Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with the Big Lottery Fund on the renewal of the lottery licence.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Gambling Commission is responsible for issuing the licence to run the National Lottery. Camelot currently hold the licence, which runs until 2023. The Commission expects to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including lottery distributor bodies, during any future licence competition.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal College of Nursing on the health effects of over-use of paracetamol to treat colds and flu.

George Freeman

No such discussions have taken place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has in place to provide accommodation for service personnel posted in Cyprus at short notice.

Mark Lancaster

British Forces Cyprus has available Service Family Accommodation and Single Living Accommodation that can be used for short notice posting of Service personnel. If the demand is in excess of that available at any one of the specific locations, temporary solutions would be adopted.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to protect the diversity of wildlife in Forestry Commission land.

Rory Stewart

We are committed to keeping the Public Forest Estate in England in trust for the nation and for it to continue to be sustainably managed. The entire Public Forest Estate is independently certified as sustainably managed to the UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS). A key element of this certification standard is the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity.

The Forestry Commission continues to maintain a high performance in the management of the 68,000 hectares of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) under its stewardship, increasing the area in favourable condition year on year. Overall 99.5% of these SSSIs by area are in favourable or recovering condition. It also supports a comprehensive range of species conservation projects, including the freshwater pearl mussel, rare birds of prey, woodland and heathland insects and the recovery of species such as the chequered skipper, ladybird spider and pool frog.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome there have been in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer

We are advised by the Health and Social Care Information Centre that the data requested is not held.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to improve defence capacity building.

Michael Fallon

We engage in capacity building activities with a wide range of international partners, covering a broad spectrum of topics including Humanitarian and Disaster Relief; Countering Violent Extremism; Peace Support Operations and countering illicit trafficking.

We committed in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 to increase our capacity building with partners, and have since then expanded our activity in a number of ways.

For example, we have launched a new three year Counter-IED capacity building programme with Pakistan. We have also joined the US-German Trans-Atlantic Capability Enhancement and Training (TACET) initiative, under which we will deploy Short Term Training Teams to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. In Ukraine, where we have already trained over 2,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we are aiming to provide additional support to Ukrainian Defence reform including practical interventions in areas such as strategic communication and modernisation of procurement and logistics systems. In Nigeria we continue to expand our resident British Military Advisory and Training Team, and have committed to more than doubling the number of UK military personnel who deploy on short term training tasks to 300 in 2016. We have also significantly increased the support we provide to the Jordanian Army to help them improve border security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will estimate the level of creditor claims related to insolvency litigation in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous

The Ministry of Justice does not hold this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to encourage greater co-operation between police forces in the constituent parts of the UK to better enable them to address online crime.

Mr John Hayes

Online crime covers a vast range of criminality; what is illegal offline is also illegal online. However, the internet has enabled crime to be committed in a different way, which requires a different type of approach from Law Enforcement. That is why this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including for tackling cyber crime.

The 2015 Strategic Policing Requirement states that ‘capabilities will be delivered locally by police forces but may need to be brought together nationally through collaborative arrangements between forces or with other partners when the threat or risk demand joint working’. In some cases they are combined to provide an ongoing regional resource that provides a national network of capabilities to disrupt serious and organised crime, for example, through the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs).

The Government has invested over £90 million in ROCUs, over the last three years. In addition to at least a further £20 million in 2016/17, in order to increase and sustain the specialist capabilities required in law enforcement to respond to Serious and Organised Crime including online crime, and to support local forces to investigate online crime in a collaborative way in England and Wales.

Action Fraud, within the City of London Police also plays an important role in educating and assisting local forces to investigate cyber crime and cyber enabled fraud, with a particular focus on improving the service to victims.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) operates UK wide and works in close collaboration with all UK police forces and other law enforcement partners, including PSNI and Police Scotland (including through two-way tasking and coordination processes). The NCA leads some investigations, whilst supporting and coordinating others.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the (a) Secretary of State for Education and (b) Northern Ireland Executive on increasing the involvement of children and young people of school age in commemorative events for the First World War.

David Evennett

My Department works in close partnership with the Department for Education on the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours and Legacy 110 programmes for secondary schools, which we encourage schools to sign up to throughout the centenary period. To get even more young people involved in commemorations, we will soon launch the Great War Debate series for schools. We plan to hold one of these debates at the Clandeboye Estate, a First World War army training site, in November.

Children will take part in all our national commemorative events to mark the Battle of Jutland in Orkney on 31 May, and the Battle of the Somme at Thiepval and Manchester on 1 July. As one example, over 1300 school children are due to visit the Experience Field at Heaton Park in Manchester on 1 July, as part of the Somme commemorations.

Commemorative events in Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland WWI Centenary Committee. The Chair of the Committee attends Government Advisory Group meetings where all aspects of the centenary programmes are discussed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many divorces between people aged 30 and under took place in the UK in each of the last five years.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.