International Development written question – answered at on 14 July 2014.
Jim Dobbin
Labour, Heywood and Middleton
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development pursuant to the answer of 7 July 2014, Official Report, column 1W, on abortion, if she will withdraw her Department's policy position paper entitled Safe and Unsafe Abortion pending a free vote in the House on the use of UK aid to (a) campaign for more liberal abortion Laws in other countries and (b) provide abortion services in other countries.
Lynne Featherstone
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development
The policy paper sets out how UK aid can be used to save the lives of women at risk from unsafe abortion, in accordance with the responsibilities that Parliament has given the Secretary of State.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A vote where members are not obliged to support their party's position, and can vote however they choose. This is the opposite to a whipped vote. It is customary for parties to provide a free vote for legislation dealing with matters of conscience.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
