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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the hate mail and verbal attacks on people who are overweight.

Karen Bradley

Weight is not a protected characteristic under discrimination or hate crime legislation. However, there are protections in place for all citizens against hatred and verbal abuse.

The Government is absolutely clear that abusive and threatening behaviour – in whatever form and whoever the target – is totally unacceptable. This includes harassment committed in person, or using phones or the internet. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 has provisions for prosecution where harassment has taken place on two or more occasions. Harassment involves improper, oppressive and unreasonable conduct that is targeted at an individual and calculated to alarm them or cause them distress.

The Malicious Communications Act 1988 prohibits sending letters or emails which are grossly offensive, threatening or known or believed to be false by the sender, within England and Wales.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many domestic workers were deported in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire

This question was interpreted as asking for information on enforced removals.

A deportation is defined as follows:

A person who is not a British citizen is liable for deportation from the United Kingdom if the Secretary of State deems their deportation to be conducive to the public good. A deportation order requires a person to leave the UK and prohibits them from re-entering for an indefinite period. The deportation order invalidates any leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom given before the order is made or while it is in force.

Deportations are a specific subset of published removal figures.

The table below shows the number of people who entered the UK as a domestic worker and were then deported from the UK in each of the last 5 years. These figures include both deportations and enforced removals.

Year	Number of domestic workers deported from the UK
2010	7
2011	11
2012	16
2013	20
2014	14
The figures quoted have been derived from management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support global efforts against schistosomiasis.

Mr Nick Hurd

DFID is a leading donor in the fight against schistosomiasis which is not only an incredibly debilitating disease, but holds back 200 million people globally from achieving their potential and contributing to the success of their country, not least economically. For this reason we are providing £50 million to deliver over 200 million treatments for schistosomiasis in ten Sub-Saharan African countries (2010-2018). These treatments are delivered by the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative which is based at Imperial College, London. To date nearly 60 million treatments have been distributed.

The programme is also making a significant contribution to developing new knowledge on how to best reach our goal of elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem through operational research and working with partners globally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support global efforts against neglected tropical diseases.

Mr Nick Hurd

DFID is a global leader on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). At the high profile London Declaration on NTDs in 2012 the UK brought together the International Community including Leading pharmaceutical companies. We are meeting our commitments including spending £195m on NTDs through multi-year programmes and as a result of the London Declaration pharmaceutical companies have pledged drugs valued at US$17.8 billion from 2014 to 2020. We support programmes that tackle a range of NTDs including schistosomiasis (bilharzia), blinding trachoma, lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), onchocerciasis (river blindness) and visceral leishmaniasis. Eradication of Guinea worm disease is in sight and the UK has played a key role in this, supporting the work of the Carter Center and the World Health Organisation.

DFID support research through a range of initiatives which include the development of new treatment and diagnostic products, as well as implementation research