Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on ensuring the Trident nuclear weapon system from cyber-attacks in each of the last three years; and how much he plans to spend in each of the next five years.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Ministry of Defence audits the integrity of the UK’s nuclear deterrent regularly for all threats and hazards and acts to ensure that it maintains the highest possible standards. The Strategic Defence and Security Review acknowledges the growing cyber threat and the importance of investing in cyber security across all of our capabilities. The Government has invested £860 million in new technology and capabilities since 2011 and will invest £1.9 billion over the next five years in protecting the UK from cyber attack and developing our sovereign capabilities in cyberspace. Our approach to protecting Defence capabilities against and mitigating the impact of cyber attacks spans technical, organisational, procedural and physical measures benefiting many different systems and networks, and investment is integrated across these measures. Submarines operate in isolation by design, and this contributes to their cyber resilience. I will not discuss further details for reasons of safeguarding national security.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the estimated cost is of payments of universal credit to (a) people already in receipt of universal credit on 1 April 2016 and (b) other claimants in 2016-17.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not available.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what special education programmes are being provided for those Iraqis and Syrians who have reached the UK since 2012, broken down into those for (1) children, (2) young people, and (3) adults.

    Lord Bates

    Asylum seekers and those granted refugee status or humanitarian protection have access to free state schooling. Those granted refugee status have immediate access to student support for higher education courses.

    Local authorities in England are responsible for providing additional educational support, such as English language training.

    Where schools need to provide additional support for English as an Additional Language (EAL) pupils the funding arrangements enable local authorities to allocate a proportion of their funding to schools on the basis of the number of pupils in each school who have EAL and who have been in the school system for a maximum of three years.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on UK membership of the UN 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    The UK has a proud record of providing protection to those who need it and will continue to do so, in accordance with our obligations as a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol.

    As the Home Secretary said in her speech to the Conservative Party conference, in the longer term we want to work with other countries in the EU and the UN to look at the international definitions of asylum and refugee status.

  • Lord Tebbit – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Tebbit – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the possible role of the contraceptive chemical E22, which is resistant to water purification techniques, in the increase in number of freshwater and coastal water fish bearing both male and female sexual organs.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    In the UK, environmental regulators, scientific experts and the water industry have been researching the link between the synthetic steroid, 17α-ethinyloestradiol (EE2, used in human oral contraception) and fish populations to understand the role of endocrine disrupting chemicals on the reproductive physiology of fish. Most work has focused on EE2 which has been measured in some of our rivers and downstream of sewage treatment works (STWs); this matches findings in other countries.

    Based on scientific evidence from the UK and in Europe, there is reasonable certainty that very low concentrations of EE2 can cause feminisation (intersex condition) in male fish. The incidence of intersex seems to relate to the size of the STWs and the dilution ability of receiving waters. In the UK, fish inhabit comparatively small-sized rivers where limited dilution of EE2 occurs. Conventional STWs can remove EE2 from sewage, but not to the very low levels of less than one nanogramme per litre (ng/L) where no endocrine disrupting effects are predicted. In some cases the impact on fish populations remains unclear, and some affected populations appear to be self-sustaining.

    In 2014, EE2 was included on the European Commission’s ‘watch list’ under the Water Framework Directive to gather information on its occurrence in surface waters across the European Union. Data will be reported by the UK and other Member States, and reviewed by the Commission throughout 2017 to assess whether this pharmaceutical is to be prioritised for monitoring and control and is to be included in future versions of the Directive.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-05-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many UK-registered offshore supply vessels (OSVs) have been laid up in Aberdeen port since January 2015; and what the average period of inactivity was for UK-registered OSVs (a) at that port and (b) in total during that period.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    According to commercial world fleet data sourced from IHS Global Limited, there were two UK registered offshore vessels with a ‘laid-up’ status on 31 December 2015.

    We do not have any further data available for use on laid-up vessels since this time. The data is not in a format from which inactivity periods are readily obtainable.

    According to online vessel search engines, the last known ship positions for the two UK registered offshore vessels that were laid-up at the end of 2015 were Port Elizabeth (South Africa) on 24 August 2015 and Elefsis (near the Athens port of Piraeus, Greece) on 19 September 2015.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with the Ethiopian government on the situation in the Oromia region.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    I visited Ethiopia on 17th June and met with a number of senior Ethiopian Government officials. Our discussions covered a range of issues, including the situation in the Oromia region. I set out the UK Government’s serious concerns about the response to protests in Oromia.

  • Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-09-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions have taken place with the government of the Irish Republic on the future funding of the six cross-border bodies established following the Belfast Agreement of 1998, in the light of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

    Lord Dunlop

    The Government has regular discussions with the Irish Government on a range of issues, including matters arising from the UK’s exit from the European Union.

    The UK’s exit from the EU does not change the firm commitment of the UK Government and the people of Northern Ireland to the settlement set out in the Belfast Agreement and its successors and to the institutions they establish.

  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-10-20.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credit claims classed as high risk renewals by HM Revenue and Customs have been referred to Concentrix in each of the three risk categories.

    Jane Ellison

    Between 1 August 2016 and 31 August 2016 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) automatically stopped 365,483 tax credit claims as a direct result of customers failing to comply with the requirements of the annual renewal process.

    Alongside the annual renewal process, HMRC records the number of awards that have been amended, which could be stopped, reduced or increased. Therefore, data showing the total number of claims stopped following a compliance intervention is unavailable.

    During the course of the contract, HMRC delegated a total caseload of 2,209,500 cases for high risk renewal checks by Concentrix. Of these 1,635,676 cases were not the subject of further investigation for fraud or error by Concentrix. This amounts to 74% of the total caseload.

    The volume of high risk renewals referred to Concentrix are broken down into the three risk categories as follows:

    • Undeclared Partner: 1,398,908

    • Work & Hours: 564,983

    • Child Care: 245,609

  • William Wragg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    William Wragg – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations she has received from representatives of Greave Primary School on the process through which the funding for that school’s building extension project from the Education Funding Agency has been arranged by the Stockport Local Education Authority.

    Edward Timpson

    School building baseline designs were introduced in October 2012 to help finalise briefs for school building projects and for discussion with local planning departments. It is for contractors to develop them into detailed schemes, or propose alternatives. Guidance on the designs is available online[1].

    Officials from the Department have had regular dialogue with the local authority, the school and its representatives as part of ongoing work to monitor and progress the project.

    While there has been no representation, the Secretary of State and the Department will work with all parties to support the successful delivery of this school’s expansion project.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/baseline-designs-for-schools-guidance

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