Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many people are employed by the European Medicines Agency; and how many of those people are British citizens.
Answered by Robin Walker
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many people are employed by the European Banking Authority; and how many of those people are British citizens.
Answered by Robin Walker
Data relating to the total number of employees working for the European Banking Authority can be found on their website: http://www.eba.europa.eu/about-us/careers/multimedia/eba-at-glance.
Current data relating to the nationality of employees of the European Banking Authority is not available.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations Ministers of his Department have made to the Russian Government on reports of arrests of gay men in Chechnya.
Answered by Alan Duncan
I refer the Hon. Member to my response to written question 70842, and the answers I gave when replying to an Urgent Question in the House on 20 April 2017. Since then, the FCO Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia has written to the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom setting out our concerns and calling for the Russian authorities to undertake an investigation as a matter of urgency.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the development of long-term infrastructure.
Answered by David Gauke
We recognise the need to increase public spending on infrastructure. That’s why, at Autumn Statement 2016, the Chancellor committed additional capital to fund new high-value economic infrastructure through the National Productivity Investment Fund. Coupled with the commitments made at Spending Review 2015, this means annual central government investment in economic infrastructure will now rise by almost 60% between 2016/17 and 2020/21, from £14bn to £22bn.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers were dismissed under The (a) Police (Conduct) Regulations 2012, (b) Police (Performance) Regulations 2012 and (c) the Police (Attendance Management) Regulations in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
From 2015/16 the Home Office started collecting data for the first time on ‘Misconduct and Criminal Investigations’ as part of the Annual Data Requirement (ADR).
These data are intended for publication next year, with the dates to be pre-announced on the Statistical Release Calendar on the gov.uk website. Data are not held centrally for previous years.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure value for money in its aid budget.
Answered by Priti Patel
My predecessors in Government have made huge progress in improving British aid by creating an independent aid watchdog, introducing much tougher value-for-money controls and making DFID’s spending even more transparent.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to use the National Noise Attitudes Survey 2014 to update the Government's policy on aviation noise and health costs.
Answered by John Hayes
The Government is taking account of all relevant evidence in its current review of policy on aviation noise.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on the level of fees charged by Heathrow Airport to airlines in the event of a third runway being built at that airport.
Answered by John Hayes
The Airports Commission shortlisted three airport expansion schemes, two at Heathrow and one at Gatwick. The Government accepted the Commission’s shortlist in December 2015 and is considering all of the evidence very carefully before reaching a view on its preferred scheme. The Government is not providing a running commentary on this work and nor would it be appropriate to outline specific pieces of evidence before an announcement on its preference. Any work to inform an announcement will be set out in subsequent publications and associated consultation.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the Government expects to receive the EU Commission's assessment of the UK Air Quality Plan.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The Government submitted a revised air quality plan to the European Commission on 17 December last year. There is no formal timetable under the Air Quality Directive for the Commission to assess the plan. The Government is working with the Commission to ensure compliance with the nitrogen dioxide limits in the Directive in the shortest possible time.
Asked by: James Berry (Conservative - Kingston and Surbiton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps Border Force has taken to identify and assist potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery at ports across the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Combating modern slavery, which includes human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour, is a leading priority for Border Force. All frontline Border Force Officers have access to comprehensive guidance on modern slavery and must complete mandatory training on identifying victims of modern slavery.
Additionally, Border Force has specialist teams at ports across the country which receive additional, in depth, training to increase their levels of expertise. This allows Border Force to maintain a high degree of vigilance to identify and protect those who may be a victim of modern slavery and to identify those seeking to exploit them. Border Force officers follow established processes and referring all identified child and consenting adult potential victims to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which acts as the UK's identification and support process for victims.
Border Force staff also receive mandatory training also takes places on how to refer potential victims to NRM. Working in close partnership with police forces, social services and the UK Human Trafficking Centre, Border Force also carries out intelligence led exercises to tackle the threat of trafficking at the border.