Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will have discussions with the Metropolitan Police on the steps being taken to help ensure political parties do not exchange financial contributions for honours.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
It is against the law to 'sell' honours or peerages - offering cash for awards - under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
Honours are earned, not bought, and there are clear procedures in place to protect the honours system and to ensure the integrity of the selection process.
Donations to any political party should not be regarded as a reason for disqualification from receiving an honour.
More broadly, fundraising by political parties is a legitimate part of the democratic process. The alternative is taxpayer-funding of political campaigning, which would mean less money for frontline services like schools, police and hospitals.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken recent steps to help ensure that application registration cards are issued quickly to unaccompanied asylum seeking children who are travelling to Scottish island authorities to allow them to travel by air rather than by road and sea.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Work is ongoing to improve the speed at which ARC are issued for children transferring to local authority care placements, where it is considered necessary to facilitate air travel. We work closely with local authorities on the most suitable method of travel for an individual child.
Where an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) is temporarily accommodated in a hotel and not in the care of a local authority, the Home Office is able to arrange transport for the UASC to the local authority care placement. It is open to receiving local authorities themselves to arrange the transport and to accompany the child on their journey from the hotel to the care placement.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he will take to ensure that off-grid energy users are able to receive equal support as people people on-grid beyond the one-off £100 payment.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The support provided to off-grid households is intended to ensure that they do not face a higher rate of growth in their heating costs since last autumn, compared to those on gas supported by the Energy Price Guarantee. The Government will continue closely to monitor the situation to support all energy users.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how oil customers will be able to access the £100 one-off support payment towards their energy bills in winter 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government continues to work at speed to determine the most practical and tested routes to deliver this support and will provide more details in due course.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Colombian government’s implementation of the 2016 peace agreement’s first chapter on comprehensive rural reform.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Comprehensive rural reform is an important commitment in the 2016 Peace Agreement, and considerable progress has been made on this during the first five years of implementation. As emphasised by our Permanent Representative to the UN at the UN Security Council on 14 July, we look to the Colombian Government to accelerate this progress and further advance rural development to support the transformation of conflict-affected regions and their communities.
To date, we have spent over £69 million through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) to support the implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia and improve stability and security. Our funding is supporting the Colombian Government's rural development and reintegration programmes, transitional justice mechanisms, and strengthening the security and participation of communities in conflict-affected areas.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent measures the EU has taken to support its agricultural sector during the conflict in Ukraine on the competitiveness of (a) farmers and (b) fertiliser manufacturers in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
The UK is working with G7 and other partners in multilateral fora such as the World Trade Organization, to monitor and address global food security issues, focusing on the ongoing benefits of open markets, and working together to ensure that sufficient, safe, affordable and nutritious food continues to be available and accessible to all. We are aware that other countries have put various measures in place to support their agricultural sectors. We are monitoring developments and applying our own measures in the UK.
The Secretary of State recently announced a range of measures in support of the current situation, such as delaying changes to the use of urea fertiliser to help farmers manage their costs and improving statutory guidance for use of slurry. On 31 March I hosted the first meeting of the Fertiliser Taskforce with key industry bodies to discuss potential mitigations to the challenges which global supply pressures are causing. The second Taskforce meeting occurred on 18 May, hosted by Minister Churchill. Ministers will continue to meet with key industry bodies for further Fertiliser Taskforce sessions in the coming months, to help identify and mitigate potential risks.
In addition, the 2022 Basic Payment Scheme payment will be made in two instalments to give farmers an advance injection of cash. Farmers with eligible applications will receive half of their payment from the end of July, and the rest from December. By doing this, the Government intends to inject cash into farm businesses, helping them to make business decisions sooner, with more confidence. Leaving the EU has given us flexibility to introduce this measure. In the days of the EU this would never have been possible due to the way audits worked and the need to enforce the three crop rule during the summer.
We continue to keep the market situation under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments. We have also increased our engagement with industry to supplement our analysis with real-time intelligence.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that (a) fertiliser and (b) carbon dioxide continue to be manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The Government is working with industry to see what more they can do to achieve a more sustainable and resilient market for these products, and we encourage industry to continue to build their resilience plans.
Supply of carbon dioxide for the UK market has diversified since last year, with a variety of domestic sources providing supply along with imports where commercial agreements are made.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the availability of fertiliser in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Global gas prices have impacted production of fertilisers internationally and domestically. Some international companies halted or reduced production, and some countries, such as China, reduced the export of some fertiliser products to protect their domestic demands. However, supply of all fertilisers in the UK has remained available throughout the last 12 months although high prices reduced demand from farmers.
While global fertiliser prices have risen, the supply chain providing imports of fertiliser to the UK has remained dynamic. CF Fertilisers continues to produce ammonium nitrate fertiliser from its plant at Billingham. New season fertiliser prices since May have fallen from their peak caused by high global gas prices, allowing many farmers to purchase fertiliser and take-up was extremely good.
Government actions, such as bringing forward half of this year's Basic Payment Scheme payment as an advance injection of cash to farm businesses, will help farmers deal with high fertiliser prices. In addition, the Government announced on 30 March a number of actions to help mitigate the current issues and support farmers and growers ahead of the next growing season. These included changes to statutory guidance to the Environment Agency on how they should implement the "Farming Rules for Water" to provide clarity to farmers on how they can use slurry and other manures during autumn and winter to meet agronomic needs; increased grants funding to help farmers and growers boost research and development; and a delay to changes to the use of urea by at least a year. When the urea restrictions are introduced, they will be related to the use of ammonia inhibitors rather than a complete ban.
We are monitoring the situation closely, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group. Defra is in regular contact with key industry figures including the National Farmers Union, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and the Agricultural Industries Confederation.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether her Department plans to appoint a trade envoy to Uruguay.
Answered by Mike Freer
We are constantly reviewing suitable markets to identify where the appointment of a Trade Envoy can be of greatest benefit to the Government’s trade and investment objectives.
There are no plans at present to add Uruguay to the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the amount of time it takes to train a welder for nickel plate products to work on nuclear systems and nuclear power stations.
Answered by Lee Rowley
BEIS does not collect or have access to this data.