Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Government is taking steps to protect the historic county status of (a) Essex and (b) other counties.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government attaches great importance to our country’s history and traditions and encourages recognition of our historic counties, often marked by local celebrations on county days. I write to local leaders to encourage and support these celebrations throughout the year. This year, there are 56 registered historic county flags across Great Britain, which includes the addition of three new flags for Banffshire, Berwickshire and Morayshire. My department proudly flies each registered county flag in Whitehall to mark county days, and this includes flying the flag for Essex.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding her Department plans to provide to UK Research and Innovation in the next three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DSIT is responsible for the majority of the Government’s spending on R&D, including UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) budget of £25.1 billion across the current Spending Review (FY2022/23 – 2024/25). This includes an allocation of over £8.8 billion in financial year 2024/25.
As outlined by the Chancellor at Spring Budget 2024, the next Spending Review to set future financial year budgets will be held after the General Election.
DSIT has budgets and plans in place until at least April 2025. Government will agree departmental budgets for financial years following this as part of the usual budget setting process.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, how much aid his Department has provided to China in the last five years.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We stopped direct government-to-government aid to the Chinese Government in 2011. Total FCDO Official Development Assistance (ODA) China spend between 2018-2022 was £103.5 million, including ODA spend such as British Council activity. In a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) in April 2021, the FCDO committed to cut ODA funded programmes in China by 95 per cent from the 2021-22 financial year, which it has delivered. All new ODA programme funding has been limited to supporting our open societies and human rights objectives in China. The projects we fund using ODA typically aim to support those in China who work to improve human rights. Final data for UK ODA spend in 2023 will be available when the next Statistics on International Development (SID) is published in September 2024. A significant proportion of this funding was spent by the British council.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the guidance entitled Get a copy of military records of service, what the average waiting time is for applications to be processed in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In providing copies of military records of service, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not record waiting times for the processing of applications. Where an individual is seeking information about themselves, known as a Subject Access Request (SAR), the MOD adheres to guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office. This stipulates that a public authority must supply the information within one month, but can take up to 90 days for complex cases. Further information can be found at the following link: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/time-limits-for-responding-to-data-protection-rights-requests/#:~:text=If%20the%20organisation%20needs%20something,from%20the%20day%20of%20receipt.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK’s aid relationship with China.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We stopped direct government-to-government aid to the Chinese Government in 2011. In a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) in April 2021, the FCDO committed to cut Official Development Assistance (ODA) funded programmes in China by 95 per cent from the 2021-22 financial year, which it has delivered. All new ODA programme funding has been limited to supporting our open societies and human rights objectives in China.