Tag: Dan Jarvis

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department has had with the Ministry of Defence on the potential implications of the closure of steel plants in the UK for the UK defence industry and infrastructure.

Anna Soubry

This Department is regularly in contact with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) about the impact of industrial issues on the UK defence industry and supply chain, such as the challenges facing the steel industry. Any implications for defence procurement will also be considered by the steel procurement working group which was set up with cross-departmental representation (including MoD) following the Steel Summit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support the Syrian people in establishing a framework for post-conflict reconstruction.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have pledged over £1.1 billion to date, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. We are the second largest bilateral donor after the US.

In addition to humanitarian support, the Department for International Development is working closely with the Syrian National Coalition, NGOs, civil society, and human rights activists to strengthen the ability of the moderate opposition to provide governance and services inside Syria in a way that will help prepare the ground for post-conflict reconstruction. The UK is also helping the National Coalition to build its capacity as an institution, to meet the needs of Syrians and to represent their interests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that asylum seekers are not housed in properties that make their status as asylum seekers easily identifiable.

James Brokenshire

Home Office officials are working closely with our housing providers to ensure that asylum seeker accommodation is not easily identifiable. I am not aware of a uniform door colour being the practice in any other region. My officials have also spoken to our housing providers to tell them that such a practice is not acceptable.

I was first made aware of this issue when The Times contacted the Home Office in mid-January. G4S has investigated correspondence and discussions on the issue of external door colour in the North East and has confirmed that it was raised in 2012 by a Middlesbrough local councillor and was considered by the G4S audit and assurance team, no complaints from asylum seekers relating to this matter were found and a response was issued.

As I said to the House on 20 January, I instructed officials to look into this issue as a matter of urgency and I expect that the audit will be concluded on the Home Office side very shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on bringing forward legislative proposals to introduce a new power of guardianship for family members in the financial affairs of missing persons.

Dominic Raab

I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to my hon. Friend the hon. Member for York Outer on 15 June 2015, which can be found at http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-06-08/1400/.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied child refugees in Europe the Government expects to relocate in 2016.

James Brokenshire

My Written Ministerial Statement of 28 January set out the government’s plans to reinforce its response to refugee unaccompanied children from Syria, other conflict regions and within Europe. That included a commitment to work with partners, including the European Asylum Support Office, to help identify and support unaccompanied children on arrival in the EU. The government has also created a new fund of up to £10 million to support the needs of vulnerable migrant children in Europe.

If an unaccompanied child claims asylum in a European country participating in the Dublin Regulation we will consider requests to take responsibility where there are close family members legally present in the UK. Unaccompanied minors already in Europe may also apply for family reunion under the Immigration Rules.

We have asked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to advise us on what more we can do to assist unaccompanied refugee children fleeing conflict and persecution in the Syrian region and more broadly across the globe. The number the UK will resettle will be dependent on the UNHCR’s assessment and whether it is in the child’s best interests and our capacity to absorb them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are women.

Mike Penning

The percentage of senior civil servants broken down by gender is reported on an annual basis within the Department’s Diversity report. The published report for 2014/2015 can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diversity-report-2014-to-2015

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

James Wharton

None.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the contribution of the UK’s membership of the EU to the UK’s work in identifying and detaining criminals.

James Brokenshire

Terrorism and serious organised crime are global threats that cross national borders. Our unique relationship with the EU gives UK law enforcement access to EU tools and instruments that help keep people safe and tackle serious and organised crime, but also mean we are not obliged to participate in new measures when we do not judge them to be in the national interest.

The tools and instruments that the UK participates in include Europol, an EU agency which supports cross-border police operations and intelligence sharing, and can assist in the identification of terrorist threats; the European Arrest Warrant, which allows swift extradition between EU countries of individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence; and the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), which enables law enforcement agencies around the EU to share live alerts, for example, for missing people and stolen vehicles. The UK is also in the process of implementing Prum, which will give us access to fingerprint and DNA data from other member states.

Since 2004, using the European Arrest Warrant, over 1,000 individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence have faced justice in UK courts and over 7,000 have been extradited from the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which EU intelligence-sharing agreements the UK is part of; and which intelligence-sharing agreements the UK has with other EU countries.

Mrs Theresa May

I cannot disclose specifics of agreements relating to National Security. However, the UK works closely with European counterparts in the common goal of preventing and disrupting terrorist activity. We work with Member States’ intelligence services on a bilateral basis and through the Counter Terrorism Group. We also collaborate with European partners through bilateral policy and law enforcement exchanges on counter-terrorism and exchange threat assessments and information on our respective approaches to counter terrorism. I regularly raise at Justice and Home Affairs Councils the need for better intelligence cooperation and information sharing among Member States to support our CT investigations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding she plans to make available for turnaround activity as part of the Northern Powerhouse Schools Strategy; and what formula or method she plans to use to allocate funding.

Nick Gibb

Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.

Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.

For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.

Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.

For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.