Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Sri Lankan counterpart on the human rights of the Tamil community in that country.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK continues to encourage and support Sri Lanka to deliver the commitments it made to the UN Human Rights Council through Resolutions 30/1 and 34/1. We firmly believe that this is the best framework for establishing truth and to achieve justice and lasting reconciliation.
The UK welcomed the Annual Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 21 March 2018, which assessed progress made by the Sri Lankan government in the implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolutions 30/1 and 34/1. This found that the Government of Sri Lanka had taken some steps to address human rights concerns and to introduce more democratic and accountable government. These steps included the return of some military-held civilian land, the establishment of an Office of Missing Persons and the ratification of the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.
However, as I made clear to Foreign Minister Marapana on my visit to Colombo in October 2018, more needs to be done. During my visit, I encouraged greater progress, in particular on national accountability and truth-seeking mechanisms, and the development of new counter-terrorism legislation in line with international human rights standards. I was pleased to see that, following my visit, the Sri Lankan Parliament had passed a bill to establish an Office of Reparations. I look forward to seeing this implemented in the near future.
I continued to press for progress with Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in January, as the Minister for the Commonwealth and the UN, Lord Ahmad, did with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera,
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the human rights situation in North Korea; and what representations he has made and to whom on that subject.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK continues to have grave concerns over the human rights situation in North Korea. The Foreign Secretary made clear his strong concerns about freedoms in North Korea at the launch of the review into the Persecution of Christians across the Globe, on 30 January. The British Government raises its concerns over the human rights situation directly with the North Korean authorities and in multilateral fora including the UN Security Council, General Assembly and Human Rights Council. We urge North Korea to use its upcoming Universal Periodic Review in May as a moment to engage in meaningful dialogue on its human rights record.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if he will place in the Library a copy of the draft UK-Israel agreement that has been agreed in principle for trading arrangements after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel.
We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the new UK-Israel agreement-in-principle contains a territorial clause limiting its application to within Israel’s pre-June 1967 borders.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel.
We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the trade deal agreed in principle between the UK and Israel for trade after the UK leaves the EU announced on 23 January 2019 will continue to distinguish in relevant dealings between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel.
We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how his Department defines the territorial scope of pre-existing agreements between the UK and Israel.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The UK and Israel have a strong and important trading relationship. However, we do not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), including the settlements, as part of Israel. The OPTs are not covered by the current EU-Israel Association Agreement, nor by the Continuity Agreement agreed in principle between the UK and Israel.
We are also working to finalise the transition of the current EU Interim Association Agreement with the Palestinian Authority.
We have committed to informing Parliament as soon as agreements are signed with partner countries. The agreement will be laid in Parliament and we will be publishing a full report on trade agreements, once they are signed.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that GP surgeries are supplied with adequate guidance for patients on their medication in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Guidance issued to all National Health Service trusts, pharmacies and general practices by the Department and NHS England has informed them of our plans for ensuring continuity of supply of medicines and advised them that they can expect to be able to continue accessing medicines through their existing supply routes in the event of a ‘no deal’ European Union exit. General practitioners (GPs) and providers should continue to prescribe medicines and other medical products as normal.
On 23 August 2018, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care sent a letter to NHS England outlining preparations for the EU Exit, including in relation to General Practice. On 21 December 2018, the EU Exit Operational Guidance for the Health and Social Care system, including GPs, was issued. On 18 January 2019, a joint letter from the Department and NHS England from chief pharmacist, Keith Ridge, was sent to GPs, pharmacists and senior leaders within the NHS.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of (a) trends in the level of betting on football, (b) the effect of in-play betting on gambling levels and (c) the adequacy of existing regulations on gambling advertising in relation to sport.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Gambling Commission publishes Industry Statistics twice a year. These demonstrate an upward trend for remote betting on football, where gross gambling yield (GGY, the amount retained by operators after the payment of winnings but before the deduction of the costs of the operation) increased from £578 million to a little over £1 billion between 2015 and 2018. In the same period, offline betting on football fell by roughly one fifth, from £331 million to £265 million. This data can be found here: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/news-action-and-statistics/Statistics-and-research/Statistics/Industry-statistics.aspx
The Commission also tracks gambling participation rates and data for 2017 showed that football and horse racing were the most popular activities to place a bet on, with 5% of respondents having bet on football in the past four weeks, and 4% having done so for horse racing. This report also includes data on in-play betting, and found that 26% of online gamblers had made a bet in-play during the past four weeks, a figure relatively consistent with the previous years. The most recent report can be found here: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/pdf/survey-data/gambling-participation-in-2017-behaviour-awareness-and-attitudes.pdf.
Strict controls apply to the content of all gambling advertisements, including broadcast adverts and online, and adverts for gambling must not be broadcast in or around children’s TV programmes.
The Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures set out a package of measures to strengthen protections around advertising further. These include significantly strengthened guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting vulnerable people which restricted urgent calls-to-action, such as ‘bet now’ adverts, tougher sanctions for operators who breach advertising codes and a multi-million pound safer gambling advertising campaign, which will include responsible gambling messages around sports. More recently, the gambling industry has announced that it will introduce a whistle to whistle ban on adverts during sporting events. We will continue to monitor issues around advertising and consider any new evidence carefully.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 effect on regional security of the Israeli Government's decision not to renew the mandate of the international observatory task force in Hebron; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
While we have not made any assessment of this decision, our Ambassador to Israel raised our concerns over this issue with the Israeli authorities on 29 January.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, further to the Answer of 5 June 2018 to Question HL8092, if he will make further representations to the Israeli authorities the concerns of the UK government regarding the threatened deportation of Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch.
Answered by Alistair Burt
It is ultimately up to Israel to determine its immigration policy. The UK's immigration policy is similarly protected. We last made representations to the Israeli authorities on this issue in May 2018.