Tag: Tom Brake

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on the use of child soldiers by the Afghan local police.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Afghanistan is one of seven countries included in the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan’s campaign “Children, Not Soldiers” which aims to end the recruitment and use of children by Afghan Government security forces.

We share the concerns of the UN Special Representative on the continued recruitment of children in the Afghan security forces, and the lack of oversight of recruitment for the local police forces. While Afghanistan has made some progress, including the adoption of a presidential decree criminalizing child recruitment by Government security forces in 2015, significant efforts are needed to fully implement the Action Plan.

The UK welcomes the creation of six child protection units in recruitment centres and is encouraging Afghanistan to expand this to all provinces. We urge the Government of Afghanistan to hold to account the perpetrators of child recruitment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2016 to Question 29389, whether he has sought assurances that Saudi Arabia’s internal procedures for investigations are being used to investigate (a) attacks on the Médecins Sans Frontières hospitals and mobile clinic and (b) the airstrike on the Oxfam warehouse.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The results of the investigation into the October Médecins Sans Frontières incident were announced at a Saudi Arabian press conference on 31 January, as was the intention to investigate all allegations of concern. The UK has been using diplomatic and military channels to engage with Saudi Arabia on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) compliance. I have spoken to the Saudi Ambassador and the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), has engaged with his counterpart on the importance of compliance with IHL.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on whether Passenger Service Performance by the TSGN has exceeded the Default Performance Level for any benchmark for any (a) three consecutive reporting periods, (b) four reporting periods within a period of 13 consecutive reporting periods or (c) any five reporting periods within a period of 26 consecutive reporting periods except in relation to any reporting periods falling within a no breach reporting period.

Claire Perry

The Department receives information on each franchised operators’ performance against respective benchmarks every four weeks. Delays and Peak Short formations have not exceeded the Default Performance level as defined in the Franchise Agreement. However, GTR exceeded the breach performance level for cancellations last year and the Secretary of State issued Govia Thameslink Railway with a Remedial Plan Notice requiring them to set out the measures they will take in order to improve performance. Subsequently, the Secretary of State has accepted the Remedial Plan that sets out the steps the operator is taking to improve their performance.

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 West Midlands 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 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations the Government made to the Ombudsman of the Bahraini (a) Ministry of Interior and (b) authorities on that Ombudsman’s investigation into the alleged torture of Mohamed Ramadan.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Government has raised Mohamed Ramadan’s case with the Bahraini authorities. I did so most recently when I met the Bahraini Ambassador to the UK, Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, on 8 March 2016. Embassy officials have been in direct contact with the Ombudsman, who has confirmed that whilst there have been a number of complaints raised with his office in the case of Mr Ramadan, there have been no allegations of mistreatment or torture.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will place in the Library copies of all correspondence between Ministers in his Department and newspaper editors, executives and proprietors about press regulation policy and Leveson Part 2 since May 2015.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The department does not publish as standard confidential correspondence between individuals or organisations and ministers. A list of ministerial meetings is published in the department’s quarterly returns.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on what occasions ministers of his Department raised the issue of Tibet during visits to China since May 2015.

Mr Hugo Swire

In addition to our UK-China Human Rights Dialogues, we continue to make our views on Tibet known to the Chinese authorities through various channels. In June 2015 and November 2015 I set out to Parliament our concerns about rights and freedoms in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy also covers these issues.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on whether aircraft manufactured in the UK and granted an export licence to be sold to the Saudi Arabian government have been used by the Saudi Arabian military forces in Yemen since March 2015.

Michael Fallon

Saudi Arabia has purchased UK manufactured Typhoon and Tornado aircraft which have flown combat missions in the current conflict in Yemen.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the potential effect of delays in the processing of criminal record check disclosures on sporting activities.

Mike Penning

Protecting the public is a priority for this Government and it is important that checks undertaken are thorough; a proportion of the applications received by the DBS must be referred to one or more police forces as part of the enhanced disclosure process. In the vast majority of cases these checks are completed within target.

Whilst no assessment has been made of the impact of timeliness on sporting activities, it is recognised that delays may create problems for some people. We will not compromise when it comes to the safety of children and vulnerable adults.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 16 September 2016 to Question 45359, whether people not from government departments have accompanied him on official visits abroad.

Greg Hands

My Rt hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade has been only accompanied by Government officials on all foreign visits.