Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs were imported using the Balai Directive in 2019; and from which countries those dogs were so imported.
Answered by George Eustice
The number of dogs that were imported to the UK using the Balai Directive in 2019 was 44,563.
The breakdown of this figure by country is as follows:
Country of Origin | Dogs | Country of Origin | Dogs |
Antigua and Barbuda | 2 | Latvia | 1 |
Argentina | 32 | Lebanon | 7 |
Australia | 275 | Lithuania | 5 |
Austria | 1 | Macao | 50 |
Azerbaijan | 2 | Malaysia | 29 |
Bahrain | 7 | Malta | 12 |
Barbados | 1 | Mauritius | 17 |
Bermuda | 9 | Mexico | 16 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 174 | Namibia | 7 |
Brazil | 201 | Netherlands | 70 |
Bulgaria | 220 | New Zealand | 73 |
Canada | 82 | Nigeria | 1 |
Cayman Islands | 15 | Norway | 1 |
Chile | 1 | Oman | 1 |
China | 29 | Peru | 7 |
Colombia | 17 | Philippines | 2 |
Costa Rica | 6 | Poland | 1160 |
Croatia | 153 | Portugal | 47 |
Cyprus | 3457 | Puerto Rico | 2 |
Czech Republic | 73 | Qatar | 22 |
Denmark | 2 | Romania | 19487 |
Egypt | 68 | Russia | 70 |
Estonia | 1 | Saudi Arabia | 5 |
Falkland Islands | 1 | Serbia | 2 |
Fiji | 1 | Singapore | 42 |
Finland | 1 | Slovakia | 27 |
France | 78 | Slovenia | 2 |
French Polynesia | 1 | South Africa | 529 |
Germany | 31 | Spain | 4891 |
Greece | 294 | Sweden | 18 |
Hong Kong | 50 | Switzerland | 1 |
Hungary | 2145 | Taiwan | 7 |
India | 35 | Tanzania | 2 |
Iran | 14 | Thailand | 4 |
Ireland (Rep. of) | 7368 | Turkey | 76 |
Israel | 8 | Turks and Caicos | 2 |
Italy | 20 | UAE | 292 |
Japan | 5 | Uganda | 2 |
Jordan | 3 | Ukraine | 1 |
Kazakhstan | 3 | Uruguay | 3 |
Kenya | 12 | USA | 2604 |
Korea (North) | 1 | Vietnam | 16 |
Korea (South) | 30 | Zimbabwe | 16 |
Kuwait | 5 |
The data for commercial imports covers the number of animals imported to the UK and was extracted from the Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) through the Qlikview facility by searching for imports of Canis familiaris in 2019 to the United Kingdom. These figures cover all commercially imported dogs, including commercial puppies, rescue dogs, research dogs and unaccompanied pets.
The information that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) have provided is a true reflection of the information that is held. The APHA cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data, as the information that has been entered into TRACES by a third party.
Asked by: Lord Jopling (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the levels of defence spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (1) currently spent by members of NATO, and (2) spent by each member of NATO at the time of the 2014 Wales NATO summit.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Please see the table below for levels of defence spending by % of GDP currently spent by members of NATO, and spent by each member of NATO at the time of the 2014 Wales NATO summit.
This information is according to the NATO press release (COMMUNIQUE PR/CP(2019)123) ‘Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2013-2019)’ published on 29 November 2019.
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2019_11/20191129_pr-2019-123-en.pdf
Defence expenditures as per cent of GDP - Based on 2015 prices and exchange rates
Nation | Defence expenditure as a % of GDP 2014 | Defence expenditure as a % of GDP 2019e (current) |
Albania | 1.35 | 1.26 |
Belgium | 0.98 | 0.93 |
Bulgaria* | 1.32 | 3.25 |
Canada | 1.01 | 1.31 |
Croatia | 1.84 | 1.68 |
Czech Republic | 0.95 | 1.19 |
Denmark | 1.15 | 1.32 |
Estonia | 1.93 | 2.14 |
France | 1.82 | 1.84 |
Germany | 1.18 | 1.38 |
Greece | 2.21 | 2.28 |
Hungary | 0.86 | 1.21 |
Italy | 1.14 | 1.22 |
Latvia | 0.94 | 2.01 |
Lithuania | 0.88 | 2.03 |
Luxembourg | 0.38 | 0.56 |
Montenegro | 1.50 | 1.66 |
Netherlands | 1.15 | 1.36 |
Norway | 1.55 | 1.80 |
Poland | 1.85 | 2.00 |
Portugal | 1.31 | 1.52 |
Romania | 1.35 | 2.04 |
Slovak Republic | 0.99 | 1.74 |
Slovenia | 0.97 | 1.04 |
Spain | 0.92 | 0.92 |
Turkey | 1.45 | 1.89 |
United Kingdom | 2.16 | 2.14 |
United States | 3.73 | 3.42 |
* Defence Expenditure does not include pensions.
e - Figures for 2019 are estimates
According to NATO’s latest spending figures, the UK’s Defence spending has increased year-on-year since 2017.
When looking at Defence spending, it is not appropriate to compare ‘like for like’ because the nature of Defence spending changes over time.
Defence spending is about assessing the threats we face and ensuring that we have the capabilities necessary to deal with them.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) Austria, (b) Belgium, (c) Bulgaria, (d) Croatia, (e) Cyprus, (f) the Czech Republic, (g) Denmark, (h) Estonia, (i) Finland, (j) France, (k) Germany, (l) Greece, (m) Hungary, (n) Ireland, (o) Italy, (p) Latvia, (q) Lithuania, (r) Luxembourg, (s) Malta, (t) Netherlands, (u) Poland, (v) Portugal, (w) Romania, (x) Slovakia, (y) Slovenia and (z) Sweden on the jailing of Catalan politicians.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has been clear on the issue of Catalonia. This is a matter for Spain. The United Kingdom continues to support the upholding of the Spanish Constitution and the rule of law. The conviction of the separatist leaders in Catalonia is a matter for the Spanish courts. The Foreign Secretary has had no discussions on this with his counterparts in the countries cited.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many requests for vehicle owner information have been made by overseas enforcement agencies in each of the last five years by country.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As part of the Cross Border Exchange Directive, EU Member States can request keeper or owner details of vehicles from other Member States, to follow up certain road traffic offences. CBE was implemented in the UK on 7 May 2017, the table below shows the number of requests for vehicle keeper information up to 27 June 2019.
| (from 7 May) 2017 | 2018 | (to 27 June) 2019 |
Austria | 15,988 | 30,530 | 8,786 |
Belgium | 7 | 11 | - |
Bulgaria | 1,222 | 2,693 | 1,235 |
Croatia | 218 | 367 | 102 |
Czech Republic | 86 | 2,115 | 1,474 |
Estonia | 7 | 2 | - |
Finland | - | - | 3 |
France | - | 36 | 241,467 |
Germany | 40,124 | 88,362 | 29,388 |
Hungary | 6,169 | 9,861 | 3,636 |
Italy | 13,586 | 58,832 | 21,422 |
Latvia | 13 | 512 | 15,354 |
Lithuania | 1,211 | 3,761 | 5,903 |
Luxembourg | 1,286 | 3,149 | 1,270 |
Malta | - | 2 | 43 |
Poland | 1,697 | 3,816 | 1,310 |
Slovakia | 199 | 408 | 195 |
Slovenia | 86 | 196 | 117 |
Spain | 1,199 | 51,851 | 16,863 |
The Netherlands | 55 | 3,569 | 21,961 |
In addition, the Home Office can receive requests for vehicle information from overseas authorities, through either Mutual Legal Assistance requests or European Investigation Orders. Information on the volume of these requests is not stored within the Department for Transport.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2019 to Question 247155 and with reference to the UK's tax treaties with Uruguay, Sweden and Slovenia containing non-discrimination clauses, why those countries are not included in the Government's list of jurisdictions with which the UK has a full tax treaty.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Following a recent update to HMRC’s International Manual, which lists the countries with which the UK has a non-discrimination article, these three countries were inadvertently omitted. This was an oversight which has now been corrected. However, the treaties with Uruguay, Sweden and Slovenia have always been available on the gov.uk page that provides the full text of all of the UK’s treaties.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs were imported (a) in total and (b) from each country of origin using the Balai Directive in 2018.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The numbers of dogs that were imported in total and from each country of origin using the Balai Directive in 2018 were as follows:
The total number of dogs imported in 2018 was 37,144.
The breakdown of this figure by country is as follows:
Country Of Origin | Dogs |
Austria | 1 |
Belgium | 1 |
Bulgaria | 216 |
Croatia | 265 |
Cyprus | 3566 |
Czech Republic | 63 |
Denmark | 1 |
Estonia | 2 |
Finland | 3 |
France | 72 |
Germany | 13 |
Greece | 107 |
Hungary | 1585 |
Ireland (Rep. of) | 7828 |
Italy | 26 |
Latvia | 1 |
Lithuania | 6 |
Malta | 4 |
Netherlands | 111 |
Poland | 881 |
Portugal | 173 |
Romania | 17189 |
Slovakia | 23 |
Slovenia | 3 |
Spain | 4995 |
Sweden | 9 |
Total | 37,144 |
The data for commercial imports covers the number of animals imported into the UK, and was extracted from TRACES through the Qlikview facility by searching for imports of dogs and their commodity codes in 2018 to the UK by country of origin. These figures cover all commercially imported dogs, including commercial puppies, rescue dogs, research dogs and unaccompanied pets.
The information that the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has provided is a true reflection of the information that is held. APHA cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data, as the information has been entered into TRACES by a third party.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which Common Security and Defence Policy (a) missions and (b) operations the UK contributes to; and which other countries participate in each of those missions.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The UK deploys personnel to two military Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operations (Operation ALTHEA and Operation SOPHIA), two military training missions in Mali and Somalia, and three civilian missions in Georgia, Kosovo and Ukraine. As an EU Member State, we also provide common funding for all CSDP operations and missions, both military and civilian.
Other countries contribute personnel, equipment and funding to all of the CSDP operations and missions in which we take part. We can provide a snapshot of contributions by other states for the week ending 5 May 2019:
Operation ALTHEA: Austria; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Greece; Spain; France; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovenia; Slovakia; UK; Albania; Switzerland; Chile; Northern Macedonia and Turkey.
Operation SOPHIA: Austria; Bulgaria; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Germany; Denmark; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Croatia; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Malta; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovenia and UK.
EU Treaty Mission (EUTM) Mali: Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Germany; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Netherlands; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovenia; UK; Albania; Georgia; Montenegro and Serbia.
EUTM Somalia: Spain; Finland; Italy; Portugal; Romania' Sweden; UK and Serbia.
EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) Kosovo: Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Germany; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal' Romania; Sweden; Slovakia; Slovenia; UK and Switzerland.
EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) Georgia: Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; France; Germany; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; Croatia; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Malta; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovakia; Slovenia and UK.
EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine: Austria; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Germany; Denmark; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Croatia; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Latvia; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovakia; Slovenia; UK and Canada.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of child benefit paid for children who do not reside in the UK; how many such children there were; and in which countries those children resided in the most recent financial year for which data are available.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Total Child Benefit payments in 2018-19 amounted to £11.6 billion. It is estimated that approximately £15 million was paid for children resident in another EEA country or Switzerland. The number of children these payments relate to, broken down by the country they reside in, is provided in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Estimated number of children for whom Child Benefit is received where European Community regulations apply, as at February 2019
|
|
Country | Number of children |
Austria | 10 |
Belgium | 40 |
Bulgaria | 415 |
Croatia | 45 |
Cyprus | 40 |
Czech Republic | 165 |
Denmark | 20 |
Estonia | 35 |
Finland | 25 |
France | 605 |
Germany | 165 |
Greece | 55 |
Hungary | 150 |
Iceland | 5 |
Italy | 170 |
Latvia | 700 |
Liechtenstein | - |
Lithuania | 790 |
Luxembourg | 10 |
Malta | 25 |
Norway | 40 |
Poland | 10,975 |
Portugal | 230 |
Republic of Ireland | 1,945 |
Romania | 1,000 |
Slovakia | 575 |
Slovenia | - |
Spain | 625 |
Sweden | 30 |
Switzerland | 20 |
The Netherlands | 215 |
Total | 19,120 |
Footnote: Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. Figures under 5 have been suppressed and shown as ‘-’.
Asked by: Lord Hoyle (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the trade balance of the UK with the EU, broken down by each of the 27 other EU Member States.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Dear Lord Hoyle,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking what is the trade balance of the UK with the EU, broken down by each of the 27 other EU Member States (HL14453).
Table 1 below provides the total (goods and services) trade balance, total exports and total imports by EU aggregate and member state in 2017. These data are our latest full year estimates of total trade published 23 January 2018[1] and are consistent with the wider balance of payments. You can find more recent estimates of trade within the same release, although to note, these figures are quarterly estimates up to and including quarter three (July to September) 2018 and are not seasonally adjusted.
Yours sincerely,
John Pullinger
Table 1: Total trade (goods and services) exports, imports and balance for 2017[2]
£ million, current price | ||||
| Exports | Imports | Balance | |
AT | Austria | 2958 | 4261 | -1303 |
BE | Belgium | 19266 | 27870 | -8604 |
BG | Bulgaria | 831 | 991 | -160 |
HR | Croatia | 293 | 720 | -427 |
CY | Cyprus | 1079 | 1301 | -222 |
CZ | Czech Republic | 3069 | 6351 | -3282 |
DK | Denmark | 6261 | 6148 | 113 |
EE | Estonia | 213 | 277 | -64 |
FI | Finland | 2508 | 2850 | -342 |
FR | France | 40984 | 40427 | 557 |
DE | Germany | 56359 | 78586 | -22227 |
GR | Greece | 2321 | 3653 | -1332 |
HU | Hungary | 2120 | 3550 | -1430 |
IE | Ireland | 36747 | 21935 | 14812 |
IT | Italy | 19264 | 23793 | -4529 |
LV | Latvia | 393 | 702 | -309 |
LT | Lithuania | 670 | 997 | -327 |
LU | Luxembourg | 3297 | 2723 | 574 |
MT | Malta | 1262 | 726 | 536 |
NL | Netherlands | 38554 | 47105 | -8551 |
PL | Poland | 7052 | 12947 | -5895 |
PT | Portugal | 2774 | 5641 | -2867 |
RO | Romania | 1885 | 2900 | -1015 |
SK | Slovakia | 807 | 2724 | -1917 |
SI | Slovenia | 340 | 439 | -99 |
ES | Spain | 17256 | 31317 | -14061 |
SE | Sweden | 10238 | 9362 | 876 |
4A | European Union Institutions (excl. ECB and ESM) | 143 | 18 | 125 |
B5 | Total EU28 | 278944 | 340314 | -61370 |
Source: Office for National Statistics | ||||
[2]These data are our best estimate of these bilateral UK trade flows. Users should note that alternative estimates are available, in some cases, via the statistical agencies for bilateral countries or through central databases such as via UN Comtrade.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has plans to issue a formal apology to the Government of Slovenia for describing that country as a former Soviet vassal state.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Foreign Secretary’s point was that Slovenia has carved an impressive path since independence, that we are proud to work together as partners, and we look forward to continuing that partnership post Brexit. He had a positive meeting with President Pahor on 27 February, during his recent visit to the UK, covering this as well other topics, including Brexit, bilateral links and our future relationship.