Tag: Lord Turnberg

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Palestine about the re-opening the Red Cross offices closed by recent violence in Gaza.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We understand that the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Gaza closed on 7 February for security reasons following protests in solidarity with a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli detention. We have not raised this specific issue with the Palestinian Authority (PA) but we have urged the PA to make progress on resuming control in Gaza.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Palestine about recent pronouncements by Mr Abbas praising the actions of Palestinians who have killed Israeli civilians.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

On 17 December, our Deputy Consul General in Jerusalem raised comments attributed to President Abbas, characterising events since last October as a “justified popular uprising”, with the President’s Diplomatic Adviser, Majdi Khaldi. Mr Khaldi informed us that President Abbas condemned violence against Israelis and Palestinians.

On several occasions in recent months, our Consul General in Jerusalem has expressed our deep concern about comments made by other Palestinian figures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent statements by Ismael Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, that they are rebuilding tunnels from Gaza with the intention of attacking Israel.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain deeply concerned by Hamas’ attempts to rearm and its efforts to rebuild infrastructure, including the tunnel network in Gaza. We are clear that Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza must permanently end rocket fire and other attacks against Israel. Any Hamas rearmament undermines efforts to improve the situation in Gaza and harms prospects for peace and stability in the Middle East.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-03-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 17 February (HL5889), whether they intend to collect data on the payments made to EU immigrants for their children living in their home countries.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

Around 7m people are receiving Child Benefit. To extract and collate the value of all payments made to EU migrants for children living outside the UK in the format requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Information relating to the number of Child Benefit claims paid to families with children living overseas is available in the Government publication , “The best of both worlds: the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union”. This publication is available on Gov.uk

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2015-10-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with King Abdullah of Jordan about his role in and responsibility for the oversight of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

King Abdullah raised his concerns over violence at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif site during the visit to Jordan in September by the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron). We regularly discuss measures to de-escalate tensions and maintain the status quo with all levels of the Jordanian government.

On 29 October the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), met a delegation of Arab Heads of Mission, led by the Jordanian Ambassador, to discuss the violence at the Holy Sites and the implementation of the recent Israel-Jordan agreement. He assured the Ambassador and delegation that we will do all we can to support efforts to de-escalate tensions and maintain the status quo, which includes encouraging all sides to respect the King of Jordan’s custodianship.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-03-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the death of an American tourist and the wounding of several citizens by a Palestinian in Tel Aviv on 7 March, whether they will press the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to condemn that, and other similar incidents, and to reduce incitement to violence.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We regularly urge the Palestinian leadership to do more to condemn violence. Most recently our Consul General in Jerusalem had a meeting on 9 March with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Hamdallah where we raised our concerns on incitement.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), issued a press statement on 9 March following the recent increase in violence, condemning the attacks on civilians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

We regularly raise incitement with the Palestinian Authority, and have urged key figures to encourage calm and condemn violence. We continue to support the reinstatement of the Tripartite Committee on Incitement as the appropriate channel to deal with allegations of incitement from either side.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2015-10-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what approaches they have made to the President of the Palestinian Authority about his comments that Israel intends to take over the Temple Mount and the mosque situated there.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), emphasised the importance of calming the current tensions when he spoke to President Abbas on 9 October. On 26 October, our Consul General in Jerusalem raised our concerns with Prime Minister and Minister for Interior, Rami Hamdallah.

Since the start of the current violence we have spoken regularly to both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Government on the need to de-escalate tensions, avoid any words or actions that could incite further violence, and maintain the status quo at the holy site of Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-03-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Health Foundation report A Perfect Storm: an impossible climate for NHS Providers’ Finances? which reports a shortfall in NHS funding of £2.8 billion in 2015–16 and predicts a widening gap between demand and funding levels despite proposed efficiency savings.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government has listened and responded to what the NHS has said about the profile of investment it needs to deliver the Five Year Forward View, and that is why we are investing an additional £10 billion that the NHS has said it needs to implement its own plan for the future – with £6 billion frontloaded over 2015-16 and 2016-17.

For next year (2016-17) we have created the Sustainability and Transformation Fund that will give the NHS the resources it needs to transform and create sustainable services for years to come.

Delivering the Five Year Forward View, including proposed efficiencies, will put the NHS on a financially sustainable footing by enabling the NHS to live within its means, eliminating organisational deficits and ensuring a balanced NHS budget in each year. We are putting the right measures in place to help spend taxpayer’s money more efficiently, and reduce variation and waste.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2015-11-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what conversations they have had with the government of Iraq about the recent attacks on Camp Liberty.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We strongly condemn the attack against the civilian residents of Camp Liberty in Iraq on Thursday 29 October. Officials from our Embassy in Baghdad raised the attack with the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office on Friday 30 October and made clear the importance of an urgent and comprehensive investigation into the incident and that all those responsible are brought to justice.

In all of our engagement with the Government of Iraq on this issue, including at Ministerial level and in our statements, we have emphasised the importance of the Iraqi government doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the residents of Camp Liberty. We support the UN calls for more to be done to protect the residents.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Turnberg on 2016-03-16.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the observations of the National Audit Office that there was a 7.2 per cent shortfall in nursing, midwifery and health visitor staffing levels in 2014.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department has set up Health Education England (HEE) to plan the future healthcare workforce for England. They are responsible for ensuring a secure workforce supply that reflects the needs of local service users, providers and commissioners of healthcare. There are already over 50,000 nurses in training. HEE has increased adult nurse training places by 14% over the last two years. HEE has also increased midwifery training places by 1.6% in the last 12 months and have confirmed their intention to maintain that number of places in 2017-18.

In addition to funding nurses through undergraduate training, HEE is running a return to practice campaign to attract nurses back to the National Health Service. This initiative has already yielded an additional 779 nurses available for employment now.