The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the new Northern franchisee will take to establish a North East Business Unit for rail services.
Andrew Jones
In accordance with the requirements of the draft Northern Franchise Agreement published on 27th February 2015, the new Northern franchisee will establish a North East Business Unit for rail services by the end of June 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lady Hermon on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the contribution by the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise, of 2 February 2016, Official Report, column 884, what steps he is taking to ensure the national advertising campaign for apprenticeships extends to Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.
Nick Boles
Education and skills policy (including Apprenticeships) is a devolved matter. It is for the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to determine how they manage their own programmes. This includes any advertising campaigns.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to respond to the findings of Amnesty International UK’s Annual Report, published on 24 February 2016.
Dominic Raab
I have no plans to do so. It is irresponsible for any campaign group to criticise our proposals before they’ve seen them. Amnesty have already been told our plans involve the UK remaining in the European Convention.
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 steps his Department has taken to ensure that UK businesses that operate in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are aware of the Overseas Business Risk guidance related to Israel.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Overseas Business Risk (OBR) service covers 106 different countries. This is voluntary guidance to British businesses, available free of charge on GOV.UK. The guidance is regularly reviewed and updated if necessary. The OBR service is routinely promoted as part of officials’ outreach work with businesses and trade promotion agencies and partners. It is the decision of an individual or company whether to operate in settlements in the Occupied Territories, but the British Government would neither encourage nor support such activity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-05-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the Insurance Fraud Taskforce that detected insurance fraud and undetected insurance fraud costs consumers up to £50 per year; and whether they plan to establish a unit (1) to track the return of those costs to the consumer, and (2) to monitor the performance of the insurance industry in tackling fraud and addressing the practices of claims management companies.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
A Written Ministerial Statement was published on 26 May 2016 to announce that the Government accepts each of the recommendations addressed to it. We expect that all organisations tasked with taking forward recommendations do so with urgency. The Government will do what it can to assist and, in order to make sure that all of the recommendations are actively pursued, we will seek an update on progress later in the year.
The report highlighted the particular problem of fraud in relation to low value personal injury claims and the Government has established a programme of reforms in this area, particularly in respect of whiplash claims and regulation of claims management companies. We are pleased that the report’s recommendations reflect and support that reform programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department gives successful schools wishing to establish a multi-academy trust.
Edward Timpson
The Department supports successful schools wishing to establish Multi-Academy Trusts and I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided for question 42232 on 13 July 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the staff employed by her Department are non-UK nationals.
Dr Phillip Lee
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules. Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings the Prime Minister has had with his European counterparts on the Green Paper on Safety and Tourism Accommodation Services COM (2014) 464.
Tracey Crouch
The DCMS is responsible for the safety of tourism accommodation. The Government responded to the Commission’s Green Paper consultation on theSafety of Tourism Accommodation Services which closed on 30 November 2014. Since I was appointed Tourism Minister in May 2015, I have met ABTA to discuss accommodation safety. I also raised this issue when I met my Greek counterpart on 4 Novemberand I will also be writing to the rest of my EU counterparts to raise awareness of the issue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the extent of homophobic bullying in schools.
Lord Nash
All forms of bullying, including homophobic bullying, are completely unacceptable. In order to tackle homophobic bullying in schools we are providing £2 million this financial year to fund projects designed to build schools’ knowledge and capacity to prevent and tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools.
While evidence points to a high level of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people being subjected to bullying, it also indicates that thanks to the efforts of teachers and charities it is falling. Research undertaken by Stonewall shows that homophobic bullying has reduced in recent years – 55% of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual secondary school pupils reported experiencing homophobic bullying at school in 2012, a drop from 65% in 2007 (Stonewall School Report, 2007 and 2012). The Stonewall Report of 2014 also indicated that homophobic bullying has fallen. The number of secondary school teachers who said their pupils are often or very often the victim of homophobic bullying had almost halved, from 25 per cent in 2009 to 13 per cent in 2014 (Stonewall Teacher Report, 2014 and 2009).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will call upon the EU to impose stricter sanctions on European banks that facilitate North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We are working with other members of the UN Security Council in response to the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on 6 January. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) has pressed for the need for a robust response to this serious violation of UN Security Council Resolutions. While negotiations are on-going, any further measures that are agreed by the UN will be replicated by the EU and implemented through EU legislation.