The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Smith on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department issues on the import and use of fox urine for the purpose of trail hunting.
Rory Stewart
The Government has no plans to make an assessment or issue guidance on the import and use of fox urine for the purpose of trail hunting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2015 to Question 20110, what specific benefits the UK derives from membership of (a) the European Defence Agency’s Military Airworthiness Authorisation Forum, (b) European Defence Agency helicopter training programmes and (c) the Single European Sky initiative.
Mr Julian Brazier
The Military Airworthiness Authorisation Forum (MAWA) improves military aviation safety, reduces military air system acquisition costs, and increases interoperability through harmonisation of military airworthiness regulations. Significant cost savings in the Eurofighter Typhoon programme are likely because of MAWA work led by the UK, and our active involvement in the MAWA Forum provides the UK a position of influence across the Military aviation community.
The helicopter training programmes carried out under the European Defence Agency include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, and have derived unprecedented levels of interoperability.
Using standard operating procedures, derived in large part from UK methods, several hundred helicopter aircrew from across Europe have been exposed to, instructed in, and are now following the same procedures as UK aircrew. This means that future operations, be it under NATO, EU, or other coalition – are being de-risked through increased ability and greater interoperability. Our forces can use other nations’ helicopters safely, including for medical evacuation, confident of their in-combat ability while operating in the same manner as UK assets.
The Single European Sky and Air Traffic Management Research programme is analysing the implications for military operations of new legislation and equipment upgrade programmes supporting increased commercial aviation out to 2035.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to increase participation in modern foreign languages in primary schools.
Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to the teaching of foreign languages as part of a core academic curriculum. This is why a modern or ancient language is included within the English Baccalaureate performance measure. Since September 2014, maintained primary schools in England must teach a modern or ancient foreign language to pupils at Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11). Schools can choose which language or languages to teach and should enable pupils to make substantial progress in one language by the end of primary school.
To support the introduction of a compulsory foreign language at Key Stage 2, the government funded nine projects across the country to provide training for primary teachers. These projects have trained hundreds of teachers and provided online resources for training thousands more teachers.
The EBacc has had a positive effect on the take up of languages in schools, with a rise in the proportion of the cohort in state-funded schools entered for a modern foreign language from 40% in pupils in 2010 to 49% in 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure charities in receipt of public funds do not express a view on the forthcoming European Union Referendum.
John Penrose
The rules on campaigning at the referendum are set out in the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. There is no general restriction on institutions and organisations in receipt of public funds expressing a corporate opinion on the European Union Referendum. However, there are restrictions on organisations whose expenses are met wholly or mainly from public funds publishing certain material relating to the referendum in the final 28 days.
As the independent regulator for charities in England and Wales, the Charity Commission published guidance for charities on 7 March 2016 regarding the forthcoming EU referendum. This clearly sets out the threshold necessary to justify any charitable activity on this specific issue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-05-04.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why processing claims to the Flood Recovery Fund have been delayed, and when they estimate that the processing of such claims will be completed.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Farming Recovery Fund closed on 1 April in all areas except Greater Manchester, where it closed on 15 April. Of the total 1,103 applications received by 15 April, 515 were received in the week 28 March to 1 April and a further 18 were received by 15 April.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is taking measures to assess all the remaining applications received, including more staff resources and a review of the administrative checks required before approval. The RPA expects to process most applications by the end of May 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, which EU (a) legislative and (b) other proposals his Department is leading negotiations on for the Government in the Council of the EU.
Alun Cairns
None.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Attorney General, how many sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years.
Jeremy Wright
The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.
The number of offenders who have had their sentence increased under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.
|
Year |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
Offenders who have had their sentence increased by the Court of Appeal |
95 |
62 |
61 |
106 |
102 |
Some cases attract multiple referrals from various sources and we do not record how many referrals each case has received. The total number of cases where requests were received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed in each of the last five years is set out below.
|
Year |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
Total number of referrals received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed under the scheme |
377 |
435 |
498 |
674 |
713 |
The number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years is set out below.
|
Year |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
Total number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal |
117 |
82 |
70 |
122 |
136 |
|
Total number of sentences that were increased |
95 |
62 |
61 |
106 |
102 |
|
Total number of sentences that remained unchanged |
22 |
20 |
9 |
16 |
34 |
The number of referrals under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of the scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.
|
Year |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
|
Number of referrals that have been rejected due to the offence falling outside the remit of the scheme |
62 |
75 |
131 |
194 |
228 |
|
Number of referrals received out of time |
3 |
12 |
9 |
10 |
16 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will issue a response to Early Day Motion 448, on Death of political prisoners in Iran in 1988, tabled on 13 September 2016.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 17 October 2016 (PQs 47087, 47085 and 47084).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 9 January 2015 to Question 219449, what progress has been made in improving wheelchair services following the NHS England review.
Alistair Burt
Following the conclusion of its review NHS England has set up an improvement support programme working with 11 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to improve services for wheelchair users. The 11 CCGs are:
– North Yorkshire (NHS Harrogate and Rural District;
– NHS Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby;
– NHS Scarborough and Ryedale;
– NHS Vale of York CCG;
– North West London (NHS West London);
– NHS Hounslow;
– NHS Ealing;
– NHS Central London;
– NHS Hammersmith and Fulham;
– NHS Barnet; and
– NHS Brent.
NHS Improving Quality is supporting the programme which will run from September 2015 to March 2016 and include creating guidance, evidence and material to share with other organisations and communities.
NHS England has also introduced a new national wheelchair dataset with the aim of providing information centrally on the volume, expenditure, access to, and patient experience about wheelchair services to enable transparency and benchmarking. From July 2015, data are being collected quarterly from CCGs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the level of take-up by (a) micro, (b) small and (c) medium-sized enterprises has been of the cyber essentials programme.
Mr Edward Vaizey
At the end of March 2016, 2,181 Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certificates had been issued, of which it is estimated 28% were awarded to micro, 28% to small, and 22% to medium-sized businesses.