Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her speech in Tallinn of 21 February 2017, what estimate she has made of the number of immigrants that will be needed in order to maintain the economic performance of the UK after leaving the EU.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Home Secretary did not make a speech in Tallinn on 21 February 2017.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Civil Society plans to amend section 10 of the Charities Act 2011 to define ecclesiastical corporations as charities.
Answered by Rob Wilson
There are no plans to amend section 10 of the Charities Act 2011 to apply charity law to ecclesiastical corporations. Ecclesiastical corporations are regulated under Canon law of the Church of England.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answers of 2 March 2017 to Questions 65453, 65456 and 65480, what criteria the Government uses to determine which factors to test for their effects on voter turn out.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
In our response to Securing the Ballot, the Government agreed with Sir Eric that voter identification measures should be explored further, as a means of addressing some existing vulnerabilities in the electoral system.
The Government’s view is that, before any decisions can be taken about the suitability of voter identification to elections in Britain, such measures should first be subject to thorough and rigorous testing in a number of pilot schemes. This will enable us to accurately determine the impact of asking voters to present identification on all aspects of the electoral process, including on such important factors as an elector’s likelihood of turning out.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of children aged over five in (i) the Nottingham North constituency, (ii) Nottingham city and (iii) the East Midlands received milk through the European School Milk Scheme in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by George Eustice
Information by Westminster Constituency or English region on the number of children aged over five receiving subsidised milk under the scheme is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of children aged under five in (i) the Nottingham North constituency, (ii) Nottingham city and (iii) the East Midlands received milk through the Nursery Milk Scheme in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
These figures are not collected centrally.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government has taken to comply with EU law since the launch of infringement proceedings against the UK under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU on 11 June 2011, with respect to the entitlement to treatment by the NHS of EU citizens resident in the UK.
Answered by Philip Dunne
In terms of the infringement proceedings referred to, the United Kingdom Government has corresponded with the Commission and we are satisfied that we are compliant with European Union law in that respect.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, with reference to his speech in Tallinn of 21 February 2017, what steps the Government plans to take to promote jobs in the hospitality and agricultural industries to British citizens for fill potential vacancies after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Robin Walker
Supporting our food and farming industries and protecting the environment will form an important part of our exit from the EU. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be engaging with industry to inform their initial thinking as part of the wider stakeholder engagement to help shape future agriculture and land use policy, as well as our 25 year Food and Farming Plan.
In addition, tourism and hospitality are a vital part of our economy. In 2015 foreign visitors contributed £22bn to our economy and the industry as a whole supports some 1.6 million jobs. Since the referendum result, Government has met a range of representatives from the hospitality industry. We are confident our exit presents opportunities for growth in hospitality and we will work closely with the industry to realise these.
As we conduct our negotiations, it must be a priority to regain more control of the numbers of people who come here from Europe. We are considering very carefully the options that are open to us for our future immigration system. As part of that it is important that we understand the impacts on the different sectors of the economy and the labour market from any changes that we make.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his letter of 20 February 2017 to the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation, (a) how the Government will measure the effect of the voter ID pilots on turnout and (b) by what criteria voter identification would be deemed a deterrent to the number of people voting.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government’s response to Sir Eric Pickles’ review of electoral fraud, Securing the ballot, outlined the Government’s intention to run a number of pilot schemes at local government elections in May 2018. Over the coming weeks and months, the Government will be working with our key electoral partners (including the Electoral Commission and the Association of Electoral Administrators) to set out the timing and methodology of the pilot schemes. My letter of 20 February to my Right Honourable friend, the Member for Loughborough, outlined that the purpose of the pilot schemes is to test the impact of voter identification measures on the electoral process as a whole, including on factors such as turnout.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the effect of severe weather conditions on (a) turnout for the EU referendum on 23 June 2016 and (b) turnout for the Stoke-on-Trent and Copeland by-elections on 23 February 2017.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Turnout at elections can be affected by a range of factors and it is difficult to apply impacts to any particular factor. We do not make assessments specifically focused on the effect of the weather on electoral turnout.
We have no current plans to introduce online voting.
Asked by: Graham Allen (Labour - Nottingham North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing provision for remote online voting in areas affected by adverse weather conditions.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Turnout at elections can be affected by a range of factors and it is difficult to apply impacts to any particular factor. We do not make assessments specifically focused on the effect of the weather on electoral turnout.
We have no current plans to introduce online voting.