The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding her 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.
George Eustice
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not received any funding from the European Social Fund.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which non-UK EU armed forces procure materiel from British companies.
Mr Julian Brazier
In 2014, Europe accounted for 10% of UK defence exports, with a value of approximately £800 million. Additionally, details of all export licences granted in 2014 can be found at;
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/491986/16-54-strategic-export-controls-country-pivot-report-2014.pdf,
However this cannot be treated as an exhaustive list of defence exports.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how the UK economy has benefited from defence technology research and development.
Mr Philip Dunne
As stated in National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 (Cmd 9161), the UK conducts world-class innovation across all the major commercial technology sectors with national security applications, including aerospace, biotechnology and medical sciences, big data, cyber security, satellites, robotics and advanced materials.
The defence and security industries make a major contribution to our prosperity. In the UK they employ over 215,000 people, predominantly highly skilled, and support a further 150,000, as well as 6,500 apprentices. In 2014, both industries had a collective turnover of over £30 billion, including defence and security export orders worth £11.9 billion.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 33406, when the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 will come into force in its entirety.
Karen Bradley
The commencement regulations for the Psychoactive Substances Act were laid on 5 May 2016 and the Act will come into force on 26 May 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-06-08.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many meetings Ministers of his Department had to discuss tax evasion and avoidance between (a) 5 April 2016 and 5 May 2016 and (b) 6 May 2016 and 6 June 2016.
Mr David Gauke
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of ministerial discussions are not normally disclosed.
The government is committed to ensuring that everyone makes a fair contribution towards reducing the deficit. We have already announced, during this Parliament, that we will legislate for over 25 measures to tackle avoidance, evasion and aggressive tax planning, which are forecast to raise £16 billion by 2021.
We also announced that HMRC would receive an extra £800 million, at Summer Budget 2015, to fund additional work to 2020-21. This will enable HMRC to recover a cumulative £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years by tackling evasion and non-compliance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-10-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children living in relative poverty in the UK (a) on the latest date for which figures are available and (b) a year before that date.
Damian Hinds
Estimates of the number of children in relative low income in the UK are published in the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series.
In 2014/15 on a Before Housing Cost basis (BHC); there were 2.5 million children in relative poverty in the UK. In the previous year (2013/14) there were 2.3 million children in relative poverty in the UK. This increase however is not statistically significant.
The Prime Minister is clear that tackling poverty and disadvantage, and delivering real social reform, is a priority for this Government and we will be coming back to the House with a number of announcements over the coming months.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average response time to a 999 call for the emergency services was in (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) the Yorkshire and the Humber region and (c) the UK in each year from 2010 to 2015.
Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold these data centrally. Data on 999 response times for the police may be held by individual police forces.
Similarly, the Home Office does not hold data on response times for other 999 emergency services. NHS England publish monthly performance statistics, which include ambulance response times. These can be found here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/2015/10/08/combined-performance-summary-august-2015/
DCLG publish statistics on fire incident response times, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-incidents-response-times
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to provide better support for ex-servicemen and women and their families.
Mark Lancaster
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 20 November 2015 to Questions 15830 and 15831.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that all financial investment pledged for equal access to quality education at the Supporting Syria and the Region Conference will be backed by the necessary political will and policy changes.
Mr Desmond Swayne
At the Conference on Supporting Syria and the Region being held in London on 4th February, we want the international community to agree a new goal that all Syrian refugee children and affected host country children are in education – formal school or non-formal – by the end of 2016/17. Equally, for inside Syria, it is our aim to increase access to good quality schooling or other learning opportunities such as self-learning and non-formal education. In neighbouring countries we will also increase access to vocational or skills training and higher education for children and youth.
At the Conference our ambition is that international donors, governments from countries in the region hosting refugees, non-governmental organisations and the private sector come together to agree a set of reciprocal financial and policy commitments. The UK and co-hosts are working with donors and other partners to secure increased funding for education under the UN-led appeals for 2016 and longer term, multi-year education funding commitments to ensure sustainability. We are also working with refugee hosting governments in particular to agree the policy commitments necessary to turn increased funding into delivery on the ground.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-05.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24539, whether the list provided in that answer includes all of the chief executives of FTSE 100 companies she has held meetings with to discuss the issue of increasing the number of women on company boards since May 2015.
Caroline Dinenage
My answer of 1 February 2015 to Questions 24538 and 24539 detailed all meetings that the Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities and I have had with representatives of the FTSE 100 and other businesses. We have also spoken at a number of conferences and events, with representatives from across the FTSE 350 and other businesses in attendance. We always ensure that we use these opportunities to raise the issue of achieving a better gender balance on boards.