The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-04-28.
To ask the Prime Minister, how many visits he made to Northern Ireland in an official capacity in 2013.
Mr David Cameron
I regularly meet the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to discuss a range of issues and will continue to do so.
I visit all parts of the United Kingdom regularly, including Northern Ireland. I last visited Northern Ireland on Thursday 10 – Friday 11 October 2013.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assistance he has offered to the Nigerian authorities to resolve the continued abduction of girls from the North East of that country.
Mark Simmonds
In the days following the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria, we have offered our assistance to the highest levels of the Nigerian government. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), spoke to the Nigerian Foreign Minister on 18 April immediately after the abductions and offered the UK’s assistance.
On 7 May the Prime Minister, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), spoke to President Jonathan and offered to send a team of UK experts to Abuja. The President accepted and the team, led by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), arrived in Abuja on 9 May. The team will provide expertise in counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, military mentoring and training, victim support and economic development. Human rights compliance is, and will remain, an essential element of any UK assistance in Nigeria. I visited Nigeria on 14 May, and reiterated our support with President Jonathan.
We are coordinating closely with international partners. An FCO team was in Washington on 5 May for talks with the US on Nigeria. Our expert team in Abuja will be coordinating closely with a US team also in Abuja. We are also speaking to the French and are encouraging other EU partners to lend their support. Given Boko Haram’s exploitation of Nigeria’s porous borders and indications that some of the girls may have been taken to Cameroon or Chad, we are engaging with Nigeria’s neighbours.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress is being made in ensuring that all eligible employees have been offered automatic enrolment into a workplace pension scheme with minimum employer contributions.
Mike Penning
So far automatic enrolment has been a stunning success. The latest information published by the Pensions Regulator on 12 June 2014 showed that more than 15,000 employers have completed the automatic enrolment process and 3.6 million eligible workers have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension.
Around 99 per cent of employers who have completed registration have done so without the need for the Pensions Regulator to use their statutory powers. Employers have understood that providing a workplace pension and helping their workers plan for retirement is the now the norm.
Preliminary findings from the 2013 Employers’ Pension Provision survey show that around 90 per cent of automatically enrolled workers have remained members of a pension scheme.This early success has led the Government to revise down its opt out predictions. Instead of the anticipated 30 per cent opt out rate the Government now expects only 15 per cent of individuals will opt out once automatic enrolment is fully rolled out.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-04-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Iranian authorities about the persecution and detention of members of the Bahá’í faith in that country.
Hugh Robertson
We have repeatedly expressed our concern at the treatment of the Baha’i community in Iran, including the sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran to 20 years imprisonment and the regular harassment the community suffers from. We raised the treatment of Baha’is with the UN Special Rapporteur at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014, and in our contacts with the Iranian authorities. We will continue to call on the Iranian government to ensure that all its citizens are able to exercise their right to freedom of religion, free from persecution and harassment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress the Global Fund has made in reducing instances of AIDS, malaria and TB in the last two years.
Lynne Featherstone
The Global Fund to fights AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria (GFATM) is critical to the delivery of DFID’s ambition on HIV, TB and Malaria and is a very significant channel for our funding. Results from GFATM supported programmes have increased significantly:
1) 6.1 million people are currently receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to treat HIV, an increase from 2 million 5 years ago (2008); an additional 900,000 people received ARV therapy in 2012 and 1.9 million people in 2013;
2) 11 million new TB cases have been detected and treated, an increase from 4.1 million 5 years ago (2008) ; about 1.1 million TB cases were detected and treated in 2012 and 1.5 million cases in 2013;
3) 360 million insecticide treated nets have been distributed to protect families from malaria, an increase from 70 million 5 years ago (2008); 80 million insecticide treated nets were distributed in 2012; an additional 50 million in 2013.
Since 2002 the Fund has supported over 1,000 programmes in 151 countries, and approved grants totalling $12.4 billion for HIV, $3.6 billion for TB, and $6.5 billion for Malaria. It accounts for 21% of all international funding for HIV/AIDS, 82% of international TB funding, and 50% of global malaria spend.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received of the involvement of the Somali group al Shabaab in attacks in Kenya.
Mark Simmonds
Al Shabaab issued public threats against Kenya following its military intervention in Somalia in 2011. A number of terrorist attacks in Kenya since then have been attributed to Al Shabaab, including the September 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping centre in which 67 people were killed. We are aware of the media reports that Al Shabaab were behind the recent attacks in Kenya.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many consultation documents his Department issued which received fewer than 100 separate responses in each of the last four years.
Jenny Willott
Data on consultation response rates is not centrally held and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-04-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his German and US counterparts on securing the unconditional release of Pastor Saeed Abedini from prison in Iran.
Hugh Robertson
We remain deeply concerned about the detention and treatment of Pastor Saeed Abedini. We have called publicly for the Iranian government to release him and to end all persecution of individuals on the basis of their faith. We have not discussed this particular case with German or US officials, but discuss regularly with them action we can take to improve human rights in Iran.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in England and Wales per 10,000 of the population were prosecuted for non-payment of the television licence fee in each of the last three calendar years.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts for offences relating to installing or using a television receiver without the appropriate licence, per 10,000 of the population in England and Wales for the years 2010 to 2012 is shown in Table 1 below. The Government has indicated that, in line with the amendment to the Deregulation Bill, it will consider whether evasion of a television licence should continue to be a criminal offence.
It should be noted that court proceedings statistics for the year 2013 are planned to be published by the Ministry of Justice on 15th May 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will raise at the UN the prospects of severe famine in South Sudan.
Lynne Featherstone
The UK is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in South Sudan. The ongoing conflict, which has led to the displacement of over 900,000 people within the country, limited the ability of people to plant their crops, and disrupted trade and local markets. There is concern that those in conflict-affected states will experience famine later this year.
The UK is taking a leading role in responding to the crisis. We have so far contributed £20 million to the United Nations and International Non-Governmental Organisations for emergency humanitarian assistance inside South Sudan. We are considering additional support. We will continue to take every opportunity, including in the United Nations, to raise our concerns about the deteriorating humanitarian situation.