Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she made an assessment of the potential impact of relocating HM Coastguard's mud rescue capability from Coleraine to Bangor on the (a) North Coast and (b) North West.
Answered by Mike Kane - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
An operational assessment of the impact of relocating HM Coastguard’s mud rescue capability from Coleraine, including the impact on the (a) North Coast and (b) North-West was undertaken both at Area and Divisional level.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2025 to Question 22254 on Pension Credit, how many new applications for Pension Credit were (a) made and (b) approved between 10 September 2024 and 10 February 2025.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 27th February we published Pension Credit applications and award statistics. This publication provides application volumes up to 23 February 2025. This information can be found at Pension Credit Applications - February 2025
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the BBC Board on the airing of the documentary entitled Gaza - How to survive a warzone.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
It is essential that the BBC maintains the highest standards of reporting and governance that the public rightly expects. As set out her response to a recent Urgent Parliamentary Question, the Culture Secretary has spoken to the BBC Director General and expressed deep concern about the issues around their recent documentary on Gaza, and pressed for answers on the checks and due diligence that the BBC carried out. The Culture Secretary also subsequently discussed this matter with the BBC Chair where she sought assurances that no stone will be left unturned by the fact-finding review.
While she appreciates that the BBC apologised for its failings, and the BBC Board acknowledged that the mistakes were “significant and damaging”, it is vital that the BBC now takes action so that trust is restored and a serious error of this magnitude is not repeated.
Following requests, the BBC has provided the Secretary of State with further information on their approach to enhanced compliance procedures, and the Secretary of State will update Parliament in due course.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he plans to amend the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements system for dealing with people who have been convicted of terror-related offences after their release from prison.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Multi Agency Review Arrangements (MARA) are a devolved matter, led and co-ordinated by the Department of Justice. MARA makes provision for classification of and risk management of Terrorist Risk Offenders following their release from prison. Any changes to MARA would be a matter for the Department of Justice.
Individuals released under the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 are not managed under MARA, unless they are subject to other sentences which bring them within the MARA arrangements. I am not planning any changes to the arrangements under the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2025 to Question 32942 on Northern Ireland: Investment, what estimate he has made of the private sector investment in addition to the fund.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The British Business Bank periodically publishes updated milestone figures on the Nations and Regions Investment Funds. Updated figures for the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland will be published by the end of Q2, which will include private sector investment.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2025 to Question 29418 on NATO: Finance, if he will have discussions with his NATO counterparts on the role of non-NATO countries with land borders with NATO countries in dealing with international threats.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
We regularly discuss with Allies efforts to secure peace, security, and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. NATO works with numerous partners in Europe to build up their capabilities, deepen interoperability, and strengthen resilience.
NATO has formal partnerships with 36 countries, many of which share a border with the Alliance. We are committed to stepping up support to partners most at risk from Russian aggression, so they are better able to protect their own sovereignty.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETA) were issued and (b) persons were identified as having visited the UK without a valid ETA between 8 January and 8 February 2025.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office publishes data on Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly release’. Data on outcomes of ETAs are published in table ‘ETA_D02’ of the Detailed Electronic Travel Authorisation dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Data covers up to the end of 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
The requested information is not held in a reportable format. To provide this information for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February to Question 29416 on Investment: Northern Ireland, how much of the funding already deployed is from the private sector; and over what period he expects the total amount to be spent.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The £10 million already deployed is solely from the fund, private sector investment is in addition to that. The fund expects to deploy the £70m over 5 years, until November 2028.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making atropine eye drops available on the NHS for pre-myopic children.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Decisions on whether medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service are for integrated care systems, considering relevant national guidance where available, including from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
NICE is currently considering whether to develop guidance for the NHS on the use of low-dose atropine eye drops for treating myopia in children aged between three and 14 years old through its established prioritisation process.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2025 to Question 30044 on Individual Savings Accounts: Children, if she will change the rules on eligibility for ISAs to permit grandparents to take out ISAs for grandchildren with the consent of parents or guardians.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
To ensure that the ISA regime remains simple and sustainable, placing a restriction on who can open and manage a Junior Individual Savings Account (JISA) prevents more than one JISA of each type (cash or stocks and shares) being opened in error and ensures that there is a single point of contact for the giving of instructions. Given the nature of the role, the ISA rules require this to be someone with parental responsibility for the child. A grandparent who does not have parental responsibility is therefore unable to open or manage a Junior ISA on behalf of their grandchild.
While parents or legal guardians must open a JISA on behalf of their children, grandparents can then add funds to the account, up to the value of £9,000 a year.
As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government keeps the JISA policy under review. Any decisions on future changes will be taken by the Chancellor in the context of the wider fiscal and economic position.