The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of legislation relating to online abuse on social media.
Dr Phillip Lee
I refer the hon. member to the answer given to PQ 42962 on 21 July 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions Ministers in his Department have declined to disclose information to the Intelligence and Security Committee under Schedule 1 to the Justice and Security Act 2013; and if he will make a statement.
Ben Gummer
The Cabinet Office is unable to find any record of having declined to disclose information to the Intelligence and Security Committee under Schedule 1 of the Justice and Security Act 2013.
The Cabinet Office is unable to find any record of having unreasonably delayed providing information to the Intelligence and Security Committee in order to make a determination as to whether to share that information, as set out in Schedule 1 of the Justice and Security Act 2013.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2015-10-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for NHS policies of the use of a regional eye inspection liaison officer in Northern Ireland.
Alistair Burt
The Health and Social Care Board Northern Ireland (HSCB) have funded Eye Care Liaison Officers since 2012. The HSCB are not aware of any regional eye inspection liaison officers in Northern Ireland.
In England, the Government fully appreciates the impact that sight loss can have on a person’s life and the importance of information being available for those newly diagnosed with sight loss, including signposting patients to appropriate support and rehabilitation services.
Eye clinics and their staffing, including eye clinic liaison officers, are commissioned and funded by individual clinical commissioning groups on the basis of local assessments of need.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the budget for the National Infrastructure Commission for the current year; what are the locations of its office accommodation; what that accommodation costs; and how many staff it employs, and at what cost.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
A suitable budget will be made available to cover the costs of staff and commissioning work from external organisations where necessary. The Commission is currently located at 1 Horse Guards Road on a temporary basis. The Commission is expected to have a staff of around 30 and it is now recruiting for these positions. The staff are being paid in line with salaries for government officials.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the situation in Eastern Ukraine; and if he will make a statement.
Mr David Lidington
The security situation in eastern Ukraine remains fragile, although a ceasefire agreed in September continues largely to hold following an order issued by the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ chief-of-staff on 25 November not to return fire unless in self-defence. Progress on the Minsk peace process was made at a Normandy-format Foreign Ministers’ meeting on 6 November, including agreements on the withdrawal of heavy weapons and de-mining. However these now need to be fully implemented alongside the ceasefire being fully respected.
A report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 9 December reported that the total death toll since mid-April 2014 is at least 9,098, with another 20,732 injured. The report also reveals that serious human rights abuses against people in the separatist-held areas continue, including killings, torture, ill-treatment, illegal detention and forced labour, lack of freedom of movement, assembly and expression. An estimated 2.9 million people living in the conflict area continue to face difficulties in exercising their economic and social rights, in particular access to quality medical care. The already dire humanitarian situation is exacerbated by the lack of access to these areas by international humanitarian organisations. Sustained and unimpeded access by humanitarian organisations to these areas is vital.
I expressed my concern at the situation in Ukraine in a statement at the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel on 3 December, where I called on the Russian Federation to withdraw their weapons and personnel, and use their considerable influence over the separatist leadership in order to bring an end to the crisis. I also raised the Government’s concerns about the situation in Eastern Ukraine with Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Titov in Moscow on 22 December.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2016 to Question 23263, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of his Department’s meetings with the National Audit Office on the issue of value for money from the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
Anna Soubry
The Government has held a number of discussions with the National Audit Office at a working level about the future sale of the Green Investment Bank. The Government does not intend to place any minutes of those discussions in the Library of the House.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department issues to credit reference firms on handling data on people who are on the closed electoral register.
John Penrose
The Information Commissioner’s Office provides guidance to both private and public sector organisations to help them understand their obligations under the Data Protection Act. Organisations wishing to process personal data in the UK, including credit reference agencies, must register with the ICO and comply with the DPA’s eight data protection principles. Among other things, these principles require personal data to be processed fairly and lawfully; to be accurate and up-to-date; not to be kept for longer than is necessary; and to be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects under the DPA.
The ICO’s website provides public information on credit reference agencies’ use of the electoral register at (https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/credit/).
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that rules relating to under-occupancy do not affect households in which couples have to sleep in separate rooms due to medical appliances.
Justin Tomlinson
The High Court and Court of Appeal have accepted that disability, including situations where medical equipment is being used, does not necessarily prevent couples from being able to share a bedroom. Because of this administering a blanket exemption would be extremely difficult.
In addition, an enhanced package of Discretionary Housing Payment funding (£870 million over 5 years) will enable Local Authorities to provide support to the most vulnerable claimants.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many times she has attended public meetings of the Energy and Climate Change Committee since her appointment.
Amber Rudd
Since my appointment as Secretary of State, I have attended public meetings of the Energy and Climate Change Committee on three occasions.
Attendance at Committee meetings is a matter of public record, and transcripts of such appearances can be found in Hansard and on Committee web pages.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportional real terms change in the cost of travelling by (a) private car, (b) bus, (c) train and (d) aeroplane since (i) 1980, (ii) 1997, (iii) 2010 and (iv) 2015.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Department for Transport publishes statistics on travel costs, based on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in the Transport Statistics Great Britain compendium, table 1308.
|
Real terms change in cost of transport |
Motoring, including the purchase of a vehicle |
Bus and coach fares |
Rail fares |
|
(i) Between 1980 and 2015 |
-19% |
+61% |
+65% |
|
(ii) Between 1997 and 2015 |
-16% |
+30% |
+25% |
|
(iii) Between 2010 and 2015 |
-10% |
+5% |
+7% |
(d) The costs of travelling by air are not available from ONS data. However estimates are available based on fare data from the Civil Aviation Authority passenger survey from 2000. The real cost of the average UK one-way air fare, including taxes and charges, covering domestic flights from 2010 to 2014 increased by 5%. Estimates for 2015 are not yet available.