The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the average number of hours worked by Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency staff in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Andrew Jones
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has not made an estimate on the average number of hours worked by its members of staff in each of the last five years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what account the Government’s forthcoming review of the night noise regulations for Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports will take of the WHO Europe’s recommendation that noise at night should not exceed 40 dB Leq.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The WHO’s 2009 Night Noise Guidelines for Europe do not refer solely to noise from aviation, but are based on the Lnight,outside indicator which measures the average noise that individuals are exposed to over all nights of a year – including from all transport sources and non transport sources such as industry and the neighbourhood.
One of the environmental objectives of the current night flight restrictions is to limit and where possible reduce the number of people significantly affected by aircraft noise at night. This is based on the measure of the area and number of people within the 6.5 hour night quota period contours, and in particular the 55dB LAeq contour. This is the threshold also used in the WHO Night Noise Guidelines for Europe. This is also consistent with the Government’s overall policy on aviation noise to avoid significant adverse impacts.
The Government’s proposals for the night flight restrictions from October 2017 will continue to take account of the latest evidence on the health impacts of night flights.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated radiological dose uptake was in terms of (a) individual whole equivalent dose in milli-Sievert and (b) collective dose in man-Sievert for (i) Services and his Department’s civilian personnel involved in and responding to the incident, (ii) civilian emergency services personnel responders attending and (iii) members of the public during each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
Penny Mordaunt
The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that refugees arriving in other EU member-states who have family in the UK are identified and supported in being reunited with their relatives.
James Brokenshire
All migrants arriving in other EU Member States who wish to seek asylum should do so in those States and provide information to the asylum authorities about any family members in the UK or other Member States so that the family unity provisions in the Dublin Regulation can be applied.
We are providing further resources to the European Asylum Support Office, including help in border “hotspots” in Greece and Italy, to identify and register asylum applicants, including children at risk on first arrival in the EU.
We will consider any request made to us by other Member States to take responsibility for asylum applicants because they have close family who are legally in the UK in accordance with the terms of the Dublin Regulation.
If not claiming asylum, individuals outside the UK are entitled to apply under the Immigration Rules to join relatives in the UK by making the appropriate visa application.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Adams on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) demographic factors, (b) deprivation level factors and (c) factors of difference in distance from target market forces he took into account when determining the funding allocated for (i) Vale of York CCG, (ii) NHS West Cheshire, (iii) NHS North East Essex, (iv) NHS South Warwickshire, (v) NHS Canterbury and Coastal, (vi) NHS Lincolnshire West and (vii) NHE East Riding of Yorkshire.
Alistair Burt
Responsibility for clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations rests with NHS England and the funding allocated to all CCGs is based on the CCG allocations formula. This is based on advice provided by the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA). ACRA is an independent committee and reports jointly to the Secretary of State for Health (in regard to public health allocations) and NHS England in regard to CCG and primary care allocations. The formula was initially approved by NHS England in 2013 and they have now reviewed and updated the formula for 2016-17 onwards.
The formula is based on the size of the population of each CCG and adjustments, or weights, per head for relative need for health care services and unavoidable costs between CCGs. The weights per head are based on the following:
― need due to age (typically, the more elderly the population, the higher the need per head, all else being equal);
― additional need over and above that due to age (this includes measures of health status and a number of proxies for health status such as deprivation);
― an adjustment for unmet need and health inequalities;
― unavoidable higher costs of delivering health care due to location alone, known as the Market Forces Factor (this reflects that staff, land and building costs are higher in for example London than other parts of the country); and
― an adjustment for the higher costs of providing emergency ambulance services in sparsely populated areas, and an adjustment for the higher costs of unavoidably small hospitals with 24 hour accident and emergency services in remote areas.
The final step of the allocations process is to determine how quickly to move CCGs from their current allocation to the target allocation determined by the formula. The objective is to reduce the ‘distance from target’ so that areas furthest below their target allocation receive the biggest increases. This needs to balance against the need to ensure service stability for those areas above target, and that increases are not so large that resources are not used efficiently. The approach also takes account of the distance from target in each area for primary care and specialised services so that the overall funding position for the area is taken into account.
NHS England recently published a technical guide to allocations which sets out all the individual factors used in determining the allocation levels. The guide is available here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/04/allocations-tech-guide-16-17/#
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of what the likely change in the level of social housing stock will be if the proposed extension of right-to-buy to housing association properties is agreed in (a) Tottenham, (b) Enfield, (c) Haringey, (d) Barnet, (e) Islington and (f) London in (i) 2016 and (ii) each of the next three years.
Brandon Lewis
Under the voluntary agreement with the National Housing Federation and housing associations, every home sold to tenants will result in an additional affordable home being provided. At least two new affordable homes will be provided for each high value vacant property that is expected to be sold in London. This will lead to an increase in overall housing supply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what level of check by the Disclosure and Barring Service is required for someone to work in a school as a non-teaching staff member.
Lord Nash
The School Staffing (England) Regulations 2009, The Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2014 and The Non-maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2011 require schools to carry out specific checks before they may appoint an individual to work in a school.
For non-teaching staff members, the school must obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificate and where relevant a check of the children’s barred list. A check of the barred list is required for staff engaging in regulated activity if as a result of their work they:
Will be responsible, on a regular basis in a school or college, for teaching, training instructing, caring for or supervising children; or
Will carry out paid, or unsupervised unpaid, work regularly in a school or college where that work provides an opportunity for contact with children; or
Engage in intimate or personal care or overnight activity, even if this happens only once.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Durham on 2016-09-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what contingency plans are in place to provide humanitarian aid in the event of a poor harvest in Burundi.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The UK Government is very concerned by the ongoing political unrest in Burundi and its humanitarian consequences. Burundi had high levels of food insecurity before the political crisis. However, the increase in market prices, the impact of late and heavy El-Nino rains, and the loss of livelihoods could result in further food insecurity and malnutrition.
DFID Ministers have already committed £3 million for humanitarian preparedness and early response within Burundi. We have further set aside contingency funds of up to £4 million should the situation deteriorate. DFID will monitor the humanitarian and food security situation and ensure appropriate support is provided if the situation warrants it.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to inform consumers about the lead content of game meat shot with lead ammunition.
Jane Ellison
Government set up the independent Lead Ammunition Group in 2010 to provide advice on risks to wildlife and human health from lead shot game. The Government is considering the independent Lead Ammunition Group’s report on the effect of lead shot on human and wildlife health and will respond as soon as possible The Food Standards Agency (FSA) accepts the expert advice of the UK Committee on Toxicity and the European Food Safety Authority that it is not possible to set a safe level for exposure to lead from food. However, to better understand the potential risk to UK consumers the FSA produced a risk assessment in 2012 based on its survey data from 2007 of game meat samples; Veterinary Medicines Directorate data from the national surveillance scheme was also considered. The FSA risk assessment considered the potential levels of exposure to lead from lead shot game for adults, children and toddlers based on different levels of game meat consumption.
This risk assessment led to FSA issuing targeted advice to frequent consumers of lead shot game in 2012, warning of the potential risks. The advice was promoted as especially important for vulnerable groups such as toddlers and children, pregnant women and women trying for a baby, as exposure to lead can harm the developing brain and nervous system. The FSA risk assessment was published along with this advice. The Government has not estimated the number of people who regularly consume game meat shot with lead.
More generally, the FSA, works on behalf of the UK within the European Union to agree harmonised controls to reduce public exposure to lead in the food chain. EU maximum limits apply for lead in a range of foods and these are regularly reviewed by the EU Commission and member states. These maximum limits apply to all food produced in the EU or imported to the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on the Work Choice programme to date; and what the estimated total cost of that programme over its lifetime is.
Priti Patel
Departmental expenditure on Work Choice contracts to date is £451million. This covers the period from the start of the programme in Financial Year 2010-11 to November 2015.