The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many military operations the UK has undertaken against (a) Daesh and (b) al-Qaeda in the last 12 months.
Penny Mordaunt
In the last 12 months, the UK has been continuing Operation SHADER against Daesh in Iraq and Syria. There have been no UK military operations against Al Qaeda in the same period.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nadine Dorries on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to make travel on the Thameslink line more accessible for disabled passengers.
Claire Perry
On the Thameslink route, the new Thameslink trains currently being manufactured will enter service later this year. The full fleet will be in service by the end of 2018. The train specification was developed to meet the latest standards and is fully compliant with accessibility standards for heavy rail (the Persons of Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability – PRM-TSI).
To aid boarding and alighting, the Thameslink Programme is providing dedicated ramps at stations and on board the trains, in addition to raised platform areas at busy central London stations that will step free from street level to the new trains. The boarding positions will be clearly indicated for disabled users.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by the Prime Minister on 4 May (HC Deb, col 168) that there is a very strong case here for saying that it is genocide
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
As the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has said, the Government’s position remains that although there is a very strong case to answer, ultimately it should be a matter for judicial authorities. The Government continues to believe that recognition of genocide should be a matter for international courts, not political bodies. It should be a legal, rather than political determination, decided by international judges after consideration of all the evidence available in the context of a credible international judicial process.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-06-27.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that his Department’s purchasing policies support British (a) industry and (b) agriculture.
Matthew Hancock
The Government is committed to doing all it can to ensure UK suppliers can compete effectively for public sector contracts in line with our current international obligations. To this end we are seeking to ensure the huge purchasing power of government supports the task of boosting growth, and enables us to actively shape the UK market for the long term.
We are providing industry with visibility of up to £191bn of potential procurement opportunities across 19 sectors. In addition, we are working with businesses to identify and address any key capabilities needed to meet future demand; actively helping them to remove barriers and supporting growth through additional benefits that boost exports and drive innovation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, when he plans to lay the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada before Parliament.
Greg Hands
The EU Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will be laid before Parliament in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many named people from which countries have been subject to UK targeted sanctions in each of the last 10 years.
Mr Philip Hammond
The UK implements EU and UN sanctions. The definitive lists of named individuals subject to sanctions are held by these multilateral bodies. Sanctions usually comprise an asset freeze and/or a travel ban.
HM Treasury maintains a consolidated list of individuals subject to financial sanctions [http://hmt-sanctions.s3.amazonaws.com/sanctionsconlist.htm]. At present there are 1,296 individuals on that list. It is not current practice to retain the records of individuals who are no longer subject to targeted sanctions, nor to segment data on an annual basis. The consolidated list is updated whenever an individual is added to, or removed from, an EU or UN sanctions regime. It represents the current situation and is designed specifically to facilitate sanctions implementation and compliance by the private sector. Annualised data for the last 10 years is not held by the UK, EU or UN.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2015-11-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that medical and fuel supplies for Nepal are not blocked by the Indian government.
Mr Hugo Swire
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 26 November 2015 (PQ 17369) and 16 November (PQ 15614).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-01-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to put mental health on the national curriculum for primary school children, as advocated by the Young People’s Mental Health Advisory Group.
Lord Nash
The new national curriculum, introduced in September 2014, does not attempt to represent the sum total of everything that should be taught in schools. It only prescribes the essential knowledge that should be taught, leaving schools greater flexibility to teach over and above what the national curriculum requires and to decide how to teach the essential content that is prescribed. It is also places greater trust in teachers to cover topics important for their community, including mental health.
Mental health and wellbeing is part of the non-statutory programme of study for Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, produced by the PSHE Association. To help schools deliver this, we funded the PSHE Association to produce guidance and lesson plans to support age-appropriate teaching about mental health. Further support for teachers and other professionals who work with children and young people is available through the Government funded MindEd site[1].
[1] MindEd can be accessed at the following link: https://www.minded.org.uk/
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Lord on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to promote Help to Buy.
Brandon Lewis
The Department promotes awareness of Help to Buy through the two Government websites Help to Buy and Own Your Home, through regular updates on the Help to Buy Twitter and Facebook accounts and through press advertising to promote Help to Buy: Equity Loan and London Help to Buy.
Over 62,500 homes have been purchased through Help to Buy: Equity Loan, to end September 2015. On 1 February, we launched London Help to Buy which will enable people to purchase a home with up to 40% equity loan of the purchase price and a deposit as low as 5%. It could potentially help over 10,000 households to purchase a home in London over the next five years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will establish a system to permit supplementary schools and mainstream schools to bid for funding to support the professional development of staff teaching English to GCSE and A-level standard; and if she will make a statement.
Nick Gibb
Decisions relating to teachers’ professional development rightly rest with schools, headteachers, and teachers as they are in the best position to judge their own requirements.