Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that adequate clean water is provided in refugee camps near the Syrian border.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have pledged over £1.1 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. We are the second largest bilateral donor after the US.

    In 2015/16 DFID is working with 18 humanitarian partners in countries neighbouring Syria. Our funding has provided access to clean water for over 980,000 people in these countries since the start of the crisis.

    In Jordan, DFID provides funding to UNICEF’s water supply work in refugee camps. In Zaatari Camp this involves the construction of boreholes in order to reduce daily running costs of trucking water into the camp. In December, for the first time since it opened, no external water trucking is needed for Zaatari camp. In Azraq Camp DFID contributes to the construction of boreholes, water distribution network and sanitation infrastructure.

    The vast majority of Syrian refugees live amongst host communities. The government’s response is therefore focused on refugees within these communities, not solely those in formal and informal camps. As a result, we are also funding Lebanese and Jordanian municipalities for the running of essential public services, including water and sanitation.

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support Saudi Arabia’s internal inquiry into war crimes in Yemen.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We encourage Saudi Arabia to investigate allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law, and for their investigations to be thorough and conclusive. Saudi Arabia has its own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail of how they investigate such incidents on 31 January. This will include an independent team of skilled specialists who will assess and verify incidents of concern.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been transferred to the UK from (a) Italy, (b) Hungary, (c) Croatia, (d) France, (e) Belgium, (f) Austria and (g) Germany under (i) articles 6 and 8, (ii) articles 9, 10 and 11, (iii) article 16, and (iv) article 17 of the Dublin III Regulation in the last 12 months.

    James Brokenshire

    Data on cases progressed under the Dublin III Regulation is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically.

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his European partners about asylum for Yazidi women who were enslaved by Daesh to allow them to access medical and psychological support.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We regularly discuss the plight of Yazidi women and girls in Iraq and Syria with our European partners. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) discussed the humanitarian implications of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Syria with members of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in December 2015.

    The UK is committed to supporting the victims of Daesh’s brutality. In Syria and the wider region, the Department for International Development (DFID) is funding specialised services for survivors and those at risk of gender-based violence. This includes safe spaces, psychosocial support, cash assistance and reproductive healthcare. In Iraq, DFID has deployed two experts to work with the UN to improve the humanitarian response to sexual and gender-based violence.

    Over the course of this Parliament we are resettling 20,000 of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees to the UK. Resettlement is only one strand of our efforts in the region. It is complemented by the UK’s significant humanitarian aid programme and diplomatic efforts to end the conflicts. We believe that this approach is the most effective way to ensure that the UK’s help has the greatest impact for those who remain in the region. To date, we have pledged over £2.3 billion of humanitarian assistance in response to the Syria crisis, and provided an additional £79.5 million to Iraq to help support the most vulnerable.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department plans to spend on walking in each year from 2016 to 2021.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department’s spending on walking programmes is stated in the table below.

    Programme

    2016/17

    2017/18

    2018/19

    2019/20

    2020/21

    Total

    Walking

    £97.0m

    £89.8m

    £69.3m

    £44.5m

    £23.3m

    £323.9m

    The totals shown above include the Department’s Sustainable Transport Transition Year and Access Fund plus spending by local bodies on walking projects using sums from within current Local Growth Fund and Integrated Transport Block allocations. Not all of the Local Growth Fund is currently allocated, so as future allocations of the Local Growth Fund are made to Local Enterprise Partnerships, the amount supporting walking projects through to 2020/21 is likely to rise.

    In addition to the above, from within the record £6 billion allocated to local highways authorities between 2015 and 2021 for road maintenance, this funding can help maintain footways cycleways. Further, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding will be based on footway and cycleway lengths.

  • Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 27 June 2016 to Question 40362, (a) for what reason the Government has concentrated gamma interferon testing outside the high risk areas and (b) what assessment she has made of the effect of the reduced number of gamma interferon tests in high risk areas on the incidence and spread of bovine TB.

    George Eustice

    Supplementary interferon gamma blood testing improves the detection of infected cattle in TB affected herds in the Low Risk and Edge Areas of England reducing the risk of TB taking hold in parts of the country where the disease is not yet endemic.

    Information published by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on gov.uk shows more supplementary interferon gamma tests in the High Risk Area in each of the years 2012 to 2015 than in 2009. We continue to explore options for wider deployment of this test in the High Risk Area.

    www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532709/ATIC0882.pdf

    “

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

    Lord Clement-Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Clement-Jones on 2016-09-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role the legal domestic ivory market in the UK has in facilitating illegal trade in ivory.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    A number of proposals on elephant and ivory related issues will be discussed at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to be held in South Africa between 24 September 2016 and 5 October 2016. This will include discussions on the existing global ban on the trade in ivory, which the UK is committed to maintaining, and the role of domestic ivory markets in illegal trade. Officials have engaged in substantial discussions with counterparts from other EU Member States on these and other issues over several months in formulating the EU and Member State position at the CITES Conference. The UK will continue to play a full role in these discussions.

    The then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, Rory Stewart, discussed the issue of the closure of domestic ivory markets with the Government of the United States (US) during a trip earlier this year. In addition officials in Defra are in regular contact with their US counterparts and have discussed the US measures on a number of occasions.

    The Government has been actively exploring options with relevant parties about how to implement the UK Government’s manifesto commitment to press for a total ban on ivory sales and the steps to be taken in respect of the UK’s ivory market. On 21 September 2016 the Secretary of State announced plans for a ban on sales of items containing ivory dated between 1947 and the present day, putting UK rules on ivory sales among the world’s toughest.

    The Government will consult on plans for the ban early next year, seeking views from conservationists, traders and other relevant parties to ensure clear rules and guidance for those operating within the law, while cracking down on illegal sales. This will complement the existing UK ban on trade in raw ivory tusks. Trade in raw tusks presents the greatest risk of poached ivory entering the legal market.

    TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring organisation, has recently published its independent report – A Rapid Survey of the UK ivory market. Although not an exact comparison with a survey conducted in 2004, TRAFFIC’s survey found the number of market stalls offering ivory for sale had declined by approximately two-thirds and the number of items offered for sale had halved. No new or raw ivory was seen in any of the physical market outlets or online platforms— only one ivory item seen for sale was reportedly from after the legal cut-off (1947) for antique ivory being sold without CITES documentation within the EU. Ivory is a key UK wildlife crime priority with an enforcement action plan in place to tackle risk. For example, UK Border Force through Operation Quiver has in particular successfully targeted ivory sent through postal systems.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will hold discussions with the National Association of Retired Police Officers on steps to support national security.

    Mike Penning

    Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

    Policy engagement with external organisations is a matter for Chief Constables to take locally in conjunction with their democratically elected Police and Crime Commissioners.

  • Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they still plan to progress the South East Flexible Ticketing programme; and if not, why not.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme is proceeding with contractual obligations for five train operators who run commuter services into London. Together, these five train operators cover 73% of the annual season ticket market. We are discussing with the Rail Delivery Group and the remaining train operators the best and quickest way to deliver smart and more flexible ticketing for commuters in the south east.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers who have received severance or redundancy packages since May 2010 have subsequently been re-employed (a) as a prison officer or (b) in another capacity by his Department.

    Andrew Selous

    It has not been possible to answer this question within the time available. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible.