Tag: Thangam Debbonaire

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help achieve a 100 per cent legal and sustainable timber trade in the UK by 2020.

Rory Stewart

Defra is committed to tackling the trade in illegal timber. We implemented the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which makes it an offence to place illegally logged timber on the EU market for the first time, and the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Regulation, which aims to combat illegal logging and improve the supply of legal timber to the EU. The EU FLEGT Regulation establishes Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between the EU and timber producing countries. Once VPAs have been agreed, timber producing countries will issue exports with a ‘FLEGT licence’ which verifies the timber’s legality.

The Government’s Timber Procurement Policy also requires Government Departments, Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies to procure timber and timber products that are both legal and sustainable.

Domestic forests provide about 20% of the UK’s timber needs. They are managed in accordance with the UK Forestry Standard, the reference standard for sustainable forest management in the UK. Moreover, about 85% of UK timber production is independently certified, providing additional assurances of sustainability. We are strongly supportive of initiatives such as Grown in Britain, which create new sustainably managed woodland to increase the supply of British timber destined for use by local people and businesses. Timber and wood products labelled with the Grown in Britain logo are from trees and forests assured as compliant with the UK Forestry Standard.

I welcome the fact that UK companies and other bodies are making similar commitments to trade in both legal and sustainable timber by signing up to WWF’s Forest Campaign.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will introduce a ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetic products similar to that introduced in the US.

George Eustice

The UK and neighbouring countries are working with industry to achieve a voluntary phase out of plastic microbeads in cosmetics and soaps.

The issue was discussed at the OSPAR Conference in 2014 and the cosmetics industry in Europe has committed to act.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the remit is of the NATO operation in the Aegean Sea relating to the refugee crisis.

Mr David Lidington

I refer the Hon. Member to answers the Secretary of State for Defence, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Mr Fallon), gave to the House on 7 March (Official Record, Cols 23-37). The purpose of this NATO operation is to provide monitoring, surveillance, and reconnaissance (MSR) of the Aegean migration routes to better enable Turkish and Greek coastguards and Frontex (the EU’s border management agency) to intercept the migrant boats and disrupt the business model of illegal migration. It is worth noting that the formal mandate of NATO’s activity is neither interdiction nor search and rescue, but if UK vessels encounter migrants in distress at sea, they will be rescued in accordance with international obligations and arrangements made for them to be returned to land.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what grounds her Department grants exemptions from (a) the life in the UK written test and (b) the language requirements of an application for UK citizenship; and if she will make a statement.

James Brokenshire

The Secretary of State may waive the Knowledge of Language and Life in the UK requirement for British citizenship on the basis of a person’s age, physical or mental condition.

A person will normally be exempted from this requirement if they provide evidence from an appropriate medical practitioner that their condition is so severe that it prevents them from being able to learn English or prepare for or sit an English test or the Life in the UK test. Each application is considered on its own merits.

Information cannot be obtained from UKVI data systems to show how many exemption requests were made and granted. This information could only be obtained from looking at individual records at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken in conjunction with the French government to ensure that unaccompanied child refugees have access to high quality legal assistance in order to submit claims for family reunion under the Dublin III Regulation.

James Brokenshire

Under the UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August 2015, the UK and France have committed to ensuring that the provisions of the Dublin III Regulation are used efficiently and effectively. To assist the handling of such cases, the two Governments have established a permanent official contact group, agreed single points of contact within respective Dublin Units and the UK seconded an asylum expert to the French administration to improve all stages of the process of identifying, protecting and transferring relevant cases to the UK. The Home Office will review the existing arrangements as part of the work to implement relevant provisions of the Immigration Act 2016. Between the start of January 2016 and 30th April 2016 our records indicate that the UK has accepted over 30 requests from France under the Dublin Regulations to take charge of asylum seeking children on family grounds of which more than 20 have already been transferred to the UK.

To assist with the identification of potential victims of trafficking and exploitation (including unaccompanied children) in Calais, the UK has funded a project run by a French non-governmental organisation which aims to identify and direct these vulnerable people to the appropriate support services in France.

The UK and France are running regular joint communication campaigns in northern France which informs individuals (including unaccompanied children) of their rights to claim asylum in France and gives them information on family reunification. The frequency of these campaigns has been increased in line with the Joint Declaration signed in August 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that non-EEA family members of UK citizens have equal rights of travel within the EU when travelling with their UK citizen family member who has not exercised his or her rights under the Free Movement Directive, 2004/38/EC as do those who have exercised such rights.

James Brokenshire

British citizens can enter any European Union (EU) Member State on production of a valid UK passport. Family members who accompany or join their British citizen relatives can also be admitted to any EU Member State on production of a passport and, where required by the national law of that state, an entry visa or the appropriate residence card.

Where admission is permitted, an EU citizen may remain in another EU state with their family members for up to three months from the date of entry, provided they do not become a burden on the social assistance system of the UK. Those EU nationals wishing to stay beyond three months can only do so where they are exercising a Treaty right.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications have been identified for consideration by expert personnel deployed by her Department to Greece to support the Greek Dublin Unit and EASO under the Dublin III regulation on family unity since May 2016; and how many such applicants have been transferred to the UK.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Home Office staff seconded to the Greek Government and the European Asylum Support Office are there to support the overall asylum system in Greece and improve the Dublin process. Two applicants have arrived in the UK since May 2016.

Providing refugees with access to clear, detailed and coherent information is the responsibility of the Greek authorities. The UK believes that member states should meet their international obligations and provide due process and adequate care to those seeking protection within their territories.

The Commission Implementing Regulation No 118/2014 clearly sets out the obligations for Member States to provide an information leaflet for applicants for international protection, including a specific leaflet for unaccompanied children. Following the EU-Turkey agreement and discussions with the European Commission and the Greek Government, the UK has offered a further 75 expert personnel to help with the processing and administration of migrants in reception centres, act as interpreters, provide medical support and bolster our existing team assisting the Commission to ensure effective and efficient coordination.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England on the future of the common cancer clinical reference groups.

David Mowat

NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Cancer, Professor Chris Harrison, has been working with the four common cancer ‘clinical reference groups’ to clarify their role within the system, especially in relation to the Clinical Reference Groups that provide advice and expertise to NHS England on the best ways that specialised services should be provided.

NHS England has decided to continue the common cancer groups as ‘clinical expert groups’ and to bring together their chairs to form a clinical steering group for the national programme, to support a pathway approach to care management and measurement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support international efforts to improve tax transparency and accountability.

Mr David Gauke

A major focus of the UK’s G8 Presidency was tax transparency and combatting offshore tax evasion. As part of this the UK promoted the development of a new global standard for reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information in order to effectively tackle the global problem of tax evasion. Due in large part to the UK’s leadership, over 90 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to the new global standard – known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – and will begin automatically exchanging information under the standard by 2017 or 2018. The receipt of large amounts of information on offshore accounts under the CRS will mark a step change in HMRC’s ability to crack down on tax evasion.

During our G8 Presidency, we also drove forward the international work on country-by-country reporting (CBCR), calling on the OECD to develop a template for CBCR reporting as part of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The OECD template is aimed at providing tax authorities with information on the global allocation of profits and taxes paid and accrued by multinationals, as well as indicators of economic activity in each country. The UK was one of the first countries to commit to implementing the OECD template for CBCR with legislation in the Finance Act 2015.

The final package of measures developed under the BEPS project was published by the OECD on 5 October 2015, and endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October and the G20 Leaders at their summit on 15-16 November. The UK welcomes the outcomes of the BEPS project and will give full consideration to the OECD’s recommendations.

In addition, the UK has actively supported the revision of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, to ensure the effective exchange of information about cross-border tax rulings between EU Member States. This directive was agreed in October 2015, and will come into force from 1^st of January 2017.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 16005, on malnutrition, how the Government plans to measure progress on its commitment to nutrition for 50 million people by 2020.

Mr Nick Hurd

The approach to measuring the commitment to improve the nutrition of 50 million people by 2020 is currently being finalised as part of the DFID aid review. Full details of the methodology for measuring these results will be published once this is completed.