First elected: 7th June 2001
Left House: 3rd May 2017 (Defeated)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Angus Robertson, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Angus Robertson has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Angus Robertson has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The total expenditure on essential maintenance of the Palace of Westminster and the Commons contribution was as follows:
2009–10 £8.9m, Commons share £5.5m
2010–11 £9.6m, Commons share £6.0m.
Essential maintenance has been interpreted to include planned and reactive day-to-day maintenance plus resource project works in excess of £25,000. It excludes staff costs and capital projects such as cast iron roofs repairs and the Medium Term Mechanical & Electrical project.
Whilst the Medium Term Financial Plan, which covers the next two financial years has not yet been agreed, essential maintenance is expected to be in line with previous years subject to inflation.
Industry and Government are jointly funding the UK Defence Solutions Centre with a mix of cash and resource contributions equivalent to £2.8m this year for the start up phase, with £3.8m in each of the subsequent three years.
A new UKTI DSO Industry Liaison Board will determine the overseas markets that would benefit from additional Industry resource working more closely with Government and where joint teams overseas will be established. The Board will meet for the first time in the autumn.
Companies currently represented on the Steering Committee are Airbus Group, Atkins, Babcock, BAE Systems, Cobham, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Marshall, MBDA, QinetiQ, Raytheon, Rolls Royce, Serco, Thales. The trade association, ADS, is also a member and represents the interests of the wider defence sector. SME representation is currently being reviewed by the DGP. The Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Ministry of Defence are also represented on the Committee.
Overall funding for the DGP is split equally between Government and industry. For the Defence Solutions Centre, the key 16 companies on the Steering Committee are providing resources equivalent to £8m, split equally between them.
With regard to how much each such company will receive in single source Ministry of Defence contracts in each of the next three years, this information is not held centrally and could only be gathered at disproportionate cost.
The UK has been at the forefront of efforts to press for safe and unhindered access for humanitarian goods and workers in South Sudan. At the Humanitarian Conference on South Sudan in Oslo on 20 May, which was attended by both the South Sudanese Government and the Opposition, I called on all parties to facilitate safe and speedy access, including accelerated customs clearance. The FCO Minister for Africa raised humanitarian access with senior Ministers when he visited Juba in April.
The UK is also providing practical support to help improve security. For example we are funding well-coordinated and security-aware transportation of goods and staff, including emergency air evacuations, through the World Food Programme Logistics Cluster. We are also supporting the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which works to increase understanding of, and respect for, International Humanitarian Law by all parties to the conflict. UK officials raise our concerns about the humanitarian situation and the need to improve access regularly in Juba and Addis Ababa.
The Department for Transport can call upon a range of assets currently designated for search and rescue under 2.5 of Annex 12 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. These assets are set out in the following table:
Stornoway Airport | Coastguard S92s |
Sumburgh Airport | Coastguard S92s |
RAF Lossiemouth | Sea Kings |
RAF Boulmer | Sea Kings |
RAF station, Leconfield | Sea Kings |
RAF station, Wattisham | Sea Kings |
MCA Daedalus (Lee-on-Solent) | Coastguard AW139s |
MCA Portland | Coastguard AW139 |
RNAS Culdrose | Sea Kings |
RAF station, Chivenor | Sea Kings |
RAF Valley | Sea Kings |
HMS Gannet | Sea Kings |
The Department can also call upon commercially operated fixed wing aircraft based at Inverness and East Midlands Airports and a military C-130 Hercules to support long range SAR operations.
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer of 2 September 2013 [Official Report, Column 153W].
Statistics on Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance claimants are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance
Statistics on Carer’s Allowance are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance
Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance claimants are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance
The number of households subject to the benefit cap by Parliamentary Constituency is published on gov.uk each quarter. The latest data, showing the total number of households capped from 15 April 2013, when the benefit cap was introduced, to August 2014, can be found in Table 1 of the data tables published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-august-2014
The benefit cap applies to the combined income from a number of benefits, including Income Support.
• the main out-of-work benefits (Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income Support, and Employment and Support Allowance except when the Support Component is in payment);
• Housing Benefit;
• Child Benefit;
• Child Tax Credit;
• other benefits such as Carer’s Allowance.
The cap is currently administered through Housing Benefit. This means that, if affected, it is only a household’s Housing Benefit entitlement that is reduced so that the total amount of benefit received is no longer higher than the cap level.
The department published planning projections of the Universal Credit caseload on Page 30 in the publication 'Universal Credit at Work' published on 22 October 2014. The publication can be found at the below link.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-at-work'
The Department is not setting targets for numbers in receipt of Universal Credit at various points in time. Caseload projections are not available at the constituency level.
The information requested to answer each of the above questions is shown in the table below.
Number of Employment and Support Allowance claimants by each Parliamentary Constituency requested: As at May 2014
| Total |
Banff and Buchan | 3,230 |
Dundee East | 3,850 |
Moray | 2,750 |
Na h-Eileanan an Iar | 900 |
Perth and North Perthshire | 3,320 |
Source: DWP, 100% Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.
Notes:
The UK Government has gifted £1.266m in protective gear (helmets, body armour), medical kits, winter clothing and winter fuel to the Ukraine Armed Forces. In addition to this, 10 armoured vehicles at a cost of £1.2m were also gifted to the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission.
The account of the treatment of some detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as reported by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is troubling. As the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) has stated, after 9/11 there were things that happened that were wrong, and we should be clear about the fact that they were wrong.
In July 2010 the Prime Minister asked Sir Peter Gibson to lead an Inquiry into whether Britain was implicated in the improper treatment, or rendition, of detainees held by other countries in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. In December 2013, the Detainee Inquiry published a report on its preparatory work setting out a series of questions which the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament is now considering. The Committee will report to Parliament and the public on completion of its work.
This Government also took the important step of publishing the Consolidated Guidance in 2010 on the obligations of our agencies and the Ministry of Defence in relation to detainees held overseas. The Intelligence Services Commissioner is tasked to monitor compliance with this – a role we have recently put on a statutory footing.
The UK Government stands firmly against torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment. We do not condone it, nor do we ask others to do it on our behalf.
The US Government has assured us that there have been no cases of rendition through the UK, our Overseas Territories including Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory), or the Crown Dependencies since 11 September 2001, apart from the two cases in 2002, about which the then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the then Member for South Shields, Mr Milliband informed the House in 2008.
We are aware of the recent arrest of Mr Biram Abeid and other anti-slavery activists. We are following this case closely and have met a wide range of those involved, including members of Mr Biram’s organisation. We discussed this issue with EU partners on 3 December 2014.
We will continue to engage with Mauritania on human rights issues and work closely with our international partners represented in Nouakchott including diplomatic institutions, the UN, EU and African Union.
The Government’s aim for the Arctic is to work towards a region that is safe and secure; well governed in conjunction with indigenous peoples and in line with international law; where policies are developed on the basis of sound science with full regard to the environment; and where only responsible development takes place. The UK supports the Canadian priorities for its Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, particularly around strengthening the Arctic Council; safe Arctic shipping; and responsible resource development, all of which are in line with the Government’s full Arctic policy as outlined in its Arctic Policy Framework: Adapting To Change, published in October 2013.
A range of officials from across Government departments input into the UK’s Arctic policy, reflecting the breadth of the UK’s policy interests in the Arctic as set out in the Government’s Arctic Policy Framework. Within the FCO, no one works exclusively on Arctic issues but a number of officials from across the office work collaboratively to develop the UK’s Arctic policy. The policy is coordinated by the Polar Regions Department, headed by a senior SMS1 official, and which chairs the cross-Government network. There is considerable input from posts in the eight Arctic States and the Arctic Council observer states, and from relevant policy officials and legal advisors in London on issues such as climate change, energy, international law and maritime policy.
The 2014 Amendment to the Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the United States of America for Cooperation on the Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defense Purposes 1958, otherwise known as the Amendment Agreement to the 1958 UK-US Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA), has been laid before Parliament in accordance with the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. This Amendment Agreement is intended to renew and update certain provisions in the MDA to ensure their continuing relevance and validity for a further period of 10 years until 31 December 2024. The original MDA and its subsequent amendments are available in the libraries, as they were previously laid under the Ponsonby Rule. In line with long-established practice, and as accepted by Parliament during the 2004 renewal, the annexes of the MDA cannot be placed in the libraries because of the sensitivity of their contents.
The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict will turn the political commitments made in the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict into practical action and bring real change to those affected by this crime. We have consulted widely with experts, practitioners and international partners since the launch of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative in 2012, including on the outcomes of the Summit. Over 1,500 delegates will attend, including legal, military and judicial practitioners, representatives from multilateral organisations, and over 100 NGOs and grassroots organisations. The Summit is an opportunity for governments from countries around the world to hear directly from those affected what action needs to be taken to effectively tackle this issue.
Reports from the Central African Republic (CAR), including those of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), show that the country remains beset by violence and instability. We welcome the vital ongoing work of African Union, French and EU security forces, without whom the situation would likely be far worse. The UK will continue to work with the UN to ensure the effective deployment of the UN Peacekeeping Operation (MINUSCA), and with the AU to support MISCA's efforts ahead of the transition to MINUSCA. I last discussed the situation in CAR with interim President Catherine Samba-Panza on 23 May.
The UK played a leading role in ensuring the unanimous adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 on 22 February. Since then, we have regularly echoed the UN Security Council's demand that all parties to the conflict, in particular the Syrian authorities, implement fully the requirements of UNSCR 2139. We welcome the National Coalition's commitment to implementing UNSCR 2139 and have encouraged those with influence on the parties to urge them to implement the demands of the resolution. The UK is working closely with P5 colleagues and others in New York on a draft resolution in response to the UN Secretary General's call for the UNSC to act decisively to address the worsening humanitarian situation.
The UK is working with the US, France, Nigeria, its neighbours and international partners to provide advice and assistance to the Nigerian Government to help them secure the safe release of the schoolgirls and defeat Boko Haram. Our SENTINEL aircraft, as part of a number of allied surveillance assets, continues to conduct over-flights of Nigeria and a team of UK experts is working alongside US and French counterparts in Nigeria in the Intelligence Fusion Cell to assist the Nigerians in locating the abducted students. I look forward to taking further stock of this activity, and wider work to tackle Boko Haram, with Foreign Minister Wali and representatives from Nigeria's neighbours, the US, France, Canada, UN, AU and EU at this week's ministerial meeting on security in northern Nigeria.
The November interim agreement between the E3+3 and Iran was a significant first step to resolving the nuclear issue. It has created time to negotiate a comprehensive agreement. On this we are making progress although we are under no illusion about the difficulty of reaching a successful outcome. Talks resume on 16 June in Vienna, with the aim of reaching an agreement by the 20 July which is when the interim deal currently expires.
I discussed the impact of the floods with Prime Minister Vucic of Serbia in Belgrade on 2 June and with Prime Minister Bevanda in Sarajevo on 3 June. During my visit to the region I also met the Serbian Red Cross and travelled to Maglaj in Bosnia-Herzegovina to meet the Mayor and representatives of World Vision.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), between 18 and 23 May a thirty-three person water rescue team from the British Fire Service was deployed to work alongside EUFOR Operation Althea and local rescue efforts. They rescued nearly 200 people, delivered large amounts of humanitarian aid, and helped restore power in villages North of Bijeljina.
In Serbia, the UK provided 64 radios for the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, to assist with the coordination of their response teams; and donated £280,000 worth of heavy lift and transport vehicles to the Serbian Red Cross to aid their relief distribution effort.
A team from the UK flew out to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the week commencing 20 May to assess likely humanitarian and recovery needs. During my visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina I was able to announce that the UK had approved £250,000 to support a World Vision flood response project in the region focussing on sanitation and health and providing support for 140,000 people made homeless by the floods.
In addition to this bilateral support, the UK provided support to BiH, Serbia and Croatia through the EU, UN and other international organisations. In BiH, EUFOR Operation Althea, to which the UK contributes troops in-theatre and in reserve, assisted the BiH Armed Forces in their response to the flooding. The First Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, who provide part of EUFOR's intermediate reserve, and are in BiH for a routine operational rehearsal, will assist the BiH Armed Forces in this regard.
The UK has worked closely with the EU European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and offered advice and assistance during all phases of the flood response effort. ECHO have released €3.2m in humanitarian aid to support the most vulnerable population in BiH and in Serbia (to which the UK will have contributed 15%).
The Government will work closely with the UNDP, the EU and other international organisations to assess what further help might be given to help both Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina recover from the impact of the floods.
We continue to monitor the Ebola outbreak in West Africa closely. As of 6 June there had been over 220 confirmed cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
International health agencies are providing support to affected countries. There is no specific vaccine or anti-viral drug available, so the priority is to contain the outbreak by limiting human to human transmission by early identification and care for those affected.
We are keeping our Travel Advice for British nationals under regular review and in line with WHO guidance. There have been no reports of British citizens being infected and there have been no known imported cases of Ebola in the UK to date.
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) wrote to the Secretary General of the Commonwealth on 1 March to ask him to work with us to review the worrying trend on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the Commonwealth. We welcomed the Commonwealth Secretary-General's statement to the High Level Segment of the Human Rights Council on 6 March reiterating the Commonwealth's commitment to equality and respect for the protection and promotion of rights without discrimination on any grounds. Whilst we support the work of the Secretariat in strengthening the capacity of national human rights institutions to engage their respective governments on sensitive areas such as LGBT rights, we continue to encourage the Commonwealth to do more to address LGBT rights across the Commonwealth, and in particular Uganda.
The net book value of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's property (land and buildings) in the UK and overseas as at 31 March 2014 was £2,015m. This excludes property held by our non-departmental public bodies. Individual valuations per country cannot be provided as this information is commercially sensitive.
i, ii, iii, iv and v. Statistics on the number of additional rate income tax payers liable to pay by government office regions, including Scotland, are published in HMRC’s income tax statistics, table 2.2: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306856/Table_2.2.pdf
County and constituency level information on additional rate tax payers is not published.
The IPCC will write to the Hon. Member within the next two weeks to explain that the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is investigating this matter locally and it would not be appropriate for the IPCC to provide information about the local investigation, hence he will need to write to the MPD to obtain more information. I will place a copy of the letter in the Library of the House.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) referred the matter back to the Ministry of Defence Police for local investigation on October 2013. While the investigation is ongoing it would be inappropriate to comment further. The IPCC will write to the Hon. Member and I will place a copy of the letter in the Library of the House.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 March 2015 to Question 227978.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=227978
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
The Joint Strike Fighter programme has completed an extensive period of dedicated development flight test to both assess the impact of uncommanded wing drop (called transonic roll off) and mitigate its impact. The results of flight test have been to use a combination of control surface inputs from the leading edge flaps, trailing edge flaps and horizontal tails which have been applied differentially using software driven flight controls when the aircraft is operating at elevated angles of attack in the transonic flight condition.
It is extremely difficult to totally remove transonic roll from the transonic area of the flight regime, but these changes in the software control laws have lessened its severity and it has been assessed that they are now acceptable by the experienced flight crews that have flown with them. The programme leadership, which includes the UK Ministry of Defence, has concluded that they will allow the aircraft and pilots to execute the mission. The programme will continue to monitor and refine the flight control laws throughout the life of the aircraft as the aircraft's capability develops and if the target set and mission changes.
The Joint Strike Fighter programme has completed an extensive period of dedicated flight test to assess the impact of buffeting and transonic roll-off on both the helmet mounted display and gyroscopes in the inertial platforms. The conclusion of these flight tests, which have used changes in the flight control laws to mitigate both conditions throughout the flight envelope, is that the helmet mounted display and gyroscopic equipment meet the required performance specification and are fit for purpose to allow pilots to execute the mission. It is only in one area of the flight regime where buffet makes screen symbology difficult to read, and this is at the extremes of the envelope and extremely short lived as the aircraft manoeuvres, it is considered that they can be overcome by pilot training. These flight trials have included UK test pilots who have agreed with the conclusions of the US experts from government and industry.
The F-35 design has yet to complete its lightning strike testing. Due to this incomplete testing, and the fact that design modifications are planned to meet required levels of performance, a flight restriction has been placed on the aircraft which prevents operation within 25 nautical miles of lightning conditions. This restriction is reduced when the aircraft is on the ground to 10 nautical miles and also uses additional protection measures such as shelters. These restrictions will be lifted once modifications have been embodied and testing completed. The modification and testing is due to be completed ahead of UK Introduction to Service in mid 2016.
Lightning II, Rivet Joint, Sentinel aircraft and Merlin helicopters operate a 270 volt electrical system.
There are no current or pending court proceedings in which the validity of the Tornado GR4 As Low As Reasonably Practicable statement would be decided.
The information requested, as at 12 March 2015, is shown in the following table:
Required Positions | Vacant Positions | |
Type 23 | 1,990 | 180 |
Type 45 | 1,150 | 75 |
Note: All figures are rounded in accordance with the Defence Statistics rounding policy. All numbers over 100 are rounded to the nearest 10 with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid bias. Numbers under 100 are rounded to the nearest 5. | ||
None of the existing vacancies is in a post categorised as safety critical and no ship would go to sea without the minimum required complement of suitably qualified and experienced personnel.
The amount that will be spent on the next generation estate contracts in Scotland and Northern Ireland in each of the next four financial years (FY) is shown below:
| FY 2014-15 | £19.6 million |
| FY 2015-16 | £17 million |
| FY 2016-17 | £17.3 million |
| FY 2017-18 | £17.7 million |
| FY 2018-19 | £18.1 million |
The information in relation to the amount spent on subcontractors in Scotland, the steps to ensure local businesses benefit from the contracts or the number of construction companies based in Scotland to have been awarded work is not held in the format requested.