Tag: Tom Brake

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential effect on the number of people employed by fire and rescue services who are from non-EU countries of the salary threshold increase for Tier 2 visa applications to £35,000.

James Brokenshire

The Government announced in 2012 that from 6 April 2016 Tier 2 visa holders who apply for settlement in the UK will be required to meet a minimum annual salary requirement of £35,000. PhD level roles and those in recognised shortage will be exempt from the £35,000 threshold.

Data of the number of people employed in specific regions of the United Kingdom is not available. The Home Office holds individual records showing the working location of Tier 2 (General) migrants, but centralised records show the registered address of the Tier 2 Sponsor, which is normally that organisation’s Head Office.

The Home Office published a full impact assessment on the changes to Tier 2 settlement rules when they were laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. This includes the impact on the top ten occupations and is available on the gov.uk website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/117957/impact-assessment-tier2.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his counterparts in countries that are members of the International Syria Support Group on reported Russian violations of the ceasefire in Syria.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK has been providing regular reports on violations of the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) to the International Syria Support Group’s Ceasefire Task Force, of which we are a member. The Ceasefire Task Force meets twice weekly to consider such reports and to discuss measures to bring all parties into compliance with their obligations under the CoH.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government provides to Kurdish authorities in (a) Iraq and (b) Syria to support refugees in those regions.

Mr Nick Hurd

I have been asked to reply.

Since June 2014, the UK has committed £79.5 million of humanitarian aid to Iraq. This support is needs-based and provides life-saving assistance for the most vulnerable, including those in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). All UK humanitarian aid in Iraq is delivered through UN agencies, NGOs and other trusted humanitarian partners. We are providing funding to UNDP to build the capacity of the Joint Crisis Centre (JCC) within the Kurdistan Regional Government as part of this support. The JCC works closely with the UN, the Government of Iraq, and the international community to provide life-saving coordination.

To date, we have allocated £561 million to support vulnerable people inside Syria. Roughly half our support is delivered by agencies and INGOs working out of Damascus with the consent of the regime, and half is delivered across borders from neighbouring countries without regime consent, under the authorisation of the UN Security Council. In line with the key humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality, we work with trusted humanitarian partners with experience of operating in fragile and conflict affected states. These include UN agencies, international organisations, NGOs and civil society organisations. Through these partners, our support is reaching vulnerable Syrians in areas controlled by Kurdish groups.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the number of (a) UK firms based in the South West of England that trade with other EU member states and (b) people employed by those firms.

Anna Soubry

HMRC Regional Trade Statistics on the number of firms trading with the EU are publically available through the UKTradeInfo website.

HM Treasury has published estimates of the number of UK jobs linked to EU exports broken down by region. These are available through the GOV.UK website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what arrangements his Department has put in place to ensure that long-term funding is available for the transfer of care for people with learning disabilities from inpatient facilities to community care settings outlined in NHS England’s Transforming Care programme.

Alistair Burt

In national service model and Building the right support published in October 2015 NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services set out how areas would be supported to deliver lasting change to people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges.

To develop community capacity, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local authorities and NHS England’s specialised commissioners have formed 48 transforming care partnerships (TCPs) to plan for the future. TCPs have been asked to use the total sum of money they spend as a whole system on people with a learning disability and/or autism to deliver care in a different way to achieve better results. This includes shifting money from some services (such as inpatient care) into others (such as community health services including mental health services or individual packages of support). The costs of the future model of care will therefore be met from the total current envelope of spend on health and social care services for people with a learning disability and/or autism.

During a phase of transition, commissioners will need to invest in new community support before closing inpatient provision. To support them to do this NHS England will make available up to £30 million of transformation funding over three years, to be matched by CCGs, and £15 million in capital funding. This funding is in addition to the £10 million made available to six fast track areas in 2015/16.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the number of airstrikes that have been conducted by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Penny Mordaunt

The UK has a small number of military personnel serving as liaison officers to Saudi headquarters to provide insight into Saudi operations. The UK is not a member of the coalition and the release of operational data is a matter for the coalition.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has provided assistance to the Indonesian government on reforming discriminatory legislation against (a) religious minorities and (b) other minority groups.

Mr Hugo Swire

We have offered assistance and expertise to the Indonesian government on its Bill of Protection for Religious Communities. More broadly, our Ambassador in Jakarta has raised the issue of freedom of religion or belief with the Minister of Religious Affairs, Indonesian civil society, and religious leaders. Our Deputy Head of Mission in Jakarta has also raised these issues with the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2016 to Question 37106, whether the potential use of RAF aircraft to deliver airstrikes on Daesh targets in Libya has been discussed with the UK’s international partners.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We are working closely with the new Government of National Accord and international partners to develop a comprehensive approach to defeat Daesh in Libya. Planning so far has focused on training Libyan forces to provide their own security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel handed in a formal notice of resignation in each month between January 2010 and January 2014.

Mark Lancaster

Details of the number of trained Armed Forces personnel who handed in a formal notice of resignation during the period requested are given in the tables below. The information provided is an estimate of the number of applications made by Service personnel to leave before the end of their agreed engagement or commission period. It relates to those who have an application to leave recorded on their personnel record on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system.

Voluntary Outflow is defined as all exits from trained personnel which are voluntarily generated by the individual before the end of their agreed engagement or commission period.

It should be noted that the figures for the Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM) and Army do not include people who requested to leave but had their application refused.

Royal Navy/Royal Marines

Month	Number of Voluntary Outflow applications
January 2010	130
February 2010	100
March 2010	110
April 2010	90
May 2010	110
June 2010	110
July 2010	90
August 2010	80
September 2010	100
October 2010	110
November 2010	70
December 2010	100
January 2011	80
February 2011	100
March 2011	120
April 2011	100
May 2011	120
June 2011	180
July 2011	160
August 2011	50
September 2011	210
October 2011	110
November 2011	190
December 2011	60
January 2012	90
February 2012	140
March 2012	180
April 2012	120
May 2012	100
June 2012	140
July 2012	120
August 2012	90
September 2012	150
October 2012	130
November 2012	100
December 2012	80
January 2013	100
February 2013	120
March 2013	140
April 2013	110
May 2013	140
June 2013	110
July 2013	140
August 2013	60
September 2013	130
October 2013	160
November 2013	150
December 2013	70

Army

Month	Number of Voluntary Outflow applications
January 2010	470
February 2010	370
March 2010	390
April 2010	360
May 2010	430
June 2010	430
July 2010	440
August 2010	330
September 2010	570
October 2010	370
November 2010	450
December 2010	220
January 2011	720
February 2011	490
March 2011	460
April 2011	450
May 2011	600
June 2011	560
July 2011	470
August 2011	460
September 2011	710
October 2011	520
November 2011	570
December 2011	230
January 2012	710
February 2012	540
March 2012	500
April 2012	460
May 2012	500
June 2012	450
July 2012	460
August 2012	360
September 2012	540
October 2012	460
November 2012	380
December 2012	150
January 2013	520
February 2013	380
March 2013	330
April 2013	410
May 2013	400
June 2013	580
July 2013	560
August 2013	260
September 2013	610
October 2013	440
November 2013	390
December 2013	200

Royal Air Force

Month	Number of Voluntary Outflow applications
January 2010	80
February 2010	80
March 2010	80
April 2010	60
May 2010	50
June 2010	70
July 2010	50
August 2010	60
September 2010	90
October 2010	60
November 2010	90
December 2010	50
January 2011	120
February 2011	80
March 2011	130
April 2011	90
May 2011	130
June 2011	120
July 2011	110
August 2011	120
September 2011	140
October 2011	110
November 2011	120
December 2011	80
January 2012	150
February 2012	130
March 2012	140
April 2012	120
May 2012	130
June 2012	160
July 2012	140
August 2012	130
September 2012	160
October 2012	190
November 2012	140
December 2012	100
January 2013	190
February 2013	130
March 2013	160
April 2013	140
May 2013	130
June 2013	140
July 2013	150
August 2013	110
September 2013	170
October 2013	150
November 2013	140
December 2013	110

In accordance with the Defence Statistics rounding policy, all figures are rounded to the nearest 10, and numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid systematic bias.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the UK-supplied weapons are which are known to have been used in Yemen since January 2015.

Sir Michael Fallon

As at 12 October 2016 the following UK-supplied precision-guided weapons have been used in Yemen: Paveway, PGM500 (also known as the Hakim 2), Dual Mode Brimstone and Storm Shadow, along with ALARM (anti-radiation missiles).