Tag: Lord Birt

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what obligations they intend to place on companies to list their foreign workers.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.

The Government will shortly be consulting on proposals to tighten the Resident Labour Market Test, which businesses have to undertake before sponsoring individuals under Tier 2 (General), the skilled work route for non-EEA nationals.

This is not about listing foreign workers or so-called “naming and shaming” of companies. This information will not be published. The proportion of international workers in a company is one of the pieces of information that we might decide to take into account, as part of our work to ensure that companies take reasonable steps to recruit at home before looking to bring in workers from abroad.

We will listen to businesses throughout the consultation and use that feedback to inform our decisions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many times in the three years since 1 May 2013 the maternity unit at Peterborough City Hospital has closed its doors to women about to give birth.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This information is not available centrally. This information may be obtained from Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We have written to Robert Hughes, Chair of the Trust, informing him of the noble Lord’s enquiry. He will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to publish a consultation paper setting out and assessing the different routes to Brexit.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The Government is consulting widely through meetings all over the country with academics, think tanks, businesses, charities, universities and more to ensure that all views can be reflected in our analysis of the options for the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2015-11-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many breaches of government websites occurred in 2014.

Lord Bridges of Headley

For security reasons we do not comment on specific details of cyber security attacks. The Government takes cyber security very seriously; from 2011 to 2016, we have invested £860 million in a National Cyber Security Programme. We plan to almost double investment in cyber security to £1.9bn over the next five years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many midwives are currently employed in NHS maternity services, and how many additional midwives will be needed in 2017 to enable the effective operation of the service.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The latest statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that as at 31 January 2016, there were 21,581 full-time equivalent midwives employed in the National Health Service in England, 21,398 of these work in NHS maternity services.

NHS organisations are best placed to decide how many staff they employ tailoring services to meet the needs of their patients and local communities, to deliver safe care.

The Department has set up Health Education England to deliver a better health and healthcare workforce for England. It is responsible for ensuring a secure workforce supply that reflects the needs of local service users, providers and commissioners of healthcare.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the drop in the value of sterling in recent months reflects the markets’ view of the likely future health of the UK economy.

Lord Young of Cookham

The UK has an inflation target, not an exchange rate target, and Her Majesty’s Government does not express a view on the level of exchange rates. Instead, the exchange rate is allowed to adjust flexibly in response to economic conditions and movements in sterling are determined by market forces.

This framework means we do not need to introduce exchange rate controls.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2015-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest estimate of (1) the number of instances of internet frauds committed annually in the United Kingdom, and (2) the level of financial loss that is caused annually in the United Kingdom by internet fraud.

Lord Bates

The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of internet frauds committed annually in the United Kingdom. The Office for National Statistics recently published a provisional estimate of 5.1 million fraud offences a year in England and Wales, based on trial data from a survey of 2,000 people. This did not include details of how many frauds were internet related.

The ONS also published the number of frauds referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) in the year to June 2015 – 599,689. It is not possible to establish exactly how many of these were internet related.

The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the level of financial loss caused annually in the UK by internet fraud. The Home Office ‘Costs of cyber crime’ working group seeks to agree on the best available data for formulating any estimates and develop an agreed model for assessing the social and economic costs of cyber crime. Working group members are drawn from a field of multi-disciplinary academics, industry representatives and other experts involved in cyber crime and cyber security

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2014-06-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the ratio of the aggregated value of sovereign, corporate and personal debt to gross domestic product is higher in the United Kingdom than in other leading economies.

Lord Deighton

The aggregate value of general government, non-financial corporations and household sector debt (as a proportion of GDP) for all G7 countries are shown below:

Country	Debt as a proportion of GDP in 2012
Canada	347%
France	335%
Germany	248%
Italy	329%
Japan	476%
UK	309%
US	320%

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider introducing identity cards for all United Kingdom residents.

Lord Bates

The Government has no plans to introduce an identity card system for British Citizens. The Biometric Residence Permit is issued to non-EEA nationals staying in the UK for more than six months. These provide evidence of the holders’ immigration status in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2014-05-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to reduce the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product to below 40 per cent; and, if so, in which year.

Lord Deighton

As set out in Budget 2014, given the costs and risks of high levels of debt, once the supplementary debt target has been met, any future government will need to ensure that debt continues to fall as a percentage of GDP. Even in the absence of future shocks sustained action will be needed to bring down debt.