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1020870

	registered interest
	date	07/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	answering dept id	201
	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	hansard heading	Companies House: Registration
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he has taken to reduce the risk of fraud from the availability of personal information on the Companies House database.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	200149
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>The Government considers that it is important that the information on the companies register should not become a tool for abuse. In response to concerns about the availability of residential address information on the register, we brought regulations into force in April to make it easier for people to have this information suppressed. We are also currently considering a broad package of reforms to Companies House, including the protection of personal information. We plan to consult on these reforms in 2019.</p> answering member constituency Rochester and Strood answering member printed Kelly Tolhurst question first answered 12/12/2018 16:51:21 answering member 4487 label Biography information for Kelly Tolhurst
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1050128

	registered interest
	date	28/01/2019
	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	Broadband: Advertising
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries of 15 November 2018, Official Report column 545, whether it is his policy that the use of the term fibre in the advertising of part-copper broadband represents misleading advertising.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	213437
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2019 answer text <p>The 2017 Digital Strategy set out that Government would work with regulators and industry to ensure that the advertising of broadband reflects the speeds that consumers can expect to receive and accurately describes the technology used.</p><p> </p><p>Since the Digital Strategy was published, the ASA has implemented new guidance, which states that speed claims should be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds.</p><p> </p><p>The ASA also reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. In June 2018, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review (JR) of the ASA's decision. The next stage is for the Administrative Court to make a substantive decision on the JR.</p><p> </p><p>The Government remains committed to working with regulators and industry to ensure that consumers receive clear, concise and accurate information in order to make informed choices about their broadband, particularly as the rollout of new technologies like full fibre broadband increases. As part of this, we will monitor developments in other countries, including Italy’s current trial of a traffic light system for broadband advertising.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will be consulting on its Statement of Strategic Priorities for telecommunications, spectrum and post shortly.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James grouped question UIN 213438 213439 question first answered 05/02/2019 14:09:22 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1050129

	registered interest
	date	28/01/2019
	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	Broadband: Advertising
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries of 15 November 2018, Official Report column 545, what steps he is taking to tackle the misleading advertising of fibre broadband.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	213438
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2019 answer text <p>The 2017 Digital Strategy set out that Government would work with regulators and industry to ensure that the advertising of broadband reflects the speeds that consumers can expect to receive and accurately describes the technology used.</p><p> </p><p>Since the Digital Strategy was published, the ASA has implemented new guidance, which states that speed claims should be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds.</p><p> </p><p>The ASA also reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. In June 2018, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review (JR) of the ASA's decision. The next stage is for the Administrative Court to make a substantive decision on the JR.</p><p> </p><p>The Government remains committed to working with regulators and industry to ensure that consumers receive clear, concise and accurate information in order to make informed choices about their broadband, particularly as the rollout of new technologies like full fibre broadband increases. As part of this, we will monitor developments in other countries, including Italy’s current trial of a traffic light system for broadband advertising.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will be consulting on its Statement of Strategic Priorities for telecommunications, spectrum and post shortly.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James grouped question UIN 213437 213439 question first answered 05/02/2019 14:09:22 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1050130

	registered interest
	date	28/01/2019
	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	Broadband: Advertising
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries of Thursday 15 November 2018, Official Report column 545, whether he plans to include proposals to tackle the misleading advertising of fibre broadband in his forthcoming Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	213439
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2019 answer text <p>The 2017 Digital Strategy set out that Government would work with regulators and industry to ensure that the advertising of broadband reflects the speeds that consumers can expect to receive and accurately describes the technology used.</p><p> </p><p>Since the Digital Strategy was published, the ASA has implemented new guidance, which states that speed claims should be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds.</p><p> </p><p>The ASA also reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. In June 2018, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review (JR) of the ASA's decision. The next stage is for the Administrative Court to make a substantive decision on the JR.</p><p> </p><p>The Government remains committed to working with regulators and industry to ensure that consumers receive clear, concise and accurate information in order to make informed choices about their broadband, particularly as the rollout of new technologies like full fibre broadband increases. As part of this, we will monitor developments in other countries, including Italy’s current trial of a traffic light system for broadband advertising.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will be consulting on its Statement of Strategic Priorities for telecommunications, spectrum and post shortly.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Stourbridge answering member printed Margot James grouped question UIN 213437 213438 question first answered 05/02/2019 14:09:22 answering member 4115 label Biography information for Margot James
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1042301

	registered interest
	date	16/01/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Entry Clearances: Overseas Students
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans his Department has to develop an international student growth strategy.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	209353
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/01/2019 answer text <p>The government fully recognises the important economic and cultural contribution that EU and international students make to the UK’s higher education sector. We want that contribution to continue and are confident – given the world class quality of our higher education sector – that it will. We welcome international students and there continues to be no limit on the number who can come here to study, nor any plans to limit any institution’s ability to recruit them.</p><p> </p><p>The UK remains a highly attractive destination for non-EU students, with their numbers remaining at record highs – over 170,000 non-EU entrants to UK higher education institutions for the seventh year running. The UK is a world-leading destination for study, with 4 universities in the world’s top 10 and 16 in the top 100 – second only to the USA. We actively promote study in the UK through the GREAT Campaign and to over 100 countries through the British Council.</p><p> </p><p>In the immigration white paper, published on 19 December 2018, the government proposed to increase the post-study leave period for international students following completion of studies to 12 months for those completing a PhD, and to 6 months for all full-time postgraduate students and undergraduate students at institutions with degree awarding powers. Going beyond the recommendations set out by the Migration Advisory Committee, these proposals will benefit tens of thousands of international students.</p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 21/01/2019 14:58:00 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1092120

	registered interest
	date	20/03/2019
	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	Dogs
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to provide companion dogs with the same protections as assistance dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	234786
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2019 answer text <p>The offence of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control (section 3 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991) applies to attacks on other dogs, livestock and any other animals including companion dogs, as it does to attacks on people and assistance dogs.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This is based on the judgement in the Court of Appeal in R v Gedminintaite [2008] EWCA Crim 814. This case has shown that consideration of a dog being dangerously out of control is not restricted to situations where a person is present.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 26/03/2019 11:20:21 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1133754

	registered interest
	date	20/06/2019
	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	Plastics: Waste
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the UK's plastic waste has been shipped to other countries since 2010.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	267361
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/06/2019 answer text <p>Since 2010 the amount of plastic waste exported to other countries for reprocessing has fallen from 850,000 tonnes a year in 2010 to 600,000 tonnes in 2018. In total over this period around 7 million tonnes have been shipped. This is based on HM Revenue and Customs trade data.</p><p> </p><p>The UK is recycling more than ever, achieving a 46% plastic packaging recycling rate in 2017 and exceeding the EU target of 22.5%.The Government is clear we must export less waste and that any waste we do need to export is properly handled.</p><p> </p><p>The recently published Resources and Waste Strategy is focused on increasing the supply and demand for secondary materials to be recycled in the UK, thereby reducing exports of plastic waste. Any waste that will be managed abroad must be subject to strict controls and the government is committed to strengthening these controls.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 28/06/2019 13:24:05 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1141971

	registered interest
	date	25/07/2019
	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	Seas and Oceans: Pollution Control
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	What steps he is taking to tackle marine pollution.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	912200
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/07/2019 answer text <p>Our Resources and Waste Strategy sets out actions we are taking, including a ban on the sale and/or supply of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds by April 2020. We are leading global efforts through the Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance, which we support with a package worth up to £70m. We also work with the International Maritime Organisation to tackle litter from ships and are helping shape a new international action plan on shipping litter.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 25/07/2019 15:55:53 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1078612

	registered interest
	date	27/02/2019
	answering body	Department for International Development
	answering dept id	20
	answering dept short name	International Development
	answering dept sort name	International Development
	hansard heading	Religious Freedom
	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 international NGOs consider religious vulnerability in their definition of need.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	226728
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/03/2019 answer text <p>The UK’s commitment to the poorest and most vulnerable in all settings is unwavering, as is our requirement that all UK-funded humanitarian partners work according to international humanitarian principles, placing protection at the centre of their work. Our partners carry out vulnerability assessments to ensure aid effectively reaches those most in need, including those from religious minorities, as it is recognised that religion may be a factor in causing vulnerability.</p> answering member constituency West Worcestershire answering member printed Harriett Baldwin question first answered 05/03/2019 16:59:18 answering member 4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson

1133745

	registered interest
	date	20/06/2019
	answering body	Department for International Development
	answering dept id	20
	answering dept short name	International Development
	answering dept sort name	International Development
	hansard heading	Sudan: Humanitarian Situation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment he has made of the humanitarian effect of the situation in Sudan; and what steps his Department is taking to support those at risk in that country.
	tabling member constituency	Aberdeen South
	tabling member printed	Ross Thomson
	uin	267356
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2019 answer text <p>The Government continues to monitor the humanitarian situation in Sudan with concern. Close to two million people live as Internally Displaced People inside Sudan, with around 600,000 living precarious lives as refugees beyond its borders. Sudan also hosts close to a million refugees.</p><p>In early 2018 Sudan’s economy entered a phase of widespread crisis resulting in real incomes collapsing and prices of commodities increasing. The United Nations states that 5.7 million people, including all of those displaced, are in need of humanitarian support, although they estimate the number at risk is 8 million people due to the current economic crisis.</p><p>The United Nations has developed a response to meet the needs of 4.4 million people that would cost $1.2bn, and relies on the governing authorities in Sudan to facilitate safe passage of these supplies and aid workers to reach those in need of assistance. The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Sudan is prioritising the humanitarian response and has already contributed £30 million this fiscal year. In addition, the UK has raised the humanitarian situation in multilateral fora, including at the European Union on 7 June calling for all to respect International Humanitarian Law and enhance the environment for protection of civilians.</p> answering member constituency West Worcestershire answering member printed Harriett Baldwin question first answered 27/06/2019 16:18:28 answering member 4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin
	tabling member	4599 label Biography information for Ross Thomson