Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with the RSPB on its decision to stop publishing its annual counts of the number of birds in its reserves.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
It is for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to decide how and when it publishes information collected from across its reserves, and as such, the Secretary of State has no plans to hold discussions with the RSPB on their internal decisions around publishing data.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what (a) financial and (b) non-financial support his Department offered to local authorities to help protect them from cyber attacks in (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 and (iii) 2020.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The wider public sector, of which local authorities form a part, is reporting more incidents so it is imperative that councils remain vigilant of the cyber risks they face. In terms of financial impacts or financial support, the Government does not place information in the public domain that may be of value to cyber attackers. The Department is providing support to councils to strengthen their resilience against cyber-attacks. The Department is also working with the National Cyber Security Centre, who provide advice and guidance to local authorities in support of their work to secure their networks, as well as the development of their cyber security strategies. This includes encouraging registration for their Active Cyber Defence tools and services.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate he has made of (a) the number of local authorities which were subject to cyber attack, (b) the (i) largest and (ii) lowest single financial loss incurred by a local authority as a consequence of such an attack and (c) the average financial loss incurred by local authorities subject to such attacks in each of the last three calendar years.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The wider public sector, of which local authorities form a part, is reporting more incidents so it is imperative that councils remain vigilant of the cyber risks they face. In terms of financial impacts or financial support, the Government does not place information in the public domain that may be of value to cyber attackers. The Department is providing support to councils to strengthen their resilience against cyber-attacks. The Department is also working with the National Cyber Security Centre, who provide advice and guidance to local authorities in support of their work to secure their networks, as well as the development of their cyber security strategies. This includes encouraging registration for their Active Cyber Defence tools and services.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports that Hezbollah is storing weapons in civilian areas in Beirut.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
We have long been concerned by Hizballah's stockpiling of weapons within Lebanon, in contravention of relevant UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs). We regularly raise this at the UN Security Council, and we call on the Lebanese authorities to abide by provisions of the relevant UNSCRs. Hizballah's destabilising influence threatens regional stability and endangers Lebanon and its people.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the threat posed to Israel by cross-border tunnels dug by Hamas.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
We remain deeply concerned by Hamas's attempts to re-arm and rebuild militant infrastructure, including the tunnel network, in Gaza. Such actions undermine efforts to improve the situation in Gaza and harm the prospects for peace. During my visit to Israel at the end of May, I witnessed first-hand the impact of Hamas tunnels and rockets on the Israeli communities close to Gaza.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he plans to publish the annual report required under section 32 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) intends to lay the annual report required under section 32 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 ("the Sanctions Act") soon. Section 32 requires that the report be laid before Parliament "as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of each reporting period." The current reporting period, also referred to as "the first reporting period" in the Sanctions Act, is from 23 May 2018 to 22 May 2019. As such, the FCO is required to lay the report as soon as reasonably practicable after 22 May.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many individuals are subject to the annual report required under section 32 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018; and what the nationality is of such individual.
Answered by Alan Duncan
During the reporting period from 23 May 2018 to 22 May 2019, the government laid 17 regulations under section 1 of the Sanctions Act, including seven regulations with a stated human rights purpose. The government prioritised preparation for sanctions implementation in case of a no deal exit. Specifically, the government prioritised making the necessary secondary legislation to carry over existing EU sanctions into UK law by exit day. In doing so, the government's objective was to ensure that, should the UK have left the European Union without a deal by that date, there would have been no gap in implementing the sanctions regimes which are currently in place in the UK by reason of EU law.
As the UK has not exited the EU, no designations under the 17 regulations laid during the reporting period have been necessary, as listings under EU sanctions regimes still apply by virtue of EU law. As such, no individuals have been sanctioned under the Sanctions Act.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate the Government has made of the number of people with mental health problems on social housing waiting lists.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Local authorities are required by law to ensure that ‘reasonable preference’ (priority) for social housing is given to those who need to move on medical and welfare grounds, including grounds relating to a disability. Statutory guidance issued to councils in 2012 includes ‘a mental illness or disorder’ as one of the indicators of the medical and welfare reasonable preference category
The annual Local Authority Housing Statistical return collects data on households on the waiting list for each of the reasonable preference criteria: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/local-authority-housing-statistics-data-returns-for-2016-to-2017
In 2016/17, there were 108,858 households that met medical and welfare reasonable preference criteria.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2018 to Question 169126 on A14: road works, what estimate he has made of the delay to work on that road as a result of the archaeological work; and what estimate he has made of the cost of that delay.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme is on budget and on target to open to traffic by 2020/21 as planned.
Highways England have encountered some challenges with the archaeology work schedule, but they have been able to work flexibly to ensure there has not been an impact on the construction programme. Highways England confirm this will not have an impact on the overall scheme budget and will be able to publish final costs once the scheme has completed.
Asked by: Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much money has been spent from the public purse on archeological work in relation to the new A14 road works; and how much further funding he plans to allocate to that work.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Approximately £40.7 million to £43.4 million has been spent by the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme on archaeological works to date with a further £1.5 million to £5 million expected in the future. These works have been necessary to meet the commitments Highways England made during the Development Consent Order process. More accurate costs will be published after the scheme has been completed.