The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what definition her Department uses for BAME.
Mike Penning
The Government has traditionally used a mix of terms to describe the groups we are working with on race equality: Black and Minority Ethnic (BME); Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME), also ethnic minority and minority ethnic.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will bring forward policies to tackle violence against women and girls in the BAME communities.
Karen Bradley
The Government published a new Violence Against Women and Girls strategy on 8 March committing £80 million between 2016 and 2020 to protect women and girls from violence and abuse. The increased funding will help to deliver our goal to work with local commissioners to ensure a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Forced Marriage Units, whilst driving a major change across all services which promote early intervention and prevention.
The strategy sets out how we will support local areas in implementing tailored services for victims who experience different forms of discrimination or additional barriers to accessing support. This includes the launch of a Service Transformation Fund from 2017 which will help to meet the needs of women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantage including victims from black and minority ethnic communities.
We continue to challenge the cultural attitudes that may underpin practices of FGM and forced marriage. We have criminalised forced marriage, set up a specialist FGM Unit, created a mandatory duty for frontline professionals to report FGM to the police, and will publish multi-agency FGM guidance for front-line professionals which we will put on a statutory footing.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26843, if he will publish the terms of reference for the Reaper User Group.
Penny Mordaunt
The MQ-9 Users Group is a multilateral forum for France, Italy, the UK and US. As such, the release of the Group’s Terms of Reference can only be approved if all four participating nations agree. To that end, the request for their release was highlighted at the MQ-9 User Group and individual nations will report back as soon as is practicable.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23886, which UK representatives attended the meeting of the Reaper User Group between 14 and 18 March 2016.
Penny Mordaunt
UK attendance at the MQ-9 User Group was limited to representatives from the Royal Air Force, led by the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance Force Commander.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of whether his target of implementing opt-out testing for blood-borne viruses in every adult prison in England by the end of financial year 2016-17 will be met.
Ben Gummer
The blood-borne virus (BBV) opt-out testing programme for people in prisons in England is a shared priority for Public Health England (PHE), NHS England and the National Offender Management Service. Programme implementation is overseen by a ‘tripartite’ Task-and-Finish Group which includes third sector and patient voice representation. The roll-out of the programme is informed by phased implementation and evaluation of ‘pathfinder prisons’ over three phases. Phase 1 began on 1 April 2014 and the formal evaluation was published on May 21 2015. Phase 2 pathfinder prisons began implementation from April 2015, with Phase 3 Pathfinders implementing from September 2015. BBV opt-out testing is not limited to only those prisons formally in the pathfinder programme.
NHS England estimates that currently 60% of the adult prison estate in England are offering opt-out testing and are confident that the target of implementation in every adult prison in England will be achieved by the end of the financial year 2016-17.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has taken steps to provide national guidance to ensure that healthcare and wider staff in prisons are given adequate levels of training around blood-borne viruses as recommended by The Hepatitis C Trust’s recent report, The blood-borne virus opt-out testing policy for prisons in England: An analysis of need towards full implementation, published on 3 March 2016.
Ben Gummer
Implementation of opt-out testing for blood-borne viruses (BBVs) in all adult prisons in England in a shared priority for Public Health England (PHE), NHS England and the National Offender Management Service as published in our second National Partnership Agreement for 2015-16.
To support implementation, PHE and its partners, including The Hepatitis C Trust among other third sector organisations, have developed a broad range of range of resources to support prison healthcare teams. These include information leaflets and posters, testing algorithms, web-based and DVD resources which cover all aspects of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis C and other BBVs to support prison healthcare teams in offering testing, managing both positive and negative results, providing advice on harm minimisation and supporting people into treatment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2016 to Question 27899, what recent assessment she has made of the food security situation in Ethiopia.
Mr Nick Hurd
Responding to the food security situation in Ethiopia is a top priority. DFID has already committed £40 million to provide food aid to 3.8 million people in 2016, as part of its overall £113 million response since the onset of the drought last July.
Across the country, 18 million people are in need of food assistance. Failed rains and the El Niño effect have caused the worst drought in Ethiopia in 30 years. This has resulted in reduced crop yields and numerous livestock deaths – increasing the country’s dependence on food aid.
Plans are in place to provide monthly food rations until June from various sources, including the UN, donors, and the Government. The Government of Ethiopia has committed over $381 million (~£269 million) so far, which is its largest ever response to a drought. However, systems are currently stretched and the scale of the crisis means that further resources are needed to meet monthly food distribution needs from June onwards. We continue to work closely with the Government of Ethiopia to support their leadership of the humanitarian response.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many jobs each of the 56 science capital projects his Department has funded since 2007 has created.
Joseph Johnson
BIS’s investment in science capital projects supports the UK’s world class research base, which directly employed around 260,000 researchers in 2013 and delivers a significant return to the economy. Further jobs are supported by investment, for example through construction of advanced facilities or improved Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths skills. However, job creation is not the primary aim of science capital projects, and has not been measured for each project, so it is not possible to provide the information requested.
The Government recognises that research is vital to our wellbeing and future economic success. This is why the science capital budget was increased to £1.1bn in 2015/16 and will rise with inflation to a total of £6.9bn over the period 2015 to 2021.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of people between 18 and 24 from each social background defined by their father’s occupation are participating in full or part-time education or training activity.
Nick Boles
A BIS performance indicator showing the proportion of people aged 18-24 participating in full or part-time education or training broken down by social background defined by their father’s occupation is published online.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bis-performance-indicators-skills
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Student Loans Company and HM Revenue and Customs spent on maintaining and collecting student loan repayments in each year for which data is available.
Joseph Johnson
The Student Loans Company (SLC) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have spent the following on maintaining and collecting income contingent repayments since the financial year 2011-12:
|
Student Loans Company |
HM Revenue and Customs |
|
|
FY 2011-12 |
£15.7m |
£5.6m |
|
FY 2012-13 |
£15.6m |
£6.4m |
|
FY 2013-14 |
£18.6m |
£5.5m |
|
FY 2014-15 |
£18.5m |
£5.8m |
|
FY 2015-16 |
£20.9m (forecast) |
£6.3m (forecast) |
The figures in the table above include both the direct costs and associated ICT and back office overheads incurred by SLC and HMRC in maintaining and collecting income contingent repayments.