The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, under which circumstances Southern Railway’s franchise would be withdrawn.
Claire Perry
Schedule 10.2 of the TSGN Franchise Agreement (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488198/tsgn-franchise-agreement.pdf p.506) specifies how this franchise can be terminated by the Department.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-01-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the effect on the number of school support staff of the Government’s policy to consider for deportation after five years non-EU migrants earning less than £35,000 per annum.
Nick Gibb
The Department does not collect data on the nationality or immigration status of the school workforce.
This is a local matter for schools and all schools must employ members of the school workforce in accordance with employment law.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many social media accounts promoting extremist content were recommended for closure by her Department in each of the last 12 months; and what proportion of such content related to Daesh.
Mr John Hayes
We have seen an increase in the scale and pace of terrorist communications by groups like ISIL, encouraging vulnerable young people to travel to conflict zones like Syria and Iraq. This Government takes seriously the threat from online terrorist and extremist propaganda, which can directly influence people who are vulnerable to radicalisation.
Since 2010 over 140,000 pieces of terrorist-related material have been removed by industry from various online platforms at the request of the dedicated police Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU). Approximately 55,000 removals were made in 2015 alone. Removal requests are now at over 1,000 a week and approximately 70% of CTIRU’s caseload is Daesh related.
We are pressing industry to take a lead in tackling the abuse of their services by terrorist and extremist groups.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much funding her Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
My Department has not received any funding from the European Social Fund in either of the periods requested. Implementation of the European Social Fund in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-04-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of claims that women refugees who are in the UK (1) are not guaranteed female interviewers and interpreters who have been trained in sexual violence and trauma, (2) are not always provided with childcare during interviews, and (3) are not given adequate information about their rights.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
When an application for asylum is lodged, all asylum seekers are provided with information, in a range of languages, about the asylum process including appeal rights and other rights and responsibilities. In addition this leaflet, entitled ‘Information about your asylum application’, also includes details of where asylum seekers can obtain information about local legal advisers and local and national voluntary sector organisations who can provide assistance. For instance Asylum Help (part of Migrant Help), is funded by the Home Office and have a presence at many of the initial accommodation sites across the UK as well as providing a multi lingual website and freephone service offering confidential and impartial advice and guidance to adult asylum seekers and their dependants.
Since April 2015, female asylum seekers are guaranteed a female interviewer at their substantive asylum interview. In addition we also provide female interpreters where operationally possible. All asylum interview officers and decision makers receive training on gender issues during their initial training, this includes information about dealing sensitively with sexual trauma and violence.
Childcare facilities are currently provided in our Cardiff, Leeds and Solihull interview suites, with similar provisions soon to be made available in Glasgow and Liverpool. We are working towards tendering a national childcare contract to enable facilities to be made available in all our asylum casework hubs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure the Education Cannot Wait fund for education in emergencies focuses on the most marginalised children including girls and children with disabilities.
Mr Nick Hurd
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 23rd May to Question number 37287.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve the performance of multi-academy trusts in which disadvantaged pupils perform below the national average for attainment and improvement.
Edward Timpson
Academies working together in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) are able to share resources and expertise to support disadvantaged pupils. The department’s analysis shows, as does that of the Sutton Trust, that there are MATs that can perform significantly above average despite high percentages of their pupils being disadvantaged.
We remain committed to achieving educational excellence everywhere and where there is underperformance, the academy system enables us to take swift action to tackle it. In addition, we are targeting £2.5 billion a year of pupil premium funding to support the most disadvantaged pupils.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2016-10-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to amending the Annual Data Requirement to replace the 16+1 ethnicity code based on the 2001 census with the 2011 census ethnicity category 18+1, to include Gypsies and Irish Travellers.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The ethnicity categories used for data collections are assessed as part of the Home Office’s process of agreeing the Annual Data Requirement (ADR). This is the list of mandatory data collections required from the police.
This process includes consultation with a range of stakeholders on the requirements for each data collection, together with consideration of the burdens involved in the collection (e.g. IT costs of implementation for police forces), and the likely quality of the data.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-11-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much has been spent to date on the new British naval base recently opened in Bahrain by the (a) Government and (b) Bahraini government; and what the value has been of services provided by the Bahraini government to that naval base.
Mr Julian Brazier
Currently the UK has a Maritime Component Command (MCC) HQ and collocated Fleet Support Unit (FSU), which is a warehouse,in Bahrain. These were constructed on our behalf by the United States, at a cost to the UK Government of $10million. The Government expects to pay the United States for the ongoing running costs of these facilities, the precise costs of which are yet to be determined. The Kingdom of Bahrain (KoB) has no involvement in these arrangements.
The construction of the new UK Mina Salman Support Facility (MSSF) in Bahrain will consist of accommodation, life support facilities and further storage and will enhance the support to UK forces in the Gulf Region. Construction of the UK MSSF is being funded primarily by the KoB. To date in 2014 and 2015 the UK Government has expended £277,000 on engineering consultancy costs for the UK MSSF. We expect to contribute around £9 million towards the construction of the new UK MSSF. This will include costs of bespoke UK technical facilities and the additional cost of ensuring compliance with UK regulations.The balance of the costs, will fall to the KoB.
There are no running costs forecast in the current year or 2016-17, from 2017-18 the running costs for the UK MSSF are forecast to be £12 million per annum.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Tyrie on 2015-11-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the probability that the net present value of each of the three shortlisted schemes examined by the Airports Commission is zero or negative.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Government is currently considering the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report before taking any decisions on next steps.
The Government will carefully consider all the evidence set out, including that on costs, when making a decision on additional runway capacity.