Tag: Tom Watson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2015 to Question 222435, what the (a) rank, (b) function and (c) location is of the five personnel from the UK Reaper Force on loan service to US Forces.

Mr Mark Francois

There are four Flight Lieutenant Instructors at 49th Operations Group, Holloman Air Force Base. There is also one Flight Lieutenant at 53rd Test and Evaluation Group, Creech Air Force Base in a test and evaluation role. None of the five personnel on loan are conducting operational mission flying.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by his Department since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Department checks for duplicate supplier payments as part of the business as usual processes within the finance team. As part of the internal process checks the Department has identified the value of duplicate supplier payments since 2010 as £1,287,260.31.

The proportion of such payments the Department has recovered following these internal checks in each of the last two financial years is as follows:

(i) Payments for 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 – £325,456.94 – of which 100% has been recovered based on the internal processes.

(ii) Payments for 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 – £282,198.56 – of which 100% has been recovered based on the internal processes.

For completeness, in the financial year 2010-11 the value of such payments was £510,599.10 of which 99.7% was recovered, and in financial year 2011-12 the value of such payments was £169,005.71 of which 98.6% was recovered.

Further investigations are taking place into duplicate payments made as part of a Spend Recovery Audit that the Department has commissioned externally and we will seek to recover any further duplicates identified as part of this exercise.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any UK service personnel are embedded or otherwise stationed in (a) Ethiopia and (b) Chad.

Mr Mark Francois

The UK has a small number of Service personnel deployed to Ethiopia in roles including diplomatic representation, defence engagement, liaison and training.

No UK Service personnel are currently embedded or otherwise stationed in Chad.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the advice provided by Jemima Stratford QC to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on drones, if his Department will take steps to investigate activities carried out at US bases owned by his Department which may be unlawful under domestic law.

Mr Mark Francois

The Ministry of Defence remains content with the arrangements that are in place to govern the use of UK bases by the United States Visiting Forces (USVF). The Department therefore has no plans to investigate or review the activities undertaken by the USVF.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what role he has had in designing the new GCSE English Literature curriculum; and on what dates he has had meetings about its design in the last 12 months.

Matthew Hancock

The Secretary of State for Education set out that new GCSEs should provide students with fulfilling and demanding courses of study, with expectations that match and exceed those in the highest performing countries. GCSE English literature subject content was developed drawing on the evidence gathered through its public consultation on GCSE English literature content, which ran from June to August 2013, and from Ofqual, the Awarding Organisations and other subject experts.

In the last 12 months, the Secretary of State has met Department for Education officials on a series of occasions to discuss evidence gathered during the consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effects of lethal targeting by remotely-piloted air systems on security in Afghanistan.

Mr Mark Francois

UK forces, and the wider ISAF mission, have materially improved the security of Afghanistan since 2001. This allowed the developed Afghan National Security Forces to assume lead security responsibility for their own country from June 2013. As an integral capability of UK forces, Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS) are assessed to have made a valuable contribution, both in their surveillance and strike roles, to the improved security situation.

All UK forces operate in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, following the principles of distinction, humanity, proportionality and military necessity. The UK’s clearly defined Rules of Engagement, which cover the use of RPAS, are formulated on this basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 30 January 2014, Official Report, column 691W, on Yemen, whether his Department has undertaken any impact assessment of drone strikes in Yemen.

Mr Mark Francois

The Ministry of Defence has not conducted any impact assessment of kinetic strikes by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in Yemen. As my hon. Friend the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Hugh Robertson) said on 30 January 2014 (Official Report, column 691W), UAV strikes against terrorist targets in Yemen are a matter for the Yemeni and US Governments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on how many UK-based registered users of the paedophile file sharing network website boylover.net have been identified by international authorities in (a) the US and (b) Holland; what proportion of those was passed to UK authorities for investigation; what steps her Department is taking to trace those registered users; and if she will make a statement.

Norman Baker

I refer the Hon. Member to the reply given on 19 June 2014, Official Report, columns 666-667W.
Following two linked international investigations into the boylover.net
website, information was provided to the Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Centre (CEOP) by US authorities and Europol that related to UK-based
registered users. CEOP was, at that time, an affiliate of the Serious Organised
Crime Agency. We do not maintain a record of the number of UK-registered users
of the website identified by United States or Dutch authorities, nor of what
proportion of those users were passed to CEOP. However, as a consequence of the
information provided and through CEOP’s own investigations, 240 intelligence
packages were prepared and subsequently disseminated to police forces across
the UK. Further information regarding charges, convictions and open
investigations is handled at a local level by the relevant police force and
is not recorded nationally.