The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Corston on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Chairman of Committees when the current contract for floristry services is due for renewal.
Lord Laming
The floristry services contract is due for re-tender ahead of the expiration of the current contract, in September 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-02-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will suspend their new policy, announced on 6 February, on charitable sector campaigning, in the light of the announcement by the Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock MP that the sector would face additional restrictions on such activity, so as to allow time for parliamentary debate on this issue.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The announcement on 6 February was on a new clause for all government grant agreements. It is not specific to Charities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull on 2016-03-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish a full list of the subjects for which the equivalent or lower qualifications rule will be relaxed, as announced in the 2015 Spending Review and Autumn Statement.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Part time students studying for a second degree in subjects allied to medicine; biological sciences; veterinary sciences, agriculture and related subjects; physical sciences; and mathematical sciences will be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the 2017/18 academic year. These are in addition to the exemption for part time technology, computer science and engineering degrees introduced in 2015/16. Subject lists below these broad headings are published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/component/content/article?id=1787
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of damage caused to the gardens of urban and rural householders by badgers in England.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Defra is not aware of any studies that quantify the extent of garden damage by badgers. Where serious damage is, or is likely to be, caused by badgers or their setts, there is provision within the legislation for action to be taken under licence. Garden damage due to foraging alone is not normally considered sufficiently serious to warrant the issue of a licence.
Natural England receives around 800 licence applications per year to interfere with badger setts. Of these, just over 50% relate to damage caused by badgers but not all involve residential properties or gardens. With regard to gardens, the usual action is to exclude badgers from the sett and proof the area against further damage. There is a presumption against licensing trapping and relocating badgers on disease and animal welfare grounds.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to ask NHS England to publish the initial Sustainability and Transformation plans submitted on 15 April 2016 to permit scrutiny of those plans.
George Freeman
The arm’s length bodies that developed the NHS Five Year Forward View – NHS England, NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission, Public Health England, Health Education England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – plan to publish Sustainability and Transformation Plans once they are final. They do not plan to publish the April submissions, on the basis that they are not formal plans but set out only an interim position.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-07-07.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans for the EU Unit to include voluntary sector representation or request input from that sector.
Mr Oliver Letwin
The new Europe Unit will bring together officials with a wide range of policy expertise from across Government. Many interest groups have directly approached Government Ministers, and Departments will look to ensure stakeholders’ views are properly captured and considered.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by his Department are non-UK nationals.
Joseph Johnson
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the recording of food crime as an identifiable category of crime in police databases.
Jane Ellison
I regularly attend the Inter Ministerial Group on food crime, which includes representation from the Home Office.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government is offering to the government of Lebanon on the distribution of central resources to municipalities to enable host communities to assist refugees; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK is providing £9 million this year to support the Lebanese Host Community Support Programme. This programme is aimed at providing basic services to 49 of Lebanon’s most vulnerable municipalities (those most affected by the pressures of hosting large refugee communities). It is jointly run by the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The programme does not use central government resources, but the Government of Lebanon does provide strategic direction through consultations with UNDP. We hope that their involvement will help to strengthen their capacity to respond to the Syria crisis.
Since the start of the Syria crisis the UK has contributed over £330 million to help maintain Lebanese stability.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness King of Bow on 2016-01-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets currently receive Universal Credit.
Lord Freud
The latest published statistics show that, as at December 2015, there were 1,409 Universal Credit claimants in Tower Hamlets.