Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1039568

	registered interest
	date	11/01/2019
	answering body	Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
	answering dept id	36
	answering dept short name	Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
	answering dept sort name	Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
	hansard heading	Political Parties: Fines
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2019 to Question 203928 and the Answer of 8 January 2019 to Question 205307, on Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000: Fines, if the Speaker's Committee will undertake a review of whether it is an appropriate and proportionate enforcement policy practice by the Electoral Commission for a political party to be fined £6,000 for submitting a quarterly reporting one day after the deadline.
	tabling member constituency	Thornbury and Yate
	tabling member printed	Luke Hall
	uin	207584
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2019 answer text <p>It is not the remit of the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, as set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, to scrutinise the Electoral Commission’s enforcement policies.</p><p>Parliament made it an offence to deliver, without reasonable excuse, donation reports that are inaccurate or miss the statutory deadline. Parliament gave the Commission investigation and sanction powers for these, and other, offences. Parliament also set out a legal right of appeal for those sanctioned by the Commission, including on the grounds that the amount of the penalty is unreasonable.</p> answering member constituency Houghton and Sunderland South answering member printed Bridget Phillipson question first answered 20/05/2019 12:48:14 answering member 4046 label Biography information for Bridget Phillipson
	tabling member	4450 label Biography information for Luke Hall

1083635

	registered interest
	date	07/03/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the process is for her Department when it considers an application for an advance payment for universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	229666
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>If a claimant meets the conditions for an advance we aim to make the payment within 72 hours. However, an advance can be paid on the same day the claimant applies if they or their household would suffer genuine hardship if they had to wait 72 hours for the payment.</p><p>Applications for a Universal Credit advance payment can be made in person, by telephone or online depending on the claimant’s circumstances. Depending on the type of advance payment application, we will consider whether the claimant satisfies the eligibility conditions for receiving the advance. If the claimant is eligible we will agree the amount of the advance and the period over which the advance will be recovered from their future Universal Credit payments. The outcome of the application is explained to the claimant and their online journal updated.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 22/05/2019 13:37:44 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1122871

	registered interest
	date	24/04/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Birmingham Prison
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Written Statement of 2 April 2019, Official Report HCWS1475 on HMP Birmingham, if he will list the new approaches that have been delivered by the private sector referred to in that Statement.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	247133
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>Privately-managed prisons have pioneered the use of modern technology to improve the running of establishments and help promote rehabilitation. This includes the development of in-cell telephony to help prisoners maintain ties with their families; interactive story-time activities between prisoners and their children; and the introduction of electronic kiosks, which allow prisoners to have greater control of managing their day-to-day lives. The use of body-worn video cameras was introduced by private prisons. Private prisons also have excellent facilities as standard, such as showers in cells, which it is not possible to provide in our older prisons.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 21/05/2019 14:58:51 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1123563

	registered interest
	date	29/04/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Home Office: Departmental Records
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to locate the 114 documents in relation to child sexual abuse and hon. Members which were misplaced by his Department.
	tabling member constituency	Belfast East
	tabling member printed	Gavin Robinson
	uin	248696
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2019 answer text <p>In February 2013, the Permanent Secretary commissioned an investigation into information the Home Office received in relation to child abuse allegations, between 1979 and 1999. That investigation was unable to locate 114 potentially relevant Home Office files.</p><p>On 7 July 2014 the Home Secretary appointed Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam QC to carry out an independent review of the 2013 investigation.</p><p>On 29 July 2014, the Home Office Permanent Secretary directed that a physical search targeted on specific areas of the Department be undertaken to see if any of the 114 missing files could be located. This did not uncover any of the 114 missing files, though one was found prior to this exercise. As part of their Review, Wanless and Whittam interrogated what was known about each of the 114 files. They published their analysis within their final report, published November 2014.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 24/05/2019 13:38:44 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
	tabling member	4360 label Biography information for Gavin Robinson

1123671

	registered interest
	date	29/04/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Social Security and Child Support Tribunal appeals have taken longer than 52 weeks for a determination, in each of the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	Easington
	tabling member printed	Grahame Morris
	uin	248645
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is provided in the table below:</p><p>SOCIAL SECURITY &amp; CHILD SUPPORT CLEARANCES 1<br>Period Number of clearances that exceeded 52 weeks from receipt<br>1 April 2013 - 31 March 2014 16,161<br>1 April 2014 - 31 March 2015 12,350<br>1 April 2015 - 31 March 2016 3,100<br>1 April 2016 - 31 March 2017 4,084<br>1 April 2017 - 31 March 2018 7,330<br>1 April 2018 - 31 December 2018 2 13,162</p><p>1. Data include hearings cleared with and without a Tribunal hearing</p><p>2. The latest period for which data are available. Provisional data and subject to further change</p><p>Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data that are available.</p><p> </p><p><br>It is important that appeals are heard as quickly as possible. Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) recognises there are delays in the system and it is in the process of recruiting more judicial office holders in order to increase capacity and help to reduce waiting times for appellants. This includes 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal, 125 disability qualified members and up to 230 medical members.</p><p>In addition, we have recently launched a new digital service with a view to enabling speedier processing of appeals. Information on the new digital service can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/appeal-benefit-decision/submit-appeal</p><p>We are also working with the Department for Work and Pensions to understand what could be done to reduce the number of appeals being submitted to the Tribunal, through their focus on improving decision-making and the mandatory reconsideration process.</p><p>These measures will increase the capacity of the Tribunal. As a result, the number of appeals outstanding in the Tribunal is starting to fall as the number of cases heard by the Tribunal outweigh those sent to the Tribunal. If this continues, over time, we expect the time it takes for the Tribunal to hear, and the age of, appeals to reduce.</p><p>The time taken for the Tribunal to hear an appeal is mainly driven by the number of appeals sent to the Tribunal and the capacity of the Tribunal to deal with them. The number of appeals sent to the Tribunal is directly affected by changes in welfare policy.</p><p>The time it takes the Tribunal to hear an appeal is calculated from the time it is sent to the Tribunal to its final disposal. An appeal is not necessarily disposed of at its first hearing. The final disposal decision on the appeal may be reached after an earlier hearing has been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after an earlier hearing date had been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been decided at an earlier date by the First-tier Tribunal, only for the case to have gone on to the Upper Tribunal, to be returned once again to the First-tier for its final disposal.</p><p>HMCTS is very sensitive to the needs of people who may be affected by waiting times for Tribunal hearings. Tribunal staff and judicial office-holders, are trained accordingly, with HMCTS’s reasonable adjustments policy and practice applied where appropriate. Guidance on the policy is published on GOV.UK. If an expedited hearing is sought, or where the Tribunal identifies a case which might benefit from an expedited hearing, a judge or caseworker will make a decision on the issue, taking all the circumstances of the case into account.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 16/05/2019 16:26:11 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3973 label Biography information for Grahame Morris

1124381

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Women and Equalities
	answering dept id	31
	answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
	answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
	hansard heading	Government Equalities Office: Secondment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many civil servants in the Government Equalities Office have been seconded to (a) the Department for Exiting the European Union and (b) the Department for International Trade in each of the last three years.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	249913
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government Equalities Office (GEO) confirms no GEO civil servants have been seconded to either the Department for Exiting the European Union or the Department for International Trade in the last three years.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 22/05/2019 15:13:56 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1124399

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
	answering dept id	10
	answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
	answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
	hansard heading	National Lottery Heritage Fund: Public Records
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 24 April (HL Deb, cols 600–602) on records held by the National Lottery Heritage Fund that the fund took legal advice and that even if it had retained the records, “it would not have been able to make them available”, what was the nature of the legal advice taken; and on what grounds it was argued that such records could not be made available.
	tabling member printed	Lord Aberdare
	uin	HL15448
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>The National Lottery Heritage Fund (the Fund) took advice from its professional legal advisors as to the legal status of the Conservation Management Plans, which included advice on copyright and on the implications to the Fund if they were to make the CMPs available to third parties. The advice concluded that if the Fund disclosed the Conservation Management Plans it would risk being in breach of copyright</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Ashton of Hyde question first answered 16/05/2019 14:40:15 answering member 4247 label Biography information for Lord Ashton of Hyde
	tabling member	3898 label Biography information for Lord Aberdare

1124403

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	High Speed 2 Line
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish an up-to-date cost estimate and business case for HS2 Phase 2A at least two weeks before the High Speed Rail (West Midlands–Crewe) Bill has its second reading in the House of Lords.
	tabling member printed	Lord Berkeley
	uin	HL15452
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department for Transport will periodically update the phase 2a cost estimate and business cases in line with the Government’s protocol for developing major projects. The HS2 Phase 2a Outline Business Case was published alongside the deposit of the Phase 2a hybrid Bill in July 2017. The Department intends to update the Phase 2a Business Case and cost estimate to inform the Full Business Case after the Phase 2a hybrid Bill achieves Royal Assent.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Vere of Norbiton question first answered 16/05/2019 16:39:52 answering member 4580 label Biography information for Baroness Vere of Norbiton
	tabling member	3526 label Biography information for Lord Berkeley

1124409

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Bovine Tuberculosis: Disease Control
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cattle have been tested positive for bovine tuberculosis and then following slaughter have been negative on post-mortem testing; and what progress has been made in producing an accurate test before cattle are slaughtered.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Golding
	uin	HL15458
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>The early detection and removal of tuberculosis (TB)-infected cattle before they develop advanced pathology and/or clinical signs of the disease (and thus become highly infectious) is a key element of bovine TB eradication programmes, including England’s 25 Year Bovine TB Strategy. To that effect, we use ante-mortem tests that measure the animals’ immune response to infection with the bovine TB bacterium (<em>Mycobacterium bovis – M. bovis</em>), rather than rely on direct detection methods.</p><p> </p><p>The single intradermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) test, commonly known as the ‘skin test’, together with the interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA), is the legal standard approved in the EU legislation for the diagnosis of TB in live cattle in the UK. As with cases of TB in humans, only a proportion of those animals infected with <em>M. bovis</em> and reacting to a tuberculin skin test or IGRA display gross lesions of TB when subjected to post-mortem meat inspection in the slaughterhouse.</p><p> </p><p>In 2017 (the last year for which an analysis of post-mortem findings is available), approximately 60% of the 32,000 cattle compulsorily removed for bovine TB control reasons in England as skin test reactors or IGRA positives did not have visible lesions of TB on post-mortem and were also negative for <em>M. bovis</em> on bacteriological culture (where performed).</p><p> </p><p>Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are constantly striving for new ways to maximise the effectiveness of TB testing of cattle to achieve the objectives of the Strategy. APHA may exceptionally authorise the private use of non-validated diagnostic tests for bovine TB in herds where the disease is persistent, in order to help detect additional infected animals that may have been missed by the approved official tests (rather than to negate a positive result to such tests). A policy position paper on non-validated diagnostics for TB in cattle is now available on the APHA Vet Gateway (<a href="http://apha.defra.gov.uk/vet-gateway/index.htm" target="_blank">http://apha.defra.gov.uk/vet-gateway/index.htm</a>).</p><p> </p><p>Over £4 million was allocated to TB research and development in 2018/19, with the anticipation of a similar spend this financial year. The majority of these finds are being invested in improving diagnostic tests alongside vaccine development. However, validation for a new test to World Organisation for Animal Health standards would only lead to official adoption if it demonstrated proven advantages in the detection of disease alongside the current test portfolio.</p> answering member printed Lord Gardiner of Kimble question first answered 16/05/2019 16:25:10 answering member 4161 label Biography information for Lord Gardiner of Kimble
	tabling member	281 label Biography information for Baroness Golding

1124413

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Department for International Trade
	answering dept id	202
	answering dept short name	International Trade
	answering dept sort name	International Trade
	hansard heading	Trade Fairs: Iraq
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how many UK construction and professional firms they expect to attend the Erbil International Fair in northern Iraq in June.
	tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
	uin	HL15462
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2019 answer text <p>The Construction fair taking place in Erbil in June (26 June – 29 June) is advertised as a ‘Made in Iraq’ fair, so consequently will attract primarily local dealers and contractors, and we are not aware of any UK firms planning to attend.</p><p> </p><p>The Erbil International Trade Fair (30 Sept - 03 Oct) is the biggest international multi-sector trade fair organised in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. UK companies that attend the Fair are likely to decide to participate closer to the time, though are more likely to participate as delegates or visitors rather than as exhibitors. In previous years, the local distributors of JLR and JCB have exhibited.</p> answering member printed Viscount Younger of Leckie question first answered 16/05/2019 15:42:22 answering member 4169 label Biography information for Viscount Younger of Leckie
	tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton