Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the "Leaked Memo, Ethiopia’s Destabilizing Policy Against Eritrea" issued by the Permanent Mission of Eritrea to the United Nations on 2 July 2014.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We remain concerned about relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia. We have called on both sides to engage in dialogue and to respect the commitment they made in the December 2000 Algiers peace agreement to refrain from using force against each other. We will continue to encourage both Eritrea and Ethiopia to engage bilaterally and internationally to resolve their differences, particularly on the ongoing border dispute. We hope progress can be made towards demarcation in accordance with the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 20 February (HL4795), whether there have been any instances where such surveillance equipment has been used by any foreign government to monitor opposition parties.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Government does not disclose the detail of operational cooperation with foreign partners
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the statement by His Excellency Mr Girma Asmerom, Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the United Nations, on agenda item 68 (b,c): Promotion and Protection of Human Rights during the Interactive Dialogue of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Eritrea at the Third Committee of the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We remain concerned about the human rights situation in Eritrea, including shortcomings in the rule of law, reports of arbitrary detention, and limits on the freedom of speech. We have made clear to the Eritrean government that they should invite the Special Rapporteur to the country and engage constructively with the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea.
We have also asked Eritrea to clarify its plans to implement the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, the importance of which the Eritrean Permanent Representative highlighted in his statement.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the success of the free school lunch programme for the under-sevens.
Answered by Lord Nash
The universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) programme is a great success. Evidence collected from local authorities and multi-academy trusts in August 2014 suggested that 98.5% of schools would be providing hot meals from the start of the autumn term; and the Department for Education is not aware of any schools which are not offering free meals to all their infant pupils. Over 1.6 million infant pupils (85.2% of all infant pupils) took a free school meal on autumn census day in October 2014 – 1.3 million more than were estimated to have taken a free school meal in the January 2014 school census, prior to the introduction of UIFSM. We know from pilots run between 2009 and 2011 that the introduction of universal free school meals helps to improve social skills, increase attainment and encourage healthy choices, as well as saving hard-working families money.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they consider to be the difference between tax avoidance and aggressive tax avoidance.
Answered by Lord Deighton
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) distinguish between tax avoidance and tax planning. Tax avoidance is bending the rules of the tax system to gain a tax advantage that Parliament never intended. It often involves contrived, artificial transactions that serve little or no purpose other than to produce a tax advantage. It involves operating within the letter – but not the spirit – of the law. Tax avoidance is not the same as tax planning. Tax planning involves using tax reliefs for the purpose for which they were intended. For example, claiming tax relief on capital investment, saving in a tax-exempt ISA or saving for retirement by making contributions to a pension scheme are all legitimate forms of tax planning. While such actions may reduce the total amount of tax paid, they are not tax avoidance, because they involve using tax reliefs in the way that Parliament intended when it passed the relevant legislation.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether surveillance equipment has been provided by the United Kingdom to the government of Panama; and if so, for what purpose.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The United Kingdom provides bilateral assistance on tackling organised crime to a range of international partners in line with the UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy. It does so to tackle international organised crime and minimise the threat it poses to the UK. In order to maintain operational security the UK does not disclose the detail of such operational cooperation.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Deighton on 15 December 2014 (HL3255), why the repayment conditions were not agreed in advance of the European Commission announcing the additional contribution to the European Union Budget; and what contingency planning they had undertaken to prepare for such an additional repayment demand.
Answered by Lord Deighton
In line with the Own Resources system – which underpins Member State contributions to the EU budget – adjustments are made to Member State contributions towards the end of each year, as a result of statistical revisions to factors underlying the contributions.
As the Prime Minister said in his statement following the October European Council last year, in some years the UK adjustment has been negative and in some years we contribute a little bit more. This happens every year. However, what has never happened is for €2 billion to be demanded.
The Prime Minister also made clear that it was an unacceptable way for the Commission to suddenly present a bill like this for such a vast sum of money and with so little time to pay it.
Commission Vice-President Georgieva confirmed that there was no way that Member States could have known the net figure until 17 October 2014.
Following intensive discussions with the Commission and at the November ECOFIN meeting, the Government halved the bill for the UK, delayed the bill, will pay no interest on the bill, and has changed the rules of the European Union so that such unacceptable behavior never happens again.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Astor of Hever on 15 December 2014 (HL3258), whether any gallantry medals have been awarded but not gazetted in the last 15 years.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
Unless precluded on National Security grounds all gallantry medals awarded are a matter of public record via an announcement in the London Gazette.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Bates on 8 December 2014 (HL3326) and 18 December 2014 (HL3645), how many applications from Nepal were received in 2014 in Delhi and how many of these were approved.
Answered by Lord Bates
There were 7,022 Visa applications made in Nepal and processed in New Delhi between Jan - Sep 2014. Of these, 5,251 were approved.
Asked by: Lord Ashcroft (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether a Freedom of Information request which would exceed the financial threshold can be validly submitted on the basis that the enquirer pays the excess so that the information is provided.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Public authorities may provide information in response to a request for information exceeding the “appropriate limit” in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the basis that the requester pays certain costs. The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 set out fees that may be charged in such cases under section 13 of the Act. However, it is entirely left to the discretion of the public authority whether or not to offer to comply on payment of such a fee.