Tag: Parliamentary Question

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many take charge requests under each article of the Dublin regulations were (a) received, (b) accepted and (c) rejected by the Government in each month since April 2015.

James Brokenshire

Whilst all asylum claims, including those accepted under Dublin III, are registered on the main immigration database the specifics of each case are not currently available in the form requested as the data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically.

01/01/2023
Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his policy is on the future availability of protected sporting events on free-to-air television; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Ofcom Code on Listed Events ensures that key sporting events are made available for free-to-air channels. Our sport strategy, Sporting Future: A new strategy for an active nation, published December 2015, made clear that the Government does not propose to review this list.

01/01/2023
Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support the Government is providing to micro-insurance schemes in developing countries for the protection of livelihoods from the effects of climate change.

Rory Stewart

DFID’s work on climate resilience includes a number of weather-related microinsurance initiatives and a major research programme on scaling up microinsurance in the agricultural sector.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Lord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Lord on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of noise from Heathrow Airport on people living in the Woking constituency; and if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of an increase in such noise as a result of the construction of a third runway.

Mr John Hayes

The Airports Commission shortlisted three airport expansion schemes, two at Heathrow and one at Gatwick. The Government accepted the Commission’s shortlist in December 2015 and is considering all of the evidence, including on noise, very carefully before reaching a view on its preferred scheme.

01/01/2023
Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans her Department has to increase electricity generation in 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Andrea Leadsom

Our priority is to ensure that British families and business have access to secure affordable energy supplies. We are working with National Grid to make sure there is always sufficient generating capacity available to meet demand even in challenging conditions, such as extremely cold weather.

National Grid forecasts show Peak demand for electricity for 2015/16 and 2016/17 is expected to be broadly stable, which is consistent with recent trends.

Since 2014 National Grid have had the ability to procure a Contingency Balancing Reserve and they have secured 2.4GW of capacity through this mechanism to ensure supplies for this winter.

On 15 October, Ofgem commenced its consultation on the extension of the cost recovery arrangements for the contingency balancing services to allow National Grid’s contingency balancing services to continue for the winters prior to the introduction of the Capacity Market in 18/19. National Grid’s Tender for the Contingency Balancing Reserve (subject to the outcome of the Ofgem consultation) opened on 2 November. The Government supports the position taken by National Grid and Ofgem that Grid should retain the ability to procure the contingency balancing services for the next two winters and that this tool will help ensure sufficient margins until the first delivery year of the Capacity Market.

Beyond winter 2017/18, the Capacity Market will take over as the long term solution for security of supply, driving new investment in gas and demand side capacity in the future. The first Capacity Market auction was successfully concluded in December 2014 and the next will commence on 8December 2015. We have announced our intention to procure a total of 47.9GW capacity for the delivery year 2019/20 and that the target capacity for the auction this December will be 45.4GW. The balance (2.5 GW) will be procured in 2018, one year ahead of delivery.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 7.3 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what the evidential basis is for the statement that 150,000 part-time students could benefit each year from a new system of maintenance support by 2020.

Joseph Johnson

This will be a new product, which is likely to differ from previous packages for part time students. It is therefore difficult to accurately assess its potential impact at this stage. The figures given are an initial central estimate of the number of students who could benefit from the new scheme consisting of the current numbers of students together with an element of modest growth. We have announced we will consult on the detail of the package and this will enable respondents to submit evidence on the potential numbers of students benefiting from the proposals.

01/01/2023

Lord Greaves – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-01-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the expenditure on the provision of English courses for speakers of other languages (1) in further education colleges and other public sector bodies, and (2) in other ways, in each of the last 10 years, including the current academic year; which bodies will deliver the extra language tuition to be provided from the £20 million announced by the Prime Minister; and when that extra tuition will commence.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The table below shows estimated funding for adult skills budget ESOL provision from 2009/10 onwards. We do not hold data before 2009/10 or collect data by the status of the providers.

BIS funding for ESOL is allocated by the Skills Funding Agency as part of a provider’s adult skills budget. In addition, there are a number of ESOL courses funded through the Agency’s community learning budget, but we do not collect data which enables us to provide a breakdown of the expenditure on these. SFA-funded providers which deliver ESOL include Further Education colleges, local authorities and a few other providers. The Department for Communities and Local Government funds a range of organisations contracted to deliver their current community-based English language projects.

Our new £20 million community-based English language training offer will be informed by the findings of Louise Casey’s Review and the learning from the six community projects we have funded as part of our current integration programme. In particular, we will work with Louise Casey to identify the most isolated communities in England to make sure this programme is targeted at those women who need it most and on the detail of how it will be delivered. We are working towards as early a launch date as possible for the programme in 2016-17.

*YEAR*	*BIS ACADEMIC YEAR* ESTIMATED FUNDING* *(Adult Skills Budget)*	*DCLG FINANCIAL YEAR* *FUNDING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROJECTS*
09/10	£203m
10/11	£169m
11/12	£117m
12/13	£128m	£0.12m
13/14	£120m	£2.14m
14/15	£104m	£3.66m

*Funding values are estimated using data from the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). Estimated funding provides an indication of the level of government funding and should not be treated as actual spend.

01/01/2023

Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has access to the refugees in camps at Calais and Dunkirk; and if not, whether they will discuss the matter with the government of France.

Lord Bates

The UK is in regular contact with France on all matters related to Calais and the migration situation, and engages with EU and multilateral partners, including the UN on a wide range of migration issues in order to find an effective and sustainable solution.

The management of the migrant camps in Calais is the responsibility of the French Government. However, we understand that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has made visits to the camps in Calais and Dunkirk, and we note the welcome given by the UNHCR to the joint declaration to address the issues in Calais signed by the UK and France on 20 August 2015.

01/01/2023
Lord Falconer of Thoroton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many British nationals (1) were murdered abroad, and (2) died as a result of terrorism abroad, in each year since 2010.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not hold information on the total number of UK nationals who are victims of murder and manslaughter overseas, because we can only capture information about those cases of which we are notified. However, we have provided assistance in the following number of cases, recorded as murder or manslaughter, from 2010 to 2016:

2010 (68), 2011 (78), 2012 (53), 2013 (78), 2014 (84), 2015 (88).

The number of British nationals killed as a result of terrorism are not captured separately and are included in the figures above. In January 2015, the FCO established a new dedicated team to lead on murder and manslaughter cases.

01/01/2023

Kate Hoey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of Disclosure and Barring Service checks took (a) longer than eight weeks, (b) 12 weeks or more and (c) six months or more in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

The Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body which provides access to appropriate criminal record information for employers through its disclosure service for England and Wales. It also makes independent barring decisions about people who have harmed, or where there is considered to be a risk of harm to, a child or vulnerable person within the workplace. Given the sensitive nature of this work and the reliance on police forces to provide locally held intelligence, it would not be appropriate to introduce competition.

Whilst no assessment has been made of the affect of timeliness on the number of job opportunities which may have been lost, the impact which delays may have on applicants is recognised. The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.

The average end to end time taken to complete a DBS check, including the time taken by police forces, is listed in following table.

Financial Year	Average calendar days for a disclosure to be processed
13/14	11.5
14/15	14.4
15/16	14.5

The proportion of checks which took longer than (a) eight weeks (b) 12 weeks and (c) six months is listed in the following table.

Financial Year	Disclosures which took longer than 8 weeks	Disclosures which took longer than 12 weeks	Disclosures which took longer than 6 Months
% of Disclosures	% of Disclosures	% of Disclosures
13/14	2.6%	0.8%	0.0%
14/15	4.9%	2.1%	0.1%
15/16	5.2%	3.5%	0.3%

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01/01/2023