The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) volume and (b) value of (i) raw milk, (ii) butter, (iii) cheese, (iv) cream and (v) condensed milk was exported in each year from 1995-96 to 2014-15.
George Eustice
The information requested is set out in the tables attached.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2015 to Question 15125, when she plans to publish draft proposals on eligibility requirements for free school meals within universal credit; when the consultation on those proposals will be launched; and when she plans to make a final decision on eligibility.
Mr Sam Gyimah
We plan to launch a public consultation on eligibility for free school meals under Universal Credit later in 2016, with a view to having the necessary regulations in place for the end of the year, when the roll out of the full Universal Credit Service to a broader claimant base will be well under way.
While this work is on-going, any child whose parent or guardian is receiving Universal Credit will continue to be entitled to free school meals.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Eurostar about child trafficking.
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.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to close the higher education attainment gap between BME students and other students.
Joseph Johnson
The Higher Education Green Paper sets out steps the Government plans to take to improve outcomes for students, including BME students. We have consulted on how the Teaching Excellence Framework will recognise the efforts that providers make to improve the access and experience of students from all backgrounds, and the importance of this to the overall student learning experience.
Ministers have also asked Universities UK to establish an expert advisory group on social mobility and higher education to identify what more can be done to address this gap, and other issues concerning social mobility. The group will provide advice to the Minister.
In addition, new guidance from Ministers to the Director of Fair Access (DfA), published on 11 February, asks the Director to continue to address gaps in outcomes, including those for BME groups, through Access Agreements agreed with universities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Metcalfe on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the average length of a (a) delay and (b) tailback caused by the closure of the Dartford Crossing; and what effect a new crossing would have on those averages.
Andrew Jones
Typically there are in excess of 300 incidents per year resulting in partial or full closures of the Dartford Crossing. On average each incident takes approximately 27 minutes to deal with, often requiring a lane closure for safety. During this time queues build rapidly towards junctions 29 and 3 of the M25 and take a further 3 to 5 hours for the road condition to return to normal.
Highways England are continuing to explore ways of reducing incidents and improving clear up times. In the longer term, with a new crossing, there would be increased capacity to cross the river so the effect of any incident would be less extreme. If one of the tunnels were to close today, the northbound capacity of the crossing would reduce by 50%. With the new Lower Thames Crossing in place at either Dartford or Gravesend, a closure of one of the tunnels at the Dartford Crossing would still leave more capacity than exists today without an incident, so recovery times would be much improved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to collect data from private sector providers of NHS mental health services.
Alistair Burt
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is responsible for the Mental Health Services Data Set which is a patient level, output based, secondary uses dataset which will deliver robust comprehensive, nationally consistent and comparable person based information for children, young people and adults who are in contact with mental health services.
Data submission is mandatory for all instances of care including from independent providers that are wholly or partially funded by the National Health Service.
The Department is also working with the HSCIC and other health system partners to improve data submissions from independent providers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Fabricant on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how he plans to ensure that former sex workers and ex-intravenous drug users will be involved in the SaBTO blood donations review group; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) is carrying out a review of blood donor selection criteria. Representatives of health charities that work with sex workers and those with a history of intravenous drug use are members of the review group. A public meeting was held on 11 April 2016, which provided an opportunity for anyone with an interest in the review to participate in information exchange.
The terms of reference for the review, and membership, together with questions and answers from the public meeting will shortly be available on the SaBTO website. The review will be holistic and evidence relating to the risks of blood-borne infections in people who have previously injected drugs or received money or drugs for sex will be included. The review will be incremental, with published progress reports and any intermediate advice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville on 2016-07-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are aware of any situations where trustees of community land trusts who are also members of parish councils have been prevented from carrying out their duties due to their interests being inaccurately declared as personal and prejudicial, and if so, what advice they plan to provide to all involved to resolve such situations.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are non-profit local organisations set up and run by local people to develop and manage homes and other community assets. They will be regulated according to the specific legal form they have decided is appropriate for their objectives. Consequently, the Department does not retain any central records on CLTs or their trustees.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what incentives are provided by the Government to encourage electricity providers to create opportunities for households with dynamically teleswitched metres to switch between electricity suppliers.
David Mundell
The Government recognises that customers using dynamically teleswitched meters do not enjoy the same wide choice of energy suppliers as other domestic customers. In its final report in June, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) included in its remedies an order on energy suppliers with more than 50,000 domestic customers to make all their single-rate electricity tariffs available to all existing and new domestic electricity customers with restricted meters, without requiring the meter to be replaced. Suppliers will also need to ensure these customers receive regular information on the options to switch supplier or tariff. The Citizens Advice will become a recognised provider of information and support for customers with restricted meters. These provisions will be implemented through CMA orders on suppliers and amendments to their licence conditions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-10-28.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will bring forward proposals to add the (a) Surveillance Camera Commissioner and (b) Office of the Biometrics Commissioner to Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Matthew Hancock
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) already extends to over 100,000 public authorities. We constantly keep the list of bodies covered by the FOIA under review.