Tag: Paul Flynn

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assurances he sought from his French counterpart that, in providing British surveillance assistance to the French bombing of identified ISIS operational buildings in Raqqa following the ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks in Paris, the French military avoided any civilians being killed as collateral damage from the bombings.

Michael Fallon

France is operating alongside the UK as part of the international Coalition against Daesh. All Coalition air operations are planned in accordance with international law and every precaution is taken to minimise collateral damage and civilian casualties.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what review her Department has conducted on flood protection measures since the recent floods in Cumbria and Lancashire.

Rory Stewart

The Environment Secretary announced on Sunday 13 December a new Cumbrian Floods Partnership group that will consider what improvements to flood defences in the region may be needed, look at upstream options for slowing key rivers to reduce the intensity of water flows at peak times and build stronger links between local residents, community groups and flood defence planning.

The Environment Secretary also announced a National Flood Resilience Review will be carried out to better protect the country from future flooding and increasingly extreme weather events. This will be delivered by a new cross Government team.

I will also be taking on a special Floods Envoy role across Cumbria and Lancashire coordinating the flood recovery operation across local agencies over the coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what actions have been undertaken in response to finding reference TRF0195 of the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator’s assessment of the Astral Climb 12 nuclear emergency exercise; and on what dates each such action was closed out.

Mr Philip Dunne

Finding TRF 195 from the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator’s assessment of Exercise Astral Climb 2012 called for documented arrangements to be reviewed and updated to reflect two changes in practice: the responsibility for the medical response and the monitoring instrumentation. This action was completed in August 2013. The finding also called for a review of Convoy and Station Nuclear Emergency Organisation Team response arrangements; this review was carried out in 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what lessons were learned for emergency planning in the event of an accident involving the road transport of nuclear warheads from the Operation Senator emergency planning exercise held at HMS Gannet, Prestwick Airport in September 2011.

Penny Mordaunt

The Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator (DNSR) assessment concluded that Exercise Senator 2011 achieved its stated objectives.

The DNSR assessment report contains five findings, four of which have been formally closed out. Work is in hand to address the remaining finding.

I shall place copies of the DNSR assessment and All Agency report in the Library of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-02-09.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the loan guarantee facility offered by his Department to EDF Energy for construction of the twin Hinkley Point C nuclear power plants will be conditional on the prior successful operation of the same model elsewhere in the world before entering into force.

Greg Hands

The Chancellor announced in September 2015 an initial guarantee of £2 billion of bonds which must be repaid by December 2020 by the shareholders of the project company. There is no further obligation to issue guarantees after that date.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost was of maintaining the defence attaché network in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15; and what proportion of the cost of that network was attributable to support for defence and security exports.

Mr Philip Dunne

The following information shows Ministry of Defence funding for the Defence Attaché and Advisor Network for financial year (FY) 2013-14 and FY 2014-15.

Support for exports is one of the many roles carried out by Defence Attachés as part of the International Defence Engagement Strategy. The Defence Attaché network has no specific budget or post allocated to this task.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Prime Minister, what discussions he had with the President of the French Republic on Anglo-French co-operation on nuclear weapons during his visit to France on 3 March 2016.

Mr David Cameron

President Hollande and I discussed our shared interest in building on our strong bilateral defence co-operation, but on this occasion, did not discuss nuclear weapons issues in any detail.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to require companies registered in the British Virgin Islands to publish details of all significant and beneficial owners and to place all such information on an online searchable register.

James Duddridge

Our priority for all the Overseas Territories that function with financial centres such as the British Virgin Islands has been for them to hold accurate and current beneficial ownership information on island in central registers or the equivalent, where they do not already do so, and to allow for UK law enforcement to access that information. The arrangement signed with the British Virgin Islands achieves this and represents a significant step forward in our ability to counter criminal activity and should be welcomed.

As the Prime Minister, the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) said in the House on 11 April, only about three countries in the world, including Britain, are implementing publically accessible central registers of company beneficial ownership information. If we had tried to push that on to the British Virgin Islands and other Overseas Territories straightaway, we would not have got nearly as far as we have. The actions taken by the British Virgin Islands and the other Overseas Territories puts them well ahead of many of our international partners.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what research her Department has commissioned on the particular challenges of implementing cyber security to cover small modular reactors (SMRs); and whether the recently announced competition for research on SMRs includes research on cyber security.

Andrea Leadsom

Any nuclear reactor or facility proposed for deployment in the UK is subject to regulation. Therefore, any small modular reactor (SMR) design proposed for construction would undergo safety, security and environmental design assessment, including an assessment of cyber security.

Ensuring safety and security is the legal duty of operators and safety and security at all nuclear sites are kept under regular review. The UK’s independent regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), carries out inspections to ensure operators are fulfilling their duties and that robust safety and security measures are in place across the industry.

DECC is working with ONR to ensure that the regulatory regime is fit for any possible future deployment of SMRs. DECC is currently developing the detail of the programme that will be taken forward as part of the £250m nuclear innovation, research and development funding announced by my rt. hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Autumn Statement. The recommendations and advice of the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board and key stakeholders will be taken into account in the process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel are not registered to vote in the EU referendum; and what steps his Department is taking to improve accessibility to register for that vote for armed forces personnel.

Mark Lancaster

The number of Service personnel who are registered to vote was published in the 2016 Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS), Table B22.1-3:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/armed-forces-continuous-attitude-survey-2016

The Department takes a number of steps each year, with assistance from the Electoral Commission, to inform Service personnel of the arrangements for electoral registration. The annual information campaign encouraging Service personnel and their families to register to vote was launched on 1 February 2016, in conjunction with the National Voter Registration Drive. We have issued an updated, separate instruction for the EU Referendum and are conducting further internal communications to once again encourage Service personnel to register to vote.