Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the role played by women in peace-building in (a) Afghanistan and (b) other countries entering a post-conflict period.
Answered by James Duddridge
Women have largely been under-represented in peace-building efforts with only 2.5% of signatories to peace agreements being women. This is unacceptable and more must be done. With this in mind, the UK has been working in Afghanistan, and other post-conflict countries, to improve women’s political participation and their role in building peace.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HM Revenue and Customs is planning to pay to National Savings and Investments to administer the proposed childcare payments scheme.
Answered by Priti Patel
HM Revenue and Customs wil incur costs to set up and administer the new scheme. The final costs are not yet available as they will only be settled once the precise details of the scheme have been finalised.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Iranian counterpart on the case of Ghoncheh Ghavami.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Government has raised the case of Ghonceh Ghavami with the Iranian authorities on many occasions, including most recently on 23 November. Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have raised this with President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif. We welcome news that Ms Ghavami has been released on bail. I met with the family on 25 November to discuss ways we can work together to ensure the best possible outcome of this case.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many entry clearance visa applications were received in the last six months.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is provided in the table below. Data is provided for the last two years to put the seasonal nature of this data into context.
The latest Home Office immigration statistics, including those for entry clearance visas shown in the table above, are published in the release Immigration Statistics April – June 2014, which is available from the Library of the House and on the Department’s website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Immigration statistics for July - September 2014 will be published on 27 November.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many entry clearance visas were granted in the last six months.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is provided in the table below. Data is provided for the last two years to put the seasonal nature of this data into context.
The latest Home Office immigration statistics, including those for entry clearance visas shown in the table above, are published in the release Immigration Statistics April – June 2014, which is available from the Library of the House and on the Department’s website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Immigration statistics for July - September 2014 will be published on 27 November.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support the strengthening of health systems in West Africa to better cope with epidemics in the future.
Answered by Justine Greening
The UK is leading the international response to Ebola in Sierra Leone and has committed £230m to help fight the disease. This outbreak of Ebola is unprecedented in scale and highlights the vital importance of strong public healthcare systems. The UK is the biggest bilateral donor to Sierra Leone and commenced a major health systems programme in 2012.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps Post Office Ltd is taking to encourage banks to expand availability of their services through the Post Office network.
Answered by Jo Swinson
Post Office Limited already provides access to 95% of current accounts across the counter at more than 11,500 Post Offices. This is in addition to the Post Office’s own wide range of personal financial services, which includes three types of current account. It also operates a network 2,500 ATMs which are free to use and part of the LINK network, enabling withdrawals from a full range of current and other accounts; many of these in rural and deprived areas.
Since 2010, Post Office Ltd has reached agreement with RBS (including NatWest) and HSBC to allow customers to access their current accounts at post office branches. Post Office Ltd continue to engage with the one remaining high street bank (Santander) who have yet to offer their customers this service.
The Secretary of State will be writing to the banks to ask them how they plan to ensure that the banking needs of vulnerable consumers are met, particularly in areas facing branch closures. He will also be encouraging them to give priority consideration to creating or building on existing partnership arrangements with Post Office Limited, including considering how to address any additional financial and operational burdens on the Post Office.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, at what locations in the UK Post Office Ltd has installed applicant enrolment identification machines.
Answered by Jo Swinson
The location of Post Office Application Enrolment and Identity machines is the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited.
As such I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that its programmes in West Africa do not create perverse incentives which prioritise short-term outcomes rather than longer-term strengthening strategies.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID always considers the longer term development impact when developing our programmes. Operational Plans, setting out how DFID’s programmes will deliver results and measure progress up to 2015 for our country office programmes in West Africa (Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone), can be found on the website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/operational-plans-2013 .
DFID does carry out humanitarian programmes to address short term needs but we also have longer term development programmes designed to build resilience. Full details of our programmes can be found on Development Tracker.
Asked by: Naomi Long (Alliance - Belfast East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the security regime in the Port of Belfast.
Answered by John Hayes
Port Facility Security Assessments are conducted for port facilities in the Port of Belfast as required by EC Regulation 2004/65 on enhancing ship and port facility security. A Port Security Assessment for the Port of Belfast has been undertaken, reviewed and approved by the Department for Transport as required by EC Directive 2005/65/EC on enhancing port security.