The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-01-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many adopted local plans include the designation of local green spaces; and how many such spaces have been designated.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We do not collect detailed statistics on individual policies within Local Plans.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-01-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We continue to have a number of serious concerns about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, such as the harassment of human rights defenders and activists, and attacks on religious minorities. President Sirisena has pledged to lead a more democratic and accountable government, including restoring the independence of the police and judiciary, ensuring electoral reforms, and protecting the rights and freedoms of all religions in Sri Lanka. We welcome these early commitments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to encourage the teaching of computer coding in schools.
Lord Nash
The new national curriculum in computing is now being taught in maintained schools. It is a compulsory subject in all key stages and the programmes of study include coding from key stage 1. Primary school pupils will be taught about algorithms and how to design and write programs, while at secondary school pupils will be taught to use at least two programming languages. The Government has made £3.5 million available to provide training and support to existing teachers to ensure they are fully prepared to teach computing and have the skills to engage and enthuse their pupils.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Davies of Stamford on 2015-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the functionality, reliability and resilience to cyber-attack of the Autonomic Logistics Information System for the F35 aircraft.
Lord Astor of Hever
The F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) has been designed to be resilient against cyber-attack and will be the subject of testing throughout the life of the programme. The ALIS capability has been used by the UK since 2012 to support the aircraft operating in the US and has not experienced any reliability issues and nor have the other partners.
In terms of resilience and business continuity, this is being ensured via the ALIS network architecture being installed at Main Operating Bases and deployed locations, which include the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much of the funding allocated to tackle beds in sheds has been (a) allocated and (b) spent to date.
Brandon Lewis
The Beds in Sheds Taskforce was a specific initiative in 2012 to 2013, to hold a set of summits to bring together councils and central government to ascertain best practice and barriers to be removed to help ensure co-ordinated action against illegal outbuildings.
Summits took place on 27 November 2012, 30 April 2013 and 1 July 2013. It was not an ongoing working group.
In July 2013, £2.6 million was subsequently allocated to nine local authorities to deal with the mainly London-based problem of beds in sheds, with a further £4.1 million of targeted funding to 23 local authorities in December 2013 to tackle rogue landlord behaviour (including beds in sheds).
Thanks to the lessons learnt and best practice adopted from these meetings in 2012 to 2013, we estimate there have been:
Following our 2012 publication, we will in due course be publishing refreshed guidance to local authorities on tackling beds in sheds and rogue landlords.
The Immigration Act 2014 contains a raft of measures which puts the law firmly on the side of those who respect it, not those who break it, by:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on implementation of the violence against women and girls action plan.
Lynne Featherstone
The Government is committed to ending violence against women in all its forms. We published our cross-government strategy, ‘A Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls’ in 2010 and have published supporting action plans with
updates on progress each year since 2011. We have ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding up to 2015 for specialist local support services and national helplines.
We have criminalised forced marriage, introduced two new stalking offences, piloted new ways of protecting the victims of domestic violence and sex workers and we have launched prevention campaigns to tackle rape and relationship abuse
amongst teenagers. We recently announced a new offence of domestic abuse to tackle coercive and controlling behaviour.
The 2014-2015 Action Plan details recent progress and on 8 March this year, we will publish a full progress report on the implementation of the strategy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Barclay on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 5.1.2 of the report of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism, published in December 2013, how many people have been barred from managing or teaching at independent schools because of involvement with or links to extremism under the new regulations.
Mr Edward Timpson
New regulations enabling the Secretary of State to bar individuals from taking part in the management of independent schools came into force in September 2014. A number of cases are under consideration.
These regulations cover individuals involved in the management of independent schools rather than teachers. The Teachers’ Standards were amended in September 2012 to require that teachers uphold public trust in the profession by not undermining fundamental British values. The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) takes decisions on whether to bar individuals from teaching and guidance to teacher misconduct panels issued in July 2014 makes clear behaviour that promotes extremism is likely to be considered incompatible with being a teacher. Four individuals are currently subject to Interim Prohibition Orders by NCTL preventing them from teaching for reasons relating to extremism.
We will investigate and take action wherever we find evidence of extremism.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Dobson on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether any employers have indicated an intention to transfer activities from London to Birmingham after the opening of Phase 1 of High Speed 2.
Mr Robert Goodwill
HS2 Ltd and the Department for Transport are not aware of any businesses that have indicated that they plan to relocate from London to Birmingham. However, as the HS2 scheme is not expected to receive Royal Assent until 2016 and will not be operational until 2026, the Department would not expect businesses to make relocation plans at this early stage.
In the interim period however, Greater Birmingham and Solihull’s Local Enterprise Partnership are undertaking work as part of both their Strategic Economic Plans to attract more jobs and businesses to their area. They are also developing HS2 Growth Strategies to maximise the wider benefits the railway will bring.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pamela Nash on 2015-01-14.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many enforcement actions in respect of IR35 legislation there have been in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) England, (d) Wales and (e) Northern Ireland in each year since 2010.
Mr David Gauke
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) carries out IR35 status enquiries by way of compliance interventions. The table below shows the number of interventions up to 2013/14. Regional data is not produced by HMRC.
|
Year |
Compliance interventions |
|
2009/10 |
12 |
|
2010/11 |
23 |
|
2011/12 |
59 |
|
2012/13 |
256 |
|
2013/14 |
192 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Simpson on 2015-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle the persecution of Christians in Somalia.
Mr David Lidington
The overwhelming majority of people in Somalia are Muslim (around 99.8%) and Islam is recognised as the official state religion in Somalia’s provisional constitution. The UK continues to support the Federal Government of Somalia in their efforts to bring government control to Somalia, and restore essential freedoms to all Somalis.
The UK is working with the Federal Government of Somalia to establish a national human rights commission, to improve human rights for everybody in Somalia, irrespective of their religious persuasion – and also supporting the United Nations assistance mission in Somalia (UNSOM) monitoring and improving human rights.