Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that organisations providing humanitarian relief in (a) Madaya, (b) Daraya and (c) Aleppo have unimpeded access to the children in those areas.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK continues to call for full and sustained cease fire and humanitarian access to all besieged and hard-to-reach areas across Syria.

    The town of Madaya was reached on 25 September by a UN interagency convoy which delivered a range of desperately needed aid. This was the first convoy to reach Madaya since 30 April.

    The town of Daraya is now in regime hands and much of the population has been evacuated. The Assad Regime and its backers must ensure the protection of all of Daraya’s inhabitants and that opposition fighters are treated in accordance with international humanitarian law.

    The situation in Aleppo is atrocious as a result of increased bombardment by the regime and its backers in recent weeks, as well as a block on all humanitarian supplies. Fresh water supplies have also been cut off. The UK is working urgently with our international partners to pressure the regime and its backers to end the siege of Aleppo.

  • Kwasi Kwarteng – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kwasi Kwarteng – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kwasi Kwarteng on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will exempt companies which show a serious and sustained commitment to measurable and successful training from additional application and reporting requirements under the apprenticeship grant scheme.

    Nick Boles

    The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) is a £1,500 grant per apprentice payable to eligible businesses with fewer than 50 employees who hire an apprentice aged 16 to 24.

    To minimise burdens on employers, AGE is claimed through the training provider.

    AGE funding has been devolved to some city regions as part of increasing local decision-making powers.

  • Keith Vaz – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lorries were scanned by lorry body scanners in Calais before entering the UK in each month of 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border, Her Majesty’s Government cannot provide port specific statistics.

    Border Force operates a multi-layered search regime using a range of interventions to screen all freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed ports. This includes the use of specialist technologies such as Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging devices, heartbeat monitors and carbon dioxide detectors as well as physical searches by sniffer dogs, Border Force staff and specialist search contractors.

  • James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cartlidge on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will introduce legislative proposals to amend the provisions of the Pensions Act 2014 relating to the Pension Protection Fund capping to provide assistance to scheme members whose employers have entered into administration; and if he will make a statement.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Government is committed to the implementation of the Pension Protection Fund long service cap as described in the Pensions Act 2014.

    Before the primary legislation can be brought into force, a number of changes need to be made to secondary legislation, so that it will operate as expected in all cases. Therefore we cannot, at this time, commit to a particular implementation date.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been transferred from the UK to (a) Italy, (b) Hungary, (c) Croatia, (d) France, (e) Belgium, (f) Austria and (g) Germany under the Dublin III Regulation in the last 12 months.

    Karen Bradley

    An answer is still being prepared. We are currently extracting the data and need to ensure it is correctly quality checked to give the Hon. Member an accurate response and I will write to the honourable Member when it is finished.

  • Simon Hart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Simon Hart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Hart on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve safety for horses and riders on roads.

    Andrew Jones

    Rule 215 of The Highway code gives specific advice on approaching and overtaking horse riders and horse-drawn vehicles safely and with consideration. The theory test contains questions about how drivers should interact with horse riders and the hazard perception test includes a number of clips where horse riders are the hazard.

    The “Have Some Horse Sense on the road campaign was launched as part of the THINK! Road Safety Campaign and encouraged drivers to approach horses slowly and give them a wide berth when overtaking. This has been supplemented more recently by the THINK! Rural Roads campaign which reminds drivers to take particular care when driving along country roads.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) men and (b) women who will be in receipt of the state pension in each of the next 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The requested information is available from 2015/16 to 2020/21 in the table below.

    Forecast number of State Pension recipients (Great Britain and Overseas) by gender: 2015/16 – 2020/21

    Recipients of State Pension (thousands)

    Men

    Women

    2015/16

    5,523.1

    7,399.0

    2016/17

    5,648.6

    7,274.3

    2017/18

    5,765.3

    7,118.7

    2018/19

    5,850.8

    6,956.5

    2019/20

    5,822.0

    6,844.7

    2020/21

    5,804.7

    6,794.1

    Source: Budget 2016 medium term forecasts

    Projections beyond 2020/21 will be published in due course.

    These numbers include State Pension claimants living in Great Britain or Overseas.

  • Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2016-05-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether improving the accessibility and clarity of the rules covering family reunion, and ensuring that those rules were more flexibility applied, would prevent perilous journeys being undertaken by children seeking asylum in the UK.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Our family reunion policy is intended to allow immediate family members, who formed part of a family unit before the refugee fled their country, to reunite in the UK with the refugee and rebuild their lives together. Those family members can apply from the country in which they are resident.

  • The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Coventry on 2016-07-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the human rights situation in Bangladesh, especially in relation to the right to freedom of religion or belief.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Our assessment is that the rise in extremist attacks has increased pressure on religious minorities, including Hindus, in Bangladesh.

    The former Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), most recently talked to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh about the importance of countering extremism in the margins of the G7 meeting in Japan on 27 May. The former Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), raised this with Foreign Minister Ali on 5 July. The British High Commissioner regularly discusses these issues with Bangladesh government ministers.

  • Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-09-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will issue a response to Early Day Motion 400, on applying the results of experiments on animals to human patients, tabled on 5 September 2016.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Government considers that the carefully regulated use of animals in scientific research remains a vital tool in improving the understanding of how biological systems work and in the development of safe new medicines, treatments and technologies.

    At the same time, the Government believes that animals should only be used when there is no practicable alternative and it actively supports and funds the development and dissemination of techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs), in particular through funding for the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), and also through ongoing UK-led efforts to encourage greater global uptake of the 3Rs.

    Advances in biomedical science and technologies – including stem cell research, in vitro systems that mimic the function of human organs, imaging and new computer modelling techniques – are all providing new opportunities to reduce reliance on the use of animals in research.

    As part of this, Innovate UK, the NC3Rs, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council have produced a Non-animal Technologies Roadmap for the UK.

    The Roadmap offers an approach for the UK to develop, exploit and deploy new non-animal technologies for long-term economic and societal benefit. Integral to this strategy have been two Innovate UK industry-led competitions which have awarded approximately £7m in grant funding; “Developing non-animal technologies” and “Advancing the development and application of non-animal technologies”.

    EU and UK law requires safety testing on animals before human trials for new medicines can begin and animal research still plays an important role in providing vital safety information for potential new medicines.

    The Early Day Motion (EDM 400) rightly draws attention to the UK life science sector’s Concordat on openness in animal research which was launched in 2014, and provides new opportunities for transparency and debate in this area.