Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for UK Government obligations to the people of Kurdistan of the Treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We have not made such an assessment. We support the territorial integrity of all countries in the region covered by the two treaties, and encourage the governments concerned to safeguard the rights of all their citizens, regardless of ethnicity. We continue to support a thriving Kurdistan Region of Iraq within a peaceful, prosperous Iraq.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what additional support she will give to the tourist sector in response to covid-19 restrictions on travel to the UK.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has put in place a measured and proportionate set of restrictions to continue to support the tourism sector. To support businesses through this next phase, the ‘Working Safely’ guidance will continue to provide advice on sensible precautions employers can take to manage risk and support their staff and customers.
Hospitality businesses are exempt from enforcing customers to wear masks and this assessment has been made from a practical point of view as the nature of hospitality visits is to eat and drink.
The Government has worked to strike a balance with introducing new measures.
The Government has introduced a new temporary business rates relief in England for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties for 2022-23, worth almost £1.7 billion. The VAT rate for goods and services supplied by the tourism and hospitality sector has also been cut, and will remain at the reduced rate of 12.5% until 31 March 2022, to help businesses manage the transition back to the standard rate.
The recent changes demonstrate the government’s focus on protecting the UK from the most dangerous variants while supporting the travel sector’s safe reopening.
We are continuing to listen to stakeholders during this time.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she (a) has had or (b) is scheduled to have with the Government of Chile on the protection of the rights of women and minorities.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK Government is committed to promoting and defending the human rights of all individuals, including the rights of women and minorities in Chile, and across Latin America. Our embassy in Santiago regularly raises the protection of the rights of women and minorities with the Chilean government. We also work in partnership with Chilean authorities, civil society, and businesses in supporting efforts to strengthen gender equality through UK-Chile commercial trade links, and addressing gender based violence.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending diplomatic protection to Anoosheh Ashoori and Nazanin Ratcliffe.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We have received Mr Ashoori's application for diplomatic protection. The Foreign Secretary is considering the matter carefully. In Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case, the Foreign Secretary was clear that diplomatic protection would not lead to an overnight resolution. We remain committed to securing Mr Ashoori's, Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's and Mr Tahbaz's immediate and permanent release. The Foreign Secretary raised the UK's strong opposition to Iran's practice of detaining foreign and dual nationals with her Iranian counterpart on 8 November and will continue to do so. Our Ambassador in Tehran regularly raises Mr Ashoori's, Mr Tahbaz's and Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's cases with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to secure the release of UK citizens arbitrarily detained in Iran.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The Foreign Secretary continues to raise Iran's practice of detaining British dual nationals with her Iranian counterpart, most recently in a call with Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian on 8 November and Minister Cleverly raised this with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister, Bagheri Kani, on 11 November. Our Ambassador in Tehran continues to raise our detainees regularly with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We remain committed to doing all we can to ensure that British nationals being unfairly detained by Iran are released and allowed to return home to be reunited with their families.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress (a) her Department and (b) the Office for Product Safety and Standards have made on assessing the potential merits low noise fireworks.
Answered by Paul Scully
In response to issues raised around noise and disturbance, the Office for Product Safety and Standards commissioned research to test the decibel level of commonly used fireworks. The objective of the testing work is to help us understand the decibel level associated with a range of fireworks and whether they are compliant with the regulations.
The testing work was delayed due to covid impacting the laboratory’s ability to carry out the necessary testing, but the results will be available in due course.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans she has to call for the restoration of civilian government in Sudan.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We strongly condemn the actions of the Sudanese military on 25 October, including to detain Prime Minister Hamdok and members of the civilian government and declare a state of emergency. Over the past two years, the UK has taken a leading role to support Sudan on their delicate path from oppressive autocratic rule to freedom and democracy; the acts of the military represents a betrayal of the Sudanese people and that journey. With our Sudan Quad partners (KSA, UAE and US) we issued a statement on 3 November calling for the release of all those unlawfully detained and restoration of the civilian-led transitional government. We expressed our condemnation at a meeting of the UN Security Council meeting on 26 October, which was followed by a statement from members of the Council. We also secured a Special Session at the UN Human Rights Council on 5 November to discuss the situation.
I personally commended the African Union (AU)'s leadership in their decision to suspend Sudan from all activities at a joint AU-UN Security Council meeting on 28 October and reiterated my concerns over the actions of the Sudanese military in a Westminster Hall debate on 3 November. With our international partners we continue to maintain public international pressure on the military to return to the democratic transition in order to deliver the freedom, peace and justice called for by the Sudanese people.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking in response to the coup in Sudan.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We strongly condemn the actions of the Sudanese military on 25 October, including to detain Prime Minister Hamdok and members of the civilian government and declare a state of emergency. Over the past two years, the UK has taken a leading role to support Sudan on their delicate path from oppressive autocratic rule to freedom and democracy; the acts of the military represents a betrayal of the Sudanese people and that journey. With our Sudan Quad partners (KSA, UAE and US) we issued a statement on 3 November calling for the release of all those unlawfully detained and restoration of the civilian-led transitional government. We expressed our condemnation at a meeting of the UN Security Council meeting on 26 October, which was followed by a statement from members of the Council. We also secured a Special Session at the UN Human Rights Council on 5 November to discuss the situation.
I personally commended the African Union (AU)'s leadership in their decision to suspend Sudan from all activities at a joint AU-UN Security Council meeting on 28 October and reiterated my concerns over the actions of the Sudanese military in a Westminster Hall debate on 3 November. With our international partners we continue to maintain public international pressure on the military to return to the democratic transition in order to deliver the freedom, peace and justice called for by the Sudanese people.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit claimants have been asked to pose with photos of street signs and the day's local newspaper to establish their identity.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Asking claimants to upload photographs is a targeted approach to verify evidence in cases where we have intelligence to suggest there is a medium to high risk of fraud.
We do not hold exact figures on the number of cases where photographs have been requested with prescribed background settings, but I can confirm that this only affects a very small proportion of claimants.
This approach is proving to be an effective measure in our efforts to identify and stop fraudulent claims. With overall benefit fraud costing the taxpayer £6.3bn in 2020/21, taking appropriate preventative action is the right thing to do.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason self-employed people are ineligible for statutory adoption pay.
Answered by Paul Scully
So far, the Government has focused on supporting employed parents as they do not generally have the same level of flexibility over their work as self-employed parents do. But we recognise that affordability may limit the time away from work that some self-employed adopters can take, and this is why statutory adoption guidance says that Local Authorities should consider making a payment - equivalent to Maternity Allowance - in cases where adopters do not qualify for any statutory payment because of their self-employment. Prospective adopters are also entitled to an assessment of their family’s needs and can benefit from a range of support including discretionary means-tested financial support, advice, information and counselling, and support services.