Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Smith and Baroness Featherstone(11 years, 4 months ago)
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Lynne Featherstone
My hon. Friend has made an important point. West Africa has particularly high rates of population growth, and there is much less take-up of family planning there. DFID’s work involves not only family planning—which is a complex issue—but the delaying of first pregnancies, access to economic assets for girls, getting girls through secondary school and preventing violence, all of which contribute to making the population richer and more successful.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
11. The international remittance trade is worth $500 billion a year. How will DFID support United Kingdom links with countries in north and west Africa where many people depend on remittances?
Lynne Featherstone
Remittances are indeed very important. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has met the head of Barclays to discuss the issue, with the aim of ensuring that remittances can be sent back to a country when they have the potential to increase that country’s GDP.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Smith and Baroness Featherstone(13 years, 8 months ago)
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Lynne Featherstone
My hon. Friend raises a very important point. Many people write to me about the problem of having a new CRB check on each occasion. The new system will make the check portable. An employer will be able to go online to see whether an individual, who will have a unique number, ever had any information on them and whether anything has changed since they first had a check. That will make the whole system simple and quick, which will encourage volunteering, which is part of the purpose.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
T4. Given media reports that police patrols are being scaled back because of the price of fuel and that Gwent police spend £4 million on their car fleet, including fuel, what action are the Government taking to help our local police officers to keep their patrols on the road?