Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that there is not a backlog of visa applications after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
There have been no changes in the requirements for European nationals entering or currently residing in the UK, nor of British citizens elsewhere in the EU. The precise way in which these requirements may change following the UK’s exit from the EU is yet to be determined.
The UK’s visa operation is resourced to meet demand, and we will ensure that any operational implications of the UK’s exit from the EU are fully factored into business planning.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure that any future UK Bill of Rights covers all of the UK.
Answered by Oliver Heald
We will set out our proposals for a Bill of Rights in due course.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that social media websites remove abusive and threatening posts.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We expect social media companies, and internet platforms, to have robust processes in place and to act promptly when abuse is reported; including acting quickly to removing inappropriate content, and where appropriate, suspending or terminating the accounts of those breaching the rules in place.
We are working with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to keep children and young people safe online. UKCCIS brings together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups to help to keep children and young people safe online. UKCCIS is co-chaired by Ministers from Department for Education, Home Office and Department for Culture Media and Sport.
In December 2015 we published guidance to encourage responsible practice from industry, and ensure children using their services are able to do so in a safe and protected way.
The Criminal Justice Act 2015 strengthened two existing communications offences: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 which can now be used to prosecute misuse of social media. The police now have longer to investigate either offence, and the maximum penalty for the former has been increased to two years imprisonment.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what requirements are in place to ensure that the mental health of a defendant is fully considered before sentencing.
Answered by Phillip Lee
Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, before passing sentence, the Court must obtain a pre-sentence report unless it considers it unnecessary to do so in any individual case. The pre-sentence report covers all circumstances which are relevant to the offender and highlights any links to his offending behaviour, including mental health problems.
Under the same Act, the Court is required to obtain and consider a medical report on a defendant who is or appears to be mentally disordered, before passing a custodial sentence.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on the introduction of transitional arrangements to assist women born on or after 6 April 1951 who have been adversely affected by changes to the state pension age.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
At the time of the Pensions Act 2011 the government introduced a concession worth £1.1 billion to limit the impact of the rising state pension age on those most affected. The concession capped the maximum delay that anyone would face in claiming their State Pension to 18 months rather than two years, relative to the previous timetable. The Government has no plans to introduce further transitional arrangements.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations the Government has made to the UN Security Council to ensure genocide committed by Daesh is brought to the attention of the International Criminal Court.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor set out some of the complicated issues involved in the ICC investigating Daesh in her press statement of 8 April 2015. We continue to discuss with international partners, including those on the UN Security Council all legal possibilities for investigating Daesh. On 21 July, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), announced that the United Kingdom will work with our international partners to drive a global campaign to hold Daesh to account for its crimes.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding from the public purse for each refugee camp has been given in each of the last five years; and on what that funding has been spent in each of those years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
DFID supports refugee camps in many different countries as part of our wider programming to assist those displaced by conflict, persecution and fear. It is not possible to say how much is spent on each individual camp.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what the estimated cost to the public purse is of implementing online voter registration in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
The cost of extending the digital registration service to Northern Ireland is being met by the Cabinet Office as part of the wider project to implement digital registration throughout the UK.
This work is ongoing and the current estimate of costs is approximately £250,000.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to ensure Northern Ireland benefits from the Catapult programme.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is continuing to develop the Catapult network and has prioritised core funding support for the Catapult network in the 2015 Spending Review.
Northern Ireland (NI) is already benefitting from the Catapult Programme. The Digital Catapult has established local centres in Northern Ireland. It has just appointed a lead for its NI centres and is expecting the projects and activity to take shape and start in the coming months. The Precision Medicine Catapult will also be supported by a Centre of Excellence in Belfast.
A number of other Catapults also have strong links with business and academia in Northern Ireland. The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult worked with a team at Queens University Belfast to define the path to commercialisation for a therapy to help treat retinal vein occlusion, a common cause of visual impairment and blindness affecting around 16.4 million people across the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.
The Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre (NIACE) is a partner in the composites network with the National Composites Centre (NCC) of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.
The High Value Manufacturing Catapult is also working with four industrial partners, including Bombardier Aerospace in Northern Ireland, on the VIEWS (Validation and Integration of Manufacturing Enablers for Future Wing Structures) Programme to bring promising wing design, manufacture and assembly technologies near to market readiness.
The Future Cities Catapult has been working closely with the City of Belfast to harness new technologies and help to fulfil their smart city ambitions and provide better services to its citizens by inviting SMEs to meet the challenge of increasing revenue from business rates across the city.
The Satellite Applications Catapult has a Knowledge Exchange Fellow based in Northern Ireland. This Fellowship, alongside funding from Invest Northern Ireland, is assisting an agricultural solutions business based in Northern Ireland to enhance its services through the utilisation of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) technology.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support beekeepers whose colonies are at risk from fatal diseases.
Answered by George Eustice
Bee health is a devolved matter. In England, Defra supports beekeepers through the work of the National Bee Unit (NBU). NBU Bee Inspectors carry out inspections of over 5,000 apiaries each year looking for bee pests and diseases. Where key pests and diseases are found the inspectors take necessary statutory action for their control. They also provide beekeepers with free training and advice.