Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Ansell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Ansell on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Life Chances Strategy will include the provision of funding to support positive family relationships; whether funding under that strategy will include families with teenage children; and if he will make a statement.

    Priti Patel

    This government believes that families play an essential role in improving the life chances of children of all ages. As the Prime Minister announced in his speech on 11th January, funding for relationship support is being doubled in this Parliament with an extra £35 million to support family relationships. More details will be set out in the forthcoming Life Chances Strategy.

  • Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with the Brazilian government on ensuring the safety of athletes and tourists travelling from the UK for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I met the Brazilian Minister for Sport on 7 June and discussed preparations for the Rio 2016 Games, including security. The British and Brazilian Governments, as consecutive hosts of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, have cooperated across a range of areas in preparation for the Rio 2016 Games. We have shared our experience of hosting London 2012 through visits to both the UK and Brazil by security and safety experts and through regular discussion of athlete and tourist safety. In advance of the Rio 2016 Games, we encourage all visitors to Brazil to consult our ‘Stay ahead of the Games’ consular campaign, which provides further advice on how visitors can best ensure their own safety during Games time.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-07-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to provide legal support to children already in the UK who wish to sponsor their parents to join them, and for other complex reunion cases.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    UK Visas and Immigration issues guidance to help applicants, and the types of evidence requested to accompany an application – such as marriage and birth certificates – will usually be straightforward to collate. For these reasons, there are currently no plans to make changes to the legal aid provision in such cases.

  • Robert Neill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robert Neill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Neill on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Law Commission as part of its scoping work on reform of surrogacy law.

    Nicola Blackwood

    The Law Commission is currently consulting on proposals for its 13th programme of law reform, and has asked consultees for their views on whether a project about surrogacy should be included in the programme. The consultation closes on 31 October 2016. The Department wrote to the Law Commission on 20 May 2016 supporting the inclusion of a project about surrogacy in the list of suggested possible projects being considered for the programme. No discussions have taken place with the Law Commission about scoping.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to introduce blood tests for the detection of ovarian cancer on the NHS.

    George Freeman

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 23 November 2015 to Question 16523.

    “

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of (1) all multi-academy trusts, and (2) multi-academy trusts with at least five schools, achieve above average value added.

    Earl of Courtown

    Value added scores are routinely published for individual schools as part of the department’s performance tables, which include the functionality to filter results by an academy sponsor.

    The department does not publish a summary of value added scores for each academy chain or multi-academy trust. Simple aggregations of performance measures can lead to misleading conclusions about performance within a chain since they will often reflect the type of schools that have entered into the chain relationship.

    Earlier this year, the department published a statistical working paper to consider how these issues may be addressed and invited comments from users. This can be found in the attachment to this answer.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support the extension of democracy in Bahrain.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Governance of Bahrain is a matter for all political parties in Bahrain. We encourage all political parties, to engage constructively in political dialogue in order to reach an inclusive political settlement. Although we were disappointed by the opposition’s decision to boycott the 2014 elections, we commended the participation of a broad range of candidates which saw 14 independent Shia candidates win seats, of which three were women.

    We regularly discuss human rights and reform with the Government of Bahrain including at the biannual UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group meeting which was most recently held in November 2015. Reform programme activities delivered through the Causeway Institute have used lessons from Northern Ireland to improve community outreach and communication – particularly to a youth audience.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take, if any, in response to the Court of Appeal’s declaration, in relation to the case of David Miranda and the safeguarding of journalistic material, that Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 is incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

    Lord Bates

    The Court of Appeal’s judgment in the Miranda litigation dealt with Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 as in force at the time of David Miranda’s examination, which took place in August 2013. In March 2015, the Home Office updated the Code of Practice for Schedule 7 Examining and Review Officers to direct that examining officers may not examine material they reasonably believe to be journalistic using Schedule 7. Given this amendment, the government considers that Schedule 7 as currently in force is compatible with Article 10 of the Convention.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to support refugees in camps in the Middle East.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    At the Syria Conference the UK announced that we will more than double our commitment to the Syria crisis, to £2.3 billion. The UK supports refugees, displaced and vulnerable people and host communities across the Middle East including in Yemen, Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what meetings he has initiated on steel in the last two years.

    Anna Soubry

    It is an established convention that Ministers of one Administration cannot see the documents of a previous Administration. I am therefore unable to provide the information requested by the hon Member for the entire period given in his Question.

    I first met with Gareth Stace on 01 June 2015 and discussions with steel industry stakeholders continued thereafter to identify the policy priorities for dealing with the considerable challenges facing the sector. We convened a Steel Summit on 16 October 2015 which brought together all the major stakeholders, including key Government and industry participants as well as constituency MPs, recognising the significant part steel companies play in local communities. This led to the formation of three Ministerial Working Groups which took the lead on our efforts to deliver on the five key ‘Asks’ put to us by our partners in the steel industry.

    To ensure a sustainable future we set up the Steel Council, co-chaired by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to build on the achievements of the three previous Ministerial working groups, by looking at the longer term future of the sector and how we can strengthen the capability and competiveness of the UK steel industry both at home and globally. The Council met for the first time on 2 March.

    Since this Government took office, BIS Ministers have undertaken a number of visits to steel-producing sites across the UK, including: SSI Redcar; Tata Steel facilities at Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham; Celsa in Cardiff and the former-Tata Steel site at Motherwell recently re-opened by Liberty Steel.

    To date we have made significant progress in addressing the challenges faced by the industry, including:

    • Paying compensation towards their energy costs: the Steel industry has received £80m in compensation since 2013;
    • Exempting the steel industry from renewable energy policy costs passed through in energy bills: this will save the steel industry hundreds of £millions over the course of this parliament.
    • Securing flexibility over EU emissions regulations.
    • Making sure that social and economic factors can be taken into account when Government procures steel;
    • Continuing to tackle unfair trading practices at an EU and an International level.