Tag: Emily Thornberry

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.47 of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, which of the two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers will be enhanced to support amphibious capability.

Mr Philip Dunne

The two new Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) aircraft carriers, currently under construction in Rosyth have a planned service life of 50 years each. They will be capable of a spectrum of roles including battlefield helicopter support to littoral operations. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 made provision to enhance this capability in the QEC aircraft carriers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many patrols of UK waters have been conducted by Border Force Cutters in each year since 2010.

James Brokenshire

Border Force does not record individual vessel patrols as a measure of productivity, as this does not represent the full activity of a Border Force vessel. The Border Force vessels operate 365 days per year and in accordance with the vessel capability in force at the time. Deployments include:

– being at sea;

– being at 30 minutes notice for sea;.

– law enforcement work whilst in port, e.g. rummage of moored vessels; road deployments to remote wharfs and marinas

It is not in the public interest for Border Force to disclose vessel working patterns further, as this is likely to compromise border security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions his Department’s cyber strike capability was used in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

Penny Mordaunt

We continue to develop the ability of our Armed Forces to deploy a broad range of offensive cyber capabilities as an integrated part of military operations. As with other sensitive defence capabilities, we do not reveal specific details in order to safeguard national security. As we have previously made clear in the context of the war powers convention, we do not propose to define the circumstances in which we would consult Parliament about the use of particular military capabilities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of how many non-extremist opposition fighters in Syria have fought against Daesh since 21 December 2015.

Penny Mordaunt

We share the Joint Intelligence Organisation’s assessment that opposition numbers have held up despite recent pressure and that there are significant numbers of non-extremist opposition inside Syria. Numbers in groups fighting Daesh are likely to have increased.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the planned duration is of the current deployment of UK military personnel to Tunisia.

Penny Mordaunt

The Ministry of Defence has 10 military and no civilian personnel currently deployed in Tunisia. Two personnel form the enduring British Embassy Defence Section, comprised of the Defence Attache and his assistant. The remaining eight personnel are deployed on a temporary basis, subject to regular review, and are either coordinating or delivering training to Tunisia’s security institutions or supporting UN and EU missions in-country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the German Bundeswehr’s M3 Amphibious Rig bridging vehicles were loaned to UK armed forces in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne

38 M3 Amphibious Rigs have been in service with the British Army in each of the last six years. No additional rigs have been loaned from the German Army during that time. The planned out of service date for the M3 amphibious rig is 2027; early work is under way to provide a wide wet gap crossing capability in future. No decisions have yet been made about future basing sites for the M3 Amphibious Rig.

The following table shows the number of recorded equipment failure reports (EFR) in each of the last six years.

Calendar Year in which EFR recorded	No of EFRs recorded in calendar year
2010	16
2011	0
2012	5
2013	1
2014	4
2015	0

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of each type of vehicle procured as part of urgent operational requirements for (a) Operation Herrick and (b) Operation Telic have been returned to the UK.

Mr Philip Dunne

The information on more than 19 vehicle types used over 13 years of both Operation Herrick and Operation Telic is not held centrally and could be provided only at disapproportionate cost.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of universal credit are self-employed.

Priti Patel

The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 7.4 of the Explanatory Memorandum for the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Functions) (Local Housing Allowance Amendments) Order 2015 (S.I., 2015, No. 1753), how the Government plans to define higher rent increases for the purposes of determining eligibility for additional funding under the Targeted Affordability Fund.

Justin Tomlinson

Since 2014/15 the Government has made available £140 million in Targeted Affordability Funding (TAF). Over the next five years TAF will be drawn from recycling a percentage of the savings from the freeze of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates. As a result of the level of savings produced by the freeze next year there will be no TAF available in 2016/17; however, there will be funding from 2017/18 to 2020/21.

From 2017/18 around 30 per cent of the potential savings per year from the freeze to LHA will be used to support areas where higher rent increases are causing a shortage of affordable accommodation.

The level of TAF in 2016/17 would have been the same if, as planned, LHA rates had been uprated by CPI inflation. This is because the CPI forecast in September was zero (0.01 per cent) and therefore LHA rates would not increase in 2016/17 but would remain at the 2015/16 levels.

The amounts of TAF which will be available each year from 2017/18 and the plans to distribute it will be announced in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been paid to employees in arrears as a result of enforcement of minimum wage legislation by HM Revenue and Customs in each of the last 10 years.

Mr David Gauke

The information requested is provided in the ‘Final Government Evidence for the Low Pay Commission’ reports.