The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges on the connection between memory loss and viral illness.
Jane Ellison
No such discussions have taken place.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department have had with their foreign counterparts on the EU referendum.
Mr David Lidington
Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers and officials regularly engage with their foreign counterparts to communicate HM Government’s position on the EU referendum.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-05-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in working with Chief Police Officers to tackle cybercrime.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Home Office continues to work closely with police forces to ensure that we are best placed to tackle the threat posed by cyber crime.
Through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), we invested over £90 million during the last Parliament to bolster the law enforcement response.
As the Chancellor announced in November, this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including for tackling cyber crime.
The Home Office is also supporting the work led by Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh, the National Policing Lead for Digital Investigation and Intelligence (DII), to build capabilities to combat the full range of digital crime types. In addition we are providing funding through the Police Transformation Fund to support police led programmes to provide a step-change in digital capability.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-06-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many officials are employed in (a) his Department’s London offices and (b) the UK’s global diplomatic network work on climate security.
James Duddridge
As of January 2016 149 full-time equivalent staff resource was spent on our Climate Change/Low Carbon Economy/Energy Security work across our network of 268 offices in 168 countries. Of these, 72 staff were working full-time on Climate Change and Energy issues.
As of June 2016 nine full-time equivalent staff in London work directly on climate change issues.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office allocation of resource is kept under regular review as staff and local priorities change, so there is a quite regular flux in numbers and locations. For example, in the run up to COP21, there was an increase in Ministerial and network engagement related to the Paris negotiations, to build support for a successful agreement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-09-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what psychological support the Government is providing to lone children in Europe.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The responsibility for unaccompanied children in Europe lies with the Member State in which they are present. The UK can only contribute in ways agreed with the authorities in the relevant Member State and in compliance with EU law.
The UK has established a £10 million Refugee Children Fund for Europe to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe. The fund includes targeted support to meet the specific needs of un-accompanied and separated children. Support will include identifying children in need, providing safe places for at risk children and services such as coun-selling and legal advice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the prevalence of (a) the indicators of mental disorders including stress, depression, fatigue and post traumatic stress disorder and (b) the provision of support by service providers or others to personnel in 13 and 39 Squadrons.
Mark Lancaster
The Government is committed to improving the mental health of our Armed Forces and has long recognised that Service life can cause stress. Support to personnel has improved in a number of ways, including providing pre and post-operational stress management training, a wide range of psychiatric and psychological treatments and initiatives such as Decompression and Trauma Risk Incident Management (TRiM) and Post Operational Stress Management.
Measures are in place to increase awareness at all levels of the risk of Mental Health disorders and indicators to help identify these. Trained TRiM providers are embedded within both Squadrons to offer peer group mentoring and support, whilst also educating non-medical Service personnel on how to identify indicators of mental health problems.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she intends to respond to the report of the Children’s Commissioner, Protecting children from harm, published in November 2015.
Karen Bradley
The report captures the findings from the first part of the Children’s Commissioner’s inquiry into child sexual abuse in the family environment. The Government will give careful consideration to the findings of the full inquiry when it is completed in December 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for Tier 2 visas were made by people holding job offers to become chefs in each year since such visas were introduced; and how many such applications were successful.
James Brokenshire
Acquiring this information on visa applications from chefs would involve examining each individual case record held by UK Visas & Immigration for the Tier 2 category. To do so would incur a disproportionate cost.
The Home Office regularly receives representations to lower the criteria (including the salary requirement) for sponsoring chefs under Tier 2, the skilled worker route. Tier 2 is, however, reserved for graduate level occupations. We continue to welcome the very top chefs who promote innovative and authentic cuisine here in the UK — and these types of skilled chefs are on the shortage occupation list. The salary threshold applied to chefs was based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee.
We have been clear, however, that the restaurant industry needs to move away from an unsustainable reliance on migrant workers. We want to nurture more home-grown talent and encourage young people in this country who want to pursue a skilled career. This means the restaurant sector offering training to attract and recruit resident workers to meet their staffing needs.
The industry is starting to make progress in this area, recruiting and training more chefs in the UK, and this needs to continue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Reaper drones have been used in operations in Syria.
Penny Mordaunt
I am withholding operational information on the number of RAF Reaper aircraft deployed as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will commission an independent assessment of the cumulative effect of all tobacco control measures on small businesses introduced since 1 January 2006.
Jane Ellison
The Department assesses the impact of all proposed measures before laying legislation using standard government methodology. These assessments are set out in Impact Assessments which are scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee before publication alongside the Statutory Instrument. Impact Assessments specifically look at the impacts on small and micro businesses. A number of the tobacco measures contain commitments to further review the impact of the legislation within five years of them coming into force.
The Department assesses the impact of tobacco control measures on an ongoing basis as it develops policy and considers new measures. In September 2013, the Department published An Audit of the impact of the Department of Health’s Regulations upon business. A copy of the report is attached. The Audit report covered all regulations for which the Department has responsibility believed to have a potential cost to business, including those relating to tobacco control. As advised in the report, there is a robust cost-benefit case for the tobacco control regulations considered and experience shows that initiatives to reduce smoking prevalence work best in combination, with cumulative effects over time.