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Tag: Stephen Phillips

  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure the economic empowerment of women in the developing world.

    Justine Greening

    The economic empowerment of women is a top priority for my Department. In September 2015 at the UN General Assembly and Post-2015 Summit, the UK and UNWomen hosted the event Transforming Economies: Empowering Women and Girls. The Call to Action launched at this event secured over 150 commitments to action from governments, development institutions, civil society and the private sector. These will all help deliver the Global Goal targets for women’s economic empowerment.

    We support a wide range of programmes to increase women’s opportunities for employment, ownership and control over economic assets and ability to start and run businesses. Since 2011, DFID have helped 2.5m women to improve their land and property rights and 35m women to access financial services.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on how many occasions his Department has been notified by external consultants or other third parties of breaches by employees or subcontractors of those consultants of document retention or security policies relating to confidential or secure materials in each of the last two years.

    Mr David Lidington

    Our records show 57 breaches by commercial third party suppliers in handling secure materials for the years in question. This is broken down by year as follows:

    2014/15 – 47

    2015/16 – 10

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has rigorous formal procedures for reporting, investigating and monitoring any incidents involving the loss or compromise of sensitive data for which it is responsible. Our policies and procedures are designed to ensure that we are compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998 and HMG’s Security Policy Framework. Responsibility for this compliance is shared with Suppliers through appropriate contract terms and conditions.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, further to the Answer of 9 October 2015 to Question 11183, if he will estimate the market value of the freehold buildings used by Grantham Magistrates’ Court.

    Caroline Dinenage

    There is no estimate of the market value of Grantham Magistrates’ Court. No decision has been taken to close the court.

    Disposal strategies will be developed once a decision is made on individual courts following the outcome of consultation.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2015-09-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that hospitals balance their budgets.

    George Freeman

    We are investing the additional £8 billion the National Health Service has said it needs to implement its own future plan, on top of the extra £2 billion we have given the service. However, additional spending is not the only answer to these financial challenges. The NHS must now put in place cost-control measures we have introduced, like clamping down on rip-off staffing agencies, while we continue to work with hospitals on ways to improve productivity and reduce waste.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent illegal trade in ivory products.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK has played a leading role in galvanising international action to combat the illegal wildlife trade, including the illegal trade in ivory. We hosted the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade in February 2014 and actively supported the Government of Botswana in its hosting of a follow-up Conference in Kasane in March 2015. The UK has also supported the Elephant Protection Initiative, of which nine African elephant range states are now members and which is designed to help them to secure and maintain healthy elephant populations.

    The UK is committed to maintaining the current global ban on any new international trade in ivory, established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In addition, the UK does not permit trade in raw ivory tusks of any age and we are pressing for this approach to be taken across the whole of the European Union.

    We have committed £13 million to support projects around the world to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. These projects seek to reduce demand, strengthen law enforcement and develop sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by illegal wildlife trade, principally through Defra’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. A second round of the Challenge Fund was launched on 5 August.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking with his European counterparts to encourage the reduction of fuel consumption by heavy-duty vehicles across the EU.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    We are committed to reducing the fuel consumption of heavy duty vehicles. We continue to work closely with both the UK industry and our European counterparts to ensure that the recently published EU Strategy for improving heavy duty vehicle fuel consumption and reducing CO2 emissions reflects UK interests, and is ambitious but deliverable, proportionate and cost effective.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the threat to the UK’s environment from invasive alien plant species.

    Dan Rogerson

    The Non-Native Species Framework Strategy for Great Britain sets out our mechanism for addressing non-native species, including plants. The strategy includes a comprehensive risk assessment mechanism to assess the potential negative impacts of non-native species, including threats to the environment. To date 126 risk assessments have been completed or are in progress. Of these, 58 are plant species.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage his counterparts in other EU member states to support and commit resources to the EUFOR RCA mission in the Central African Republic.

    Mark Simmonds

    I welcome the launch of the EU Force (EUFOR) military operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) on 2 April. EUFOR will help the African-led International Support Mission to CAR (MISCA) and French (Sangaris) forces to provide security in Bangui until a hand-over to MISCA or a possible UN Peacekeeping Operation can take place. I discussed the importance of the mission with Ministerial colleagues in the margins of the EU-Africa Summit in Brussels on 1-2 April. The UK has played a strong role in the planning for EUFOR, and is discussing the possibility of providing airlifts to help EUFOR’s deployment. Ongoing reports of violence in CAR demonstrate the importance of this mission.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to work with other EU member states to reduce the number of deaths of immigrants illegally coming to the EU via the sea.

    James Brokenshire

    The Government continues to have regular discussions with our EU partners in
    order to ensure that all Member States operate effective asylum and border
    management systems, including through cooperation with countries of origin and
    transit beyond the EU. This includes the UK’s participation in the EU’s Task
    Force Mediterranean, established following the Lampedusa tragedy last year to
    develop actions to prevent further deaths at sea.

    The Task Force involves Member States, the European Commission, the European
    External Action Service (EEAS) and key EU agencies (including Frontex, the
    European Asylum Support Office and Europol). It has developed a series of
    coherent actions, including cooperation with third countries and combating the
    organised criminals who facilitate many of these dangerous sea crossings.

    The Government strongly supports the Task Force proposal to develop information
    campaigns in countries of origin and transit as part of wider prevention
    efforts, and has shared our experience in this area with EU partners.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Stephen Phillips – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to work with counterparts in other EU Member States to encourage tourism to the UK from Europe.

    Mrs Helen Grant

    VisitEngland works closely with a network of National Tourism Organisations through the National Tourism Board Forum. Members include Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Malta, Denmark, Austria, Montenegro and Belgium. Activities of the forum include: regular meetings, sharing insights and best practice and marketing development.