Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Oliver Colvile – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Oliver Colvile – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the licensing of e-cigarettes.

    Jane Ellison

    On 14 March 2014, European Union member states formally adopted the revised Tobacco Products Directive, including the provisions for regulation of electronic cigarettes. Article 18 of the Directive will subject electronic cigarettes to consumer products legislation, with specific additional regulatory requirements unless they fall under the definition of a medicinal product.

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is continuing to focus on regulating medicinal nicotine containing products, including electronic cigarettes, to enable licensed products that meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy to be available. Marketing authorisation applications have been submitted and interest in licensing continues.

  • John Glen – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    John Glen – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2014-04-30.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much tax has been collected from insolvency litigation (a) through the Specialist Investigation Unit and (b) in all other insolvency litigation cases handled by HM Revenue and Customs in each year since 2010.

    Mr David Gauke

    HMRC does not maintain centrally held records of the amount it collects through insolvency litigation.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 766W, on electoral register, in which cases numbers of electors registered to vote in the transition from individual electoral registration will be monitored at an electoral ward level.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it will collect and publish the results of the confirmation data matching process for all electoral wards in Great Britain. These will be available in late-summer 2014.

    The Commission also informs me that subsequently data will be collected and published at a local authority level. This will take place after the publication of the December 2014 register and at the time of the 2015 UK parliamentary general election. However, the Commission may choose to ask for more detailed ward statistics from individual EROs if it has concerns around the implementation of individual electoral registration in a particular area.

    The Commission also expects electoral registration officers to be monitoring their own data on registrations at ward level, or below, throughout the transition to individual electoral registration, and to communicate them locally to elected representatives and others.

  • Chris Evans – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Chris Evans – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Evans on 2014-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on the situation for religious minorities in Burma.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    British officials regularly receive reports on a wide range of human rights issues, including the treatment of religious minorities in Burma. We share UN Special Rapporteur for Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana’s concerns, as noted in his final report to the UN Human Rights Council on 2 April 2014, that the Burmese government is “not fulfilling its international human rights obligation to tackle incitement to violence based on national, racial or religious hatred”. We are particularly concerned by the rise in anti-Muslim attacks and hate speech over the last two years, continued intercommunal tensions in Rakhine State and the plight of the Rohingya. I raised our wider concerns about the situation in Rakhine State with senior Burmese Ministers during their visit in January and Baroness Warsi discussed the situation with the Burmese Minister of National Planning and Economic Development, Dr Kan Zaw, during his visit to the UK in March. During my visit to Burma in January, I also met the Kachin Baptist Convention, the largest religious organisation in Kachin State. We continue to encourage religious tolerance and dialogue and call on the Burmese authorities and community leaders to help create a conducive environment for this to take place.

  • Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jim Dobbin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dobbin on 2014-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to reorganise its funding model to ensure that it is encouraging service delivery for complex multiple needs, in line with an intregrated model of healthcare solutions.

    Lynne Featherstone

    DFID supports work to strengthen health systems and deliver health programmes, helping developing countries to assess and provide for the health needs of its people. This will enable countries to make sound decisions about the delivery of the promotion, prevention and treatment services that are needed.

  • Jeremy Corbyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jeremy Corbyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Corbyn on 2014-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what level of representation the UK will have at the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons war conference being hosted by the Austrian government in December 2014.

    Hugh Robertson

    We have not received an invitation from Austria to this conference, and have therefore not yet made a decision on whether the UK will attend. I will update the House when a decision has been made.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-05-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have further to support the International Support Mission to the Central African Republic.

    Baroness Warsi

    The International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA) has been crucial in protecting Central African Republic (CAR)’s citizens, and will continue to play a vital role ahead of the deployment of the UN Peacekeeping Operation in September 2014. The UK is providing a strategic communications expert to the African Union (AU) to support the efforts of MISCA, in January contributed £2 million to cover some of MISCA’s basic costs, and works closely with the AU more broadly to build its capacity. We will consider any further requests for support.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the highest compensation payment ordered in employment tribunal cases relating to discrimination on the grounds of (a) sex, (b) disability, (c) religion, (d) sexual orientation, (e) age and (f) race was in each of the last five years; and if he will list the nature of the complaint upheld in each case.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    I am answering these questions together.

    Data on highest compensation awards for discrimination jurisdictions for the last five years are set out in Tables E6 to E10 of the latest Official Statistics release published by the Ministry of Justice, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2013.

    Data on average compensation awards in race discrimination and religious discrimination claims are set out in Tables E6 and E9 of that publication, respectively.

    Information on the nature of complaints upheld, and the type of race or religion relevant to individual claims, is not recorded centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost following a manual trawl of all relevant tribunal files. The records retention and disposal schedule applicable to such tribunal files also means that information covering each of the last five years would not be held.

  • Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals from (a) the EU and (b) countries outside the EU have been defendants in the (i) magistrates courts and (ii) Crown courts in England and Wales in the last year for which figures are available.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. This database holds information on offences provided by the statutes under which proceedings are brought but not the specific circumstances of each case. It is not possible to identify from this centrally held information the nationality of offenders sentenced for criminal offences.

    Court proceedings data for 2013 are planned for publication in May 2014.

  • Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Bill Wiggin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on making the process for school leaving local education authority control to become free schools easier.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    Free schools are a type of academy, established either as new provision or by independent schools joining the state sector. Maintained schools cannot become free schools, but they can convert to become academies, which enjoy broadly the same freedoms as free schools. The Department for Education is continually refining the academy conversion process. Guidance has been shortened, documentation simplified and standardised, including a ‘plain English’ version of the funding agreement, and an online application form introduced in March, saving schools time in submitting information to the department.

    The number of converter academies continues to increase, with 2,795 converter academies open as of May 2014.