Category: Speeches

Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many nationals of other EU members states have won appeals to prevent their deportation in each of the last 10 years.

James Brokenshire

The table below shows the number of EEA foreign national offenders who have won their appeal against deportation over the last 10 years.

Calendar Year	No of Appeals allowed
2006	69
2007	40
2008	35
2009	49
2010	110
2011	121
2012	152
2013	130
2014	83
2015	59
Total	852

(1) All 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.

(2) A foreign national offender (FNO) is someone who is not a British citizen and has been remanded in custody, convicted, and given a custodial sentence in the United Kingdom for any offence. An FNO can be convicted and have served their sentence while on remand, so may not have been sent to prison.

(3) Figures relate to main applicants only and exclude dependants.

(4) Figures relate to appeals lodged between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2015. Appeal outcomes may have been reached in the same or in subsequent years.

(5) Appeal Allowed figures only show the final appeal outcome and do not include any previous appeal outcomes for that individual case. They include those determined in both the Lower and Upper Tiers.

The table below shows the total number of EEA foreign national offenders removed over last the 10 years.

Calendar Year	EEA FNO Removals
2006	480
2007	523
2008	633
2009	748
2010	933
2011	1,147
2012	1,653
2013	2,121
2014	2,962
2015	3,310

(1) The figures quoted have been derived from management information from the Home Office databases and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols.

(2) A Foreign National Offender (FNO) is defined as an individual with a criminal case on the Home Office’s Case Information Database, and may include individuals with asylum cases.

(3) Total EEA FNO removals figures relate to those cases that have been deported, administratively removed or voluntarily departed from UK.

01/01/2023

Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2016 to Question 29629, if the Government will make it its policy to introduce targeted sanctions against individual members of the Maldivian government if the recommendations of the Commonwealth Action Group are not implemented in the next 12 months.

Mr Hugo Swire

Following its meeting on 20 April, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) set a revised deadline of September for clear and measurable progress to be delivered in the six areas of concern, identified at their previous meeting in February. It will be for CMAG to assess what progress has been made by September and to decide what collective action may be required. If CMAG assesses sufficient steps have not been taken, the UK will carefully consider appropriate bilateral action to help support reform efforts in the Maldives.

01/01/2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is making to help prevent the displacement of Bedouin people in southern Israel; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We have been encouraging the Israeli authorities and Bedouin communities to find a satisfactory solution to this issue, respecting the equality of all of Israel’s citizens.

01/01/2023
Lord Lingfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lingfield on 2016-07-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to address delays in the production of education, health and care plans in cases where (1) plans are produced by a local authority outside the timescale specified in regulations, and (2) plans are not produced for the start of a new school or academic year where a young person is transferring to a new stage of education at the age of (a) 16, and (b) 18.

Lord Nash

Local authorities are responsible for fulfilling the statutory duties on special educational needs (SEN) and disability placed upon them by the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice. This legal framework sets out clearly the process and timescales for producing Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans; and the process for determining the school placement of children and young people with EHC plans.

Local authorities must issue final EHC plans within 20 weeks of commencing an assessment. Data published in May showed that 59.2% of EHC plans were issued on-time, excluding exception cases. Some areas are managing 100%. We have emphasised to local authorities that, where there are delays, they need to communicate clearly about them with families.

The SEND Code of Practice is clear that EHC plans must be issued in sufficient time prior to a child or young person moving between key phases of education, to allow for planning and, where necessary, commissioning of support and provision at the new institution. The Children and Familes Act 2014 (Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) (No.2) Order 2014, as amended by the Children and Families Act 2014 (Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Order 2015, require local authorities to prioritise the review of statements of SEN or Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) for children and young people approaching the end of an educational phase.

Young people aged 19-25 are only able to draw on high needs funding from the Education Funding Agency where they have an EHC plan. Because some local authorities may not complete all the necessary transfers from LDAs to EHC plans by 1 September, EFA-funded institutions can continue to deliver programmes to 19-25 year olds where the young person has a Learning Difficulty Assessment and is receiving high needs funding, and where the local authority is in the process of an EHC assessment but has not finalised the EHC plan.

The Department does not set targets for the performance of individual local authorities. The Department monitors very closely nationally-published data on local authority performance on SEN and disability and provides support and challenge as appropriate.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost of the NHS Citizen scheme has been to date; and what assessment he has made of its success since its creation.

Mr Philip Dunne

A total of £4.2 million has been spent on the NHS Citizen programme in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and the programme has a budget of £1.3 million for 2016/17.

The Department’s annual assessment of NHS England in 2015-16 states that NHS England has made good progress against its duties to involve patients and the public. In the Department’s previous assessment, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State praised the positive work of the NHS Citizen programme and how it is building on its strong brand by expanding activity to ensure that Citizen Voice is locked into NHS England priority delivery areas and in the development of Sustainability and Transformation Plans.

01/01/2023
Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the loss of skilled manufacturing jobs to other countries in the EU.

Anna Soubry

The best way the Government can help retain skilled manufacturing jobs in the UK is by continuing to ensure a strong economy. We are cutting red tape by a further £10billion, creating three million apprenticeships and lowering corporation tax. This will create the right economic conditions to encourage the investment crucial to UK manufacturing productivity growth and jobs. The UK is the number one destination in Europe for foreign direct investment and around a third of the 2,000 new inward Foreign Direct Investment projects in 2014/15 were in the areas of advanced manufacturing and life sciences. Since the Government’s Reshore UK initiative was launched in January 2014, it has advised more than 140 companies, helping to create or safeguard 4,789 jobs so far, with over 4,000 more in the pipeline.

01/01/2023
Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burgon on 2015-12-17.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on whether the appointment of the chair of the Office of Tax Simplification should be subject to a pre-appointment hearing by the Treasury Select Committee.

Mr David Gauke

Angela Knight has been appointed as Chair of the Office of Tax Simplification, and will be paid £400 a day, in line with other public appointments.

In 2011, the Treasury Select Committee held a post-appointment hearing for the Chair and Tax Director of the Office of Tax Simplification, and has done so for appointments to other bodies. Angela Knight is appearing before the committee, in her role as the new Chair, on 12 January.

01/01/2023
Lord Touhig – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Touhig on 2016-01-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial arrangements are in place to support reservists upon leaving (1) the army, (2) the Royal Navy, and (3) the Royal Air Force, and what is the total cost of those arrangements.

Earl Howe

From 1 April 2015 Reserve personnel have had access to the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 (AFPS 15), unless covered by Transitional Protection in an existing scheme. For the first time, pay received for Man Training Days is pensionable. This represents an increase in the overall package for Reserves and one that aligns the structure of Reservists’ remuneration more closely with that of Regulars. In common with all Service personnel, Reservists qualify for pension benefits under AFPS 15 after completing the mandatory vesting period of two calendar years and pension benefits are based on the average pensionable pay received from the date of joining the scheme. Other main features of the scheme are ill-health pensions, dependants’ benefits and death-in-service benefits. Any benefits built up in a legacy pension scheme prior to 1 April 2015 are protected.

As with other unfunded public sector pension schemes the Ministry of Defence’s contribution to meet the cost of these pensions is calculated by the Superannuation Charges Adjusted for Past Experience (SCAPE) mechanism – this is expressed as a percentage of the pay bill and following the last valuation is set at 50.4%.

01/01/2023
Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents at height in respect of each method of access there have been in each prison in each month since May 2010.

Andrew Selous

I refer the Hon Member to the answer for PQ 20749. The table attached provides a further breakdown of the data provided in that PQ.

The vast majority of incidents at height are minor in nature and resolved quickly and professionally without injury, damage or disruption to the running of the prison. Many are short in duration, lasting less than 15 minutes and the majority occur when prisoners go onto netting on prison wings. Each incident is investigated fully to ensure lessons are learnt and best practice in managing incidents is shared across NOMS.

These figures show that the Prime Minister and Justice Secretary are right and our prisons badly need reform. We are making progress: we have made it illegal to smuggle new psychoactive substances (NPS) into prisons and have trained over 300 sniffer dogs to detect NPS and are trialling the use of body worn cameras with front-line staff. But the only way to reduce disorder and violence in our prisons is to give those who work in prisons the tools necessary to better reform and rehabilitate offenders.

01/01/2023
Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average travel time is for customers attending a first-time passport application interview; and what she estimates the average travel times will be after the proposed closure of interview offices in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) England.

James Brokenshire

HM Passport Office does not collate any information on average travel times for applicants.

In 2015, HM Passport Office interviewed 222,264 adult customers applying for their first passport. Under the planned changes to HM Passport Offices the vast majority of passport application interviewees will see no change to their travel time. In a small number of cases passport application interviewees will have to travel further but this should not be more than 65 miles or one and a half hours from their previous closest office.

01/01/2023