Tag: Chi Onwurah

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what action the Government is taking to support the Angolan government in building capacity to support civil society and freedom of expression.

James Duddridge

We and EU partners have established a human rights dialogue with the Angolan government under the EU-Angola “Joint Way Forward”, which includes support to civil society and promoting freedom of expression. We are also funding work to build human rights capacity in the diamond producing areas of the Lundas and funding training on legal awareness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the decision was taken to transfer Newcastle Central Station to Virgin East Coast rather than to Network Rail.

Claire Perry

The East Coast Franchise Agreement provided for the potential transfer of Newcastle Station to Network Rail. The decision to continue with the existing management arrangements of the stations was taken in late August 2015 following a period of negotiation between Virgin Trains East Coast and Network Rail.

The Department concluded that the best value to the public purse and passengers was to continue with the existing arrangements already in place at Newcastle rather than transfer the station.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government undertook of consumer needs before announcing its plan to introduce a 10Mbps universal broadband speed.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Prime Minister’s excellent announcement to give people a legal right to request a connection to broadband with speeds of 10 Mbps, no matter where in the country they live through a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO)followed reports of consumers’ broadband needs from a range of sources, including Ofcom’s annual infrastructure reports.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what basis Action Fraud determines which reported frauds to pursue for investigation; and whether the amount defrauded influences such decisions.

Mike Penning

Action Fraud is the national reporting point for fraud and also cyber crime. Crime reports received by Action Fraud are considered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), both of which are operated by the City of London Police. Neither Action Fraud nor the NFIB are investigatory agencies. Crime reports are evaluated to assess the information available which could assist an investigation, and to identify links between seemingly unconnected incidents. Where there is enough evidence available and a viable lead, actionable intelligence packages are created by the NFIB and are sent to the appropriate police force to consider whether enforcement activity should take place. All crime reports are assessed against a number of variables, which may alter according to demand. It would be improper to comment on the procedure on which these decisions are made in the public domain.

Action Fraud was rolled out to all police forces in April 2013; the data below includes crime reports and disseminations in England and Wales only. For the 12 months to 31 March 2015, Action Fraud received 230,399 reports of crime. Of these, 14,509 were cyber dependent crimes, namely, crimes which can only be committed using computers, computer networks or other forms of information communication technology – for example, hacking or malware offences. These crimes fall under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. For this period, the NFIB disseminated a total of 61,682 crimes to Forces and partner agencies to consider investigation. For the period April 2013 – March 2014 Action Fraud received 211,221 crime reports and of these, 21,686 were cyber dependent. For this period, the NFIB disseminated a total of 39,138 crimes to Forces and partner agencies to consider investigation.

Historically the Action Fraud capability came into life in 2009 and was funded by the National Fraud Authority (NFA), which has since been closed, a proportion of the NFA’s total budget was used to fund the Action Fraud Capability and is as follows:

• 2009/10 £5.7 million including a £1.4 million uplift to set up the service

• 2010/11 £4.9 million

• 2011/12 £6.68 million

• 2012/13 £9.4 million

Since the closure of the NFA in March 2014 Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau have been funded by Home Office funding, Cabinet Office funding for Cyber Security and funding from the City of London Police core grant, and is as follows:

• 2013/14 £11.11 million

• 2014/15 £10.62 million

• 2015/16 £11.03 million

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the planned budget for the rural satellite broadband voucher scheme has been spent.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Launched in December 2015, the basic broadband subsidy scheme, along with the rollout of both commercially and publicly funded superfast broadband, fulfils the Government’s commitment to ensure every home and business in the UK can access speeds of at least 2 Mbps. Up to £60 million of funding has been made available to support the roll out of the scheme across the UK, which runs to December 2017. To date, the total value of the installations ordered is £8,400

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Public Sector Transparency Board last met.

Matthew Hancock

The Public Sector Transparency Board has been replaced with the Data Steering Group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment (a) his Department and (b) Ofcom has made of the number of (a) business parks which do not have superfast broadband and (b) businesses based in business parks which do not have superfast broadband.

Mr Edward Vaizey

In its 2015 publication Connected Nations, Ofcom estimated that 68% of SMEs had access to superfast broadband in May 2015, and almost half (around 130,000) in certain business areas were unable to receive speeds above 10Mbit/s.

The Government is supporting investment to provide superfast broadband coverage to 90% of UK premises by early 2016 and 95% by December 2017. In addition, BDUK’s Connection Voucher Scheme issued around 55,000 vouchers to businesses to enable to access Superfast broadband. However, this does not include the provision of leased lines which offer an alternative connectivity option for businesses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress he has made on reducing the number of robocalls received by consumers.

Mr Edward Vaizey

It is unacceptable for consumers to be harassed by nuisance calls, and this Government continues to make progress tackling this issue. The latest figures from the ICO show that reported automated calls accounted for approximately 42% of total calls reported to them – a drop of 3% since the start of the year. This is thanks to tougher enforcement against organisations making automated calls. The ICO recently imposed its largest fine ever of £350,000 on Prodial Ltd for making over 46 million automated nuisance calls. This is 70 times the amount of the maximum possible penalty issued before 2010 – when fines were capped at £5,000, and average fines were considerably less.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-28.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34469, where the four portraits referred to in that Answer are located; and what proportion of all paintings and portraits in the Palace of Westminster those portraits represent.

Tom Brake

The four portraits are located in the following locations:

• The portraits of Diane Abbott and Paul Boateng hang in Portcullis House.
• The portrait of Dr Dadabhoy Naoroji is displayed in the corridor leading to the House of Commons Strangers Gallery.
• The portrait of Baroness Amos hangs in the corridor off Princes Chamber in the House of Lords.

There are approximately 310 painted portraits in the Parliamentary Art Collection.

The majority of the painted portraits in the Parliamentary Art Collection are historical ones depicting members of the Royal Family and Parliamentarians pre-1900, of whom few were of black, Asian, or minority ethnic (BAME) origin.

The Speaker’s Advisory Committee on Works of Art is committed to reflecting the diversity of the House today, and to recognising those who have influenced Parliament and contributed to its development in a notable way through the Parliamentary Art Collection. The Committee has agreed to give further consideration to the matter in the current Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, with reference to the Answer of 21 July 2015 to Question 7713, what progress has been made on developing device independent applications for the distribution of select committee papers; and how many hon. Members have now been issued with (a) android and (b) iPad devices.

Tom Brake

Options for the distribution of committee papers are being explored. One option involves using a SharePoint based system to distribute committee papers and this is due to be tested with a select committee soon.

Documents for select committees are circulated to committee members electronically, predominantly in PDF format. The PDF format can be read on a number of different devices.

594 Apple iPads and 25 tablets of other makes have been purchased by or issued to Members’ offices in this Parliament.