Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what further representations they have made to the government of Israel to enable the legal team headed by Baroness Scotland of Asthal that produced the report Children in Military Custody to re-visit and assess progress in that area.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have not made any further representations to enable the legal team to meet with Government of Israel. The issue of children in detention is a human rights priority for the UK. We are considering alternative options to encourage further progress.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total budget was for West Midlands police force in each of the last seven years.

    Brandon Lewis

    Details of core Government funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (and previously Police Authorities) are published annually in the Police Grant Report. These can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-finance Figures for 2010-11 to 2016-17 are shown below for information. Police and Crime Commissioners are required to publish annual group accounts showing the budget and expenditure for their respective police forces and their own offices, including precept and other local income. For West Midlands Police, these are available at http://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/transparency/budgetary-and-financial-information/statements-of-accounts

    Year

    Core Government funding (£)

    2010/11

    504,297,082

    2011/12

    497,784,836

    2012/13

    464,421,955

    2013/14

    472,809,895

    2014/15

    456,919,964

    2015/16

    433,573,284

    2016/17

    431,099,809

    Note: Some specific grants have been rolled into core Government funding over this period, including in 2012/13, the Neighbourhood Policing Fund and in 2014/15, the Community Safety Fund. This affects comparison between the figures over the period. Additionally, core funding previously paid by DCLG became part of Home Office core funding in 2013/14. These figures are included in all years to aid comparison.

  • Ms Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ms Margaret Ritchie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Margaret Ritchie on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking with the College of Emergency Medicine to help attract middle-grade and senior doctors to local hospitals.

    Ben Gummer

    Health Education England is working with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine to ensure they have a skilled, trained and motivated workforce in urgent and emergency care. This has included recruiting an additional 75 trainee emergency medicine doctors commissioned per year in 2014-2016, recruiting and appointing 29 international doctors in 2015 and supporting development of the multi-professional workforce.

    National Health Service organisations are best placed to determine the size and skill mix of the workforce they need to deliver safe care and how, through local campaigns, they attract middle-grade and senior doctors to local hospitals.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Danny Kinahan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2015-12-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the Exchequer was of disposing of illegal fuel in each of the last three years.

    Damian Hinds

    HMRC does not have specific figures for disposing of illegal fuel.

    HMRC fights fraud on a wide range of fronts, from special units performing thousands of roadside checks to raiding laundering plants. The UK has recently announced, jointly with Ireland, an improved new marker for rebated fuel, which will make it much harder to launder marked fuel and sell it at a profit.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for providing unmonitored mobile and internet communications to the people of North Korea as a contribution to breaking that country’s information blockade.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The provision of mobile and electronic communications are strictly controlled by the North Korean government. Supplying the population with mobile and internet equipment would require the consent and cooperation of the regime. Establishing an alternative system without the agreement of the North Korea government could be viewed as a violation of local laws; all our Missions overseas must abide by the law of their host countries and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. We regularly raise human rights concerns and freedom of expression.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if officials in his Department will have discussions with officials in the Department of Health on the establishment of a ring-fenced fund for local authorities to be able to disregard military compensation payments in financial assessments for social care.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Armed forces veterans injured in service receive payments through the War Disablement Pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme. The latter applies to veterans injured from 6 April 2005. These payments are divided into a personal injury compensation element and other payments. Traditionally, only the personal injury compensation payment has been fully disregarded.

    Since October 2012, Guaranteed Income Payments made to veterans under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme have been disregarded. The Department of Health has been in discussion with the Royal British Legion about how War Disablement Pension payments are treated. Currently, the first £10 per week of these payments is disregarded. The Government is considering how these payments to veterans should be treated in the financial assessment for social care charging in future.

    It is not the policy of this Government to ring-fence funding for particular purposes. This is to allow local authorities the flexibility to manage their own resources in the most efficient manner.

  • Clive Efford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Clive Efford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has had discussions with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) sporting stakeholders on setting up an independent body to fund research into anti-doping in sport; and if he will make a statement.

    David Evennett

    The World Anti-Doping Agency, to which the UK pays an annual fee, conducts research into anti-doping in sport that is utilised by national anti-doping organisations including UK Anti-Doping.

  • Ann Coffey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ann Coffey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Coffey on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offences with code (a) 17B, (b) 19D, (c) 19E, (d) 19H, (e) 20B, (f) 21, (g) 22B, (h) 74, and (i) 88A under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were brought to trial in Greater Manchester in each year since 2008; how many such trials resulted in convictions under each category; and what the conviction rate was for such offences in Greater Manchester in that period.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The number of defendants tried at and found guilty at Crown Courts in Greater Manchester, from 2008 to 2014, for selected sexual offences (with conviction ratio in this area) can be viewed in the attached table.

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33790, if he will raise with the UK’s European partners allowing Yazidi women in Iraq temporary residence in European countries to access medical and psychological support after rape and torture by Daesh.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We remain extremely concerned by the barbarity and inhumanity which Daesh has shown towards all Iraq’s communities, and welcome European partners’ support to the humanitarian response

    We understand the depth of feeling at the suffering which Yezidi women have experienced, and calls for them to be granted temporary residence. Our priority is providing assistance to Yezidi women, and other vulnerable Iraqis, within Iraq. We can help more people through providing aid in Iraq compared to bringing people to the UK.

    Through the Department for International Development we have committed £79.5 million to the humanitarian effort to help those who have fled Daesh’s brutality in Iraq. This support is reaching hundreds of thousands of people across the country, including the most vulnerable groups, which includes Yezidis. UK aid has provided medicine, emergency kits, psychological support, clean water and improved sanitation, shelter and cash assistance. The UK is the largest donor to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund. This is providing life-saving maternal and child health-care, child protection services, and specialised support for escapees of Daesh terror.

    All UK-funded aid is distributed on the basis of need, regardless of race, religion and ethnicity.

  • Lord Evans of Weardale – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Evans of Weardale – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Evans of Weardale on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the murder of Jo Cox MP, whether they plan to introduce national co-ordinating arrangements to provide a consistent level of security assistance to MPs or members of the House of Lords who have received direct or implicit threats as a result of their parliamentary duties; and if not, why not.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Following threats to MPs following the Parliamentary debates on Syria late last year, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the police, the Home Office and the House of Commons Security Department worked together to review the security measures available for MPs. Revised security advice and guidance, and a process to access funding for standardised security measures was sent to all MPs in January. In addition enhanced security arrangements are developed on the basis of specific intelligence.

    These measures have been reviewed in light of the tragic murder of Jo Cox. Where Members of either House are subject to abusive behaviour or receive threats, these should always be reported to the police.