Tag: Greg Mulholland

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12724, on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, how much (a) funding and (b) staffing resource is currently dedicated to that group.

Mr Marcus Jones

Since 2012, the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has advised Ministers on issues including training for journalists to tackle the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media; encouraging increased reporting and recording of anti-Muslim incidents and online abuse; supporting social media workshops to build the capacity of community organisations to promote positive narratives; and facilitating a number of regional road shows to engage communities on integration and tackling anti-Muslim hatred. The group also worked on the issue of disaggregation of anti-Muslim hate crime, as is done with anti-semitic hate crime. Last month, my Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister announced that police forces in England and Wales would be required to disaggregate religion based hate crime data.

The Working Group meets quarterly and uses this forum to advise Ministers on issues relating to anti-Muslim hatred rather than through official submissions.

The independent members of the Working Group volunteer their own time to take part in the group and can claim basic travel expenses for the meetings. As part of a broader role, one official in the Department provides secretariat support to the group and officials from across Government Departments attend quarterly meetings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with Interserve about members of his Department’s cleaning staff facing disciplinary action over a pay dispute.

Mr David Lidington

Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials asked Interserve to comment in light of allegations from Citizens UK that Interserve cleaners had been disciplined because of a letter written to The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) in July about the London Living Wage. Interserve replied to to say that they had carried out an investigation to establish whether the letter had breached their confidentiality agreement with their staff. Interserve has since confirmed that their investigation has concluded and that no disciplinary action will be taken against the staff members concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the cost of the public inquiry into the New Generation Transport trolleybus scheme; and what he expects the final cost of that inquiry to be.

Claire Perry

Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority as promoters of this scheme are responsible for providing the inquiry venue and facilities; paying for professional experts to present their case; and meeting the Planning Inspectorate’s costs in providing an Inspector. The Planning Inspectorate charged £157,162 for this inquiry, based on the time spent by the Inspector preparing for, travelling to and holding the inquiry; the time spent by the Inspector writing his report; and his travelling and subsistence. Other parties to the inquiry were responsible for meeting their own costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support the UK steel industry.

Anna Soubry

The Government recognises the current difficulties that are unique to the steel sector. While we cannot fix the price of steel, halt global overproduction or fix currency rates, the government has taken a number of measures to help our steel industry.

We have taken action on unfair trade, recently voting in support of anti-dumping measures on wire rod and steel tubing imports, as well as lobbying successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar.

The Government will be exempting eligible Energy Intensive Industries, including steel, from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Small Feed-in-Tariff (FiT). This will we can keep their bills down, keep them competitive, keep them here and also give certainty for future investment decisions. The steel industry’s request for flexibility over Industrial Emissions Directive exemptions has also been secured. This will save the industry millions of pounds of unnecessary expenditure at a time of crisis by offering steel companies more time to comply with this European legislation.

Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government projects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide information on the (a) age, (b) race, (c) gender, (d) religion and (e) region of residence of the 700 individuals referred to in paragraph 88 of her Department’s Counter-Extremism Strategy, published on 19 October 2015.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office intends to publish Channel data in the near future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what further work remains to be undertaken before he takes a final decision on the future of funding of insolvency litigation.

Dominic Raab

The Ministry of Justice is in the process of considering the way forward in relation to the application to insolvency litigation of the no win no fee reforms in Part 2 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has received from his Department’s cleaning staff on being paid the London Living Wage.

Mr David Lidington

Interserve cleaning staff, contracted to clean the FCO’s London buildings, wrote to the department regarding the London Living Wage in letters dated 21 July 2015 (to which I replied on 19 August 2015); 21 July 2014 (to which I replied on 7 October 2014); and, 18 June 2012 (to which FCO officials replied on 21 June 2012 and followed up that reply with a meeting on 30 July 2012).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects the public inquiry into the New Generation Transport trolleybus scheme to report.

Claire Perry

We are considering the Inspector’s Report following the public inquiry, and will announce our decision shortly. My Right Honourable Friend the Secretary of State has delegated responsibility for this decision to my Noble Friend Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will commission independent research into the causes of Islamophobia.

Karen Bradley

A key part of our new Countering Extremism Strategy, published this week, outlines how we will engage with and protect Muslim communities from Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.

We have access to a wide range of research on Islamophobia from academics, non-government organisations and from the Extremism Analysis Unit.

We have announced a new Cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan. As part of this we are engaging with partner organisations to establish the plan’s priority focus areas including future research requirement.

The Government also recognises the risk of Islamophobia in the UK as well as the increasing number of attacks aimed at the Muslim Community. To address this the PM has announced that from next year all police forces will be required to record Anti-Muslim hate crime as a distinct category when it is reported.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2015 to Written Question 11808, who attended the first meeting of the Community Engagement Forum, on 13 October 2015.

Karen Bradley

The following individuals attended the first meeting of the Community Engagement Forum on 13 October 2015:

• David Cameron, Prime Minister

• Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for Countering Extremism

• Theresa May, Home Secretary

• Louise Casey, Department for Communities and Local Government

• Max Chambers, Special Adviser on Home Affairs

• Camilla Cavendish, Number 10

• Brendan Threlfall, Number 10

• Arooj Shah, Councillor, St Mary’s Ward, Oldham

• Sean Harriss, Chief Executive, Lambeth Council

• Paul Martin, Chief Executive, Wandsworth Council

• Sheikh Musa Admani, Imam and Muslim chaplain, City University, London

• Fareed Ahmad, Ahmadiyya Muslim Association

• Farooq Aftab, General Secretary, Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association

• Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester

• Khatun Sapnara, circuit judge • Aina Khan, solicitor

• Fiyaz Mughal OBE, Director, Faith Matters

• Sadja Mughal OBE, Director, Jan Trust

• Haras Rafiq, Managing Director, Quilliam Foundation

• Sara Khan, Co-founder and Director, Inspire

• Wahida Shaffi, Near Neighbours Coordinator; National Women’s Programme Lead, Christian Muslim Forum

• Faiza Vaid, Executive Director, Muslim Women’s Network

• Aysha and Kiran Iqbal Patel, Directors, Odara

• Kamal Hanif OBE, Executive Head, Waverley School, Birmingham

• Alun Francis, Principal and Chief Executive, Oldham College