The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to upgrade the Skynet A5 satellite system.
Harriett Baldwin
We currently have no plans to upgrade the specific SKYNET 5A satellite. The Ministry of Defence is currently examining options to sustain the capability currently provided by the Skynet constellation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many drones have been intercepted operating over prisons in England and Wales (a) in 2015 and (b) from January 2016 to date.
Mr Sam Gyimah
There were 33 incidents relating to drones reported by prisons in 2015. This includes finds, interceptions and sightings of drones in and around prisons in England and Wales. The Ministry of Justice intends to routinely publish information on prison drone incidents in the future and 2016 data will be provided in due course as part of the publication schedule.
We remain vigilant to all incidents involving drones and take the threat they pose to prison security very seriously. A range of methods to counter the threat posed by drones are being trialled and evaluated for their effectiveness across the prison estate. We have already introduced new legislation to further strengthen our powers, making it illegal to land a drone in prison or to use a drone to drop in contraband. Anyone found using a drone in an attempt to get contraband into prisons can be punished with a sentence of up to two years imprisonment. We take a zero tolerance approach to smuggling of contraband into prisons and work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to ensure those caught are prosecuted.
Note: All figures have been drawn from live administrative data systems. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the appropriateness of the use of amalgam in dental fillings.
Alistair Burt
Dental amalgam has been in use for over 150 years to restore teeth in millions of patients and, apart from rare instances of hypersensitivity, no adverse reactions have been identified. Alternative dental restorative materials are not so easily, quickly and reliably placed. Neither are they so durable. Due to improvements in oral health, the number of restorations is decreasing with the result that the safe management and disposal of dental amalgam is more easily achieved.
The World Health Organization report Future Use of Materials for Dental Restorations November 2009 concluded that dental amalgam remains a dental restorative material of choice in the absence of an ideal alternative. The Department concurs with the conclusions of the report which can be found at:
http://www.who.int/oral_health/publications/dental_material_2011.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what UK projects received funding under the European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013; what the location of each such project was; and what the amount received in funding was for each such project.
James Wharton
In the 2007-13 programmes, the grant recipients of the European Regional Development Fund generally had to deliver the projects across the region covered by that programme; location details for those grant recipients have been provided and are shown in the attached table.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Davis on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his Statement of 20 July 2015, HCWS 149, whether UK personnel embedded with the US military are subject to US military and domestic criminal law, or UK law, or both.
Michael Fallon
Under the Armed Forces Act 2006, UK personnel embedded with other nations’ armed forces remain subject to Service law (including the criminal law of England and Wales) at all times. Whether UK personnel embedded with US armed forces are also subject to US law will depend on the exact nature of their deployment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Mackinlay on 2016-02-11.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes HM Revenue and Customs have (a) registered and (b) approved in each financial year since 6 April 2012.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not currently publish information on the number of Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes applications received and accepted.
Official statistics on the number of companies raising funds, the number of subscriptions and amounts raised under SEIS in 2012-13 and 2013-14 are available to view at www.gov.uk/government/statistics/enterprise-and-seed-enterprise-investment-schemes-january-2016.
The first official statistics for 2014-15 will be published in April 2016, alongside statistics for the Enterprise Investment Scheme. HMRC plans to publish new statistics within this release on the number of companies applying for the scheme and the number of those who are successful.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wasserman on 2016-03-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Statement by the Minister of State for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice, Mr Mike Penning, on 17 December 2015 (HCWS426), when they will be able to provide further details on the allocation of the £38 million of New Transformation Funding to incentivise and facilitate transformation in policing, to invest in cross-force specialist capabilities, to exploit new technology and to improve how the UK responds to changing threats.
Lord Bates
The 2016/17 police funding settlement includes new transformation funding to incentivise and facilitate transformation in policing.
As set out in the Minister for Policing, Fire, Criminal Justice and Victims’ Written Ministerial Statement of 4 February which accompanied the 2016/17 Final Police Grant Report, the indicative size of New Transformation Funding in 2016/17 is £37.8 million.
Detailed plans are being developed and more information will be provided in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tommy Sheppard on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with G4S on that company’s adherence to the terms of the (a) Fourth Geneva Convention and (b) UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights related to the detention of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK considers Palestinians arrested in the OPTs and detained in Israel as contrary to Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The UK Government encourages British companies to show respect for human rights in their operations in the UK and internationally and we have made this clear in meetings with G4S.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2016-05-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports of increased malnutrition and starvation in Yemen.
Baroness Verma
The United Nations report that 14.4 million people in Yemen are facing food insecurity, of which 7.6 million are facing severe food shortages, as cited in the UN’s 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan. The UK government uses this UN report as one if its primary data sources. A number of humanitarian organisations have recently highlighted the acute food security and livelihood needs in Yemen, and the fact that food insecurity is likely to continue at a critical level in the coming months.
The security situation in Yemen is impacting the ability of humanitarian organisations to access populations to deliver assistance, and to make assessments of their needs. The UK continues to remind all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid and safe access for humanitarian agencies to all people in need in Yemen. This is essential to ensure that the international community has an accurate understanding of the levels of need in the country, including food insecurity.
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We work through UN agencies and NGOs, including the World Food Programme who provide emergency food support to over 570,000 people, through direct delivery of food or the provision of cash or food vouchers. We have also provided £21.7 million in 2015/16 to UNICEF for the provision of health and nutrition services through hospitals and mobile clinics. We are also funding the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism to improve the supply of essential commercial goods, including food, into Yemen.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many school buildings under wave 1 of the Priority Schools Building Programme received additional funding for those buildings; and for what that additional money was used.
Edward Timpson
Under the first phase of the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP), third parties have chosen to contribute funding at 133 schools. The majority of the third party funding is for additional places beyond the capacity requested in the PSBP application.
The Department provides basic need funding to local authorities for the provision of additional places to meet basic need. Between 2011 and 2015, the Government allocated over £5 billion of basic need funding to local authorities for new school places and will be spending a further £7 billion between 2015 and 2021.
By co-ordinating PSBP projects and the provision of additional places we are able to drive value for money for the public purse.