Category: Speeches

Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25396, if she will publish data from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) on the performance of police forces against the service level agreement standards for the time taken to complete local DBS checks over the last six months.

Karen Bradley

The operational performance plans of police disclosure units are matters for Chief Constables in association with Police and Crime Commissioners.

The DBS regularly publishes detailed datasets showing statistics against internal performance standards which form the basis of its monthly reports to the Home Office. This includes performance against their target to issue 95% of all disclosures within 56 days and the number of disclosure applications in progress each month. This can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-1-disclosure-progress-information-disclosed-and-update-service-subscriptions.

DBS also publishes datasets showing statistics against service level agreements with police forces. These apply to the performance of police disclosure units and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-5-police-disclosure-unit-performance.

01/01/2023
Graham Stringer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Stringer on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the extent of high consumption of alcohol by men in the UK relative to such consumption in other EU states.

Jane Ellison

The Department does not hold this information. The only international data on alcohol consumption per head can be found in the World Health Organization (WHO), Global status report on alcohol and health 2014 and the levels of consumption section in the WHO Global Information System on Alcohol and Health at:

http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/en/

and

http://apps.who.int/gho/data/?showonly=GISAH&theme=main-euro

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01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release entitled Nicky Morgan unveils new vision for the education system, published on 17 March 2016, whether religious education will continue to be a statutory subject in state schools in England.

Nick Gibb

Religious education (RE) remains compulsory for all state funded schools, including academies and free schools, at all key stages. The Government firmly believes in the importance of RE. High quality RE can develop children’s knowledge of the values and traditions of Britain and other countries, and foster understanding among different faiths and cultures.

01/01/2023

Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-05-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of employee share ownership schemes on (a) productivity levels and (b) the public purse in the last 12 months.

Mr David Gauke

Tax-advantaged employee share schemes are greatly valued by both companies and employers, and the government wants to make sure that the rules surrounding these schemes are as simple and clear as possible. Budget 2016 made a number of changes to the rules for employment-related securities and options which will make these schemes fairer and easier for taxpayers to understand, and therefore encourage businesses to use them.

An HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) commissioned report conducted by Oxera considered the effect of the tax-advantaged employee share schemes on productivity. The report is available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110203095056/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/research/tax-advantaged-report2.pdf.

The government’s most recent assessment of the cost of the tax-advantaged employee share schemes to the Exchequer is provided in the table below.

	Forecast cost of Income Tax relief (2015-16)	Forecast cost of National Insurance relief (2015-16)
Share Incentive Plan	£220 million	£165 million
Save As You Earn	£180 million	£140 million
Enterprise Management Incentives	£70 million	£40 million
Company Share Option Plan	£70 million	£40 million

HMRC has not withdrawn the valuation checking service for the tax-advantaged employee share schemes. However, HMRC has withdrawn other checks for non-tax advantaged schemes as, in the majority of cases, acceptable valuations were submitted. Therefore, the valuation service added no value and is seen as unnecessary.

The government keeps all areas of the tax system under review and as part of that in always interested in understanding the views of all interested parties.

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel

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01/01/2023

Jim Dowd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dowd on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in each year since 2005.

Mr John Hayes

Since 2005, there have been no prosecutions, and therefore no convictions, under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

01/01/2023
Nigel Dodds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on co-operation with NATO over maritime security.

Sir Alan Duncan

Cooperation between NATO and the EU in maritime security, as well as in other areas of security policy, is a key priority for HMG, and one which we raise regularly in discussions with EU and NATO counterparts.

The UK strongly supported the tasking from the NATO Warsaw Summit in July for improving such cooperation, where we believe NATO and the EU have complementary roles to play. In the current operations, this mean cooperation in the Aegean Sea, to tackle irregular migrant flows between Greece and Turkey, and co-ordination in respect of Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean Sea, and anti-piracy activities in the Indian Ocean.

01/01/2023
Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what revenue accrued through deductions and levies on the earnings of prisoners in each year since 2011.

Andrew Selous

The information requested can be found in the NOMS Annual report 2014/15: Management Information Addendum (p. 51, Table 19) and is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-and-probation-performance-statistics-2014-to-2015

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01/01/2023
Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what basis Action Fraud determines which reported frauds to pursue for investigation; and whether the amount defrauded influences such decisions.

Mike Penning

Action Fraud is the national reporting point for fraud and also cyber crime. Crime reports received by Action Fraud are considered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), both of which are operated by the City of London Police. Neither Action Fraud nor the NFIB are investigatory agencies. Crime reports are evaluated to assess the information available which could assist an investigation, and to identify links between seemingly unconnected incidents. Where there is enough evidence available and a viable lead, actionable intelligence packages are created by the NFIB and are sent to the appropriate police force to consider whether enforcement activity should take place. All crime reports are assessed against a number of variables, which may alter according to demand. It would be improper to comment on the procedure on which these decisions are made in the public domain.

Action Fraud was rolled out to all police forces in April 2013; the data below includes crime reports and disseminations in England and Wales only. For the 12 months to 31 March 2015, Action Fraud received 230,399 reports of crime. Of these, 14,509 were cyber dependent crimes, namely, crimes which can only be committed using computers, computer networks or other forms of information communication technology – for example, hacking or malware offences. These crimes fall under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. For this period, the NFIB disseminated a total of 61,682 crimes to Forces and partner agencies to consider investigation. For the period April 2013 – March 2014 Action Fraud received 211,221 crime reports and of these, 21,686 were cyber dependent. For this period, the NFIB disseminated a total of 39,138 crimes to Forces and partner agencies to consider investigation.

Historically the Action Fraud capability came into life in 2009 and was funded by the National Fraud Authority (NFA), which has since been closed, a proportion of the NFA’s total budget was used to fund the Action Fraud Capability and is as follows:

• 2009/10 £5.7 million including a £1.4 million uplift to set up the service

• 2010/11 £4.9 million

• 2011/12 £6.68 million

• 2012/13 £9.4 million

Since the closure of the NFA in March 2014 Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau have been funded by Home Office funding, Cabinet Office funding for Cyber Security and funding from the City of London Police core grant, and is as follows:

• 2013/14 £11.11 million

• 2014/15 £10.62 million

• 2015/16 £11.03 million

01/01/2023
Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been the total cost to date of Operation Midland into allegations of historic child sex abuse.

Lord Bates

The resourcing, and cost, of police investigations into non recent child sexual abuse allegations is a matter for the relevant Chief Officer.

01/01/2023
Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers wear body-worn cameras in (a) Northamptonshire and (b) England.

Mike Penning

We know that the majority of forces in England and Wales use Body Worn Video (BWV) to some extent.

However the deployment of BWV is an operational decision for chief officers and the Home Office does not hold information on how many officers are equipped with BWV

01/01/2023