The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will introduce legislation to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government remains committed to bringing forward legislation to ratify the Hague Convention and accede to its two Protocols at the first opportunity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-03-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many individuals completed either Art and Design GCE AS/A level or Craft, Creative Arts and Design level 3 vocational qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined in each year since 2011.
Lord Nash
As there is no formal definition of what constitutes “Craft, Creative Arts and Design”, it has not been possible to provide the information that is requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2015-12-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of Saudi Arabia in the case of Ashraf Fayadh.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We are aware of, and concerned about, the case of Palestinian national Mr Ashraf Fayadh. We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances and strongly support freedom of expression in every country. We regularly make the Saudi Arabian authorities aware of our views, and will consider suitable opportunities for raising our concerns over this case.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have carried out research to ascertain the degree of awareness of small businesses about intellectual property rights.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) IP Awareness Survey was first conducted in 2006 and was rerun in 2010 and early 2015. The survey establishes a sense of understanding of IP and IP rights across all sizes of UK firms and all sectors of UK industry. The most recent survey contained 3 sections: an IP knowledge section which tested the respondent’s familiarity with IP, a management section which sought to discover how firms were administering IP within their organisation and a final section which focussed on where IP information and advice was sourced from.
Key findings include:
In addition to this formal piece of research the IPO routinely surveys businesses in the course of designing and delivering its business support and outreach activities. This is intended to help to monitor and assess the effectiveness of these activities to ensure they are fit for purpose and if necessary improve, develop and even cease them for alternative approaches.
The IPO is using findings from its own and other business surveys to inform its approach to business outreach and the creation of IP advisory and support tools.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2015-12-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 2 December (HL3697) regarding the sale of 41–71 Commercial Road, Aldgate, for which school the site will be developed; and whether that school will use the entire site.
Lord Nash
The school site has been leased back to the university until August 2016. This allows the EFA to develop the site in time for a school to open there in September 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to better inform small businesses about all aspects of intellectual property rights, including action that such businesses can take to protect such rights.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) undertakes a wide range of activities to promote understanding of Intellectual Property (IP) amongst Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in order that they can make an informed decision on whether and how to protect, commercialise and enforce their IP.
IPO products and priority activities focus on:
a) Raising awareness of the importance of IP;
b) Improving the IP skills of business advisors and intermediaries;
c) Emphasising that IP is an essential element of an overall business strategy.
The offerings include online tools, face to face business and adviser training, and partnership delivery.
The numerous online resources are designed to help businesses to recognise their IP assets, to manage those assets effectively and to help businesses communicate the value of their IP portfolio to lenders or investors when seeking finance.
The IPO has a small team that runs UK seminars and workshops on IP for businesses and advisors and it also provides an intensive, commercially run training course to improve their understanding of IP.
It also works with partners within and outside government to ensure that businesses in every part of the UK can access good quality IP advice and understand the importance of managing their IP. Key partnerships include the UK PatLib Network and UK Business & IP Centre Network as well as Business Growth Hubs
All these support activities provide guidance and information on how businesses may resolve IP disputes or take effective enforcement action. In addition, the UK overseas IP attachés work with local UK Trade and Investment and Foreign and Commonwealth Office leads to provide support for UK businesses seeking advice on local IP matters abroad.
I will place further information on these resources in the Libraries of the House.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2015-12-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 8 December (HL3697), what is the name of the new school; whether that school is a free school; and what involvement, if any, the New Schools Network had in founding that school.
Lord Nash
We cannot yet confirm which school the Commercial Road site will be developed for as the latest wave of applications is currently being assessed. Whether the entire site will be used will depend on the type of school approved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-05-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will introduce legislation to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols within the next Session.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when British military liaison began with Saudi Arabia regarding its intervention in Yemen.
Earl Howe
The UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have a long history of defence co-operation and this involves an ongoing defence engagement relationship.
In addition, we have deployed a small number of military personnel serving as liaison officers in Saudi headquarters to provide insight into Saudi operations in Yemen. These liaison officers are not involved in the targeting process – whether it be selection, decision-making or directing.
The first of these liaison officers was deployed in May 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-07-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 28 June (HL Deb, col 1490) that the military and police need to have adequate resources, how many police staff in the UK are exclusively dedicated to the recovery of stolen art and antiques; whether there are plans to increase that number; and what sources of funding are available for those posts.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Home Office does not hold information on the police workforce engaged in the recovery of stolen art and antiquities. Ultimately decisions on the size, composition and deployment of a police force’s workforce are operational matters for individual chief constables, working with their democratically elected Police and Crime Commissioners. Specific funding is not provided centrally for this area of operations, and it is for the individual forces concerned to decide how best to allocate their available resources according to local and national priorities.
The 2016-17 funding settlement for the police ensures that the police have adequate funding to do their work. In 2016/17, direct resource funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including council tax precept, has been protected to at least flat cash levels. This means that no PCC who chose to maximise precept is facing a reduction in cash funding in 2016/17 compared to 2015/16 and the majority are seeing marginal cash increases in their spending power.