Tag: Philip Hollobone

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information he holds on when Greece will have taken steps to ensure that its asylum system is compliant with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on 21 January 2011 in the case of MSS vs Belgium and Greece.

Mr David Lidington

The Asylum Agency in Greece was founded in 2011 in response to criticism of the previous system and the case of MSS v. Belgium and Greece. The same law adapted Greek legislation to Directive 2008/115/EC on returning illegally residing third country nationals and related issues.

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe monitors the case of MSS v. Belgium and Greece under the “enhanced supervision” procedure. They last considered it in December 2015 and will do so again in December 2016. There was no debate in 2015, which means the Secretariat were satisfied with the information Greece had provided.

The UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Greece will take place in early May. The review will cover the full range of human rights in Greece, including the asylum system. Greece’s self-assessment will be available on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will discuss with the Secretary of State for Defence how the best examples of literacy and numeracy education carried out in initial basic training in HM Armed Forces can be introduced to assist underachieving pupils in attaining GCSE grade C in English and mathematics.

Nick Gibb

The Government is committed to raising standards of literacy and numeracy for all pupils. We have strengthened the teaching of reading through rigorous phonics methods and placed greater emphasis within the primary curriculum and assessment on secure grasp of the essentials such as grammar, punctuation and spelling and fluency in mental and written calculation. We provide funding to secondary schools to help pupils catch up quickly and have announced resits for year 7 pupils in reading and mathematics.

Our reforms to mathematics and English at GCSE offer greater assurance that pupils with these qualifications will have the literacy and numeracy skills they need in employment, and we now require every 16-19 year old without a good pass in GCSE English and maths to study these subjects as part of their 16-19 programme.

In every aspect of this work the Department for Education is active in looking for ways to improve literacy and numeracy. We will look with interest at the work of the Armed Forces in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 16 December 2013, column 507W, what the updated figures are for the latest period available.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The average waiting time from receipt to disposal for all Social Security and Child Support appeals between October and December 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) was 19 weeks nationally and 15.9 weeks in the Kettering venue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle illegal fly grazing in (a) Northamptonshire and (b) England.

George Eustice

The Control of Horses Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) came into force on 26 May and specifically applies to horses that are fly-grazing or abandoned on another person’s land. Under the 2015 Act, local authorities and private owners and occupiers of land are able to deal with fly-grazing or abandoned horses more quickly and effectively. Specifically, it permits the disposal of such horses after 4 working days from detention, rather than the 14 days currently prescribed by the previous law. The 2015 Act applies to the whole of England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to protect pensioners’ incomes in (a) Kettering and (b) England.

Justin Tomlinson

This Government wants all pensioners to have a decent and secure income in retirement. We are committed to the ‘triple lock’, the guarantee that the basic and new State Pension will increase by the highest of the growth in average earnings, price increases or 2.5%. From April 2016, the full basic State Pension will rise to £119.30 a week, an increase of £3.35 and the biggest real terms increase to the basic State Pension since 2001. This will benefit many of the 18000 recipients of State Pension in Kettering and the 10 million recipients in England.

For the poorest pensioners, from April 2016 Pension Credit will top up income to a guaranteed minimum level of £155.60 for a single person and £237.55 for couples. We are protecting key benefits for older people including Winter Fuel Payments, free eye tests, free NHS prescriptions, free bus passes and free television licences for those aged 75 and over.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders in prison have been convicted of (a) drugs, (b) sexual violence and (c) fraud offences.

Andrew Selous

As of 31 December 2015 there were 9,895 Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) held in prisons and NOMS-operated Immigration Removal Centres, of which 6,612 were sentenced prisoners. Of these: 1,312 were sentenced for drug offences; 1,084 of these were sentenced for sexual offences; and, 258 of these were sentenced for fraud offences.

This government has a longstanding policy to do everything possible to return foreign prisoners to their home country at the earliest opportunity. Since 2010, 29,000 FNOs have been removed from the UK, with the total FNO population in our prisons reducing from 10,866 in December 2010 to 9,895 in December 2015. Offender management statistics, including FNOs, can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2015

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to ensure the delivery of superfast broadband to the remaining five per cent of properties which do not have access to it in (a) Northamptonshire and (b) England.

Mr Edward Vaizey

By2017, approximately 95 per cent of homes and businesses in Northamptonshire will have access to superfast broadband. To support further delivery, a further £1.9 million of funding has been made available through the contractual gainshare arrangements, and Northamptonshire County Council has further funding available beyond this for additional procurement.

In addition, the Government is supporting seven pilot projects to help deliver superfast broadband services to the hardest to reach parts of the UK. We will publish the findings from the pilots in duecourse.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will meet the hon. Member for Kettering and other interested parties to discuss how an action plan might be drawn up to speed up the adoption by local highways authorities of new residential roads.

Andrew Jones

I share my honourable colleague’s concern over the need to avoid unnecessary steps that might hold up the adoption of suitable roads into the public highway. I would be very happy to arrange for him and other interested colleagues to meet my Ministerial team.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the change in total traffic volumes across the entire road network over present levels by (a) 2020, (b) 2030 and (c) 2040.

Andrew Jones

The Department’s most recent published road traffic forecast for England was published in 2015.

Compared to the traffic volumes in 2014, the latest year for which traffic statistics are available for England, the Department forecasts that traffic volumes will be:

a) 4-20% higher in 2020

b) 11-38% higher in 2030

c) 15-52% higher in 2040

More detailed information can be found on the Department for Transport pages on GOV.UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which three EU countries have the largest number of foreign nationals in UK prisons; and how many such prisoners there are from each of those countries.

Andrew Selous

The three EU countries with the largest number of foreign national offenders in prison are; Poland 951, Ireland 783 and Romania 629 as of 30th September 2015 last published figures.

The EU Prisoner Transfer Agreement is beginning to take effect. Poland has a derogation until the end of December 2016 from the agreement to allow time to improve their prisons.