The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions she has had with Irish Ministers on the potential effect of a UK withdrawal from the EU on relations with Ireland.
Mr Ben Wallace
Government Ministers have regular discussions with Ministers from the Government of Ireland on a range of issues, including co-operation on security and other matters.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Leader of the House, how many and what proportion of each Department’s Named Day Questions have been answered on the named day in the most recent period for which data is available.
Chris Grayling
The last submission from the Government on Parliamentary Written Questions performance was sent to the Procedure Committee on 4 November 2015 and covered the 2014-2015 Parliamentary Session. It is available at http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/procedure/Letter-fro.pdf!docid=2617780!.pdf.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the cost of IVF treatment to the NHS in England.
Jane Ellison
The level of provision of infertility treatment, as for all health services they commission, is decided by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will take into account the needs of the population overall. The CCG’s decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services will vary in response to local needs.
CCGs have a legal duty to have regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. As such, NHS England expects that all those involved in commissioning infertility treatment services to be fully aware of the importance of having regard to the NICE fertility guidelines.
Following a meeting with Fertility Fairness in December 2015, officials from the Department and NHS England is considering options for addressing variation in the prices that CCGs are currently paying for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.
Information about cycles of IVF treatment is not collected centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many fines have been issued for claiming free prescriptions without a valid exemption certificate in each (a) month and (b) year since the NHS Business Services Authority began checking eligibility for free prescriptions in September 2014.
Alistair Burt
Since September 2014, when the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took on responsibility for the service, a total of 747,790 penalty charge notices have been issued where someone claimed exemption on the basis that they held a valid exemption certificate but this could not be verified by the NHSBSA. A further 278,053 surcharge letters have been issued to follow up on penalty charge notices which have not been resolved through payment, cancellation (due to correction of erroneous information, for example) or waiving of the penalty charge. The annual and monthly breakdown is set out below.
Annual breakdown of Penalty Charges Notices and Surcharge letters
|
Penalty Charge Notices |
Surcharge letters |
|
|
September 2014 – December 2014 |
59,564 |
20,562 |
|
January 2015 – December 2015 |
430,971 |
171,065 |
|
January 2016 – April 2016 |
257,255 |
86,426 |
|
Total |
757,790 |
278,053 |
Monthly breakdown of Penalty Charge Notices and Surcharge letters
|
Penalty Charge Notices |
Surcharge letter |
|
|
September 2014 |
5,298 |
1,733 |
|
October 2014 |
5,007 |
1,697 |
|
November 2014 |
23,511 |
8,344 |
|
December 2014 |
25,748 |
8,788 |
|
January 2015 |
53,668 |
11,445 |
|
February 2015 |
21,706 |
7,969 |
|
March 2015 |
15,316 |
6,182 |
|
April 2015 |
12,687 |
5,032 |
|
May 2015 |
20,122 |
8,189 |
|
June 2015 |
22,472 |
8,984 |
|
July 2015 |
18,249 |
6,550 |
|
August 2015 |
39,626 |
17,282 |
|
September 2015 |
57,661 |
24,634 |
|
October 2015 |
56,952 |
25,075 |
|
November 2015 |
64,573 |
28,655 |
|
December 2015 |
47,939 |
21,068 |
|
January 2016 |
82,881 |
36,766 |
|
February 2016 |
55,650 |
24,079 |
|
March 2016 |
49,767 |
20,340 |
|
April 2016 |
68,957 |
5,241 |
|
Total |
747,790 |
278,053 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2016-07-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the size of the Privy Council on 13 July; and how many appointments had been made to it up to that date since 11 May 2010.
Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The information is set out in the table below.
|
Date |
Number of Privy Counsellors |
|
13th July 2016 |
657 |
|
Appointments since 11th May 2010 |
179 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much compensation her Department paid for the unlawful detention of individuals under immigration powers in each of the last three financial years; for what categories of reason such compensation was paid; and how many such payments were made for each such category of reason.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Our records indicate that over the past 3 financial years (covering 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15), that a total of £13.8 million has been paid out to 573 claimants, as per the below table. All of whom were paid compensation following a period of unlawful detention.
|
Financial Year |
Total Unlawful Detention Compensation payments (£ million) |
Number of claimants for the last 3 financial years |
|
FY 2012-13 |
£ 5.0 |
195 |
|
FY 2013-14 |
£ 4.8 |
199 |
|
FY 2014-15 |
£ 4.0 |
179 |
Caveat to provided data: This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-10-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce poverty in (a) Barnsley Central constituency and (b) other former mining communities.
Priti Patel
This Government is tackling poverty through our new Life Chances agenda. This will drive real action which will make the biggest difference to the most disadvantaged children – now and in the future. This approach will ensure that Government action is focused on tackling the root causes of child poverty – worklessness, educational failure, family breakdown, problem debt and addiction.
This Government believes that work is the best route out of poverty and is therefore focused on getting people into employment. With more than two million more people in work than in 2010, and with the number of workless households at a record low, the progress made by this Government has been significant including in Barnsley Central constituency. In the constituency, over the past year, the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or not in work and claiming Universal Credit, fell by 13 per cent.
We do not have specific data on all former mining communities and this information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Spending Review 2015, what plans she has for the funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit.
Rory Stewart
The Government has committed to providing funding to help secure the National Wildlife Crime Unit until at least the end of March next year. Decisions on funding beyond March will be made as part of consideration of the Department’s Spending Review settlement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much parents and guardians have been fined for taking their children on term-time holidays in the academic year 2013-14.
Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not hold information on the reason for a penalty notice (fine) being issued to a parent or guardian.
The department collects and publishes local authority level annual data on the number of penalty notices (fines) issued to parents in England, for offences relating to Section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996. The most recent data published by the department is for the academic year 2012/13.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training on UK child trafficking patterns has been provided to French border officials at St Pancras International and Ashford International to help identify vulnerable children being trafficked out of the UK, and by whom.
Lord Bates
The UK Government takes child trafficking extremely seriously. All Border Force officers at the Eurostar ports in the UK France and Belgium have received training in keeping children safe and all operational processes involving children comply with requirements as set out in the Children and Young Persons Act. Border Force and Eurostar have daily contact on operational matters. When passengers are identified by Border Force officers as potential victims of trafficking, immediate action is taken to safeguard the individual by following Home Office guidance on the treatment of the victims of trafficking. Border Force collects data on these cases in order to notify the Human Trafficking Centre. Contact is also made with Camden Social Services Safeguarding Team as soon as possible in order to establish safe care of the child. Eurostar has its own policy on unaccompanied children travelling on its services which can be found on the internet at: http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/accessibility#unaccompanied_children
Border Force has not provided training to French border officials on UK child trafficking patterns. All cases of suspected trafficking detected by the French border officials at St Pancras are handed to the BTP to action. In France and Belgium any concerns Border Force officers have about vulnerable children attempting to travel to the UK would be referred to the French and Belgian frontier control authorities. The Home Office has not had any discussions with Patina Rail about a proposed new routing between St Pancras and Ashford.