Category: Speeches

Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many fines have been issued for claiming free prescriptions without a valid exemption certificate in each (a) month and (b) year since the NHS Business Services Authority began checking eligibility for free prescriptions in September 2014.

Alistair Burt

Since September 2014, when the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took on responsibility for the service, a total of 747,790 penalty charge notices have been issued where someone claimed exemption on the basis that they held a valid exemption certificate but this could not be verified by the NHSBSA. A further 278,053 surcharge letters have been issued to follow up on penalty charge notices which have not been resolved through payment, cancellation (due to correction of erroneous information, for example) or waiving of the penalty charge. The annual and monthly breakdown is set out below.

Annual breakdown of Penalty Charges Notices and Surcharge letters

	Penalty Charge Notices	Surcharge letters
September 2014 – December 2014	59,564	20,562
January 2015 – December 2015	430,971	171,065
January 2016 – April 2016	257,255	86,426
Total	757,790	278,053

Monthly breakdown of Penalty Charge Notices and Surcharge letters

	Penalty Charge Notices	Surcharge letter
September 2014	5,298	1,733
October 2014	5,007	1,697
November 2014	23,511	8,344
December 2014	25,748	8,788
January 2015	53,668	11,445
February 2015	21,706	7,969
March 2015	15,316	6,182
April 2015	12,687	5,032
May 2015	20,122	8,189
June 2015	22,472	8,984
July 2015	18,249	6,550
August 2015	39,626	17,282
September 2015	57,661	24,634
October 2015	56,952	25,075
November 2015	64,573	28,655
December 2015	47,939	21,068
January 2016	82,881	36,766
February 2016	55,650	24,079
March 2016	49,767	20,340
April 2016	68,957	5,241
Total	747,790	278,053

01/01/2023

Lord Lexden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2016-07-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the size of the Privy Council on 13 July; and how many appointments had been made to it up to that date since 11 May 2010.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

The information is set out in the table below.

Date

Number of Privy Counsellors

13th July 2016

657

Appointments since 11th May 2010

179

01/01/2023

Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much compensation her Department paid for the unlawful detention of individuals under immigration powers in each of the last three financial years; for what categories of reason such compensation was paid; and how many such payments were made for each such category of reason.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Our records indicate that over the past 3 financial years (covering 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15), that a total of £13.8 million has been paid out to 573 claimants, as per the below table. All of whom were paid compensation following a period of unlawful detention.

Financial Year	Total Unlawful Detention Compensation payments (£ million)	Number of claimants for the last 3 financial years
FY 2012-13	£ 5.0	195
FY 2013-14	£ 4.8	199
FY 2014-15	£ 4.0	179

Caveat to provided data: This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.

01/01/2023

Dan Jarvis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce poverty in (a) Barnsley Central constituency and (b) other former mining communities.

Priti Patel

This Government is tackling poverty through our new Life Chances agenda. This will drive real action which will make the biggest difference to the most disadvantaged children – now and in the future. This approach will ensure that Government action is focused on tackling the root causes of child poverty – worklessness, educational failure, family breakdown, problem debt and addiction.

This Government believes that work is the best route out of poverty and is therefore focused on getting people into employment. With more than two million more people in work than in 2010, and with the number of workless households at a record low, the progress made by this Government has been significant including in Barnsley Central constituency. In the constituency, over the past year, the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or not in work and claiming Universal Credit, fell by 13 per cent.

We do not have specific data on all former mining communities and this information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

01/01/2023
Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Spending Review 2015, what plans she has for the funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

Rory Stewart

The Government has committed to providing funding to help secure the National Wildlife Crime Unit until at least the end of March next year. Decisions on funding beyond March will be made as part of consideration of the Department’s Spending Review settlement.

01/01/2023
John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much parents and guardians have been fined for taking their children on term-time holidays in the academic year 2013-14.

Nick Gibb

The Department for Education does not hold information on the reason for a penalty notice (fine) being issued to a parent or guardian.

The department collects and publishes local authority level annual data on the number of penalty notices (fines) issued to parents in England, for offences relating to Section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996. The most recent data published by the department is for the academic year 2012/13.

01/01/2023
Baroness Doocey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-01-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training on UK child trafficking patterns has been provided to French border officials at St Pancras International and Ashford International to help identify vulnerable children being trafficked out of the UK, and by whom.

Lord Bates

The UK Government takes child trafficking extremely seriously. All Border Force officers at the Eurostar ports in the UK France and Belgium have received training in keeping children safe and all operational processes involving children comply with requirements as set out in the Children and Young Persons Act. Border Force and Eurostar have daily contact on operational matters. When passengers are identified by Border Force officers as potential victims of trafficking, immediate action is taken to safeguard the individual by following Home Office guidance on the treatment of the victims of trafficking. Border Force collects data on these cases in order to notify the Human Trafficking Centre. Contact is also made with Camden Social Services Safeguarding Team as soon as possible in order to establish safe care of the child. Eurostar has its own policy on unaccompanied children travelling on its services which can be found on the internet at: http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/accessibility#unaccompanied_children

Border Force has not provided training to French border officials on UK child trafficking patterns. All cases of suspected trafficking detected by the French border officials at St Pancras are handed to the BTP to action. In France and Belgium any concerns Border Force officers have about vulnerable children attempting to travel to the UK would be referred to the French and Belgian frontier control authorities. The Home Office has not had any discussions with Patina Rail about a proposed new routing between St Pancras and Ashford.

01/01/2023
Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the introduction of a learning disabilities commissioner with a statutory duty to promote and protect the rights of all people with learning disabilities and their families as recommended by the report of the Transforming Care and Commissioning Steering Group, Winterbourne View – Time for Change, published in November 2014.

Alistair Burt

The Department will consider the recommendations made in Time for Change – the Challenge Ahead, as part of development work on our Learning Disability Action Plan and in delivering the commitments we made in the Government’s response to ‘No voice unheard, no right ignored’ consultation published in November 2015. However, new statutory roles and legislation are not necessarily the answer to promoting and protecting the rights of people with learning disabilities and their families.

In the response to ‘No voice unheard, no right ignored’, we set out how we can make more rapid and meaningful progress by ensuring that the rights that exist under current laws and statutes are properly understood, implemented and exercised by those with learning disabilities and/or autism. This work is underway and we have made a clear commitment to consider legislation if the actions we propose do not create sufficient progress.

01/01/2023
Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of dwell times on the (a) punctuality of and (b) number of cancellations on automated rail services.

Claire Perry

There are no automated rail services on the UK national rail network.

01/01/2023
Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Twigg on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of nurses that will need to be recruited from abroad to maintain levels of health care provision during the 2016-17 financial year.

Ben Gummer

The number of nurses that will need to be recruited from abroad to maintain levels of health care provision during the 2016-17 financial year is a matter for local National Health Service organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local populations.

Local organisations must ensure they have sufficient levels of nurses to deliver safe and sustainable care. We remain committed to moving forwards towards a self-sustaining workforce and to reduce the demand for migrant labour, including nurses. Nurses have been included on the Home Office’s Shortage Occupation list but this Government remains committed to the principle that our nurses should be able to secure the jobs they are qualified for. Employers will have to satisfy the resident labour market test before they can employ a nurse from outside of the European Economic Area.

01/01/2023

Date	Number of Privy Counsellors
13th July 2016	657
Appointments since 11th May 2010	179