The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been prescribed Viagra for medical purposes other than that for which it is usually prescribed in the last three years; and what those other purposes have been.
Alistair Burt
Information is not collected centrally on the number of people prescribed medicines or the medical condition being treated.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support the West Midlands Police Force respond to an increase in the levels of gun crime in Birmingham.
Mike Penning
The Government and police work nationally, and with international partners, to reduce the threat to the UK from the criminal use of firearms. In 2013/14, firearms were used in a small and diminishing proportion of total police recorded crime, 0.2%. We also support local areas to take action against gang violence to reduce offending and protect vulnerable people. Under the Ending Gang and Youth Violence programme, Birmingham was subject to a peer review in 2012 and has implemented and integrated the recommendations from the review into their local strategic plans. The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of arrests made in connection with gun crime. The UK has some of the toughest gun laws in the world and the government and the police continue to work together to reduce the threat from the criminal use of firearms. We will be reviewing options to strengthen the current legislation to ensure it safeguards against abuse by criminals following representations made by the police (and other stakeholders) during the Law Commission’s scoping consultation on firearms legislation. The number of offences involving firearms (excluding air weapons) in the West Midlands has fallen by 40% since 2010, from 903 offences in 2009/10 to 540 in 2013/14.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Balfe on 2016-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to take steps to prevent the Egyptian cleric Fadel Soliman from speaking at British universities.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Government introduced a duty on universities in September 2015 to ensure that they have due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism. The statutory guidance which accompanies the duty makes clear that universities must ensure that they assess the risks associated with organisations and speakers at events on campus, putting mitigations in place where necessary or cancelling events where the risk cannot be mitigated.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has been appointed as the body to monitor compliance at English universities, including where potential breaches of the duty are reported. Appropriate arrangements will apply in Wales and Scotland.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies on shop workers’ rights to opt out of Sunday working of the findings of a recent USDAW survey on the number of shop workers who (a) feel under pressure to work longer hours on a Sunday and (b) want to work fewer hours on a Sunday.
Anna Soubry
In formulating its final proposals, the Government has carefully considered all the evidence submitted during the consultation process.
A number of respondents expressed concern that extended opening hours could increase pressure on shop workers to work longer hours on Sundays. We therefore propose to enable shop workers to opt out of working additional hours on Sundays, to shorten the notice period for shop workers at large shops who wish to opt out of Sunday working altogether, and to strengthen and clarify the duty on employers to notify shop workers of their opt-out rights.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-03-04.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on advertisements using Facebook in each of the last three years.
Matthew Hancock
Cabinet Office did not spend anything in 2013/14 on Facebook advertising. In 2014/15 there was a total of £17,511.16 spent by Cabinet Office on Facebook advertising. Fully auditable figures are not available for the 2015/16. All figures include VAT.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on priority categories in Disclosure and Barring Service checks.
Karen Bradley
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) processes applications in date order and is reliant on the police completing their checks in a timely manner. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.
The table below shows the average time spent by each police force in England to process disclosure applications between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016.
|
Force Name |
Average Days Taken By Force |
|
Avon And Somerset |
7.4 |
|
Bedfordshire |
3.5 |
|
Cambridgeshire |
10.9 |
|
Cheshire |
10.7 |
|
City of London |
9.0 |
|
Cleveland |
8.6 |
|
Cumbria |
13.8 |
|
Derbyshire |
14.8 |
|
Devon And Cornwall |
4.7 |
|
Dorset |
76.6 |
|
Durham |
15.3 |
|
Essex |
16.2 |
|
Gloucester |
11.1 |
|
Greater Manchester |
12.8 |
|
Hampshire |
11.4 |
|
Hertfordshire |
10.5 |
|
Humberside |
9.8 |
|
Kent |
18.5 |
|
Lancashire |
5.0 |
|
Leicestershire |
7.7 |
|
Lincolnshire |
9.2 |
|
Merseyside |
8.2 |
|
Metropolitan |
85.2 |
|
Norfolk |
1.6 |
|
North Yorkshire |
17.9 |
|
Northamptonshire |
17.1 |
|
Northumbria |
13.9 |
|
Nottinghamshire |
10.9 |
|
South Yorkshire |
21.7 |
|
Staffordshire |
10.7 |
|
Suffolk |
8.8 |
|
Surrey |
13.1 |
|
Sussex |
17.5 |
|
Thames Valley |
60.3 |
|
Warwickshire |
7.2 |
|
West Mercia |
9.3 |
|
West Midlands |
21.2 |
|
West Yorkshire |
12.3 |
|
Wiltshire |
4.8 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 21679, when her Department’s investigations into applications for family reunion from Kuwaiti Bidoon people were initiated; when she expects those investigations to be concluded; whether there is a maximum length of time for which a decision will not be taken on the outstanding applications in that cohort; and if she will make a statement.
James Brokenshire
In 2014, UK Visas & Immigration in Jordan became aware of potential abuse of the Family Reunion route by individuals claiming to be the dependants of someone granted refugee status in the UK as a Kuwaiti Bidoon. Investigations commenced at this time.
UK Visas & Immigration has concluded the majority of the applications referenced in the response to Question 21679 and continues to work through those applications that have not yet been concluded.
UK Visas & Immigration aims to resolve all applications for UK entry clearance within published customer service standards. Where there is a problem with an individual application or if it is complex, UK Visas & Immigration write to the affected applicant to explain why the application will not be decided within the normal standard. All outstanding applications for UK entry clearance from family members of individuals granted refugee status as a Kuwaiti Bidoon which have not been concluded within published customer service standards are currently being prioritised.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-06-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he plans to meet his US counterparts to discuss the effect of the recent EU referendum on UK-US relations.
Mr Hugo Swire
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), met Secretary of State John Kerry in London on 27 June. Both Governments agree that an unbreakable bond exists between the US and the UK; that Britain’s global role remains undiminished, and that the Special Relationship remains a strong and crucial relationship.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his US counterpart on recent discussions on the peace process in Syria between Russia and the US.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson), discusses Syria regularly with US Secretary of State John Kerry. Both the Foreign Secretary and US Secretary of State Kerry attended International Syria Support Group meetings on 20 and 23 September in New York. The Foreign Secretary and Secretary Kerry met again, along with their French, German, Italian and EEAS counterparts, to discuss Syria in Boston on 24 September. The conflict in Syria was discussed at the UN Security Council on 17, 21 and 25 September.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether there are differences in the (a) definition and (b) recording of secondary breast cancer in ICD-10 compared with the Cancer Registry.
Jane Ellison
The National Cancer Registration Services (NCRS) code their data using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 03 in which the data is mapped back to ICD-10 for analysis purposes. ICD-10 does not distinguish between a primary breast tumour or secondary breast tumour. They are coded the same. It is the additional data that the Registry collects across the patient pathway, such as those recurrence data items in the Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset that allows NCRS to detect whether a tumour is a primary or a secondary.