UKPOL.CO.UK

Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ring-fence special educational needs funding as part of her Department’s new national funding formula.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    We are currently consulting on arrangements for new national formulae for schools and high needs funding (funding for pupils with high cost Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)). Both funding streams, along with early years funding, make up the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which is ring-fenced so that local authorities can only spend it on specified elements of education. The DSG will continue to be ring-fenced when the national funding formulae are in place. We have also protected the high needs budget in this Parliament and the previous one. We recently added £92.5 million to the 2016-17 allocations.

  • Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Naz Shah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Naz Shah on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on raising the profile of forced marriage as a criminal offence in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    We made forced marriage a criminal offence in 2014 to better protect victims and send a clear message that this abhorrent practice will not be tolerated in the UK.

    The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) (a joint FCO and Home Office Unit) leads the Government’s forced marriage policy, outreach and casework. It carries out a range of awareness raising work, including a comprehensive programme of outreach, new e-learning for professionals, and the launch of short film aimed at deterring potential perpetrators. For the financial years 2014-16, the Home Office has allocated £200,000 to the FMU.

    Statistics on the number of cases of forced marriage investigated by the police are not collected centrally. The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) most recent violence against women and girls report shows that the volume of referrals from the police to the CPS with a forced marriage element is going up: from 67 in 2013-14, to 82 in 2014-15. In addition, to date over 1,000 Forced Marriage Protection Orders have been issued to prevent marriages from taking place and to assist in repatriating victims.

    We are encouraged by the first conviction secured in June last year, but there is still work to be done. We want to see more victims having the confidence to come forward and being identified by the police. As part of the wider work to improve the police response to so-called ‘honour’ based violence, we will continue to work with the partners to review the implementation of the new legislation and lead efforts to tackle this barbaric crime.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of Sustainability and Transformation Plans have been submitted to his Department; and what the deadline is for such plans to be submitted.

    George Freeman

    No Sustainability and Transformation Plans have been submitted yet. Draft submissions will be made to the national arm’s length bodies and are due on 30 June 2016. These documents will be discussed with footprints in July 2016.

    Plans will have no status until they are agreed. Footprints are at different starting points, and so the degree of detail that will be provided by 30 June 2016 will vary. Therefore, rather than expecting to have one ‘sign-off’ moment for all 44 plans, it is anticipated that this will occur in a series of waves over the coming weeks and months, with those areas who are more advanced achieving earlier sign off than those who will require more work.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the rationale was for his Department’s decision to allow soldiers who have completed only Phase One training to be called up to perform frontline tasks.

    Mark Lancaster

    The rationale behind the decision to plan to use Army Phase 1 trained Regular and Reserve personnel in response to crises within the UK was set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Michael Fallon) on 29 June 2016 (HCWS49).

  • Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Kate Osamor – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is giving to aid organisations based in Yemen to deliver humanitarian assistance in that country.

    Priti Patel

    The UK is the fourth largest donor to Yemen with an additional £37 million in UK funding for Yemen announced at the UN General Assembly. This brings the UK’s total to £100 million in humanitarian assistance for 2016/17 which is provided to aid organisations in Yemen. Last year, we helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis with food, medical supplies, water, and emergency shelter.

    We also continue to urge parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to ensure our partners are able to deliver aid to its intended beneficiaries.

  • Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-11-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 2 November (HL2849) on the review of retention of custody images by police forces, what are the specific operational and legal issues raised in the evidence-gathering stage, how they plan to address each issue, and what is the timescale for the completion of each of those actions.

    Lord Bates

    The review is ongoing, and is anticipated to report before the Christmas recess. Specific stakeholders consulted as part of the review include the Biometrics Commissioner, the Information Commissioner, the Surveillance Camera Commissioner, the National DNA Database Ethics Group, the National Police Chiefs Council , the College of Policing and local police forces. The report can be expected to address the operational and legal issues and risks, and set out plans for implementation.

  • Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much has been spent on the Mobile Infrastructure Project as of the end of November 2015; and what proportion of that figure was spent on (a) construction, (b) planning permission, (c) administration and (d) other costs.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    As at the end of November 2015, spend on the Mobile Infrastructure Project is £9.1 Million. The breakdown of this spend is not in the format requested but the following information can be provided:

    • Site Builds – £0.9 Million.

    • Site Searches and acquisitions, which includes obtaining planning permission – £5.1 Million.

    • Supplier management and programme management costs and one-off supplier deliverables – £3 Million

    The above spend relates to concluded and ongoing activities to enable identification of suitable locations to build masts. The spend in respect of Site Builds includes payments for some of the masts that are already on air.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proposals they have for achieving access in compliance with UN Resolutions to food and medicines for those Syrians now cut off from external supplies.

    Earl of Courtown

    The UK has pledged over £1.1 billion in response to the crisis in Syria and the region, making us the second largest bilateral donor after the US.

    The UK plays a key role in ensuring humanitarian access to Syria. By 30 November 2015, at least 222 shipments of cross-border aid had been delivered as a direct result of the UK co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolutions 2165, 2191 and 2258 which enables the UN to deliver aid into Syria without the consent of the regime.

    The UK worked with partners in the UN Security Council to put humanitarian access in Madaya, and across Syria, on the Security Council’s agenda on Monday 11 January.

    We continue to call on all sides to the conflict to respect International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and ensure free, unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies.

  • Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many telephone calls his Department received to its benefit helplines from people in Inverclyde in 2015.

    Priti Patel

    DWP operates a national network of contact centres which allows calls from anywhere in the country to be routed to the next available agent, regardless of their location. This virtual national telephony network means that it is impossible to provide a definitive answer regarding the volume of calls received from any particular geographical area.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the Government plans to ensure that any special advisers working part-time for Government and part-time for a campaign do not make use of departmental or government resources in their campaign work.

    Matthew Hancock

    Special advisers are required to conduct themselves in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers at all times.

    Arrangements for special advisers’ involvement in campaign activities are set out in the Cabinet Secretary’s letter of 23 February. This letter is published on www.GOV.UK.