, the EU reiterated that it expects Turkey to respect the highest standards when it comes to democracy, rule of law and respect of fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria the Government plans to use to calculate each school’s allocation of funds raised from the soft drinks industry levy for school sports.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Revenue from the soft drinks industry levy will be used to double the PE and sport premium for primary schools to £320m a year from September 2017, enabling them to improve the quality and breadth of PE and sport they offer. It will also provide up to £285m a year to enable up to a quarter of secondary schools to extend their school day to offer a wider range of activities, including sports clubs. Further details will be announced in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support Air Cadet Unit: 6 Romford Squadron and ensure it is not adversely affected by the reduction in the number of volunteer gliding squadrons; and what steps he is taking to provide adequate resources to volunteer gliding squadrons and ensure the increase in cadet units under their control does not result in a reduction in gliding training time per unit.

Mr Julian Brazier

6F (Romford) Squadron Air Training Corps will continue to be affiliated to 614 Volunteer Gliding Squadron (VGS) .

I refer the hon. Member to the Answer I gave on 18 April 2016 to oral Question 904503 to the hon. Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2016 to Questions 30551 and 30552, on UK membership of EU: Crown Dependencies, what his Department’s policy is on the future of the principles enshrined in Protocol 3 should the UK vote to leave the EU.

Dominic Raab

The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man enjoy special arrangements for access to the EU, provided under Protocol 3 to the UK’s Treaty of Accession to the European Community. As set out in the Government’s White Paper: ‘The process for withdrawing from the European Union’, published on 29 February, the withdrawal process is unprecedented. There is uncertainty about how it would work. There would be no requirement under EU law for these arrangements to be maintained if the UK left the EU.

The Government respects and values the constitutional relationship between the UK and the Crown Dependencies, and will continue to engage constructively with them to address issues and areas of concern.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February 2016 to Questions 28144 and 28086, if her Department will take into account, when making a decision on granting right to abode, the fact that the British-Hong Kong servicemen swore an oath of allegiance to the Monarchy.

James Brokenshire

The assessment of the request by former members of the Hong Kong Military Service Corps that they be granted right of abode in the UK is under consideration. This will take into account all available information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the causes of political and social instability in North Africa and the Middle East.

Mr Desmond Swayne

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is central to the commitments of the National Security Council, Strategic Defence and Security Review, and the UK Aid Strategy. DFID works towards stability and security in the region through a joined up approach across HMG, prioritising efforts on what we can affect, exerting international influence and building resilience to prevent further failure. Our mission is to assist progress towards stability, preventing extremism and managing migration. The majority of our resources are targeted at a protracted humanitarian response and support stability through a focus on economic reform, education, jobs and local good governance. Since February 2012 and up to the end of financial year 2015/2016 we have spent nearly £1 billion. We will spend £510m in the region this year through the UK Syria crisis response, which will support humanitarian and non-humanitarian projects in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, benefiting people affected by the conflict.

An important aspect of the cross HMG response to build stability in the region is the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) under the direction of the National Security Council. CSSF brings together HMG effort on conflict, stability, security and peacekeeping and responds to emerging crises in states where the United Kingdom has key interests. In 2016/17 the CSSF will commit £189m in MENA. The CSSF provides funding to a range of programmes that target the underlying drivers of conflict and instability, from security and justice to peacebuilding (political settlements and transition, community-level dispute resolution and conflict management), human rights protection and governance reform.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to advance the development of a cure for HIV; what assessment he has made of the development by the US government of HIV antibodies which bind to the target site and stop the virus from infecting the cell; and what international research partnerships his Department currently has for developing a cure for HIV.

Jane Ellison

The United Kingdom Government provides funding to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). IAVI has been instrumental in working with partners, including the United States National Institutes of Health who have undertaken the work to identify broadly neutralising antibodies from asymptomatic people infected with HIV. IAVI and its partners are still at an early stage of working with these broadly neutralising antibodies, to investigate how they might be used to prevent and treat HIV infection.

Funding from the UK Government has allowed IAVI to bring together expertise from academia and the pharmaceutical sector, and from across regions, including the UK and Eastern and Southern Africa, to collaboratively design and evaluate novel vaccine candidates, to demonstrate, in the longer-term, that at least one can be fully developed into an effective vaccine to help prevent HIV infection or AIDS.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent in the last five years on the provision of English language teachers for students recently arrived in the UK with little knowledge of that language.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The department distributes school funding to local authorities through the dedicated schools grant. Each local authority then devises a formula through which it allocates funding to schools in its locality. No funding is allocated on the basis of pupils who have recently arrived from overseas, either from central government to local authorities or from local authorities to individual schools.

Local authorities can include an ‘English as an additional language’ (EAL) factor in their funding formulae. EAL funding is determined on the basis of census data which records whether or not a pupil’s first language is English. Funding allocated through this factor forms part of the school’s core budget and it is for school leaders to determine how best to use their whole budget so that all pupils can reach their full potential.

We will introduce a national funding formula from 2017-18 so that funding is fair and matched to need. Our first consultation proposed that the formula should include an EAL factor. We will set out the precise detail of the formula in our second consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with his European counterparts on the implications of the outcome of the EU referendum for existing bilateral defence agreements.

Michael Fallon

Immediately after the referendum I contacted a number of my European counterparts to reassure them that Britain remains committed to existing bilateral Defence agreements and to NATO. The then Prime Minister and I reiterated this at the NATO Warsaw Summit. We will continue to engage closely with our Allies and partners.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the financial cost of unfreezing UK-issued pensions in those British Overseas Territories where they are frozen.

Richard Harrington

The Government has a clear position, which has remained a consistent policy of successive Governments for around 70 years. UK State Pensions are payable worldwide and are uprated abroad where we have a legal requirement to do so; for example in the European Economic Area, or countries where we have a reciprocal agreement that allows for uprating, and so annual increases are paid to UK State Pension recipients in Gibraltar and in Bermuda. We have no plans to change this policy.

Were this to occur, liabilities for pensioners who live in other countries and territories would also have to be met. The estimated cost of increasing pensions in those countries where they are not currently uprated would be over £0.5 billion a year. This would be financially unaffordable.

The annual additional cost of up-rating the State Pensions of those recipients who are resident in the British Overseas Territories was estimated at approximately £1million in 2015/16.