Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward measures to incentivise businesses to use recyclable materials in their packaging; and if she will give consideration to whether businesses which choose to use non-recyclable materials when a recyclable alternative is viable should be subject to financial penalties.

    Rory Stewart

    Developing and securing sustainable end markets for recycled materials is key to delivering a circular economy.

    Working through the Waste and Resources Action Programme we have developed and delivered a number of activities in support of both the use of recycled materials in new products, and on activities to stimulate its demand.

    For example, the Plastics Industry Recycling Action Plan has identified key actions that need to take place across the whole supply chain to ensure that recycling plastics packaging can be done sustainably. This includes design for recyclability, collections and sorting, reprocessing and development of sustainable end markets.

    Another example is the Courtauld Commitment, a voluntary agreement aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing the carbon and wider environmental impact of the grocery sector. Phase 3 ran from 2013 until 2015. Specifically on packaging, it looked to improve packaging design through the supply chain to maximise recycled content as appropriate, improve recyclability and deliver product protection to reduce food waste, while ensuring there was no increase in the carbon impact of packaging by 2015, from a 2012 baseline. The interim results released in January 2015, showed an approximate 4.5% reduction in carbon impacts of packaging – well ahead of the 2015 target of zero increase.

    However, while we can encourage design for recyclability, it is ultimately the decision of the business that make the product to decide what packaging materials they use based on a number of functionality requirements. We are making it easier for businesses to adopt eco-design principles by ensuring access to a range of free advice and guidance on packaging design and issues which should be considered when designing packaging.

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the funding formula is that was used for the 2016-17 allocation of Rural Services Delivery Grant.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Rural Services Delivery Grant is distributed to the top quartile of authorities ranked by their super-sparsity, as calculated using data from the 2011 Census. The amount that each authority receives is dependent on their super-sparsity above the threshold value of 0.089302, their total resident population (calculated using information from the 2011 Census) and the types of services that the council delivers. Further information on the methodology can be found in Part K of the 2014-15 Local Government Finance Report.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people of each nationality detained between 2005 and 2015 for the purpose of removal had been previously detained for the same purpose and released.

    James Brokenshire

    The information requested is not routinely collected and could be provided only by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate cost.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to publish information on high quality higher education providers obtaining foundation or taught degree awarding powers on a probationary three year time-limited basis.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Higher Education and Research Bill provides for a power to authorise Degree Awarding Powers on a time-limited basis. We intend this to be the vehicle to implement the concept of probationary Degree Awarding Powers, which was set out in our White Paper ‘Success As A Knowledge Economy’.

    Subject to the passage of the Bill, we plan to consult on the detail of the proposed changes to the Degree Awarding Powers, leading to new criteria and guidance. This would include the requirements and processes that will apply to providers seeking probationary taught or foundation Degree Awarding Powers. As now, we intend that details of all providers who have obtained Degree Awarding Powers will be publicly available. We envisage that this would indicate which providers have obtained those powers on a probationary basis.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-10-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many claims made by young asylum seekers in Calais in the past 12 months are still being processed; and how long is the average process time for such cases.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The number of asylum claims made in France over any given period, and their outcome, is a matter for the French authorities.

    The Dublin Regulation is the mechanism for determining responsibility for considering an asylum claim. If accepted for transfer to the UK, the asylum claim is considered in the UK after the individual has been transferred.

    The Home Office has accepted responsibility to consider the asylum claims of over 80 unaccompanied minors from France under Dublin since the start of the year and many more are in train.

    Dublin transfer requests involving children are now generally processed within 10 days by a dedicated team in the Home Office. Children can then be transferred within weeks and are now arriving in the UK on an almost weekly basis. A senior Home Office official has been seconded to the French Interior Ministry to help speed up the process of identifying children who may qualify for transfer to the UK.

  • Toby Perkins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Toby Perkins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what role he expects the Single Source Regulation Office to have in the procurement of the Successor class submarine.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    All contracts related to the Successor programme that meet the conditions set out in Section 2 of the Defence Reform Act will be Qualifying Defence Contracts (QDCs) as defined by the Act and so subject to reporting to the Single Source Regulation Office.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) jobseekers’ allowance and (b) universal credit claimants have been (i) referred for an assessment of the their English language skills, (ii) mandated to undertake learning following such an assessment and (iii) sanctioned for failing to attend such learning sessions.

    Priti Patel

    In the 2013/14 academic year, there were 57,200 starts to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training aims by JSA and ESA (WRAG) claimants, and 72,700 in total by all claimants (excluding UC) in England only. This includes starts to training as part of the English Language Requirements (ELR) policy. DWP does not currently hold data on the number of claimants starting ESOL under UC.

    DWP does not hold specific data on the number of sanctions for failing to attend ESOL training.

    Information on the number of starts to DWP-funded ELR training in Scotland Wales is not readily available and has not previously been published as official statistics. DWP is exploring publishing these statistics in summer 2016 as an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in (a) each year since 2010 and (b) each month of 2015.

    Jane Ellison

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14 January 2016 to Question 21900.

    It is not possible to provide a breakdown of monthly spend on treatment for drug and alcohol addiction due to disproportionate cost.

    “

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people are employed in maintained nurseries in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The following table provides the full-time equivalent and head count number of workforce staff in service in local authority maintained nursery schools in Burnley parliamentary constituency, Lancashire local authority, North West region and England, November 2014. The figures are from the school workforce census and are the latest available.

    Burnley

    Lancashire

    North West

    England

    Total regular FTE workforce[1]

    67

    233

    774

    6,142

    Total regular head count workforce1

    82

    295

    992

    8,327

    [1] Excludes occasional teachers and third party support staff.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the remit is of the NATO operation in the Aegean Sea relating to the refugee crisis.

    Mr David Lidington

    I refer the Hon. Member to answers the Secretary of State for Defence, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr Fallon), gave to the House on 7 March (Official Record, Cols 23-37). The purpose of this NATO operation is to provide monitoring, surveillance, and reconnaissance (MSR) of the Aegean migration routes to better enable Turkish and Greek coastguards and Frontex (the EU’s border management agency) to intercept the migrant boats and disrupt the business model of illegal migration. It is worth noting that the formal mandate of NATO’s activity is neither interdiction nor search and rescue, but if UK vessels encounter migrants in distress at sea, they will be rescued in accordance with international obligations and arrangements made for them to be returned to land.