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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support the extension of democracy in Bahrain.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Governance of Bahrain is a matter for all political parties in Bahrain. We encourage all political parties, to engage constructively in political dialogue in order to reach an inclusive political settlement. Although we were disappointed by the opposition’s decision to boycott the 2014 elections, we commended the participation of a broad range of candidates which saw 14 independent Shia candidates win seats, of which three were women.

    We regularly discuss human rights and reform with the Government of Bahrain including at the biannual UK-Bahrain Joint Working Group meeting which was most recently held in November 2015. Reform programme activities delivered through the Causeway Institute have used lessons from Northern Ireland to improve community outreach and communication – particularly to a youth audience.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take, if any, in response to the Court of Appeal’s declaration, in relation to the case of David Miranda and the safeguarding of journalistic material, that Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 is incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

    Lord Bates

    The Court of Appeal’s judgment in the Miranda litigation dealt with Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 as in force at the time of David Miranda’s examination, which took place in August 2013. In March 2015, the Home Office updated the Code of Practice for Schedule 7 Examining and Review Officers to direct that examining officers may not examine material they reasonably believe to be journalistic using Schedule 7. Given this amendment, the government considers that Schedule 7 as currently in force is compatible with Article 10 of the Convention.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to support refugees in camps in the Middle East.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    At the Syria Conference the UK announced that we will more than double our commitment to the Syria crisis, to £2.3 billion. The UK supports refugees, displaced and vulnerable people and host communities across the Middle East including in Yemen, Iraq and the occupied Palestinian territories.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what meetings he has initiated on steel in the last two years.

    Anna Soubry

    It is an established convention that Ministers of one Administration cannot see the documents of a previous Administration. I am therefore unable to provide the information requested by the hon Member for the entire period given in his Question.

    I first met with Gareth Stace on 01 June 2015 and discussions with steel industry stakeholders continued thereafter to identify the policy priorities for dealing with the considerable challenges facing the sector. We convened a Steel Summit on 16 October 2015 which brought together all the major stakeholders, including key Government and industry participants as well as constituency MPs, recognising the significant part steel companies play in local communities. This led to the formation of three Ministerial Working Groups which took the lead on our efforts to deliver on the five key ‘Asks’ put to us by our partners in the steel industry.

    To ensure a sustainable future we set up the Steel Council, co-chaired by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to build on the achievements of the three previous Ministerial working groups, by looking at the longer term future of the sector and how we can strengthen the capability and competiveness of the UK steel industry both at home and globally. The Council met for the first time on 2 March.

    Since this Government took office, BIS Ministers have undertaken a number of visits to steel-producing sites across the UK, including: SSI Redcar; Tata Steel facilities at Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham; Celsa in Cardiff and the former-Tata Steel site at Motherwell recently re-opened by Liberty Steel.

    To date we have made significant progress in addressing the challenges faced by the industry, including:

    • Paying compensation towards their energy costs: the Steel industry has received £80m in compensation since 2013;
    • Exempting the steel industry from renewable energy policy costs passed through in energy bills: this will save the steel industry hundreds of £millions over the course of this parliament.
    • Securing flexibility over EU emissions regulations.
    • Making sure that social and economic factors can be taken into account when Government procures steel;
    • Continuing to tackle unfair trading practices at an EU and an International level.
  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether during his recent visit to Mauritius the British Indian Ocean Territory Commissioner discussed prospects for resettlement with Oliver Bancoult, the Leader of the Chagos Refugees Group.

    James Duddridge

    The Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory, who also holds the position of Director of Overseas Territories in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, visited Mauritius to lead a UK delegation to continue official-level talks started in November in London to implement the recent UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Arbitral Tribunal Award. The Commissioner took the opportunity to, once again, seek Mauritius’ views on the question of resettlement, though as before this was refused by Mauritius. While in Mauritius, the Commissioner joined meetings between the British High Commissioner to Mauritius and Chagossian leaders, including Mr Bancoult. A range of matters were discussed, including the Government’s further work to develop its policy on the question of resettlement of BIOT. The Commissioner indicated that the UK is still considering its policy in this area and will announce developments in due course.

  • Baroness Walmsley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Walmsley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Walmsley on 2016-07-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the advice by Professors Stanley, Lawler, Graham, and others, to extend HPV vaccinations to boys to curb the spread of throat and other cancers.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the expert committee that advises Ministers on immunisation related issues, is currently in the process of considering the impact and cost-effectiveness of extending the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination to adolescent boys. This includes assessing all the necessary evidence and information on the potential impact of a boys vaccination programme on non-cervical cancers caused by HPV.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the expansion of the Doctaly scheme on patients’ access to GP services.

    David Mowat

    The Department has made no assessment of the potential effect of the expansion of the Doctaly scheme on patients’ access to general practice (GP) services.

    The General Practice Forward View, published in April 2016, announced that an extra £2.4 billion a year will be invested in GP services by 2020/21. As part of overall investment in general practice, NHS England will provide over £500 million of recurrent funding by 2020/21, on top of current primary medical care allocations, to enable clinical commissioning groups to commission and fund extra capacity across England. This is to ensure that by 2020, everyone has access to GP services, including sufficient routine appointments at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand, alongside effective access to out of hours and urgent care services.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has to introduce a tax relating to the sugar content of food.

    Jane Ellison

    There are no plans to introduce a tax on sugar. However all taxes are kept under review, with decisions being a matter for the Chancellor as part of the Budget process.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Ouseley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 December (HL4113), whether instances of bullying and abuse of children and young people via social media networks are reported, recorded and included in those exclusions statistics.

    Earl of Courtown

    Incidents of bullying and abuse of children and young people via social media by pupils which resulted in exclusions are reported to the Department. The Department publishes these incidents in its annual exclusions statistics. The latest statistics were published on 30 July 2015 and can be found online at GOV.UK.

    The school census guidance provided to schools and local authorities for the 2015/16 academic year explicitly includes cyber bullying in the bullying exclusion category for the first time.

    Prior to this, the guidance for the bullying category only specifically referenced verbal, physical and homophobic bullying.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints her Department has received regarding services provided under contract by Clearsprings from (a) service users and (b) external parties in each of the last six years.

    James Brokenshire

    Within the terms of the contracts for asylum accommodation the accommodation provider is required to respond to and address complaints from service users and external parties in the first instance. Where a service user or external party is dissatisfied with the response or the measures taken to address their complaint, the complainant may escalate the issue to the Home Office.

    In the years 2010 to 2015 the Home Office has received 60 complaints in total regarding services provided under contract by Clearsprings Ready Homes, broken down by each of the last six years as follows:

    Year No. of complaints

    2010 0

    2011 0

    2012 0

    2013 1

    2014 0

    2015 59

    The complaints have not been categorised to distinguish whether the complainant was a service user or external party.

    On receipt, each complaint is considered, investigated and addressed. If after investigation the Home Office determines that a complaint demonstrates a failure of the contractor to comply with the required standards and the contractor fails to address the complaint there are a range of contractual sanctions that the Home Office can and do impose.

    The Home Office is working with contractors to undertake profiling and trend analysis of complaints, including why there was an increase in 2015. The Home Office is also assessing whether the existing channels are sufficiently capturing service user and external party concerns.