Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many requests for consular support were made to each British Embassy or Consulate in 2023; and how many of those were responded to by officials within a period of 24 hours.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our consular staff endeavour to give appropriate and tailored assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, to British nationals overseas and their families in the UK who need support. In 2023, in addition to long running cases, we provided support to around 22,000 British nationals, see breakdown by Post in the table below. The FCDO reports publicly on consular delivery through the FCDO Outcome Delivery Plan [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-commonwealth-development-office-outcome-delivery-plan]. Publishing our transparency data is currently on hold while we embed a new Case Management system.
COUNTRY | 2023 |
Afghanistan | 22 |
Albania | 63 |
Algeria | 23 |
Angola | |
Argentina | 34 |
Armenia | 8 |
Australia | 414 |
Austria | 92 |
Azerbaijan | 12 |
Bahrain | 48 |
Barbados | 113 |
Belarus | 6 |
Belgium | 152 |
Bolivia | 12 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 12 |
Botswana | 15 |
Brazil | 88 |
Bulgaria | 166 |
Cambodia | 112 |
Cameroon | 30 |
Canada | 181 |
Chile | 21 |
China | 143 |
Colombia | 73 |
Congo (Democratic Republic) | 22 |
Costa Rica | 39 |
Croatia | 114 |
Cuba | 29 |
Cyprus | 441 |
Czechia | 141 |
Denmark | 88 |
Dominican Republic | 67 |
Ecuador | 13 |
Egypt | 383 |
Estonia | 19 |
Ethiopia | 104 |
Fiji | 21 |
Finland | 49 |
France | 1027 |
Georgia | 27 |
Germany | 662 |
Ghana | 85 |
Greece | 936 |
Guatemala | 43 |
Guinea | |
Guyana | 17 |
Hong Kong SAR | 110 |
Hungary | 131 |
Iceland | 17 |
India | 360 |
Indonesia | 196 |
Iraq | 46 |
Ireland | 104 |
Israel | 39 |
Italy | 411 |
Ivory Coast | |
Jamaica | 179 |
Japan | 167 |
Jerusalem | 61 |
Jordan | 71 |
Kazakhstan | 14 |
Kenya | 146 |
Kuwait | 30 |
Kyrgyzstan | |
Laos | 29 |
Latvia | 20 |
Lebanon | 34 |
Liberia | |
Lithuania | 23 |
Luxembourg | 10 |
Madagascar | |
Malawi | |
Malaysia | 138 |
Malta | 106 |
Mauritius | 14 |
Mexico | 207 |
Moldova | 13 |
Mongolia | 6 |
Montenegro | 33 |
Morocco | 222 |
Myanmar (Burma) | 8 |
Namibia | 9 |
Nepal | 21 |
Netherlands | 287 |
New Zealand | 127 |
Nigeria | 74 |
Norway | 149 |
Oman | 50 |
Pakistan | 376 |
Panama | 17 |
Paraguay | |
Peru | 58 |
Philippines | 283 |
Poland | 242 |
Portugal | 524 |
Qatar | 96 |
Romania | 89 |
Russia | 28 |
Rwanda | 7 |
Saudi Arabia | 166 |
Senegal | 21 |
Serbia | 29 |
Seychelles | 11 |
Sierra Leone | 15 |
Singapore | 105 |
Slovakia | 38 |
Slovenia | 17 |
South Africa | 195 |
South Korea | 40 |
Spain | 4143 |
Sri Lanka | 86 |
St Lucia | 21 |
Sudan | 34 |
Sweden | 110 |
Switzerland | 157 |
Taiwan | 22 |
Tajikistan | 6 |
Tanzania | 36 |
Thailand | 1383 |
The Gambia | 48 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 40 |
Tunisia | 75 |
Turkey | 947 |
Uganda | 52 |
Ukraine | 56 |
United Arab Emirates | 658 |
United States | 1649 |
Uruguay | 10 |
Uzbekistan | 8 |
Venezuela | |
Vietnam | 188 |
Zambia | 22 |
Zimbabwe | 26 |
NB We do not publish data where figures are 5 or below to comply with GDPR
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff left his Department in each year since 2015.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows Staff in Post (SiP) numbers of leavers for each financial year (April - March.) To ensure compliance with GDPR, seven years of data is the maximum that we hold.
All leavers in Financial Year - SiP | |
Date | Number of Leavers - DWP |
17/18 | 6,927 |
18/19 | 6,320 |
19/20 | 7,149 |
20/21 | 5,558 |
21/22 | 11,332 |
22/23 | 10,910 |
23/24 | 7,299 |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to tackle the practice of museums marginally editing non-copyrighted media in order to charge people to use that media.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Museums operate independently from the Government, and are responsible for managing their own commercial activities, which can include maintaining databases of images and other media. It is for museums to determine appropriate terms and conditions, in accordance with their internal policies.
Depending on their operating models, different museums will adopt differing approaches to monetising their spaces and collections to reinvest in their public programmes, expanding their reach and impact.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many single justice procedure notices have been issued by the Television Licensing Authority in each year since 2015.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The requirement to hold, and pay for, a television license is set out in the Communications Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004. Under the Communications Act 2003, the BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement of the TV licensing system.
The BBC prosecutes most TV license evasion cases using the Single Justice Procedure (SJP). The SJP is a more proportionate way of dealing with straightforward, uncontested, summary-only non-imprisonable offences which almost exclusively result in a financial penalty.
The data we hold shows the number of defendants prosecuted by the Television Licensing Authority and dealt with via SJP for TV license evasion cases each year since 2015. This can be found in the table below:
Television Licence Evasion | |||||||||
Year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Defendants dealt with | 0 | 67,473 | 136,793 | 126,571 | 121,020 | 53,227 | 48,495 | 43,504 | 33,460 |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many single justice procedures notices have been issued by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority in each year since 2015.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The table below shows the number of single justice procedures notices the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency issued in each year since 2015.
Year | Single Justice Procedures notices issued |
2015 | 3,593 |
2016 | 80,378 |
2017 | 156,946 |
2018 | 166,543 |
2019 | 158,728 |
2020 | 45,458 |
2021 | 63,182 |
2022 | 112,121 |
2023 | 181,873 |
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 5.31 and Table 5.1 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC560, published on 6 March 2024, whether his Department has conducted an equality impact assessment for the vaping products duty.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government carefully considers the impact of decisions on those sharing protected characteristics in line with both our legal obligations and with this government’s strong commitment to promoting fairness. This was the case during the policy development process on the Vaping Product Duty
Whilst there is no legal requirement to publish Equalities Impact Assessments, the Treasury and HMRC publish Tax Information and Impact Notes for individual tax measures that include, in summary form, assessments of their expected equalities impacts. These are published when the policy is final or near final.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.45 and Table 5.1 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC560, published on 6 March 2024, whether his Department has conducted an equality impact assessment for the one-off adjustment to rates of air passenger duty on non-economy passengers.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
When developing policy, including at Spring Budget 2024, the Treasury carefully considers the impact of its decisions on those sharing any of the nine protected characteristics, including sex, race, disability and age, in line with its statutory obligations and strong commitment to promoting fairness.
As with all taxes, the government keeps APD under review.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if his Department will review the ability of European Union citizens to use e-gates at UK airports.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
EU and EEA citizens are currently eligible to use eGates at UK airports. We keep border security under review and operate border controls in the best interest of the UK, balancing border security with passenger flow.
In the New Plan for Immigration, the Government has set out our ambition to increase the use of automation and eGates by those currently eligible and investigate options to extend eGate eligibility to further cohorts.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many King's Coronation Medals his Department has issued.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal qualifying criteria has been amended and re-published as at 12 March 2024. It is anticipated that a significant cohort of Service personnel on Reserve engagements will now qualify under the revised criteria.
The below table shows the number of Platinum Jubilee Medals issued as at 15 March 2024.
Medal type | Total number of medals despatched | Total number of medals despatched due to distribution issued and replacements | Total number of medals issued by MOD to MOD personnel (single issue) |
HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal | 139,352 | 2,103 | 137,249 |
Due to distribution issues, additional medals have been despatched so that eligible individuals receive their medal as swiftly as possible. The originally issued medals are in the process of being located by the single Service Unit Admin or Logistics staff and returned to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Medal Office.
The below table shows the number of King’s Coronation Medals issued as at 15 March 2024.
Medal type | Total number of medals despatched | Total number of medals despatched as replacements due to damage whilst on duty | Total number of medals issued by MOD to MOD personnel (single issue) |
HM the King’s Coronation Medal | 21,535 | 20 | 21,515 |
Due to the lead time for receiving raw materials, production, delivery and internal MOD distribution, the project to award the bulk of the King’s Coronation Medal 2023 to eligible MOD personnel will take until October 2024 to conclude.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Platinum Jubilee Medals his Department has issued.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal qualifying criteria has been amended and re-published as at 12 March 2024. It is anticipated that a significant cohort of Service personnel on Reserve engagements will now qualify under the revised criteria.
The below table shows the number of Platinum Jubilee Medals issued as at 15 March 2024.
Medal type | Total number of medals despatched | Total number of medals despatched due to distribution issued and replacements | Total number of medals issued by MOD to MOD personnel (single issue) |
HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal | 139,352 | 2,103 | 137,249 |
Due to distribution issues, additional medals have been despatched so that eligible individuals receive their medal as swiftly as possible. The originally issued medals are in the process of being located by the single Service Unit Admin or Logistics staff and returned to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Medal Office.
The below table shows the number of King’s Coronation Medals issued as at 15 March 2024.
Medal type | Total number of medals despatched | Total number of medals despatched as replacements due to damage whilst on duty | Total number of medals issued by MOD to MOD personnel (single issue) |
HM the King’s Coronation Medal | 21,535 | 20 | 21,515 |
Due to the lead time for receiving raw materials, production, delivery and internal MOD distribution, the project to award the bulk of the King’s Coronation Medal 2023 to eligible MOD personnel will take until October 2024 to conclude.