Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what value and proportion of spending by his Department that was counted as Official Development Assistance was subject to the provisions of the International Development Act 2002 in each of the last three years.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    In the last three calendar years, my Department has spent £1,429,000 on Official Development Assistance (ODA). On an annual basis this can be broken down as £700,000 in 2013, zero in 2014 and £729,000 in 2015. For the years with expenditure this represents 0.01% and 0.05% of resource expenditure respectively.

    It should be noted that ODA is calculated on a calendar year basis, and my Department’s expenditure figures are on a Financial Year basis (Apr-Mar). As such, these percentages are indicative.

  • Margaret Beckett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Margaret Beckett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Beckett on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the letter from the National Security Adviser to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy of 10 March 2016, how many GCHQ staff were (a) recruited to and (b) completed the GCHQ cyber apprenticeship scheme in each year since 2012.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Since 2012 the scheme has already provided over 70 highly skilled new entrants to the GCHQ workforce. Of the 18 students who joined the GCHQ apprenticeship scheme in September 2012, over 60% successfully graduated from the course in 2014 and joined the GCHQ workforce. In September 2013, the nature and scale of the apprenticeship scheme changed as it expanded to become a scheme covering the whole of the SIA: all three of the UK’s intelligence Agencies (MI5, SIS and GCHQ) now directly recruit successful graduates from the scheme, which means that the exact number of apprentices each year cannot be openly released for security reasons. I can confirm however that over 160 new apprentices have joined the scheme since 2013, and of these a substantial majority are expected to join GCHQ when they graduate.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what regulations are (a) in place and (b) under consideration to support the meteorological use of drones.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    There are no regulations that apply specifically to the meteorological use of drones. In order to fly a drone for commercial purposes, a permission from the Civil Aviation Authority is required, in accordance with the Air Navigation Order 2009.

    There is no plan to introduce specific regulations to support the meteorological use of drones, however Government continues to keep under careful review whether there is any need for further domestic legislation of drones.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her most recent estimate is of the number of UK citizens who have travelled to fight with Daesh in Syria and Iraq; and how many such persons have since returned to the UK.

    Mr John Hayes

    Approximately 850 UK linked individuals of national security concern have travelled to engage with the Syrian conflict. We estimate that just under half of those have returned and approximately 15% are deceased.

  • Helen Grant – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Helen Grant – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Grant on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she has taken to work with the gambling industry on the regulation of fixed odds betting terminals.

    Tracey Crouch

    A: In April 2015 the Government introduced regulations which require authorisation of stakes over £50 on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) through a “verified account” or staff interaction. The bookmakers shared data with my officials and the Gambling Commission to enable Government to conduct an evaluation of the £50 regulations, published on 21 January. The evaluation can be found here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-gaming-machine-circumstances-of-useamendment-regulations-2015

    In addition, the Association of British Bookmakers introduced a Code for Responsible Gambling in 2013, updated in 2015, which includes a number of measures relating to FOBTs including the ability to set time and spend limits on gaming machines, the ability to access player statements, and the introduction of Player Awareness Systems which use data analytics to intervene where customers behaviour indicates they may be experiencing problems in their play. The Government meets regularly with industry to discuss player protection measures.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, to which destinations (a) Ministers and (b) officials of her Department have taken flights as part of their official duties since her appointment.

    Rory Stewart

    DFID publishes information about flights and other expenses incurred on Ministerial and senior official overseas trips on a quarterly basis on www.gov.uk.

    “

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, which regulations his Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015 to date; which regulations his Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.

    David Mundell

    I refer the hon Member to the answer given by my Rt hon Friend the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise (Anna Soubry) on 11 November 2015.

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department plans to take account of the conclusions of the United Nations/World Health Organisation Second Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety when preparing the UK’s response to the next set of Sustainable Development Goals.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    Road traffic injuries cost developing countries an estimated 1-2% of their gross national product, equivalent to over US$100 billion annually, with a widening of the disparity between advanced and developing countries. Road accidents kill an estimated 1.3 million people and injure up to 78 million people each year.

    We are pleased that the burden of road crashes has been recognised in the Sustainable Development Goals and we are committed to supporting the international community to achieve the target of halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020.

    DFID recently increased its funding to the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) hosted at the World Bank and will contribute £4.5 million between 2013 and 2017. The GRSF provides funding, knowledge, and technical assistance that lever road safety investments into transport sector programmes.

    We also focus on road safety through our research and evidence portfolio. For example our programme on High Volume Transport and the programme “Research for Community Access Partnership” (ReCAP) both have strong road safety research components. DFID also supports a programme in Nepal working to improve road infrastructure for road safety on a critical section of Nepal’s national network.

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many applications for the High Speed 2 (a) need to sell scheme and (b) exceptional hardship scheme have been received from constituents in Chesham and Amersham constituency; how many of those applications have been completed with the property now in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd; how many of those properties in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd have been (i) sold, (ii) rented and (iii) remain vacant; for how many of those applications that have been accepted the price has not been agreed; how many of those applications are awaiting a decision on whether they will be accepted; how many of those applications have been rejected; and of those rejected how many times each such application has been rejected and for what reasons.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The information requested is in the table below:

    Chesham and Amersham constituency

    (a) Need to Sell (NTS) scheme

    (b) Exceptional Hardship Scheme (EHS)

    Applications received

    34

    49

    Applications accepted

    17

    12

    Applications rejected

    8

    31

    Applications withdrawn

    1

    6

    Applications pending a final decision

    8

    0

    offers made

    12

    12

    offers accepted

    10

    9

    offers declined/no longer active

    0

    3

    Properties acquired

    6

    9

    How many of those properties in the ownership of the Government or HS2 Ltd have been:

    (i) sold

    0

    (ii) rented

    10 (with 2 under offer)

    (iii) remain vacant

    3

    (a) Need to Sell (NTS) scheme

    (b) Exceptional Hardship Scheme (EHS)

    Total number of unsuccessful applications (of which were reapplications)

    8 (1)

    31 (5)*

    Unsuccessful for reasons including criterion 1 (Property Type)

    1

    1

    Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 2 (Location of property)

    2

    18

    Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 3 (Effort to Sell and impact of blight)

    3

    23

    Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 4 (No prior knowledge)

    0

    0

    Unsuccesful for reasons including criterion 5 (NTS-Compelling reason to sell/EHS- Exceptional Hardship)

    6

    25

    *of the five rejected reapplications none are from the same applicant.

    “

  • Lord Harrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Harrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the finding of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year An Unholy Mess that a significant number of religiously selective schools are asking parents for information they do not need, and are not allowed to ask for, such as the predicted grades of their children, and how this could be prevented in future.

    Lord Nash

    Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

    Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the Code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant without undue delay. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

    We continue to keep the Code under review, and, where we consider any changes are necessary to make the admissions system work more effectively for parents, these will be subject to a full public consultation.