Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support global efforts against schistosomiasis.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    DFID is a leading donor in the fight against schistosomiasis which is not only an incredibly debilitating disease, but holds back 200 million people globally from achieving their potential and contributing to the success of their country, not least economically. For this reason we are providing £50 million to deliver over 200 million treatments for schistosomiasis in ten Sub-Saharan African countries (2010-2018). These treatments are delivered by the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative which is based at Imperial College, London. To date nearly 60 million treatments have been distributed.

    The programme is also making a significant contribution to developing new knowledge on how to best reach our goal of elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem through operational research and working with partners globally.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to increase spending on research into brain tumours to enable faster diagnosis.

    George Freeman

    Spend by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health category ‘cancer’ has increased by a third from £101 million in 2010/11 to £135 million in 2014/15. There are no HRCS health sub-categories such as for brain tumours or other specific cancer sites and information on total current NIHR spend on brain tumour research is not held.

    The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including brain tumours. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.

  • Martin Docherty-Hughes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Martin Docherty-Hughes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martin Docherty-Hughes on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department holds information or documents on the Clydebank Blitz of March 1941.

    Mark Lancaster

    A search of the MOD archive has not identified any records on the Clydebank Blitz of March 1941; surviving documentation of that age is held at the National Archives at Kew.

  • William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    William Wragg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the prospects for the Middle East peace process.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We remain focused on steps which will secure progress towards a two-state solution. We continue to believe that the best way to achieve this is through negotiations. We are in close consultation with international partners about what kind of renewed process might lead to progress.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to end forced marriage worldwide.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    Ending Child Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) remains a high priority for the UK Government at home and overseas. The UK has demonstrated its leadership through co-hosting the first ever Girl Summit in 2014, which galvanized global action to end CEFM and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Following the Girl Summit 2014 the UK has continued its global leadership on ending CEFM, including through support for UN Resolutions and advocating for a separate target on ending CEFM within the Global Goals. The UK has supported campaigns and country-led Girl Summits through its overseas network, raising awareness of the impact of CEFM and ensuring global commitments translate into country-level action.

    The UK has committed £36 million towards ending CEFM around the world. This includes support for the UN’s Joint Programme to End Child Marriage working in twelve high prevalence countries and for grassroots civil society organisations working to challenge this harmful social practice. Domestically, the UK Government’s Forced Marriage Unit provides support to British Nationals overseas affected by forced marriage.

  • Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-06-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the current borrowing limits imposed on (1) the Scottish Parliament, (2) the National Assembly for Wales, and (3) the Northern Ireland Assembly.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    The Scotland Act 2014 permits the Scottish Government to borrow up to £2.2 billion for capital purposes and £0.5 billion to cover shortfalls in cash receipts. The Scotland Act 2016 provides for these to be revised in due course to £3bn and £1.75bn respectively.

    The Welsh Government may borrow up to £500 million to cover shortfalls in the Welsh Consolidated Fund as set out in the Government of Wales Act 2006. The Wales Act 2014 confers aggregate capital borrowing powers of up to £500 million on the Welsh Government. In response to a specific request from the Welsh Government, the Government has also provided early access to these capital borrowing powers in order to support the delivery of the M4 relief road.

    The Northern Ireland Executive has a statutory borrowing limit of £3 billion for capital purposes as set out in the Northern Ireland (Loans) Act 1975 as amended by the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006. The Northern Ireland Executive may borrow up to £250 million to cover shortfalls in the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund as set out in the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

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

    Lord Beecham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 1 August (HL1311), what progress has been made so far in relation to the consultation on the future of Sure Start; whether they intend to publish the result of that consultation; and if so, when.

    Lord Nash

    The Prime Minister has been clear that tackling poverty and disadvantage, and delivering real social reform, will be a priority for this Government. We will consider future policy on children’s centres as part of this. We will provide further detail in due course and will make clear how stakeholders and members of the public can contribute.

  • Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 12 October (HL Deb, col 1889), what correspondence there has been between the Department for Education and Brighton and Hove Council pertaining to questionnaires seeking information about children’s self-perception of their sexual orientation; and whether they will place a copy of that correspondence in the Library of the House.

    Lord Nash

    These questions refer to an answer given by Viscount Younger of Leckie on 12 October 2016, and also link to previous questions asked by Lord Macginnis, and answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford in April 2016.

    As Baroness Williams set out in her previous reply, the Department for Education provides guidance on the Equality Act 2010 to schools which contains advice on the Public Sector Equality Duty and on the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

    The Department is not responsible for the decision by Brighton and Hove Council to include gender identity information on the pupil registration form it issued in April 2016. The Council has the independence to make this decision. The Department has had no involvement and has not made any assessment of the questionnaire.

    The Department does not hold details of any additional information collected by local authorities outside of those required by the Department for our centrally specified, mandatory data collections. Brighton and Hove Council is responsible for securing answers and restricting access to information generated by any questionnaire it issues.

    The Department has not inquired into the gender identity of children in Brighton and Hove and has no correspondence on the matter.

  • Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-11-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 November 2015 to Question 14136, what work the Government has undertaken to implement the commitments made in paragraphs (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3, (d) 8 and (e) 10 of the 2013 Lough Erne G8 Leaders’ Communiqué since January 2014; and what assessment he has made of the level of progress against those commitments.

    Mr David Gauke

    Since January 2014 the Prime Minister has updated the house on 11 June 2014 and 10 June 2015 following the G7 Summits. The UK presidency focused on 3 Ts: tax, transparency and trade.

    On tax there has been significant progress on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) the major international agreement to realign taxation with economic activities and value creation. In October 2015 the OECD issued the final BEPS outputs, which were endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers. The UK has made significant progress including: consulting on implementing rules to address hybrid mismatches arrangements and issuing draft secondary legislation to implement Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting, a template for multinational companies to report profit and tax information to tax authorities, in the UK in line with the internationally agreed timetable. In addition, in February 2014 G20 Finance Ministers endorsed the OECD’s new global standard for Automatic Exchange of Information of tax. All G20 Finance Ministers committed to first exchange by end-2018 in September, with 10 G20 countries including the UK committing to begin exchange in 2017.

    With regards to transparency, in March 2015 the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act received Royal Assent, establishing a public registry of company beneficial ownership that will show who ultimately owns and controls in-scope UK companies. The register will be operational from June 2016 and the UK is undertaking a wider review of corporate transparency.

    On trade, the Government has furthered international free trade agreements (FTA), with negotiations on an EU-Canada FTA finalised in August 2014. The EU and Japan held a constructive round of Free Trade Agreements negotiations in October 2015. The EU-US FTA 11th Round of negotiations took place in Miami 19-23 October 2015.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Statement of 25 November 2015, Official Report, column 1361, what the evidential basis is for the statement that an investment of £800 million to fight tax evasion will return almost 10 times that amount in additional tax.

    Mr David Gauke

    Spending Review 2015 confirmed the additional £800m investment in HMRC, announced at Summer Budget, to tackle evasion and non-compliance, which will deliver an extra £7.2bn over the next five years – a return in tax revenue of almost 10 times the additional funding. The individual measures that the Government has provided funding for and the revenue they raise is set out on page 73 of the Summer Budget 2015 document. The assumptions and methodologies underlying all of the costings are set out in the policy costings document published at Summer Budget 2015. Both of these documents are available on www.gov.uk.