Tag: Parliamentary Question

Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dairy farmers have gone out of business in each of the last five years.

George Eustice

The table below shows the net change in the number of dairy farms. Data is only available on the total number of dairy farms in June and December of each year, so the table only shows the net change, rather than the number entering and the number leaving dairy farming. The latest data available on the number of dairy farms in England is for June 2015. This is shown below with data for the previous 5 years. The change in the number of farms includes new holdings which have been registered with dairy cattle, holdings that have ceased to have cattle and holdings that have merged.

The number of dairy cows on these dairy farms is also shown below. This shows that despite a 16% decrease in the overall number of dairy farms between June 2010 and June 2015, the number of dairy cows has remained almost unchanged, suggesting consolidation within the industry.

Date	Number of dairy farms^(a)	Number of cows in the dairy herd^(b)
Jun-2010	9 461	1 142 497
Dec-2010	9 287	1 147 450
Jun-2011	9 041	1 112 459
Dec-2011	8 823	1 105 290
Jun-2012	8 663	1 104 676
Dec-2012	8 503	1 107 045
Jun-2013	8 342	1 098 610
Dec-2013	8 197	1 124 368
Jun-2014	8 092	1 128 548
Dec-2014	8 051	1 150 007
Jun-2015	7 982	1 148 089
% change Jun15/Jun10	-16%	0.5%

(a) Sourced from Cattle Tracing System. Dairy farms are defined as the number of holdings with more than 10 cows in the dairy herd.

(b) Cows in the dairy herd are defined as female dairy cows over 2 years old in the milking herd (i.e. with offspring).

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01/01/2023

Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.

The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.

The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).

The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.

The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.

01/01/2023
Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will meet office bearers of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary Police Federation to discuss retirement age.

Andrea Leadsom

Yes. I will meet with the office bearers of the Civil Nuclear Police Federation and will be writing to them to this effect.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the overall financial value is of rolling stock orders placed by franchised operators since May 2010; and what the overall financial value is of such orders for rolling stock to be manufactured or assembled in the UK.

Claire Perry

The value of contracts are a commercial matter between the operator and the rolling stock owner. However, private investment in new and refurbished rolling stock since 1994 is in excess of £7.5 billion pounds.

01/01/2023

Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2016 to Question 40823, at how many academies did each regional school commissioner take formal intervention measures in 2015.

Edward Timpson

In the calendar year 2015, regional school commissioners took formal action in 115 academies; 72 academies were moved to a different sponsor and 43 academies were issued with a formal notice.

The table below shows the number of interventions in each RSC region:

East Midlands & Humber	23
Lancashire & West Yorkshire	9
North	3
North East London & East	22
North West London & South Central	12
South London & South East	12
South West	23
West Midlands	11
Total	115

01/01/2023

Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-09-15.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government who the current trade envoys are, what the total cost of their provision is, and whether they will produce a report on their work.

Lord Price

The current trade envoys are:

Trade Envoy	Market(s)
Adam Afriyie MP	Ghana
Rushanara Ali MP	Bangladesh
Richard Benyon MP	Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP	Egypt
Richard Graham MP	Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, ASEAN Economic Community
John Howell MP	Nigeria
Andrew Murrison MP	Morocco, Tunisia
Mark Prisk MP	Nordic and Baltic Countries, Brazil
Lord Hollick of Notting Hill	Tanzania, Kenya
Rt Hon. Baroness Northover	Angola
Lord Popat of Harrow	Uganda, Rwanda
Lord Risby of Haverhill	Algeria
Rt Hon. Lord Astor of Hever DL	Kazakhstan, Oman
Rt Hon. Lord Lamont of Lerwick	Iran
Rt Hon. Lord King of Bridgwater	Saudi Arabia
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne	Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan
Rt Hon. Lord Janvrin	Turkey
Baroness Morris of Bolton	Jordan, Kuwait, Palestinian Territories
Lord Faulkner of Worcester	Taiwan
Lord Puttnam of Queensgate	Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia
Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury	Mexico

The 2016/17 budget for the Trade Envoy Programme is £333,936.

Trade Envoys, and Posts, report on market visits and UK engagements to identify actions and outcomes on an ongoing basis.

01/01/2023

Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on support for people with mental health conditions who claim jobseeker’s allowance.

Alistair Burt

Ministers at the Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions met on 3 June and agreed to greater cross government working between our respective Departments. Following that meeting, the Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions Work and Health Unit was created to improve the health and employment outcomes of benefit claimants. Next year, the unit will launch a range of voluntary mental health and employment pilots to support working age individuals with or at risk of developing a mental health condition retain and return to employment.

We know that people come into contact with the welfare system at a time when they may be vulnerable because of unemployment and its associated consequences. The Department for Work and Pensions provides guidance and training for staff to help them identify and support people who may be vulnerable.

01/01/2023
Lord Mawson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2015-12-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what practical actions they are taking to promote and encourage inward investment into the Lower Lea Valley.

Lord Maude of Horsham

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) has overall responsibility for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK. For investors with an interest in London it shares leads with London & Partners (London’s promotional organisation) to land those investors here in what is a very competitive international market for FDI.

The Mayor of London is also responsible for attracting FDI into London and as such London & Partners also generates its own leads.

As part of its ‘UK First’ approach to attracting inward investment, UKTI actively supports these efforts and those of London Councils, including those that cover the Lower Lea Valley.

01/01/2023
Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons the National Offender Management Service decided not to impose financial penalties on private prisons on each occasion when such penalties were applicable in the last five years; and what the value of those fines so foregone was.

Andrew Selous

Performance points are accrued when a custodial service failure occurs. Charges are then applied when the total points exceeds the relevant performance baseline. A performance baseline is allowed in recognition of the complex operational nature of prisons where we know that there will be occasional incidents no matter how well the prison is run. This charge protocol is a longstanding practice in prison contracts.

The performance points, and subsequent calculated charges, are signed off by all parties at the Quarterly Contract Review Meeting. Following this meeting, charge payable will, without exception, be collected by NOMS.

01/01/2023
Rupa Huq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rupa Huq on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Egyptian counterpart on freedom of expression in Egypt.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), discussed human rights issues in Egypt with President Sisi during his visit to the UK in November. He raised a number of concerns, including around the detention of political activists, mass trials and restrictions on freedom of expression. In recent months the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have continued to raise these issues with the Egyptian authorities. Most recently, Simon Gass, FCO Political Director, met the Egyptian Ambassador to London in February and raised our concerns on alleged human rights abuses.

01/01/2023