Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent comparative assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of expanding (a) Heathrow and (b) Gatwick airports.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government is currently considering the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report before taking any decisions on next steps.
The Government will carefully consider all the evidence set out, including that on costs, when making a decision on additional runway capacity.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost of the Crossrail programme has been (a) to date and (b) in each financial year since the programme began; what proportion of the cost in each of those categories has been borne by (i) the public purse, (ii) funding from the EU and (iii) private companies involved in the programme; and what the projected cost of that programme is expected to be over its lifetime in total and for each of the three sub-categories set out above.
Answered by Claire Perry
During the passage of the Crossrail Bill through Parliament, a commitment was given that a statement would be published at least every 12 months until the completion of the construction of Crossrail, setting out information about the project’s funding and finances. The first statement was published in July 2009.
The latest statement was published on 2 July 2015 and can be viewed here:
Expenditure incurred by Crossrail Ltd. in relation to the construction of Crossrail in the period covered by the statement (30 May 2014 and 29 May 2015) was £1,583,293,000 (excluding recoverable VAT on land and property purchases).
Crossrail’s funding package of £14.8bn is roughly split three ways between taxpayers, businesses, and future Crossrail fare payers. It is not possible to produce a detailed breakdown of which funding streams expenditure year on year comes from.
Crossrail Ltd. continue to forecast that the costs of constructing Crossrail will be within the agreed funding limits.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the number of Syrians seeking refugee status who enter the UK from Ireland; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by James Brokenshire
A person who is in genuine need of international protection should not travel through a safe country in order to choose where to claim asylum. If we have evidence that asylum seekers, including Syrian nationals, are the responsibility of Ireland we will seek to return them under the Dublin Regulation. Similarly, if we have evidence that individuals claiming asylum in the UK have already been granted international protection by Ireland we will also seek to return them.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish the risk assessment used by the Animal and Plant Health Agency in deciding not to issue a rabies waiver to the Isle of Wight Zoo in respect of the importation of a rescue tiger from Belgium.
Answered by George Eustice
A risk assessment was carried out by the Animal and Plant Health Agency but is not currently in a form that would enable it to be published. There are no plans to publish the basis for the decision not to issue a rabies waiver. We will, however, provide the Isle of Wight Zoo with a summary of the basis for that decision on request.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many waivers were issued by the Animal and Plant Health Agency for animals being transferred to non-Balai approved premises in each of the last three years; and why a waiver was issued in each case.
Answered by George Eustice
There have been only two cases in which a quarantine waiver has been issued for an animal moving into a non Balai approved premise in the past three years. In one case the risk assessment found that the animal had been vaccinated against rabies and deemed a negligible rabies risk. In the other case, the species being imported posed a negligible risk of transmission and so was also granted a waiver.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the prevalence of rabies in puppies imported from Eastern Europe using false documents; and what steps she is taking to tackle the risks posed by such illegal importation.
Answered by George Eustice
There has been no EU Member State to EU Member State transmission of rabies by any pet moved either legally or illegally since the EU pet travel scheme began in 2004. Over the last 20 years the level of rabies across the EU has decreased dramatically through targeted vaccination campaigns. This has resulted in many EU countries becoming free, or nearly free, of the disease.
We take the illegal importation of animals, including dogs and puppies, very seriously. We are aware that some unscrupulous individuals are importing pet animals, particularly puppies, under the cover of the EU pet travel scheme but with the intention of selling them on arrival in the UK. Our actions to tackle this illegal trade are focused on three areas which taken together are helping to address the supply of, and demand for, these puppies.
Firstly, responsibility for stopping the illegal movement of puppies begins in the country where they are born, where the authorities have a duty to ensure that the welfare of pets intended for sale is safeguarded and that EU pet passports are issued correctly. Where there is evidence that veterinarians in other Member States are prepared to falsify pet travel documentation, the UK Chief Veterinary Officer will raise this with officials in the country concerned as well as the European Commission. Intelligence collected in the UK by the Animal and Plant Health Agency, local authorities and animal welfare organisations has resulted in investigations in other EU countries and action has been taken where individuals have been found to be at fault.
Secondly, we will maintain effective border controls. The UK carries out more checks on pets at the border than most other EU Member States and stringent penalties are in place for breaking the rules.
Thirdly, the illegal trade is driven by demand for cheap pedigree puppies. We have published guidance on the steps pet owners can take to avoid buying an illegally imported pet: https://www.gov.uk/buying-a-cat-or-dog. We are also working with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group, which has developed minimum standards for online pet advertisers that have led to the removal of over 130,000 problematic adverts in the last year.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information his Department holds on the number of post boxes from which collections are made (a) only before 10am and (b) throughout the day (i) on the Isle of Wight and (ii) nationally; and what the equivalent figures were in 2012.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government does not hold any such data. Providing Royal Mail as the designated Universal Service Provider for the UK maintains its network of post-boxes in accordance with the framework set by Ofcom, the postal services regulator, decisions relating to local post boxes are made on operational grounds by Royal Mail’s management.
In 2014, Royal Mail announced plans to increase the number of post-boxes around the country to account for any local impact of new collection times. The company’s initiative involved moving low volume post-boxes to “collection on delivery” with postal workers emptying the box on their delivery round rather than providing an additional dedicated collection by van. In such cases, Royal Mail have said that they will ensure that there is a late-posting box within half a mile of each post-box that is restricted to earlier collections and that there will be clear sign-posting for customers on relevant post-boxes notifying them of their nearest late-posting box.
The majority of the 115,000 post-boxes around the country do however retain a 4pm or later final collection.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of housing benefit on the level of private-sector rents.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of housing benefit on the level of private sector rents.
The Local Housing Allowance rates for 2015/16 (effective from April 2015) were published by Rent Officers on 30 January 2015 together with the 30th percentiles of local rents.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the supply of one-bedroom properties for people affected by the under-occupancy penalty (a) on the Isle of Wight and (b) nationwide.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In the social rented sector there are 1.4 million one-bedroom properties, with approximately 130,000 of these becoming available each year. This equates to a turnover of about 10%.
Asked by: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of her Department's contribution to progress on a peace settlement in the Middle East through its support to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
DFID supports the Peace Process by helping build Palestinian institutions and promoting economic growth. We have previously funded legal, policy and communications expertise for the Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD).