Tag: Stephen Doughty

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the progress made in recent talks between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan.

Mr Hugo Swire

We are pleased that the governments of India and Pakistan agreed on 9th December 2015 to resume formal dialogue on a range of issues. We hope that a meeting between their Foreign Secretaries to work out the procedure for this dialogue can be arranged as planned and will be successful.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints her Department has received regarding services provided under contract by Clearsprings from (a) service users and (b) external parties in each of the last six years.

James Brokenshire

Within the terms of the contracts for asylum accommodation the accommodation provider is required to respond to and address complaints from service users and external parties in the first instance. Where a service user or external party is dissatisfied with the response or the measures taken to address their complaint, the complainant may escalate the issue to the Home Office.

In the years 2010 to 2015 the Home Office has received 60 complaints in total regarding services provided under contract by Clearsprings Ready Homes, broken down by each of the last six years as follows:

Year No. of complaints

2010 0

2011 0

2012 0

2013 1

2014 0

2015 59

The complaints have not been categorised to distinguish whether the complainant was a service user or external party.

On receipt, each complaint is considered, investigated and addressed. If after investigation the Home Office determines that a complaint demonstrates a failure of the contractor to comply with the required standards and the contractor fails to address the complaint there are a range of contractual sanctions that the Home Office can and do impose.

The Home Office is working with contractors to undertake profiling and trend analysis of complaints, including why there was an increase in 2015. The Home Office is also assessing whether the existing channels are sufficiently capturing service user and external party concerns.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which were the top 10 countries of origin of asylum seekers accommodated in (a) Wales and (b) the UK in each of the last six years.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office publishes regional data on asylum seekers in receipt of Section 95 Support (dispersed accommodation and subsistence only) by nationality in Table as_17q (Asylum data tables Volume 4) of the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. The top ten nationalities of asylum seekers supported in Wales and the UK as a whole, in each of the last six years, are given in the attached tables.

A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics July – September 2015, is available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many social media accounts promoting extremist content were recommended for closure by her Department in each of the last 12 months; and what proportion of such content related to Daesh.

Mr John Hayes

We have seen an increase in the scale and pace of terrorist communications by groups like ISIL, encouraging vulnerable young people to travel to conflict zones like Syria and Iraq. This Government takes seriously the threat from online terrorist and extremist propaganda, which can directly influence people who are vulnerable to radicalisation.

Since 2010 over 140,000 pieces of terrorist-related material have been removed by industry from various online platforms at the request of the dedicated police Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU). Approximately 55,000 removals were made in 2015 alone. Removal requests are now at over 1,000 a week and approximately 70% of CTIRU’s caseload is Daesh related.

We are pressing industry to take a lead in tackling the abuse of their services by terrorist and extremist groups.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of free-flow technology on the Severn Bridge.

Andrew Jones

The Government is considering the future of tolling arrangements at the Severn Crossing once the concession ends. I expect to consider the merits of free-flow technology in this context, although no options have yet been developed. To help understand whether this may be worth pursuing, my Department is attempting to estimate the potential traffic benefit of removing the barriers, though this work is not yet complete.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what (a) training, (b) financial and (c) materiel support his Department is providing to the Somali National Army.

Penny Mordaunt

UK support to the Somalia National Army (SNA) totalled £17million in 2015-16, funded through the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). This is intended to increase to £20million in 2016-17. This includes Defence mentoring support to the development of the SNA in Mogadishu, delivered both bilaterally and through UK personnel embedded in the EU training mission, and Defence oversight of a non-lethal equipment programme (including tents, computers, generators, vehicles). It also includes the provision of stipends; infrastructure support; and a £3million HMG donation to the SNA Trust Fund operated by the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS). HMG is looking to deliver an enhanced programme in 2016-17.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much official development assistance the Government has dispersed to Somaliland (a) bilaterally (b) through the EU and (c) through UN institutions in each of the last six years.

Mr Nick Hurd

The Government does not compile formal aid expenditure statistics broken down at sub-national level. Information on UK Government bilateral spend in Somalia, which includes spend in Somaliland, is shown in the table attached for calendar years 2009 to 2014. Data for 2015 will be available in Statistics on International Development due out in the autumn of 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to page 135 of her Department’s Annual Reports and Accounts 2015-16, for what reasons the budget allocation to South Sudan has decreased from £188,184 in 2015-16 to £145,000 in 2017-18.

James Wharton

DFID’s allocations are continually reviewed to ensure development assistance is used most effectively to achieve poverty reduction, in the national interest and responds to changing needs. The precise way in which DFID spends will reflect changing demands while at the same time protecting ministerial spending commitments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the economic effect of the UK leaving the EU on the steel industry in South Wales.

Mr Nick Hurd

The UK economy is fundamentally strong, highly competitive, and open for business. As we work towards negotiating Brexit, we will aim to limit uncertainty surrounding businesses and industries, including the steel industry in South Wales, whilst also seeking to forge new relationships and seize new opportunities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff were employed at each civil service grade at UK missions to each African country on 1 January 2016.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are not able to provide a breakdown of Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) UK based staff numbers by grade at individual UK missions for operational security reasons. Please find attached numbers of FCO UK based staff by Post and Country and separately by civil service grade on 1st January 2016.