The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 33406, when the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 will come into force in its entirety.
Karen Bradley
The commencement regulations for the Psychoactive Substances Act were laid on 5 May 2016 and the Act will come into force on 26 May 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yvette Cooper on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigration and asylum officials of her Department have been seconded to (a) Greece, (b) Italy and (c) France since the beginning of May 2016.
James Brokenshire
We have a number of officials already working on migration matters in France, Greece and Italy. A number of deployments to France from the Home Office and Foreign Office are supporting joint efforts with France to ensure Dublin Regulation transfers are carried out effectively and efficiently. Our support included the secondment of a UK asylum expert to the Dublin unit in France to assist and facilitate the improvement of all stages of the process of identifying, protecting and transferring relevant cases to the UK. A team of Home Office officials are part of the joint communications programme in Calais and there are weekly meetings between the heads of the UK and French Dublin Units. There is a Home Official seconded on a bi-lateral basis to the Italian Dublin Unit and we are about to second a UK official to Greece as additional support for Dublin family transfers to the UK.
Since May we have also deployed asylum experts to support hotspots and Dublin units in both Greece and Italy under the European Asylum Support Office and as notified in my statement of 21 April, HCWS687, up to 75 UK expert personnel will be deployed to Greece to support implementation of the EU-Turkey Migration Agreement. These officials are being deployed in stages. We are considering if we need to deploy any additional resource to assist with the family reunification of children.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provisions the Security Industry Authority (SIA) has in place to compensate individuals who have lost their job as a result of delays of problems in SIA licence applications or renewals.
Brandon Lewis
Applicants for Security Industry Authority licences who have been unable to work while waiting for their licence to be renewed, and who request reimbursement for loss of earnings, can contact the Security Industry Authority to provide evidence of the loss suffered. Payment of compensation will then be considered, based on the evidence provided and a review of all the circumstances of the application.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what changes have been made in 2016 to the level of data recorded and published on the nationality of NHS staff.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Department does not record or publish data on the nationality of staff working in the National Health Service. Data on nationality is published twice a year by NHS Digital and turnover data is published quarterly and available by nationality.
Nationality is a data item within the National Workforce Data set used with a range of other data items to support workforce planning, analysis of staff movement and equality monitoring. It is not mandatory, but self-declared.
In 2015 and 2016 requests for nationality data on NHS staff in England were published on the supplementary information part of the NHS Digital website, rather than as part of the routine Hospital and Community Health Services statistical publications. In 2016, following NHS Digital’s public consultation, NHS Digital now routinely publish tables showing the self-declared nationality of staff in staff groups and regions, bi-annually, together with quarterly turnover statistics which show the nationality of joiners and leavers to and from the NHS in England.
The latest nationality data was published in March 2016 and the next set will be published in December 2016 showing the position at September 2016.
The latest turnover data published in September 2016 covers the 12 month period to 30 June 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-11-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their experience with the collapse of Southern Cross, what contingency plans they have in the event of a significant withdrawal of large and medium-sized providers of residential and nursing home care from the provision of publicly-funded social care.
Lord Prior of Brampton
It is unacceptable for vulnerable people who need care and support to have their services interrupted if their provider fails financially.
The Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to step in and ensure people’s needs continue to be met if their provider fails financially and their services cease. These duties apply to all people receiving care services, regardless of who pays for them, and there are reciprocal arrangements in all countries of the United Kingdom. The Government has supported local authorities with this duty and recently published guidance for local authorities to assist them in developing contingency plans for managing provider failure. This guidance was co-produced with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government information Unit.
The Care Act also established the Care Quality Commission (CQC) with a new function to oversee the finances of the largest and most difficult to replace providers. This oversight function would provide early warning to relevant local authorities in the event that one of the providers in the CQC scheme was likely to fail financially and their services cease. This would allow local authorities time to implement contingency plans. This CQC Market Oversight scheme is now fully functional.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 2015-12-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Earl Howe on 2 December (HL Deb, col 1193), what actions will be criminalised from next April under the specific offence of anti-Muslim hatred, and whether the actions criminalised under that offence will include (1) criticism of the Muslim religion, and (2) statements from people who have left that religion explaining why they have done so.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
As the Prime Minister announced in October, we have asked the police to record all existing religious based hate crimes by the faith or belief (including absence of belief) of the victim from April next year.
Under existing hate crimes it is not an offence to criticise Islam or for those who have left the faith to explain why they have done so. The new recording system does not constitute a new offence of anti-Muslim hatred, but will require this to be recorded specifically.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Manzoor on 2016-01-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what case material was examined as part of the review of 105 Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claims referenced in the DWP’s consultation on PIP aids and appliances (Cm 9171).
Baroness Altmann
DWP are currently running a consultation to seek views on how support can best be provided to help meet the costs of disability faced by people who are currently awarded points due to aids and appliances. The department is keen to hear views from all interested parties, especially disabled people and disability organisations.
As part of the consultation on aids and appliances and the daily living component of PIP, the Department reviewed a sample of 105 cases where claimants scored all, or the majority, of their points from aids and appliances. These were randomly selected.
DWP doctors, who reviewed these cases, looked at all the relevant information held on departmental systems relating to each case. This included the application form, the results of any face-to-face assessment and any additional supporting evidence provided by the claimant.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the events in Cologne at New Year 2015-16 in respect of information given to new immigrants to the UK on legal and cultural issues.
James Brokenshire
We expect all immigrants to the UK to abide by the law and to respect our shared values, and those who wish to stay permanently have to take the Knowledge of Life in the UK Test which reinforces this expectation. For those that do not respect the law, we will consider removal and exclusion. We keep all our immigration polices under regular review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to paragraph 2.41, The best of both worlds: the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union, what input UK environmental and energy safety regulators will have into the annual survey of burdens imposed on business at EU level.
Anna Soubry
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 02 March 2016 to Parliamentary Question UIN 28373.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.129 of Budget 2016, HC 901, from which part of his Department’s budget the £100 million allocated to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will come.
Mr Marcus Jones
One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness.
We announced at Budget an additional £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living. We will reprioritise money within our existing capital budgets to deliver this accommodation. This will not affect delivery of the Government’s Starter Homes and Shared Ownership programmes.