Tag: Ben Bradshaw

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of UK seas out to 200nm are designated as (a) Special Areas of Conservation and (b) Marine Conservation Zones.

George Eustice

The Government is committed to creating a Blue Belt of Marine Protected Areas around our coast. Currently 7.6% of UK seas are designated as Special Areas of Conservation, 1.4% as Special Protection Areas and 8.0% as Marine Conservation Zones (known as Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas in Scotland). Accounting for overlaps, a total of 16.2% of UK seas are designated as Marine Protected Areas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the number of assessed European fish stocks that are (a) fished at or below and (b) fished at higher than the maximum sustainable yield rate.

George Eustice

European Commission information suggests that in 2015, for stocks with full analytical assessments in the Atlantic EU waters, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, (a) 32 stocks were being fished at or below the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) exploitation rate, and (b) 30 such stocks were being fished higher than the MSY exploitation rate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it is her Department’s position in EU Council negotiations to develop Multi-Annual Fisheries Plans that ensure fishing limits do not exceed the maximum sustainable yield.

George Eustice

The UK supports the development of Multi-Annual Fisheries Plans that assist the delivery of Common Fisheries Policy objectives, including the achievement of maximum sustainable yield exploitation rates by 2015 where possible, and by 2020 at the latest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has established that there is a basis to permit fishing at levels higher than the limits set by the Common Fisheries Policy.

George Eustice

Defra’s view is that fishing limits, in the form of Total Allowable Catches, need to be set in accordance with the objective of achieving the maximum sustainable yield exploitation rate by 2015, where possible, and 2020 at the latest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of cases in which compulsory mediation and information meetings would have been appropriate in 2013-14; and what funding is being made available in 2014-15 to provide that service.

Simon Hughes

We do not have the data to allow us to assess how many family court applications filed in 2013-14 might have been appropriate for a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) in comparison with the number of MIAMs actually attended. In 2013/14 13,354 couples attended a publicly funded MIAM (that is, where at least one of the parties was legally aided).

Implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 on 22 April 2014 means that attendance at a MIAM is now compulsory for the potential applicant.

Public funding (legal aid) remains in scope for family mediation for those who qualify on means and merits, and the budget for legal aid for mediation is uncapped. In 2013/14, the LAA spent £9m on mediation. If one party is funded the other will be covered for the MIAM as well. Legal help with mediation is also available for the funded party and includes help from a lawyer with applying to the court for a consent order based on the agreement reached in mediation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Attorney General, what recent steps he has taken to promote awareness of the laws on contempt of court among social media users.

Mr Robert Buckland

Where appropriate the Attorney General and I publish online the warnings about potentially prejudicial reporting that Attorneys General had previously only given to the mainstream media. My office also sends tweets warning social media users of the risks of being in contempt of court.

In addition, the Attorney General has recently issued advice to social media users and others that identifying a victim in a sexual offence case is a criminal offence.

We continue to look at whether there is anything more that can be done to raise awareness in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department plans to spend in Local Growth Deals announced from 5 December 2014 to 29 January 2015 on (a) roads, (b) public transport, (c) cycling and walking and (d) mixed mode schemes in each Local Enterprise Partnership area in each year from 2015-16 to 2020-21.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government announced an expansion of Growth Deals for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) on 29 January 2015. This confirmed a total amount of additional funding for each LEP but, unlike the previous announcement in July 2014, did not specify the funding for individual projects that LEPs plan to deliver with this money. This is because many of the projects are at early stages of development and further work is required to finalise business cases, cost estimates and additional funding sources. For that reason it is not possible to provide the precise breakdown requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Attorney General, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the criteria used to determine whether or not a prosecution is in the public interest.

Jeremy Wright

Decisions on whether prosecutions are in the public interest are guided by the Code for Crown Prosecutors and CPS Legal Guidance. The Code is produced by the Director of Public Prosecutions after significant public consultation. The CPS Legal Guidance is available for the public to see on the CPS website at http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/ . There have been seven versions of the Code since 1986 and it was last updated in January 2013.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Commission, how many employees of the National Audit Office, broken down by grade, have remained at the same grade since 2010 and in that period received pay rises.

Sir Edward Leigh

The following table sets out the number of National Audit Office (NAO) staff who have remained at that grade since 2010 and received a pay rise.

Grade	Number
Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Admin Officer (Audit) Executive Officer (Audit) Audit Technician Analyst Senior Analyst Audit Principal Audit Manager Director Director General Executive Leader Chief Operating Officer	7 29 33 1 1 3 6 21 116 86 28 1 2 1
Total	335

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2014-07-15.

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how many employees of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, broken down by grade, have remained at the same grade since 2010 and in that period received pay rises.

Mr Charles Walker

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I have asked IPSA to reply.

Letter from Marcial Boo, July 2014:

As Chief Executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking about IPSA staffing.

29 of our current employees have worked for IPSA since 2010. Of those 29, 17 have remained at the same grade and received pay rises of 1% in 2012 and 2013.

Grade	Number
A	1
B	11
C	3
D	0
E	2
F	0