Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Baroness Burt of Solihull – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Baroness Burt of Solihull – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Burt of Solihull on 2016-03-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish a full list of the subjects for which the equivalent or lower qualifications rule will be relaxed, as announced in the 2015 Spending Review and Autumn Statement.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    Part time students studying for a second degree in subjects allied to medicine; biological sciences; veterinary sciences, agriculture and related subjects; physical sciences; and mathematical sciences will be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the 2017/18 academic year. These are in addition to the exemption for part time technology, computer science and engineering degrees introduced in 2015/16. Subject lists below these broad headings are published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency at https://www.hesa.ac.uk/component/content/article?id=1787

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  • Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Patten – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of damage caused to the gardens of urban and rural householders by badgers in England.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Defra is not aware of any studies that quantify the extent of garden damage by badgers. Where serious damage is, or is likely to be, caused by badgers or their setts, there is provision within the legislation for action to be taken under licence. Garden damage due to foraging alone is not normally considered sufficiently serious to warrant the issue of a licence.

    Natural England receives around 800 licence applications per year to interfere with badger setts. Of these, just over 50% relate to damage caused by badgers but not all involve residential properties or gardens. With regard to gardens, the usual action is to exclude badgers from the sett and proof the area against further damage. There is a presumption against licensing trapping and relocating badgers on disease and animal welfare grounds.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to ask NHS England to publish the initial Sustainability and Transformation plans submitted on 15 April 2016 to permit scrutiny of those plans.

    George Freeman

    The arm’s length bodies that developed the NHS Five Year Forward View – NHS England, NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission, Public Health England, Health Education England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – plan to publish Sustainability and Transformation Plans once they are final. They do not plan to publish the April submissions, on the basis that they are not formal plans but set out only an interim position.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans for the EU Unit to include voluntary sector representation or request input from that sector.

    Mr Oliver Letwin

    The new Europe Unit will bring together officials with a wide range of policy expertise from across Government. Many interest groups have directly approached Government Ministers, and Departments will look to ensure stakeholders’ views are properly captured and considered.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by his Department are non-UK nationals.

    Joseph Johnson

    All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

    Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

    More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kerry McCarthy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the recording of food crime as an identifiable category of crime in police databases.

    Jane Ellison

    I regularly attend the Inter Ministerial Group on food crime, which includes representation from the Home Office.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government is offering to the government of Lebanon on the distribution of central resources to municipalities to enable host communities to assist refugees; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The UK is providing £9 million this year to support the Lebanese Host Community Support Programme. This programme is aimed at providing basic services to 49 of Lebanon’s most vulnerable municipalities (those most affected by the pressures of hosting large refugee communities). It is jointly run by the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The programme does not use central government resources, but the Government of Lebanon does provide strategic direction through consultations with UNDP. We hope that their involvement will help to strengthen their capacity to respond to the Syria crisis.

    Since the start of the Syria crisis the UK has contributed over £330 million to help maintain Lebanese stability.

  • Baroness King of Bow – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness King of Bow – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness King of Bow on 2016-01-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets currently receive Universal Credit.

    Lord Freud

    The latest published statistics show that, as at December 2015, there were 1,409 Universal Credit claimants in Tower Hamlets.

  • Lord Rooker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Rooker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rooker on 2016-02-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which department is leading on preparations for the Anti-Corruption Summit planned in London following the Prime Minister’s Speech in Singapore on 28 July 2015.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Preparations for the Anti-Corruption Summit are being taken forward by the Joint Anti-Corruption Unit in the Cabinet Office, in close cooperation with a range of other government departments.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-03-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) Royal Navy vessels, and (2) vessels from other NATO members, are being deployed for search and rescue operations in the Aegean Sea; whether the orders given to those vessels include arresting traffickers; and what assessment they have made of whether the available forces are sufficient.

    Earl Howe

    I refer the noble Lord to the statement I made to this House on Monday 7 March (Official Report, column 1079). The Royal Navy has deployed Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Mounts Bay and a Wildcat helicopter to support NATO activity in the Aegean Sea. These will work alongside three Home Office vessels: VOS Grace, which has been deployed since November; the cutter Protector, which is en route to the region; and a further cutter that is expected to start operations later this month.

    In addition to RFA Mounts Bay, there are five NATO ships on station at the moment. Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Turkey have each deployed a ship.

    NATO ships will provide information to enable Greek and Turkish civilian authorities to intercept migrant vessels and arrest traffickers. It is not an interdiction or search and rescue operation, but RFA Mounts Bay would give assistance to any vessel it found in distress, in accordance with international obligations.

    With regards to sufficiency, we note the substantial contribution being made by the UK and other members of NATO, but we always look to see what further contributions members of the Alliance can make.