The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners were BAME in (a) 2010 and (b) the most recent year for which figures are available.
Andrew Selous
Some 21,917 prisoners (26% of the prison population) declared themselves BAME as at 31 December 2015, compared with 23,657 (28%) on 30 June 2010.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2016-02-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what work they are doing to promote the UK’s insolvency regime to the European Commission as it develops its plans for an insolvency directive.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
My officials have regular discussions with Commission officials on this matter. Insolvency experts have also had such discussions to ensure they are aware of the features and strengths of our insolvency regime. The Commission has announced its intention to publish a legislative initiative on corporate insolvency in late 2016. This is to be preceded by a consultation to be published this spring. The Government will be responding to the consultation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the EU’s decision-making process is for (a) humanitarian and (b) military interventions; who is involved in those decision-making processes; and what the timetable for those processes is.
Mr David Lidington
The EU’s humanitarian assistance is administered primarily by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). Approved implementation partners submit project proposals to ECHO in response to its Humanitarian Implementation Plan. ECHO has a number of decision-making procedures available to it: the delegation procedure, where ECHO has delegated powers for emergency humanitarian work up to a limit of €3m and a maximum duration of three months); and the empowerment procedure, where the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection may take decisions relating to emergency operations up to €30m (maximum €10m for non-urgent decisions) for a maximum of six months. These decisions are subject to a consultation procedure within the Commission. Emergency decisions exceeding €10m and non-urgent decisions exceeding €2m (and all other decisions not covered by the delegated or empowerment procedures) require the approval of the Humanitarian Aid Committee (of representatives of all EU Member States). These decisions can be made by consensus or by voting, simple majority or Qualified Majority Voting, depending on the circumstances. The voting procedure has not been used in the Humanitarian Aid Committee as yet. The timeframe for the Commission’s approval will depend on the urgency of the humanitarian crisis.
EU military interventions fall under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. Proposals are framed by Member States and the European External Action Service. A military intervention requires two Council Decisions: one to establish the mission; and, once planning is complete, another to launch the mission. All CSDP Council Decisions require unanimity. Timescales for military interventions depend on a range of factors, such as operational urgency and planning requirements.
There are other Commission-administered programmes, aside from those administered by ECHO, which have humanitarian aspects. Typically, under these programmes, the Commission is responsible for framing proposals with decision-making involving a committee of Member States.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many metric tonnes of Chinese rebar steel have been imported into the UK in each of the last five years.
Anna Soubry
The volume of rebar steel imported to the UK from China during the period 2011-2015 was as follows:
Year Metric Tonnes
2011 6
2012 2
2013 47,803
2014 254,584
2015 365,449
Source:HMRC
For 2016, data from the EU’s Steel Surveillance 2[1] Monitoring System indicates that 43 tonnes were imported to the UK during the first quarter.
[1] The Surveillance 2 system collects data directly from import customs declarations. This data relates to the reference of the customs declaration, the nature of the goods, their origin, their volume, their value and their date of acceptance by the customs administration (actual import date). Records are sent daily by the central systems of the customs administrations of the EU Member States. It is based on article 308d of the implementing provisions of the Custom Code (Regulation 2454/93
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-06-03.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37839, what the cost to the public purse has been of advertising of the Government’s position on the EU referendum specifically on social media to date, excluding the cost of producing, distributing and publicising the Government’s EU referendum leaflet and associated website.
John Penrose
The Government confirmed on 6th April 2016 that £2,894,064 had been set aside for the promotion of information relating to the EU Referendum, including the production of eureferndum.gov.uk. Costs relating to the Referendum will be accounted for in the usual way in Annual Report and Accounts.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many companies have signed the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant.
Mark Lancaster
The Armed Forces Corporate Covenant was subsumed into the Armed Forces Covenant in January 2016. As at 2 September 2016 a total of 1,156 organisations have signed the Armed Forces Covenant. This total includes those organisations who signed the previous Corporate Covenant. Details of all Armed Forces Covenant signatories and their pledges are available on-line at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/armed-forces-covenant.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-10-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the hospitality sector on future entry requirements for EU nationals after the UK has left the EU.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are published on the Cabinet Office website on a quarterly basis.
Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Cabinet Office website which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/cabinet-office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training and experience advisers who received calls to the NSPCC human trafficking and modern slavery helpline between July 2014 and June 2015 had; and what the cost to the public purse was of providing such training.
Karen Bradley
The NSPCC-run modern slavery helpline was launched in July 2014, as part of a wider awareness-raising campaign, to better support potential victims of modern slavery. For the period July 2014 to July 2015, £50,000 was made available to the NSPCC to run the modern slavery helpline. To support the launch of the helpline, training was provided by existing staff in the NSPCC child trafficking advice centre, the Metropolitan police’s human trafficking unit and the Modern Slavery Unit to NSPCC call-handlers at zero cost.
The NSPCC helpline routinely records the number of contacts made each month, how they are made, and by whom. The helpline also records the gender, age and nationality of potential victims, where that information is known or presumed. Between 31 July 2014 and 31 July 2015 the NSPCC modern slavery helpline received, in total, 849 contacts. These were comprised of 491 referrals, 107 advice cases and 251 enquiries. During the period 31 July 2014 to 31 July 2015 the helpline received a total of 57 contacts from potential victims themselves and in that same period the NSPCC made 272 referrals to the police. The NSPCC does not hold data on the number of contacts referred to the helpline by the police and other agencies that were subsequently referred back to those agencies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will place in the Library a copy of the underlying local wage data used to calculate the area cost adjustment factor for the (a) West Sussex Fringe and (b) West Sussex Non-Fringe element of the school grant.
Mr Sam Gyimah
The area cost adjustment for the schools block of the dedicated schools grant for 2015-16 is based on a combination of a teacher cost adjustment and a general labour market specific cost adjustment for non-teaching staff pay.
Teacher cost adjustments for the four regional pay bands (and the area cost adjustment itself) was published in the technical note to “Fairer schools funding: arrangements for 2015 to 2016”: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fairer-schools-funding-arrangements-for-2015-to-2016
The general labour market specific cost adjustment was calculated and published by the Department for Communities and Local Government in “Methodology Guide for the Area Cost Adjustment 2013/14”: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140505104649/http://www.local.communities.gov.uk/finance/1314/methacas.pdf
The methodology for combining the teacher and general labour market elements into the area cost adjustment is described in Annex C of “Fairer schools funding 2015 to 2016”: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fairer-schools-funding-2015-to-2016
A map showing the area covered by the Department’s definition of a) the West Sussex Fringe and b) the West Sussex Non-Fringe is attached.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many jobs in (a) her Department and (b) its non-departmental public body, non-ministerial departments, advisory bodies and other accountable statutory bodies (i) have been abolished or relocated from Stoke-on-Trent since 2010 and (ii) will be abolished in or relocated from Stoke-on-Trent by 2020.
Mr Nick Hurd
Neither DFID nor its non-departmental public bodies have had, nor plan to have, any jobs based in Stoke-on-Trent during the periods in question.