The below Parliamentary question was asked by Teresa Pearce on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many railway station ticket offices have (a) been closed and (b) had their opening hours reduced since 2010.
Claire Perry
Since May 2010, 125 railway station ticket offices have had their hours reduced and four have been closed.
By contrast, between 2005 and 2010 around 400 railway station ticket offices had their hours reduced and six closures were approved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Touhig on 2016-03-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many British air strikes in (1) Syria, and (2) Iraq, have been conducted since 2 December 2015, and what assessment they have made of their effectiveness.
Earl Howe
The UK military campaign in Iraq and Syria is part of a wider Coalition effort to counter Daesh. Between 2 December 2015 and 14 March 2016 there were 36 UK airstrikes in Syria and 236 in Iraq. These airstrikes have contributed significantly to the coalition’s wider efforts, which are placing Daesh under increasing pressure in both Syria and Iraq. Among the targets successfully engaged by UK aircraft were oil facilities, which Daesh used to generate revenue to fund their campaign, and command and control centres. UK aircraft have also lent direct assistance to regional ground forces, which have achieved notable successes in retaking territory from Daesh.
All UK strikes are undertaken as part of a rigorous targeting process, which assesses before, during and after a strike to ensure that the Law of Armed Conflict is adhered to.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 11 April 2016 to Question 32147, whether his Department plans to bring forward proposals to enable police to issue fixed notices for people smoking in cars with children present.
Jane Ellison
The police use traffic offender reports to record information on a range of offences, including for smoking in private vehicles carrying children. Local authorities can then take appropriate enforcement action, including the issue fixed penalty notices, rather than the police.
Guidance on the use of traffic offender reports to share information with local authorities has been circulated to police forces.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the (a) year-to-date and (b) forecast out-turn spend is in each NHS (i) trust and (ii) foundation trust on total agency nursing costs, excluding outsourced bank, in 2015-16.
Alistair Burt
Last year the Government introduced a series of tough financial controls to help the National Health Service tackle overspending on expensive agency staff. Although, it is not possible to provide the information requested by individual NHS trust or foundation trust, NHS Improvement has confirmed that a total of £3.64 billion was spent on agency and contract staff in 2015-16. This represents a saving of £300 million to the NHS, which had been on course to spend up to £4 billion prior to the controls being put in place.
NHS Improvement has also set each NHS trust and foundation trust an annual expenditure ceiling on the total amount that can be spent on agency staff in 2016-17. Again, it is not possible to provide the information requested by individual NHS trust or foundation trust; however all trusts have been allocated ceilings for 2016-17 and these will be monitored by NHS Improvement on a monthly basis going forwards.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lisa Cameron on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to ensure that the level of functional impairment is adequately assessed to provide appropriate support for a claimant to obtain employment.
Penny Mordaunt
The Department introduced the independent audit of Work Capability Assessments in March 2015 in line with the start of the new Health and Disability Assessment Service contract.
Audit has a central role in confirming that independent health professional advice complies with the required standards and that it is clear and medically reasonable. It also provides assurance that any approach to assessment and opinion given is consistent so that, irrespective of where or by whom the assessment is carried out, claimants with conditions that have the same functional effect will ultimately receive the same benefit outcome.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Attorney General, on how many occasions, and on what dates, the Crown Prosecution Service has decided to prosecute medical professionals for abortion-related offences since 1997-98.
Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold offences data prior to 2004-2005. Between the years 2004-2005 and 2015-2016, the CPS commenced prosecutions of 71 abortion related offences. However, it is not possible to disaggregate the data to report the occupation of the defendant, whether a medical professional or otherwise. This information could only be obtained by examining each of the CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Conor McGinn on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) the UK were admitted to mental health hospitals outside of their local authority area in the last five years.
Alistair Burt
Information on the number of patients who were admitted to mental health hospitals outside their home local authority in St Helens North constituency, Merseyside and the United Kingdom in each of the last five years is not available. However, information on the number of people in non-specialist mental health beds treated out of area between September 2014 and July 2015 is set out in the attached table: the number of people in non-specialist mental health bed, placed out of area at the end of the month, for England and Mersey Care NHS Trust, September 2014-July 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2015-12-16.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the P5+1 agreement with Iran, what evidence they have that political prisoners such as Kamal Foroughi and Jason Rezaian have been released, or are being considered for early release, from detention; and what specific evidence they have of any overall progress in respect of such prisoners with UK or US passports.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We have no evidence that dual national political prisoners such as Kamal Foroughi and Jason Rezaian have been, or are being considered, for early release from detention. Nor have we received specific evidence of any overall progress in respect of these dual national cases. Iran does not recognise dual nationality and as such we are not granted consular access in these cases. We continue to lobby the Iranian Government at the highest level. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) raised these issues with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and President Rouhani during his trip to Iran in August. The Foreign Secretary also raised it with Foreign Minister Zarif at the UN General Assembly in September. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) raised the case with President Rouhani during a telephone call in July, and wrote a further letter on this matter in October.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what amount of additional funding her Department has allocated to Ofsted to carry out local area inspections of provisions for children with special educational needs and disability; and if so, what amount has been allocated for each of the next three years.
Edward Timpson
Local authorities have made good progress complying with the statutory special educational needs duties in the Children and Families Act 2014 since they came into force in September 2014. We continue to monitor progress.
All local authorities have published a Local Offer of the services and support available to children and young people in their area with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Responsibility for publishing and maintaining Local Offers lies with each local authority. The Department supports local authorities to help make sure they meet all statutory requirements for their Local Offer, and that the quality of services continues to improve.
In summer 2014, the Department conducted a review of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and plan templates from half of local authorities. The majority of the EHC plan templates we reviewed were judged likely to meet the requirements in the SEND Code of Practice. Where changes were needed, this was often due to inaccurate labelling of the required sections. Feedback was provided to individual local authorities alongside information to all local authorities about the key areas for focus. Since September 2014, EHC plans have been continually monitored. Where individual EHC plans are considered not to be fully compliant, advice on improvement is provided to the local authority.
Figures returned by local authorities and published in the Statements of SEN and EHC plans Statistical First Release[1] in May 2015 show that, of the 1,360 new EHC plans issued between 1 September 2014 and 15 January 2015, 64.3% were within the statutory 20 week time limit when excluding exception cases.
The Department for Education is providing specific additional funding to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to support their inspection of the effectiveness of local areas in fulfilling their new SEND duties. We are in the process of setting individual budgets as part of our internal business planning process.
Ofsted and CQC conducted pilots as part of their wider consultation on their inspection proposals. These pilots explored different approaches to securing evidence in what is a complex area, involving a range of education, social care, and health providers at the local level. Ofsted and CQC will publish their response to the consultation on these new inspection arrangements in spring 2016. In addition, they will evaluate the impact of inspections, which will begin later in 2016.
The Department draws on a wide range of evidence to determine whether the SEND provisions of the Children and Families Act have improved outcomes for children. Our intention is that a combination of local accountability measures; data and analysis; and independent inspection will show how the SEND system is performing and whether outcomes are improving for children and young people.
The SEND inspections will evaluate local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people. We will draw on a wide range of statistics[2], including information on educational attainment, absence and exclusions and research into families and young people’s experience of the new system.
A summary of the available data on SEN and disability is available at
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2015
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2016 to Question 26148, on roads: investment, which two projects are not progressing on or ahead of schedule; and when those projects are now expected to be completed.
Andrew Jones
The two projects referred to in Question 26148 are:
A63 Castle Street: this has a commitment to be complete by March 2021 but the current forecast is for August 2021.
The decision to defer was to avoid construction taking place during the year of culture.
A30 Temple to Carblake
This is being delivered by Cornwall County Council: This was originally due to Open for traffic in December 2016, although we understand from Cornwall County Council that current forecast is February 2017.