The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provision for language interpretation services has been provided for Eritrean nationals in Calais who may lack the necessary level of English to complete an asylum request.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Responsibility for the processing of asylum claims in Calais is a matter for the French Government.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2016-06-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Iran about the protection of the human rights of Iranian women and scholars.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
As mentioned in the 2015 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Human Rights report, women do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men in Iran and continue to face discrimination. There are continued restrictions on freedom of expression and belief. We repeatedly call on the Iranian government to guarantee the human rights of all Iranians and will continue to do so. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), most recently raised the issue of human rights with Foreign Minister Zarif when they met on the 17 May.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2016-09-02.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the contribution of the hon. Member for South West Hertfordshire on 28 June 2016, HC Deb, column 161, what his policy is on whether there is a minimum number of countries that need to be signed up to public country-by-country reporting before the UK will introduce such reporting.
Jane Ellison
For public country-by-country reporting to be effective, there needs to be sufficient international agreement. There needs to be a breadth of information from UK and foreign headquartered multinationals so that the full picture of multinationals’ activities, profits and tax paid is shown to the public.
A multilateral agreement is key to the success of the OECD country-by-country reporting model, the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, and the automatic exchange of company information.
These actions show that a multilateral approach to greater tax transparency is achievable and the Government will continue to discuss this with international partners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stella Creasy on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the letter from the Immigration Minister to all local council leaders of 8 September 2016, if she will publish the number of places pledged by each local authority area for those unaccompanied refugee children as identified by section 67 of the 2016 Immigration Act to date.
Mr Robert Goodwill
There are currently no plans to publish the number of places pledged by each local authority area for those unaccompanied refugee children as identified by section 67 of the 2016 Immigration Act. The Home Office publishes the number of asylum claims from unaccompanied children as part of the quarterly immigration statistics release. According to the latest release, in the year ending June 2016 there were 3,472 asylum claims from unaccompanied children. The full statistics can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2016/asylum#unaccompanied-asylum-seeking-children
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Walmsley on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what calculation they have made of how much (1) UK tax has been paid by PFI investors on profits and equity gains, and (2) corporation tax has been collected from PFI companies, in each tax year since the inception of PFI contracts for health service projects.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HM Treasury does not collect or publish taxation information for any Private Finance company including those within the health sector.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of UK businesses that do not have access to broadband with speeds above 24Mbps.
Mr Edward Vaizey
According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report 2015, published on 1 December 2015, superfast broadband coverageis now available to 68% of small and medium businesses (SMEs) – up from 56% last year– a very substantial increase.
In addition, the £40 million government-funded Broadband Connection Voucher Schemehas benefitted well over 50,000 SMEs,who employ up to 1 million people across the UK; and we are on track to hit 95% superfast broadband coverage across the UK by 2017. In addition, the PM recently announced the ambition to give people the legal right to request a connection to broadband with speeds of 10 Mbps, no matter where in the country they live.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2016 to Question 20602, how many of the 183 Ministry of Defence public relations staff referred to are (a) based in Scotland, (b) have duties relating to Scotland.
Mark Lancaster
There are 12 Defence press and public relations posts based in Scotland, all of which have duties relating to Scotland.
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Royal Navy |
4 |
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Army |
4 |
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Royal Air Force |
4 |
Defence press and public relations personnel provide a UK-wide service and therefore would deal with matters relating to Scotland when required.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Lord on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to create additional capacity on peak weekday rail services on the South West Main Line between Woking and London Waterloo.
Claire Perry
In March 2015, I announced a £50 million investment to deliver improvements across the South Western franchise before the end of the current franchise in 2017. This package of improvements included an additional Monday to Thursday late night service from London to Woking, and new ticket machines at Woking and London Waterloo Stations.
An additional 108 carriages are being added to the South Western franchise which should all be in passenger service by March of this year, with a further 150 carriages on order and due to arrive in 2017. These additional carriages provide additional capacity across a number of the routes operated, including those serving Woking.
The Department is running a competition to award the next South Western franchise, which is expected to start in 2017. The detailed franchise specification will be finalised following analysis of the responses to the public consultation, which closes on 9 February. It is expected that bidders will be asked to make proposals to provide capacity where it is needed most.
With regard to road links, Highways England is currently making improvements to the nearby M3 by constructing a smart motorway between junctions 2 and 4a (13.4 miles/21.6km). The aim of smart motorways is to help relieve congestion by using technology to control traffic flows, to assist in the management of incidents and provide information to road users. They deliver these benefits at a significantly lower cost than conventional motorway widening and with less impact on the environment during construction. This is achieved by converting the existing hard shoulder to a permanent running lane. Work started in November 2014 and is expected to be completed towards the end of June 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 25603, on NHS: Finance, how many meetings Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority has had with NHS trusts to agree plans to improve the financial position of those trusts since 5 February 2016.
Ben Gummer
As part of Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority’s fundamental roles, they have regular contact with all trusts and foundation trusts regarding financial planning. This contact is undertaken in various ways from face to face meetings with senior leaders to larger scale events.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the financial accountability of government in Wales.
Guto Bebb
In order to become truly accountable to the people of Wales it is vital that the Welsh Government takes more responsibility for raising, through taxation, the money that it spends.
We will, as part of the Wales Bill, remove the requirement for a referendum before the devolution of powers to vary the rates of income tax in Wales.