Tag: Nicholas Soames

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is offering advice to African countries on desertification.

Mr Nick Hurd

DFID supports the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) which has had a strong impact on raising awareness of land degradation in Africa. The UK will hold the EU Presidency during the next UNCCD Conference of Parties and will champion the achievement of the land degradation targets agreed within the 2015 Global Goals.

DFID supports countries on desertification through our forestry and resilience work. For example the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) programme works with farmers in the Sahel on better natural resource management and regeneration. DFID also provides support to the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, through the International Forestry Knowledge programme (KNOWFOR), to help operationalise the ambitious targets of the Bonn Challenge. KNOWFOR helps countries assess the potential for restoration in their countries, developing tools and carrying out a range of analyses to support decision making, planning and attracting financing. 11 countries in Africa have so far pledged restoration targets (including Niger, Rwanda, Uganda, DRC and Ethiopia); the demand is growing as countries see the potential adaptation as well as mitigation benefits of restoring degraded land.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s definition is of a cyber act of war.

Penny Mordaunt

There is no set definition for an act of war, cyber or otherwise.

An "act of war" and "armed conflict" are not defined within the Geneva Conventions. It is a matter of interpretation as to whether the threshold (within the context of surrounding circumstances) between a skirmish and a state of armed conflict has been crossed. Most cyber activity is criminal in nature. A key requirement to determining if there is an armed conflict taking place would be the deliberate intervention of members of a state’s armed forces.

In determining if ‘cyber’ activity constitutes an armed attack, the UK view is that cyber-attacks can be considered as armed attacks if their consequences are essentially the same as those of a conventional kinetic attack. For example, theft of intellectual property would generally be considered to be a criminal act. However, if cyber-activity was performed on a scale which had sufficiently serious consequences for a developed economy, many States – including the UK – would likely regard this as an "armed attack".

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the local management structure is of the NHS in West Sussex.

Jane Ellison

NHS Improvement advises that the following National Health Service organisations operate in West Sussex and each has its own management structure:

― Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust:

https://www.bsuh.nhs.uk/about-us/

― Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation:

http://www.westernsussexhospitals.nhs.uk/your-trust/about/plans-strategies/

― Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust:

http://www.qvh.nhs.uk/about-us/

― Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust:

http://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/downloads/services/about-us.pdf

― Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust:

http://www.sussexpartnership.nhs.uk/about-us

― South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust:

http://www.secamb.nhs.uk/about_us.aspx

― Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust:

http://www.surreyandsussex.nhs.uk/about-us/about-the-trust/

― Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG):

http://www.coastalwestsussexccg.nhs.uk/about-cwsccg

― Crawley CCG:

http://www.crawleyccg.nhs.uk/about-us/

― Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG:

http://www.horshamandmidsussexccg.nhs.uk/about-us/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what grants her Department has paid to the RSPB in each of the last five years; and for what purpose each such grant was paid.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

Grant payments made by core Defra to the RSPB during financial years 2011-12 to 2015-16 are shown the table attached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made with the government of France on developing the scale and scope of the unmanned combat aerial vehicle programme agreed in January 2014.

Harriett Baldwin

The two year £120 million UK/France Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) Feasibility Phase commenced in October 2014 and is due to be completed in January 2017. In Amiens in March 2016, we agreed with the French Government to extend the Feasibility Phase through 2017. As well as developing jointly our understanding of the required technologies for future combat air systems, this will further define the scope of the next phase of the UCAS programme which is due to begin in late 2017 and will develop two full-scale UCAS demonstrators by 2025.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library copies of the service capitation rates for (a) Navy, (b) Army and (c) Air Command.

Mark Lancaster

I will place a copy of the Military Manpower Capitation Rates for financial year 2015-16 in the Library of the House, subject to the redaction of personal information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department has attracted in investment to regenerate the site of the Royal Hospital Haslar; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry

UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) Regeneration Investment Organisation is promoting the Royal Haslar Hospital site for international investment. To date, no investment has been attracted into the site by UKTI.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-06.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the vulnerability of the UK banking system to a Russian debt default; and if he will make a statement.

Harriett Baldwin

The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) within the Bank of England identifies, monitors and addresses risks to the UK financial system; including overseas exposures.

The FPC regularly publishes the indicators that it considers when formulating policy, and this includes all countries to which UK banks have large or rapidly growing total exposure. The most recent indicators (for Q2 2015) can be found on the Bank of England’s website using the link below.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/financialstability/Pages/fpc/coreindicators.aspx

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) volume and (b) value of (i) raw milk, (ii) butter, (iii) cheese, (iv) cream and (v) condensed milk was produced in each year from 1995-96 to 2014-15.

George Eustice

The information requested is set out in the tables attached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-12-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the (a) location and (b) budget is for each agri-tech centre in each year from 2016-17 to 2020-21.

Anna Soubry

The planned budgets (2016/17 to 2020/21) and locations of the four Centres for Agricultural Innovation are:

Centre for Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) – headquarters in York at the National AgriFood Innovation Campus in Sand Hutton

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21
£m	6.5	4.3	4.4	0.0	0.0

Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) – headquarters in York at the National AgriFood Innovation Campus in Sand Hutton

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21
£m	8.6	6.0	4.5	0.0	0.0

Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre (Agri-EPI) – hubs in Edinburgh, Harper Adams University (Shropshire) and Cranfield University (Bedfordshire)

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21
£m	5.3	3.6	3.0	0.0	0.0

Centre for Agricultural Informatics (Agrimetrics) – headquarters in Harpenden (Hertfordshire) at Rothamsted Research

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21
£m	3.2	2.9	1.8	0.0	0.0