Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • James Cleverly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    James Cleverly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cleverly on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department had on the candidates for appointment for the post of Secretary-General of the Commonwealth before the most recent appointment to that post made at the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting in November 2015.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    ​​We demand a lot of the Commonwealth and had high expectations for the new Secretary-General. The UK wanted the strongest possible candidate to steer the Commonwealth through reform, to ensure that it has a voice on the most pressing global challenges and to unite countries behind the Commonwealth’s values such as the protection and promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. We assessed candidates for the position based on this criteria. We welcomed Patricia Scotland’s appointment as Secretary General in November 2015.

  • Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mary Glindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of child maintenance cases resulted in complaints in the (a) 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme, (b) 1993 legacy scheme and (c) 2003 legacy scheme; and what proportion of complaints were upheld in each year since 2010.

    Priti Patel

    From 10 December 2012 the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme was opened to new applications with at least 4 qualifying children with the same two parents named in the application. From the 29 July 2013 the scheme then opened to new applicants with at least two qualifying children with the same two parents named in the application. From November 2013 the scheme opened to all new applicants.

    For the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme in 2013-14 and 2014-15 the proportion of complaints received against the total caseload was 0.7% and 1.7% respectively.

    Following the launch of the 2003 Scheme for the years 2003-4 and 2004-5, the proportion of complaints received against the CSA caseload was 4.9% and 6.0%, respectively.

    For the 1993 Scheme (excluding complaints managed off system), which had been in operation for 17 years, and which had not admitted new cases since March 2003, the proportion of complaints received against the live caseload in the years 2010-11 to 2014-15 was 1.5%, 0.9% 0.7% 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.

    For the 2003 Scheme (excluding complaints managed off system), which had been in operation for seven years, and which had a reduced inflow of new cases following the introduction of the 2012 system, the proportion of complaints received against the live caseload in the years 2010-11 to 2014-15 was 1.9%, 1.6%, 1.4%, 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively.

    Figures show the number of complaints received against the live/total caseload. There will be cases which have more than one complaint.

    For the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme, information on complaints upheld is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    Data on complaints upheld includes fully and partially upheld complaints, but cannot be split between 1993 and 2003 Schemes. In the years from 2010-11 to 2014-15, the percentage of complaints upheld was 50.1%, 49.0%, 49.1%, 43.2%, 44.0% respectively.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects the Road User Satisfaction Report to be published for (a) Northwest Area 12, covering parts of Greater Manchester and North Yorkshire, (b) Northwest Area 13, covering parts of Cumbria and Lancashire and (c) North East and Yorkshire Area 14, covering parts of Durham and Northumberland; and for what reason those reports were not published at the same time as the other regional reports.

    Andrew Jones

    The Area User Satisfaction Survey (ARUSS) runs continually throughout the year across England. Results are provided for each area every 6 months on a rolling basis.

    Area 12 and Area 14 (Yorkshire and the North East)

    The report covering the period June 2015 to November 2015 will be available at the end of December 2015 and published on the Highways England website.

    Area 10 and Area 13 (North West)

    The report covering the period July 2015 to December 2015 will be available at the end of January 2015 and published on theHighways England website.

  • Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lisa Cameron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what baseline data collection her Department plans to undertake in Somalia and Zimbabwe to measure progress against the Sustainable Development Goals in those countries.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    In Somalia, one of the costs of protracted conflict has been the loss of national capacity to produce credible statistics. We are working with the UN and others to help rectify this, but it will be some time before proper baselines can be set across all of the SDGs. For now, we expect some progress to be made soon on the first five (covering poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality).

    In Zimbabwe, DFID has supported a number of data collections which will be used to help measure a baseline for SDG delivery. These include the 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), the 2016 Demographic Health Survey (DHS), and other data collections on Agriculture (including the Agriculture and Livestock Survey). DFID will also support a 2016 survey on Poverty, Income, Consumption and Expenditure (PICES).

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Government recognises the killing of the Yazidis by Daesh as genocide.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    I condemn the atrocities committed by Daesh against all civilians, including Christians, Mandeans, Yezidis and other minorities, as well as the majority Muslim population in Iraq and Syria who continue to bear the brunt of Daesh’s brutality.

    It is a long-standing policy of successive governments that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred are a matter for the international judicial system rather than governments or other non-judicial bodies.

    Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many warrants for the purposes of establishing whether women are being trafficked have been excluded by her Department in each local authority in Lancashire in each month in 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office does not hold this information centrally.

  • Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how the proposed cost savings outlined in the BIS 2020 programme have been calculated; and what estimate he has made of projected savings of relocating staff from the office in Sheffield to London.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has committed to delivering 30-40% reductions in the Department’s operating expenditure which equates to around £350m by 2020. Savings of this magnitude can only be delivered by changing the Department’s overall business model so that it is simpler, cheaper and better for users of BIS services. This involves reducing the number of offices, our number of partner bodies, and our headcount as well as rationalising customer support, grant giving and digital service delivery. The proposed move of policy teams into a single centre and proposed closure of the Sheffield office forms part of a larger programme to change our business model.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost is to the public purse of school expenditure on supporting pupils who do not have English as their first language.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Under current funding arrangements, local authorities devise funding formulae through which to distribute funding to schools in their localities. One of the factors local authorities can include is an English as an additional language (EAL) factor. EAL funding is determined on the basis of census data which records whether or not a pupil’s first language is English. In 2015-16, a total of £267 million was allocated through this factor to school budgets. This figure does not represent the cost of supporting pupils with EAL; instead, it forms part of the school’s core budget. It is then for school leaders to determine how best to use their whole budget so that all pupils can reach their full potential.

    We will introduce a national funding formula from 2017-18 so that funding is fair and matched to need. Our first consultation, which closed on 17 April, proposed that the formula should include an EAL factor. We are reviewing all the responses and will set out the precise detail of the formula in our second consultation, to be published later this year.

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral evidence given by Duncan McPhee to the Defence Committee on 7 June 2016, HC221, at Question 120, what discussions his Department has had with other public bodies on increasing the number of apprenticeships in the shipbuilding industry; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The number of apprenticeships in the shipbuilding industry is primarily a matter for the contractors concerned. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises the importance of apprenticeships in developing the essential skills needed by industry to deliver defence outputs. As one of the largest providers of apprenticeships in the UK, the MOD plays an important role in helping the Government meet its commitment to reaching three million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. We also work closely with colleagues across Government and industry to ensure that necessary defence skills are maintained. For example, as part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ‘Trailblazer’ programme, the Royal Navy is working with industry partners to develop new world-class apprenticeship standards for engineers working on shipbuilding and maintenance.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the press release by Natural England of 29 July 2016 to issue a licence for buzzard control, whether she plans to issue further such licences during the current Parliament.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    Responsibility for issuing licences for buzzard control is a matter for Natural England. All wild birds, including buzzards, are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 which makes it illegal to take, injure, or kill a wild bird, or to disturb them while nesting and protects their nests and eggs except under the authority of a licence.

    Section 16 of the Act gives provision for Natural England to grant a licence to manage wildlife for a number of reasons including preventing serious damage to livestock. Natural England considers each application on its merits but would not license any activity which would adversely affect the conservation status of a species.