The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gill Furniss on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to promote use of the Employer Checking Service.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Employer Checking Service is promoted on GOV.uk. Employers are also directed to the service by the Preventing Illegal Work help line. The Employer Checking Service meet regularly with large employers to promote the service.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the average hourly earnings of working people in receipt of universal credit.
Priti Patel
The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.
The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2015-12-03.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many fast stream civil servants work for HM Revenue and Customs.
Mr David Gauke
Civil Service Resourcing coordinates the Fast Stream for the Civil Service and manages all Fast Streamers on the central corporate schemes.Civil Service Resourcing is currently hosted by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and reports to the Minister for the Cabinet Office on talent matters.
161 Fast Streamers currently work in HMRC.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to empower local authorities in proposed clean air zones to charge private cars which do not comply with EU vehicle emission standards.
Rory Stewart
Local Authorities already have powers under Part 3 of the Transport Act 2000 which can be used to establish Clean Air Zones. Vehicles have to comply with European emissions standards in order to be put on the market and we have been pushing strongly for action to improve the standards and for real driving emission testing to be introduced as quickly as possible.
As set out in our air quality plan for reducing nitrogen dioxide emissions, published on 17 December 2015, we will be requiring five cities in England to introduce Clean Air Zones and discourage certain types of vehicles from entering them. The plan identifies different categories of Clean Air Zone which may be appropriate depending on the circumstances of a particular Local Authority introducing a zone. However, the plan explains that, for those five cities, we have assessed that we can bring the UK into compliance with nitrogen dioxide limits without requiring the Local Authorities to impose restrictions on passenger cars. Further, the plan sets out the Mayor of London’s commitment to introduce an Ultra Low Emission Zone by September 2020 covering a range of vehicles, including passenger cars.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Durham on 2016-02-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider re-opening the Department for International Development’s Office in Burundi.
Baroness Verma
In 2012, as part of its global review of bilateral programmes, DFID decided to focus its work in Burundi on the country’s integration into the East African Community (EAC) as the single most important factor for promoting economic growth. DFID has continued to provide support to Burundi, mainly through Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA), a specialist agency which promotes trade growth in East Africa. DFID has contributed £16.5 million to TMEA for Burundi in the period 2010-2016. Burundi also receives contributions through multilateral organisations and funds. For example, through the Global Poverty Action Fund, we have also provided £500,000 for the provision of sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation for 139,000 people in Bujumbura Rural Province. DFID also provides central funding to UK NGOs, some of which work with local partners in Burundi.
Given the situation in Burundi, we are now looking to provide support in the form of secondments to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for needs assessment, information management, coordination and advocacy. Over 238,000 Burundians have become refugees since April 2015. The majority of those who have fled Burundi are concentrated in Tanzania and Rwanda, for which DFID has provided £18.15 million since April 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Clement-Jones on 2016-02-29.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy Dataset in the collection of health outcome data from patients receiving cancer medicines paid for by the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Lord Prior of Brampton
In July 2015, NHS England and Public Health England (PHE) signed a data sharing agreement concerning the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) use, enabling NHS England to provide to PHE details of patients for whom a CDF treatment had been requested by clinicians. This will enable PHE to link information on patients for whom a CDF treatment was requested (from 1 April 2013 onwards) with a range of other data sets.
There is presently no agreement between NHS England and PHE in terms of providing outcome information on patients receiving CDF funded treatments, or other systemic anti-cancer therapies, on a regular basis. However, PHE and NHS England are currently having detailed and productive discussions to establish a dedicated core resource which will provide NHS England with routine and bespoke information and analysis, focusing on both routine chemotherapy and activity data and outcome and quality metrics, which can include outcome analyses on the CDF.
The Accelerated Access Review is looking at ways to better use data on treatments and outcomes from initiatives, such as the CDF, to drive innovation, adoption and reimbursement of novel treatments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Beckett on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the letter from the National Security Adviser to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy of 10 March 2016, how many GCHQ staff were (a) recruited to and (b) completed the GCHQ cyber apprenticeship scheme in each year since 2012.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Since 2012 the scheme has already provided over 70 highly skilled new entrants to the GCHQ workforce. Of the 18 students who joined the GCHQ apprenticeship scheme in September 2012, over 60% successfully graduated from the course in 2014 and joined the GCHQ workforce. In September 2013, the nature and scale of the apprenticeship scheme changed as it expanded to become a scheme covering the whole of the SIA: all three of the UK’s intelligence Agencies (MI5, SIS and GCHQ) now directly recruit successful graduates from the scheme, which means that the exact number of apprentices each year cannot be openly released for security reasons. I can confirm however that over 160 new apprentices have joined the scheme since 2013, and of these a substantial majority are expected to join GCHQ when they graduate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what regulations are (a) in place and (b) under consideration to support the meteorological use of drones.
Mr Robert Goodwill
There are no regulations that apply specifically to the meteorological use of drones. In order to fly a drone for commercial purposes, a permission from the Civil Aviation Authority is required, in accordance with the Air Navigation Order 2009.
There is no plan to introduce specific regulations to support the meteorological use of drones, however Government continues to keep under careful review whether there is any need for further domestic legislation of drones.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her most recent estimate is of the number of UK citizens who have travelled to fight with Daesh in Syria and Iraq; and how many such persons have since returned to the UK.
Mr John Hayes
Approximately 850 UK linked individuals of national security concern have travelled to engage with the Syrian conflict. We estimate that just under half of those have returned and approximately 15% are deceased.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Grant on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she has taken to work with the gambling industry on the regulation of fixed odds betting terminals.
Tracey Crouch
A: In April 2015 the Government introduced regulations which require authorisation of stakes over £50 on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) through a “verified account” or staff interaction. The bookmakers shared data with my officials and the Gambling Commission to enable Government to conduct an evaluation of the £50 regulations, published on 21 January. The evaluation can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-gaming-machine-circumstances-of-useamendment-regulations-2015
In addition, the Association of British Bookmakers introduced a Code for Responsible Gambling in 2013, updated in 2015, which includes a number of measures relating to FOBTs including the ability to set time and spend limits on gaming machines, the ability to access player statements, and the introduction of Player Awareness Systems which use data analytics to intervene where customers behaviour indicates they may be experiencing problems in their play. The Government meets regularly with industry to discuss player protection measures.