Asked by: Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2017 to Question 66792, on climate change: snow and ice, whether there are declines of snow and ice, other than of Arctic Sea ice extent, that are inconsistent with reasonably expected national variability; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Department does not hold this information, but it can be found in the 5th assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5). This states that it is likely (greater than 66% probability) there has been human influence on: the observed retreat of glaciers since 1960s; reduction in northern hemisphere snow cover since 1970; and surface melting and mass loss of Greenland since 1993. These declines can be best explained by climate models that include human influences and not natural internal variability alone.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 32849, which 90 countries will provide automatic offshore account and trust data to the UK; which responsible authorities in the UK will be able to access that data; and whether the 90 countries referred to will also be able to access automatic offshore account and trust data held by the UK.
Answered by David Gauke
The UK expects to receive information from the following jurisdictions under the automatic exchange of information agreements it has, or will soon have, in place.
Albania | Colombia | Hong Kong | Marshall Islands | Seychelles |
Andorra | Cook Islands | Hungary | Mauritius | Singapore |
Anguilla | Costa Rica | Iceland | Mexico | Sint Maarten |
Antigua & Barbuda | Croatia | India | Monaco | Slovak Republic |
Argentina | Curacao | Indonesia | Montserrat | Slovenia |
Aruba | Cyprus | Ireland | Netherlands | South Africa |
Austria | Czech Republic | Isle of Man | New Zealand | Spain |
Bahamas | Denmark | Israel | Niue | Sweden |
Barbados | Dominica | Italy | Norway | Switzerland |
Belgium | Estonia | Japan | Poland | Trinidad & Tobago |
Belize | Faroe Islands | Jersey | Portugal | Turkey |
Bermuda | Finland | Korea | Qatar | Turks & Caicos Islands |
Brazil | France | Kuwait | Romania | United Arab Emirates |
British Virgin Islands | Germany | Latvia | Russian Federation | Uruguay |
Brunei Darassulam | Ghana | Liechtenstein | St Kitts & Nevis | United States* |
Bulgaria | Gibraltar | Lithuania | St Lucia |
|
Canada | Greece | Luxembourg | St Vincent & the Grenadines |
|
Cayman Islands | Greenland | Macao | Samoa |
|
Chile | Grenada | Malaysia | San Marino |
|
China | Guernsey | Malta | Saudi Arabia |
|
*The United States has committed to move to full reciprocation of data exchange under the Inter-Governmental Agreement of 12 September 2012. The domestic legislation required in the US for this to happen has not yet been put in place and we have no indication of when this will happen. Until then the UK will continue to receive limited information collected by the Internal Revenue Service under existing regulations –this pertains to interest bearing financial accounts, but not trusts.
The use of the information received is governed by the international agreements under which it is exchanged. As these are international agreements concerned with taxation matters, the information is restricted in its use to the administration, assessment, and collection of taxes covered by the agreement in question for each jurisdiction. As these are functions of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), only HMRC can use the information without further recourse to the sending jurisdiction and the primary use must be the functions of HMRC. Sharing the information found to be relevant to other Government Agencies with those other Agencies is only permitted where the international agreement allows it, and the sending jurisdiction gives express permission that it can be so shared by HMRC. HMRC will always seek to share the information where relevant and possible, and it is our policy to ensure that new agreements and amendments to existing agreements allow such sharing.
The UK expects that most of the automatic exchange agreements with the jurisdictions listed above will be reciprocal. However, not all jurisdictions require information from the UK and in those cases the UK will receive information but send nothing the other way.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to which countries people have been forcibly removed in the last three years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The table below shows the number of enforced removals from the United Kingdom by destination country for the last three years.
| Table: Enforced removals by country of destination, 2012 to 2014 | |||
| Country of destination | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Afghanistan | 518 | 496 | 398 |
| Albania | 473 | 613 | 823 |
| Algeria | 124 | 90 | 60 |
| American Samoa | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andorra | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Angola | 24 | 20 | 11 |
| Anguilla | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 6 | 5 | 2 |
| Argentina | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Armenia | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Aruba | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Australia | 8 | 12 | 10 |
| Austria | 56 | 68 | 31 |
| Azerbaijan | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| Bahamas, The | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Bahrain | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Bangladesh | 881 | 603 | 651 |
| Barbados | 14 | 12 | 8 |
| Belarus | 12 | 5 | 3 |
| Belgium | 100 | 110 | 69 |
| Belize | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Benin | 7 | 3 | 5 |
| Bermuda | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bhutan | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bolivia | 71 | 27 | 24 |
| Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Botswana | 19 | 2 | 7 |
| Brazil | 339 | 261 | 131 |
| British overseas citizens | z | z | z |
| Brunei | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bulgaria | 47 | 58 | 70 |
| Burkina | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Burma | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Burundi | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| Cambodia | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cameroon | 49 | 29 | 35 |
| Canada | 27 | 34 | 21 |
| Cape Verde | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cayman Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Central African Republic | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Chad | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chile | 32 | 20 | 13 |
| China | 617 | 512 | 423 |
| Christmas Island | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cocos (Keeling) Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Colombia | 86 | 64 | 34 |
| Comoros | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Congo | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| Congo (Democratic Republic) | 14 | 6 | 4 |
| Cook Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Costa Rica | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Croatia | 7 | 8 | 13 |
| Cuba | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Curacao | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cyprus | 14 | 8 | 9 |
| Cyprus (Northern part of) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Czech Republic | 36 | 58 | 110 |
| Denmark | 16 | 13 | 12 |
| Djibouti | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dominica | 3 | 5 | 5 |
| Dominican Republic | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| East Timor | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ecuador | 10 | 9 | 6 |
| Egypt | 53 | 51 | 44 |
| El Salvador | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Equatorial Guinea | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Eritrea | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Estonia | 11 | 9 | 12 |
| Ethiopia | 11 | 6 | 3 |
| Falkland Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Faroe Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fiji | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| Finland | 9 | 7 | 4 |
| Former Yugoslavia | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| France | 286 | 327 | 397 |
| French Guiana | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| French Polynesia | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gabon | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gambia, The | 72 | 57 | 21 |
| Georgia | 32 | 28 | 8 |
| Germany | 144 | 123 | 79 |
| Ghana | 229 | 186 | 158 |
| Gibraltar | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Greece | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| Greenland | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Grenada | 10 | 3 | 3 |
| Guadeloupe | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Guam | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Guatemala | 9 | 4 | 1 |
| Guinea | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| Guinea-Bissau | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Guyana | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| Haiti | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Heard Island and McDonald Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Honduras | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Hong Kong | 13 | 10 | 11 |
| Hungary | 27 | 44 | 52 |
| Iceland | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| India | 2,087 | 1,357 | 1,135 |
| Indonesia | 9 | 12 | 13 |
| Iran | 27 | 18 | 9 |
| Iraq | 55 | 99 | 42 |
| Ireland | 214 | 178 | 106 |
| Israel | 12 | 6 | 5 |
| Italy | 297 | 366 | 377 |
| Ivory Coast | 12 | 9 | 12 |
| Jamaica | 306 | 287 | 284 |
| Japan | 4 | 12 | 3 |
| Jordan | 12 | 7 | 9 |
| Kazakhstan | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Kenya | 50 | 42 | 51 |
| Kiribati | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Korea (North) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Korea (South) | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Kosovo | 24 | 30 | 28 |
| Kuwait | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Laos | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Latvia | 105 | 94 | 189 |
| Lebanon | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| Lesotho | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Liberia | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Libya | 8 | 24 | 18 |
| Liechtenstein | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lithuania | 193 | 324 | 425 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Macau | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Macedonia | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Madagascar | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Malawi | 61 | 51 | 22 |
| Malaysia | 147 | 127 | 82 |
| Maldives | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mali | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Malta | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Marshall Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Martinique | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mauritania | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Mauritius | 52 | 56 | 43 |
| Mayotte | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mexico | 52 | 19 | 14 |
| Micronesia | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Moldova | 24 | 12 | 5 |
| Monaco | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mongolia | 23 | 13 | 13 |
| Montenegro | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Montserrat | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Morocco | 31 | 32 | 42 |
| Mozambique | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Namibia | 23 | 18 | 15 |
| Nauru | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nepal | 174 | 144 | 153 |
| Netherlands | 105 | 110 | 91 |
| Netherlands Antilles | z | z | z |
| New Caledonia | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Zealand | 7 | 7 | 3 |
| Nicaragua | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Niger | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Nigeria | 707 | 698 | 506 |
| Niue | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Norfolk Island | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Northern Mariana Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Norway | 40 | 25 | 23 |
| Occupied Palestinian Territories | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Oman | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Other and unknown | 273 | 275 | 352 |
| Pakistan | 1,845 | 1,870 | 1,768 |
| Palau | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Panama | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Papua New Guinea | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paraguay | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Peru | 4 | 8 | 5 |
| Philippines | 158 | 115 | 108 |
| Pitcairn Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Poland | 372 | 415 | 579 |
| Portugal | 72 | 81 | 100 |
| Puerto Rico | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Qatar | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Refugee | z | z | z |
| Reunion | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Romania | 463 | 705 | 829 |
| Russia | 31 | 13 | 8 |
| Rwanda | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| Samoa | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| San Marino | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sao Tome and Principe | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Saudi Arabia | 3 | 7 | 11 |
| Senegal | 11 | 12 | 9 |
| Serbia | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| Serbia and Montenegro | z | z | z |
| Seychelles | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Sierra Leone | 24 | 11 | 12 |
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Slovakia | 44 | 58 | 95 |
| Slovenia | 3 | 9 | 4 |
| Solomon Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Somalia | 7 | 8 | 35 |
| South Africa | 58 | 57 | 34 |
| South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Spain | 71 | 70 | 59 |
| Sri Lanka | 364 | 164 | 185 |
| St. Helena | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| St. Lucia | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| St. Maarten (Dutch Part) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| St. Martin (French Part) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| St. Pierre and Miquelon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines | 13 | 9 | 9 |
| Stateless | z | z | z |
| Sudan | 7 | 2 | 7 |
| Sudan (South) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Surinam | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Svalbard and Jan Mayen | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swaziland | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Sweden | 36 | 45 | 29 |
| Switzerland | 25 | 36 | 24 |
| Syria | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Taiwan | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| Tajikistan | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tanzania | 32 | 24 | 16 |
| Thailand | 54 | 42 | 32 |
| Togo | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Tokelau | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tonga | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 25 | 34 | 23 |
| Tunisia | 21 | 11 | 31 |
| Turkey | 133 | 122 | 68 |
| Turkmenistan | 10 | 8 | 1 |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tuvalu | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Uganda | 61 | 48 | 25 |
| Ukraine | 112 | 79 | 106 |
| United Arab Emirates | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| United States | 66 | 98 | 70 |
| Uruguay | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Uzbekistan | 37 | 24 | 17 |
| Vanuatu | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vatican City | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Venezuela | 6 | 10 | 9 |
| Vietnam | 589 | 468 | 296 |
| Virgin Islands (British) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Virgin Islands (US) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wallis and Futuna | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Western Sahara | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yemen | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Zambia | 19 | 8 | 10 |
| Zimbabwe | 42 | 32 | 34 |
| Total | 14,647 | 13,311 | 12,627 |
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of enforced removals from the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within the Immigration Statistics release. Data relating to enforced removals by destination are available in tables rv_05 to rv_06_q in Immigration Statistics: April – June 2015 on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether plans have been developed and exercised to use the new Merlin Mk2 helicopters to fill the reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare gap in the North-west Approaches, and the Greenland, Iceland and United Kingdom gaps, left by cancellation of the Nimrod programme.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Merlin Mk2 Helicopters have been utilised in support of exercises and operations and remain at readiness to do so.
A decision on whether to take further steps to mitigate the maritime surveillance capability gap will be part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Asked by: Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party - Moray)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, in how many training exercises HM Armed Forces have participated in (a) Norway, (b) Finland, (c) Sweden, (d) the US, (e) Canada, (f) Greenland, (g) Russia and (h) Iceland; how many personnel took part in each exercise; and how many such exercises were held (i) above and (ii) below the Arctic Circle.
Answered by Mark Francois
HM Armed Forces have participated in 86 training exercises during the last 12 months: in Finland, Norway, Sweden, the US, Canada and Iceland. There have been no exercises in Greenland or Russia. Of these a total of 12 were conducted above the Arctic Circle, in Norway, Finland and Canada. A breakdown of the number of exercises, the number of personnel who took part and whether the exercise was held above, or below, the Arctic Circle is provided in the tables.
Country | Lead Service For Exercise (Ex) | Number of personnel | Exercise held North or South of the Arctic circle |
Finland | Navy – 1 Ex | 50 | North |
Norway | |||
Army | 110 | South | |
NAVY | 500 | North | |
NAVY | 20 | North | |
NAVY | 50 | North | |
NAVY | 20 | North | |
RAF | 17 | North | |
RAF | 19 | North | |
RAF | 38 | Both | |
RAF | 38 | Both | |
RAF | 2 | South | |
RAF | 8 | South | |
Norway Total | 11 Ex | 822 | 3 South/6 North / 2 Both |
Sweden | ||||||
Army | 6 | South | ||||
NAVY | 50 | South | ||||
RAF | 160 | South | ||||
Sweden Total | 3 Ex | 216 | 3 South | |||
US | ||||||
Army | 100 | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | 100 | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
Army | 150 | South | ||||
Army | 4 | South | ||||
Army | 11 | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | 40 | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | 40 | South | ||||
Army | 1500 | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
Army | 100 | South | ||||
Army | 110 | South | ||||
Army | 35 | South | ||||
Army | 230 | South | ||||
Army | 90 | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
Army | 8 | South | ||||
Army | 100 | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
Army | 35 | South | ||||
Army | 150 | South | ||||
Army | Not Recorded | South | ||||
Army | 210 | South | ||||
Army | 14 | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
Army | 50 | South | ||||
NAVY | 600 | South | ||||
Navy | 150 | South | ||||
Navy | 50 | South | ||||
Navy | 50 | South | ||||
RAF | 522 | South | ||||
RAF | 210 | South | ||||
RAF | 37 | South | ||||
RAF | 1 | South | ||||
RAF | 5 | South | ||||
RAF | 26 | South | ||||
RAF | 31 | South | ||||
RAF | 114 | South | ||||
RAF | 29 | South | ||||
RAF | 42 | South | ||||
RAF | 50 | South | ||||
RAF | 27 | South | ||||
RAF | 100 | South | ||||
RAF | 32 | South | ||||
US Total | 41 Ex | 5453 | South | |||
Canada | ||||||
Canada | Army | 800 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 120 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 178 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 135 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 900 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 2400 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 2400 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 125 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 40 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 140 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 150 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 90 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 65 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 2605 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 895 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 2431 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 130 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 420 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 120 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 1420 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 1420 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 1420 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 1420 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 46 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 150 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 120 | South | |||
Canada | Army | 11 | South | |||
Canada | RAF | 47 | South | |||
Canada | RAF | 2 | North | |||
Canada Total | 29 Ex | 20200 | 28 South / 1 North | |||
Greenland | No Exercises | |||||
Russia | No Exercises | |||||
Iceland | Navy | 13 | South | |||
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have been deported to other European countries in each of the last four years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The table below provides the total number of enforced removals of asylum cases to other European countries, in each year from 2010 to 2013.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Deportations are a specific subset of removals which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is conducive to the public good. The deportation order prohibits the person returning to the UK until such time as it may be revoked. It is not possible to separately identify deportations from enforced removals.
It is not possible within these figures to say at what stage in the asylum process individuals have reached at the time of their removal, including
whether their claim has failed at that point, as those departing voluntarily can do so at any stage without necessarily notifying the Home Office.
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons removed or departed voluntarily from the UK and on persons refused entry to the United Kingdom within Immigration Statistics. The data on removals and voluntary departures by type are available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: April – June 2013, tables rv.06 and rv.06.q from GOV.UK on the statistics web pages at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release and will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, in how many joint NATO training exercises in which countries the UK plans to participate in the next six months.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In the next six months the UK is planning to participate in thirty-seven joint and multinational training exercises in a NATO context.
These exercises will take place on the territory of, in the waters around or in the skies above the following countries:
Canada
Croatia
Denmark
Estonia
France
Germany
Greenland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Norway
Poland
Slovenia
Spain
Turkey
UK
USA