The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the date that the first phase of High Speed 2 will be completed and open to the public.
Andrew Jones
The hybrid Bill for HS2 Phase One is proceeding through Parliament and we are aiming to achieve Royal Assent by the end of 2016, with construction starting in 2017 and the first trains running by the end of 2026.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of how many taxi drivers have undergone disability awareness training since the Law Commission’s recommendation on that subject published in its report, Taxi and Private Hire Services, on 23 May 2014.
Andrew Jones
The results of the Department’s taxi survey in 2015 showed that 103 licensing authorities in England and Wales out of 313 responding authorities require taxi drivers to undergo disability awareness training. This compares to 67 licensing authorities in 2009 from 276 responses.
We do not keep statistics on the number of drivers who have undergone disability awareness training since May 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK plans to take as a member of the UN Security Council to facilitate diplomatic negotiations on protecting civilians in Syria.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Protection of civilians in Syria, as well as those who have been forced to flee the country, is a priority for the UK. In the Security Council we have co-sponsored a number of humanitarian resolutions that call for an end of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the use of barrel bombs, starvation as a method of warfare and obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid. Specifically, the UK played a key role in negotiating resolution 2191, which has allowed the UN and its partners to deliver aid across Syria’s borders to people who were previously denied access, including food for 2.1 million people and medical supplies for 2.5 million people.
The long term protection of civilians requires an end to the conflict in Syria and a political settlement. The International Syria Support Group in its communiqué of 14 November called on all parties to adhere to International Humanitarian Law and end immediately indiscriminate attacks on civilians.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many universal credit switch centres there are in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West.
Priti Patel
There are two Universal Credit service centres in the North West – Bolton and Makerfield.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-04.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many suspected child victims of modern slavery were subsequently re-trafficked after being referred to the National Referral Mechanism in each of the last three years.
Lord Bates
The National Crime Agency is responsible for the assessment of threats, including methods of trafficking by criminals. Information on this is not centrally recorded on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Data included in NRM referral forms concentrates on detail specifically required to prove the three constituent elements of human trafficking. This would not necessarily include the detail required to assess methodology used to re-traffick victims and as such does not form part of assessment reporting. The independent evaluation of the trial by the University of Bedfordshire collected data on the number of all potentially trafficked children referred to the trial, along with their characteristics including age, gender and geographical location, as well as the number of children that were recorded as missing. However the evaluation did not collect data on the number of children in the trial that were re-trafficked and it is not possible to determine how many of those children who went missing were subsequently re-trafficked.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that psychological therapies are available to deaf people.
Alistair Burt
It is the responsibility of local providers and commissioners to make the reasonable adjustments required by the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that disabled people are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.
In order to reduce unacceptable variation in the provision of accessible information and communication support to disabled people, including adult sign readers, NHS England published a statutory accessible information standard. The standard sets out that all organisations providing NHS services must take steps to ensure that people receive information that they can access and understand, and receive communication support if they need it. Organisations must comply in full with the standard by 31 July 2016. Many local authorities provide interpreters within talking therapy settings.
There is ongoing activity by NHS England and the Department to encourage access to Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) services by the under-represented groups. Over the last spending review we invested over £400 million into the IAPT programme to ensure access to talking therapies for those who need them. The Prime Minister recently announced £1 billion to start a revolution in mental health. NHS England’s Mental Health Taskforce reported in February 2016, setting out transformative plans using that additional funding, including for IAPT.
Additional funding will enable NHS England to put in place a five year plan to improve IAPT services across the country, increasing access to evidence-based psychological therapies to reach 25% of need, and helping 600,000 more people to access care each year by 2020 with a focus on people living with long-term physical health conditions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Prisk on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the plans she has to reintroduce tick treatment for pet animals returning to the UK.
George Eustice
The requirement for tick treatment was dropped as part of the harmonisation of the EU pet travel rules for movement and import of non-commercial dogs following a qualitative risk assessment and economic impact assessment for the introduction of Mediterranean Spotted fever (MSF) and the Brown Dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus.
The evidence which informed these pieces of work has not changed and therefore there is still no strong scientific basis for reintroducing the requirement for tick treatment to control MSF, a zoonotic disease.
Treatments for ticks are readily available and veterinary practices are able to advise on the most appropriate treatments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-05-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how long it takes on average for the UK to reach a decision on asylum claims made under the Dublin III Regulations.
Lord Keen of Elie
Whilst the Home Office does publish information on decision timeliness the way the data is recorded means that it would require manual interrogation of the main immigration database to calculate the average decision time for cases transferred under Dublin III. This data cannot be provided for reasons of disproportionate cost
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stevenson of Balmacara on 2016-06-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will take action in response to the recent report by Local Equal Excellent that children with a Pakistani background sitting the 11-plus entrance examination in Buckinghamshire are only half as likely as their white classmates to secure a place at one of the grammar schools in that area.
Lord Nash
The School Admissions Code requires school admission arrangements to be ‘fair, clear and objective’. It further requires that ‘admission authorities must ensure that their arrangements will not disadvantage unfairly, either directly or indirectly, a child from a particular social or racial group’.
Those who consider an admission policy, including a selection test, to breach the School Admissions Code can submit an objection to the independent Schools Adjudicator. If the Adjudicator agrees that the policy is unfair or otherwise breaches the Code she can require schools to amend their admission arrangements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Crisp on 2016-09-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the work of Health Information for All.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
DFID research and evidence programmes, in particular, invest in outputs that increase knowledge about health and health care provision and one of the programmes (TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) is a member of Health Information for All.