Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-04-28.

    To ask the Attorney General, when he last discussed the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights with the Home Secretary.

    Jeremy Wright

    I meet regularly with Ministerial colleagues, including the Home Secretary, to discuss important issues of common interest, including domestic and international human rights law. I am not able to provide information about any legal content of those discussions because, by longstanding convention, the fact that the Law Officers have advised, or have not advised, and the content of their advice is not disclosed outside government.

  • Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Baroness Goudie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Goudie on 2016-06-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action, if any, they plan to take to save and preserve the Kensington Odeon, maintain its classic art deco design, and reverse the impact of its closure upon the neighbourhood and community.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Kensington Odeon is subject to a Certificate of Immunity (COI) which precludes the building being listed until 2018. The Odeon has been considered for listing twice before. It was rejected because it does not possess the special architectural or historic interest features required.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the UK’s sixth periodic report in relation to social housing supply and homelessness; and if he will make a statement.

    Gavin Barwell

    In paragraph 73 of the UN recommendations, the UN requested that the UK submits its next period report under the Covenant (inclusive of a response to all the recommendations from this year’s examination) by 30 June 2021; it would therefore not be appropriate for me to pre-empt this report by anticipating what we, or indeed a future UK government in 2021, might say.

    This government remains committed to tackling homelessness. That is why we have increased central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million over the Spending Review period. We have also maintained and protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities through the local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20. In the Budget we announced further commitments to prevent homelessness including £100 million to provide at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living; £10 million to support initiatives to prevent and reduce rough sleeping; and an increase from £5 million to £10 million to launch a Social Impact Bond to support the most entrenched rough sleepers off the streets.

    This will be supported by the government’s broader commitments to increase the overall supply of housing. We remain committed to building more affordable housing, including shared ownership. More than 277,000 affordable homes have been delivered since April 2010, and the housing budget has been doubled to more than £20 billion to support the largest housing programme by any government since the 1970s, which includes £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable homes.

  • Julie Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Julie Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of homelessness in the North East of England.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    One person without a home is one too many. That is why the Government is clear that prevention must be at the heart of everything we do to tackle homelessness. We have protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, which will amount to £315 million by 2020, to help them provide quality advice and assistance to everyone who approaches them for help.

    We have also increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million and why we have just announced the new £40 million Homelessness Prevention Programme to provide an innovative approach to reducing homelessness, with prevention at its heart.

    The Homelessness Prevention Programme includes;

    • £20 million to establish a network of ambitious Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer areas that will give local authorities the resources to ramp up prevention and take new approaches to reduce homelessness;
    • a £10 million rough sleeping grant fund for targeted prevention or early intervention for those at imminent risk of sleeping rough; and
    • a new £10 million Social Impact Bond to support rough sleepers with the most complex needs which builds on the success of the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond (SIB), run by the Greater London Authority. This SIB turned round the lives of around 830 of London’s most entrenched rough sleepers over half of which have achieved accommodation, employment or reconnection outcomes.

    As well as this, we announced in the Budget an additional £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living.

    In the North East, Newcastle City Council has been announced as an early adopter of our Homelessness Prevention Trailblazer programme. The Council has been awarded £1 million to build on the good work they are doing in driving reform and innovation in homelessness prevention.

  • Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department intends to take to reduce the number of children who do not attend school due to bullying.

    Edward Timpson

    No child should be frightened of going to school because they might be bullied.

    All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with measures to prevent all forms of bullying and they are held closely to account by Ofsted for their effectiveness. Inspectors consider pupil behaviour and welfare, including how well schools prevent and tackle bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour.

    We are also providing a total of £1.3 million of funding over 12 months from April 2015 to the Diana Award, Kidscape and the National Children’s Bureau to work with schools to prevent bullying and deal with its impact when it occurs. This is in addition to the £4 million provided in 2013/15. We are also providing £2 million this year to help schools tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

    Good schools create an ethos of good behaviour where pupils treat each other and staff with courtesy and respect. Where bullying does happen schools should move to tackle it and provide support for the bullied child. We issued advice to schools last year to help them identify children that may be most vulnerable to bullying and how to provide support to ensure their mental health and wellbeing. This is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying.

    “

  • Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to what purposes the ring-fenced capital budget for the carbon capture and storage competition has been reallocated.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government set out its capital budget and priorities for this Spending Review period on 25 November 2015.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many grants his Department awarded to projects for which the range of values in the Department’s benefit-cost ratio assessment included negative values in each of the last six years; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Major transport schemes which are subject to ministerial approval include a value for money assessment in which benefits and costs are assessed. Since 2011 – the first year for which data is readily available – the Department has given final funding approval and awarded a grant to one major transport schemes whose costs exceeded its benefits:

    – Sheffield Tram Train Pilot. Approval of this scheme was granted on the basis that it is a pilot designed to test the range of issues, costs and opportunities involved in introducing the tram train concept to the UK.

  • Lord Addington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Addington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Addington on 2016-02-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Education (School Teacher Qualifications) (England) Regulations 2003, and in particular Schedule 2, remain in force; and if not, when they were amended, and by what Act or statutory instrument.

    Lord Nash

    The Education (School Teacher Qualifications) (England) Regulations 2003, including Schedule 2, remain in force.

  • 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 2016-02-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom regarding the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry’s 2014 report on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that persons who are forcibly repatriated to the DPRK are commonly subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, summary execution, forced abortions and other sexual violence; and the Commission’s recommendation that countries should respect the principle of non-refoulement and abstain from forcibly repatriating any persons to the DPRK.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have not made specific bilateral representations to the Russian Federation Government on the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report.

  • Lord Beith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Beith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beith on 2016-03-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Bomber Command clasp is not awarded to veterans who served with 205 Group and flew sorties over occupied Europe from Southern Italy, and what recent consideration they have given to this issue.

    Earl Howe

    We have enormous admiration and respect for the unique contribution and sacrifice made by bomber aircrew who served outside of the UK. Sir John Holmes, in his Military Medals Review, specifically included a reconsideration of recognition for Bomber Command, although he recommended not to award medallic recognition to those who flew from outside the UK. This decision was made independently of the Ministry of Defence and subsequently agreed by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals and Her Majesty The Queen.