The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much Child Support Agency schemes arrears as at 31 March 2016 are being handled by the Child Maintenance Service; and how many cases those arrears relate to.
Priti Patel
Figures for 31 March 2016 are not yet available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-05-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many additional staff are being recruited to attend to and treat unaccompanied children coming to the UK from refugee camps (1) in Europe, and (2) outside Europe.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The United Kingdom has been operating resettlement schemes for many years and we already have established and effective networks to accommodate and support resettled people. The increase in numbers will require an expansion of current networks and the impact on local communities and infrastructure will need to be managed carefully. That is why we are working with a wide range of partners to ensure that people are integrated sensitively into local communities and that we have the right support in place for unaccompanied refugee children who arrive in the UK from Europe whilst ensuring we fulfil our obligations to children who are already in the UK.
The guidance, Statutory Guidance on Promoting the Health and Well-being of Looked After Children, sets out the health duties for local authorities, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS England. The guidance sets out that local authorities and the National Health Service should take account any particular needs of the child, including if they are unaccompanied asylum seekers. This guidance is attached.
Whilst there are a range of health care professionals, for example youth workers and teachers, who deliver interventions and support for children and young people with mental health conditions, clinical need should be determined by a specialist initial assessment in line with guidance produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Local areas have published Local Transformation Plans that set out how mental health services will be delivered for their population. As part of their plans, local areas were asked to set out how they planned to meet the needs of more vulnerable groups, including unaccompanied refugee and asylum seeking children (UASC).
NHS England ensures that all commissioners of health services have appropriate arrangements and resources in place to meet the physical, emotional and mental health needs of looked-after children, including UASC. They will work with local commissioners to raise awareness of the Resettlement Programme and highlight the additional numbers of children who will require their attention and support.
Decisions about the resources needed to meet the mental health and other health needs of all children and young people, including UASC, are taken at a local level by CCGs. This may include decisions to recruit additional staff where necessary.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-07-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when and how local authority chief executives have been informed about their statutory duty to notify information about suspected victims of slavery or human trafficking under section 52 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
On 7 November, the day that s52 of the Act came into Force, the Government issued full guidance on GOV.UK. A circular providing information to all bodies subject to the duty, including local authority Chief Executives, was sent the next day. Further communications to raise awareness of the Duty to Notify are planned this summer.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his US counterpart on the US’s decision to deploy the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system in South Korea.
Mike Penning
The Secretary of State for Defence has not discussed this issue with his US counterpart.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of senior civil servants in her Department attended (a) non-selective state schools, (b) state selective schools, (c) independent schools, fee assisted and (d) independent schools, not fee assisted.
Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not collect or hold this information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2015-12-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the total payment made by the UK to the EU in 2014, and what was the total payment by the EU to the UK agricultural industry in that year.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
The UK’s net contribution to the EU Budget in 2014 was £5.71 billion. This is the UK’s total contribution to the EU, reduced by the cash rebate and the money the UK receives from EU funded programmes.
The total receipts to the UK agricultural industry from the EU were £3.16 billion in 2014. Under this, £2.60 billion was for European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) (CAP pillar 1) and £0.60 billion for European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) (CAP pillar 2).
These figures are available publicly in HM Treasury’s EU Finances 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West are trained to use tasers.
Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold information centrally on the number of police officers who are trained to use Taser.
Taser deployments in each police force area are an operational matter for Chief Officers. This includes decisions on the number of specially trained officers deployed with Taser, which is based on the assessment of threat and risk.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage more young people to go into farming.
George Eustice
The Government is working with the food and farming industries to encourage bright, talented young people into agriculture. We aim to treble the number of food and farming apprenticeships by 2020. Agriculture and related subjects is the fastest-growing subject at university, with a 4.6% increase in student numbers last year. We are also working with industry partners and others to build links between food and farming businesses and schools. The Great British food campaign will help to highlight the breadth of careers the food and farming industries can offer.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the remit and nature is of the contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.
Karen Bradley
The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.
The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.
The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).
The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.
The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rob Marris on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of users of e-cigarettes who will return to smoking tobacco in the 12 months after the introduction of the EU Tobacco Products Directive.
Jane Ellison
No such assessment has been made; the Department assesses the impact of all proposed measures before making legislation using standard government methodology. These Impact Assessments are scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee before publication alongside the Statutory Instrument.
An assessment of the impact of the provisions introduced by the EU Tobacco Products Directive will be published alongside the implementing Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 in spring this year. The expected health benefits from improved smoking quit rates have been estimated at around £13 billion.