The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Smith on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department issues on the import and use of fox urine for the purpose of trail hunting.
Rory Stewart
The Government has no plans to make an assessment or issue guidance on the import and use of fox urine for the purpose of trail hunting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2015 to Question 20110, what specific benefits the UK derives from membership of (a) the European Defence Agency’s Military Airworthiness Authorisation Forum, (b) European Defence Agency helicopter training programmes and (c) the Single European Sky initiative.
Mr Julian Brazier
The Military Airworthiness Authorisation Forum (MAWA) improves military aviation safety, reduces military air system acquisition costs, and increases interoperability through harmonisation of military airworthiness regulations. Significant cost savings in the Eurofighter Typhoon programme are likely because of MAWA work led by the UK, and our active involvement in the MAWA Forum provides the UK a position of influence across the Military aviation community.
The helicopter training programmes carried out under the European Defence Agency include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, and have derived unprecedented levels of interoperability.
Using standard operating procedures, derived in large part from UK methods, several hundred helicopter aircrew from across Europe have been exposed to, instructed in, and are now following the same procedures as UK aircrew. This means that future operations, be it under NATO, EU, or other coalition – are being de-risked through increased ability and greater interoperability. Our forces can use other nations’ helicopters safely, including for medical evacuation, confident of their in-combat ability while operating in the same manner as UK assets.
The Single European Sky and Air Traffic Management Research programme is analysing the implications for military operations of new legislation and equipment upgrade programmes supporting increased commercial aviation out to 2035.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to increase participation in modern foreign languages in primary schools.
Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to the teaching of foreign languages as part of a core academic curriculum. This is why a modern or ancient language is included within the English Baccalaureate performance measure. Since September 2014, maintained primary schools in England must teach a modern or ancient foreign language to pupils at Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 11). Schools can choose which language or languages to teach and should enable pupils to make substantial progress in one language by the end of primary school.
To support the introduction of a compulsory foreign language at Key Stage 2, the government funded nine projects across the country to provide training for primary teachers. These projects have trained hundreds of teachers and provided online resources for training thousands more teachers.
The EBacc has had a positive effect on the take up of languages in schools, with a rise in the proportion of the cohort in state-funded schools entered for a modern foreign language from 40% in pupils in 2010 to 49% in 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is permitted to consider a bid from a Combined Authority for a Police and Crime Commissioner elected in May 2016 to be subsumed by a Metro-Mayor.
Mike Penning
If a local area were to make the case to transfer Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) functions to an elected mayor, secondary legislation would set out the details of the transfer of powers and the relevant timescales based on discussions between the local area and central government.
These powers are provided for in Section 107F of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (as amended by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016), which sets out the Secretary of State’s necessary order making powers to enable the transfer of PCC functions to an elected mayor.
Local areas can put forward a proposal to transfer PCC functions at any time and, as stated in response to the honourable member’s earlier question on this issue [32271], any proposal submitted by a local area for an elected mayor to take on PCC functions would be considered on its merits, on a case-by-case basis. The timing of any transfer of powers would also form part of this consideration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons only one hon. Member for a Warrington constituency was invited to his recent meeting with the leader of Warrington Borough Council on devolution; who made the decision to invite only one such hon. Member to that meeting; and if he will take steps to ensure that all appropriate hon. Members are invited to such meetings in future.
James Wharton
The MP referred to by the Hon. Member for Warrington North has been proactive in engaging with my department on devolution matters, and I would welcome the same enthusiasm and involvement from all appropriate members.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons the redacted Govia Thameslink Railway remedial plan, dated 12 February 2016, was not made publicly available until 26 May 2016.
Claire Perry
There is a process in place with regard to the publication of documents and any redaction of information. Only once the redactions have been agreed by all parties, including the Department, can publication take place.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-09-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce criminal sanctions against social media companies and their managers in the UK who refuse to take down tweets, pages or other content supporting terrorism, hate crime or radical Islam.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
HMG has developed strong collaborative relationships with Communications Service Providers (CSPs) which has led to the voluntary removal of over 200,000 pieces of terrorist-related content via referrals from the police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) since 2010. The government continue to work with CSPs to encourage them to take more responsibility voluntarily for tackling terrorist and extremist content on their own platforms and, in certain circumstances, reporting terrorist content (for example, where there may be an imminent threat to life) to UK law enforcement when they become aware of it.
As most CSPs are international organisations based outside the UK and most online material is hosted outside the UK, national legislation has little application hence our focus on voluntary removals through companies’ terms and conditions. These arrangements mean that where companies take action this removes access to the content from the whole platform world-wide, not just for users accessing it from within a particular jurisdiction.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to include legislation for exceptional hardship pleas within the forthcoming review of motoring offences and penalties.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Information about drivers who have not been disqualified from driving as a result of a court accepting that disqualification would lead to exceptional hardship is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Government is committed to making sure that sentencing for those who kill or cause serious injury on the roads is proportionate within the context of our wider sentencing framework. It is our intention to commence a consultation on driving offences and penalties before the end of the year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 9 January 2015 to Question 219449, what progress has been made in improving wheelchair services following the NHS England review.
Alistair Burt
Following the conclusion of its review NHS England has set up an improvement support programme working with 11 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to improve services for wheelchair users. The 11 CCGs are:
– North Yorkshire (NHS Harrogate and Rural District;
– NHS Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby;
– NHS Scarborough and Ryedale;
– NHS Vale of York CCG;
– North West London (NHS West London);
– NHS Hounslow;
– NHS Ealing;
– NHS Central London;
– NHS Hammersmith and Fulham;
– NHS Barnet; and
– NHS Brent.
NHS Improving Quality is supporting the programme which will run from September 2015 to March 2016 and include creating guidance, evidence and material to share with other organisations and communities.
NHS England has also introduced a new national wheelchair dataset with the aim of providing information centrally on the volume, expenditure, access to, and patient experience about wheelchair services to enable transparency and benchmarking. From July 2015, data are being collected quarterly from CCGs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the level of take-up by (a) micro, (b) small and (c) medium-sized enterprises has been of the cyber essentials programme.
Mr Edward Vaizey
At the end of March 2016, 2,181 Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certificates had been issued, of which it is estimated 28% were awarded to micro, 28% to small, and 22% to medium-sized businesses.