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93452

registered interest
date	15/10/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Phones 4u
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the progress being made to offset job losses and the cost to the economy resulting from the collapse of mobile telephone retailer Phones 4U.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210713
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>The administration of Phones4U was disappointing news and is obviously a worrying time for the workforce, but this continues to be a matter for the Administrators, PWC.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government, through its Rapid Response Service has supported the Taskforce established by local partners in Newcastle under Lyme and Stoke in September</p><p> </p><p>The Taskforce has been able to offer direct and indirect support through an Employee Support Event on 7 October which is part of a larger support programme for those looking for work.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I was pleased to see media reports that more than 2,000 staff working in 198 stores and 160 concessions have been transferred to buyers of parts of the business including Vodafone and EE.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 21/10/2014 13:44:52 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

93453

registered interest
date	15/10/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Business: Equality
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to ensure that a conscience clause is included within equality legislation affecting UK businesses.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210714
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that people are protected against discrimination because of religion or belief, and that they are able to exercise the right to hold and manifest their beliefs in a reasonable manner. We believe that the Equality Act 2010 strikes the right balance between the rights of people to manifest their religion or beliefs and the rights of others not to be discriminated against or harassed due to other protected characteristics, such as gender or sexual orientation, in areas such as employment and the provision of goods and services.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 21/10/2014 13:47:52 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

93541

registered interest
date	15/10/2014
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Education: Standards
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure greater consistency in educational outcomes (a) from each stage of provision and (b) across all regions.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210718
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>This Government has introduced an ambitious, coherent programme of reforms to ensure greater consistency in educational outcomes across all stages and regions in England.</p><p>We are reforming assessment and the curriculum across the primary and secondary phases and general and vocational qualifications to ensure we have a system that prepares young people for life in modern Britain. We are reforming GCSEs and A levels to be robust and rigorous, to match the best education systems in the world and to keep pace with universities’ and employers’ demands. The new national curriculum, introduced from this school year, also sets out expectations for children at all four key stages that match the curricula used in the world’s most successful school systems.</p><p>We are improving the accountability framework to improve standards across the country. In addition, Ofsted has implemented a more rigorous inspection framework, with performance data being used to target inspections on the weakest schools and a recognition that any school rated less than ‘good' is not performing well enough.</p><p>Some schools are still not performing well enough. We issued revised statutory guidance[1] to local authorities in May that makes very clear our expectations that they should take swift and robust action when maintained schools are performing poorly. This includes our expectation that their assessment should include the achievement of disadvantaged pupils and that poorly performing schools should become sponsored academies.</p><p>In addition, the academies and free schools programmes are shifting power and responsibility to leaders of education, giving schools greater autonomy to drive improvements, within a strong framework of accountability. The growth in sponsored academies is raising standards by turning around some of the most disadvantaged and worst performing schools in the country. Increasingly, high performing schools are taking the lead as sponsors, sharing their expertise and experience to benefit others.</p><p>Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) are responsible for overseeing the performance of academies, free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools in their region. RSCs, along with their headteacher boards, are helping to build the capacity of the Department for Education to pick up local and regional soft intelligence which will contribute to the ability of the Department to oversee academies and free schools and hold them to account. The RSCs will be able to take decisions on academy issues whilst being immersed in the local context. This will enable them to make decisions based on the circumstances of the school(s) and sponsor(s) in question.</p><p>All of these reforms will also help raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap with their peers at every phase and in every region in England. In particular, the Government introduced the pupil premium in April 2011 – worth a total of £6.25 billion to date – to give schools the resources to raise the attainment of mainly economically disadvantaged pupils and those in care.</p><p>[1] <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-causing-concern--2" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-causing-concern--2</a></p> answering member constituency Yeovil answering member printed Mr David Laws question first answered 21/10/2014 13:48:27 answering member 1473 label Biography information for Mr David Laws
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

93199

registered interest
date	14/10/2014
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Central African Republic
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to promote religious tolerance and the safety of Christians in the Central African Republic.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210439
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>Our priority is to support international efforts to protect the Central African Republic (CAR)'s population from ongoing violence. Addressing religious tensions is an important part of this. The Inter-Religious platform in CAR is made up of Muslim and Christian leaders and has been at the forefront of peace-building and reconciliation efforts, engaging with communities that have been directly affected by sectarian violence in CAR. We welcome their efforts to promote dialogue, and have called for similar actions from CAR's transitional government.</p> answering member constituency Aylesbury answering member printed Mr David Lidington question first answered 21/10/2014 13:44:28 answering member 15 label Biography information for Sir David Lidington
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

93206

registered interest
date	14/10/2014
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Middle East
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent progress has been made on efforts to locate and release British abductees kidnapped by extremist groups in the Middle East.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210412
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>It is a long-standing British Government policy not to discuss operational details.</p> answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood question first answered 21/10/2014 13:33:43 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

93210

registered interest
date	14/10/2014
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Central Europe
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to encourage religious equality and tolerance in central Europe.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210410
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>Freedom of religion or belief is a priority human rights area for the Government. We work actively to defend it in our bilateral relations with individual countries, including lobbying for changes in discriminatory laws and practices and through our work in multilateral institutions.</p><p>We also carry out project work in a range of countries working with non-governmental organisations on issues such as promoting better understanding between faiths, bridging sectarian divides, promoting dialogue between faith groups and government and offering technical advice on laws that need amendment. <br> <br>Although central Europe is not a particular area of focus for us, we do play an active part in the work of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to share best practice in combating intolerance and discrimination against individuals on the basis of their religion or belief. We participated actively in the recent Human Dimension Implementation meeting in Warsaw, and last year nominated a UK representative to the OSCE’s Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief.</p> answering member constituency Aylesbury answering member printed Mr David Lidington question first answered 21/10/2014 13:34:36 answering member 15 label Biography information for Sir David Lidington
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

93333

registered interest
date	14/10/2014
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Nigeria
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK aid provided to the Nigerian Government is allocated only to enact reforms to uphold fundamental freedoms.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	210437
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/10/2014 answer text <p>No UK aid goes directly to the Nigerian government; this is to ward against corruption and avoid substituting the country’s own resources.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The UK Government holds regular discussion on Human Rights issues with a number of partner countries including Nigeria. Our programmes aim to improve the general human rights environment in Nigeria.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hornsey and Wood Green answering member printed Lynne Featherstone question first answered 20/10/2014 16:34:01 answering member 1531 label Biography information for Baroness Featherstone
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

92123

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Electronic Commerce
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to encourage the uptake of (a) e-commerce and (b) other online tools among (i) businesses and (ii) consumers.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	209776
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/10/2014 answer text <p>The Government is encouraging businesses to adopt digital technology by supporting the work of the digital charity Go On UK and other external partners to promote the benefits of digital and to improve basic online skills. The Government is also working with Local Enterprise Partnerships to expand digital support for businesses at a local level.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Digital Inclusion Strategy, published earlier this year, sets out how the government and partners will help get people online.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wantage answering member printed Mr Edward Vaizey question first answered 15/10/2014 08:56:01 answering member 1580 label Biography information for Lord Vaizey of Didcot
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

92126

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Foreign Investment: Colombia
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to ensure that the forthcoming UK-Colombia bilateral investment treaty includes adequate protection for UK investors.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	209779
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/10/2014 answer text <p>The UK-Colombia Bilateral Investment Treaty was negotiated in 2008-09. It aims to protect investors from discriminatory treatment. The agreement includes Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions to enable investors to claim compensation through independent international arbitration if they believe the standards of protection set out in the treaty have been breached whilst protecting the ability of the host government to regulate in the public interest in areas such as the environment.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 14/10/2014 16:28:28 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn

92221

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	North Korea
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to raise the issue of forced repatriations to North Korea with the Chinese government.
tabling member constituency	Belfast North
tabling member printed	Mr Nigel Dodds
uin	209778
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/10/2014 answer text <p>We have made it clear to the Chinese government that people who have escaped from North Korea are entitled to protection under the International Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (1967). We have also made clear we believe the Chinese government should allow people from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea safe passage to resettlement in third countries; and we encourage the Chinese government to work with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to facilitate this. The then Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon Friend the Member for Richmond Yorks ( Mr Hague), raised human rights during his meeting with State Counsellor Yang Jiechi in February 2014, including the specific issue of non-refoulement of North Korean refugees. I also raised these issues with the Chinese Permanent Representative in Geneva in June 2014.</p> answering member constituency East Devon answering member printed Mr Hugo Swire question first answered 16/10/2014 14:06:16 answering member 1408 label Biography information for Lord Swire
tabling member	1388 label Biography information for Lord Dodds of Duncairn