The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the grants awarded by the tobacco policy team in his Department are so awarded only after competitive bids have been invited.
Jane Ellison
Grants made under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 can be made in a number of ways. Grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health have been assessed as most appropriate for the non-competed route.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-12-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many hectares of trees have been (a) felled and (b) replanted on Forestry Commission land in England in each year since 2000.
Rory Stewart
The area felled in any one year on the public forest estate in England is not recorded separately, but the total area that has been felled and which is in the process of being either restocked, or being converted to another land use, such as open habitats for landscape or conservation reasons, is recorded. This is given in the table below, along with the area restocked each year and the expenditure on restocking operations.
|
Year ending 31 March |
Total felled area 1 (thousand hectares) |
Restocked area 2 (thousand hectares) |
Expenditure associated with restocking 3 (£ ,000s) |
|
2001 |
7.9 |
2.1 |
5,181 |
|
2002 |
8.4 |
2.3 |
5,779 |
|
2003 |
7.9 |
2.3 |
5,979 |
|
2004 |
8.1 |
2.2 |
5,735 |
|
2005 |
8.1 |
1.9 |
5,635 |
|
2006 |
7.5 |
2.5 |
6,356 |
|
2007 |
8.2 |
1.9 |
6,562 |
|
2008 |
8.3 |
2.1 |
5,915 |
|
2009 |
8.7 |
1.8 |
5,924 |
|
2010 |
9.2 |
1.5 |
5,880 |
|
2011 |
8.1 |
2.5 |
7,340 |
|
2012 |
8.2 |
2.2 |
7,384 |
|
2013 |
8.6 |
2.2 |
6,448 |
|
2014 |
8.7 |
2.1 |
7,399 |
|
2015 |
8.6 |
2.3 |
7,884 |
1 ‘Felled area’ is the area of the public forest estate that is recorded as felled on the sub-compartment database, the Forestry Commission’s electronic record of current land use. Because there is generally a two to four year gap between felling and restocking, or the reclassification as another land use, the total area classified as ‘felled’ is significantly greater than that which is felled in any one year.
2 ‘Restocked area’ is the area of the public forest estate that has previously been felled and which is recorded as having been restocked in the previous 12 months, including by natural regeneration and replanting.
3 Expenditure associated with restocking is all money spent on activities directly attributed to restocking after felling, including preparation of the site and maintenance during the initial establishment phase.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much revenue from (a) CRB checks and (b) Disclosure and Barring Service checks has been raised for the public purse in each of the last 10 years.
Karen Bradley
The Disclosure and Barring Service was established on 1 December 2012 when the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) merged. The table below shows total fee income from disclosures for the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2015 collated from the Annual Reports for the period. DBS is self-funding and operates on a full cost recovery basis.
|
Financial Year |
Total Fee Income |
|
|
£(000) |
|
2005 – 06 |
75,494 |
|
2006 – 07 |
93,042 |
|
2007 – 08 |
97,765 |
|
2008 – 09 |
113,117 |
|
2009 – 10 |
125,883 |
|
2010 – 11 |
117,898 |
|
2011 – 12 |
105,253 |
|
2012 – 13 |
115,193 |
|
2013 – 14 |
135,878 |
|
2014 – 15 |
145,773 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to reply to the letters dated 11 December 2015, 14 January and 10 February 2016 from the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner on port security and border controls; and if she will place a copy of her responses in the Library.
James Brokenshire
The Home Secretary sent a response to the letters dated 11th December 2015 and 14th January 2016 on 22nd February 2016. She has not received a third letter. Responses will not be added to the library, this is not usual practice for private correspondence.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that there is high-quality sixth form provision within the Knowsley Borough Council area.
Nick Boles
There are a range of institutions which provide high quality 16-19 provision, including Sixth Form Colleges and Further Education Colleges as well as school sixth forms.
The Department for Education does not prescribe the exact balance of providers across a local area. Instead, it is crucial that we ensure that together the local provider base meets the needs of all young people in a local area with reasonable travel to learn distances. We are currently taking forward a series of area reviews which provide the opportunity to review post-16 provision with the aim of ensuring the provider base is strong and resilient.
The decision about which schools should have sixth forms rests with schools themselves in partnership with key local stakeholders, including Regional Schools Commissioners and local authorities. A maintained school can apply to its local authority if it wishes to extend the age range of its school to add a sixth-form. We would expect this decision to take account of a range of factors including breadth of provision and local demand.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31117, whether there has been any lasting duration of the HPV reduction that Public Health England have associated with the bivalent vaccine.
Jane Ellison
The findings of Kavanagh and others, 2014, and of Mesher and others, 2016, are consistent with the reductions in human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18 that were expected in the assessments that informed the Department’s policies. Neither of these papers report findings about genital warts incidence, both report no decrease in HPV types 6 and 11; this is also consistent with expectations in assessments that informed the Department’s policies.
The answer of 23 March 2016 stated, ‘data reported to Public Health England (PHE) from genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics shows a reduction in rates of genital warts diagnoses at GUM clinics between 2009 and 2014.’ This analysis has been updated with data for 2013 and 2014. The reductions reported were in patients aged 15 years and older. As the introduction of the quadrivalent vaccine was in 2012, to 12 year olds, no impact on genital warts in 15+ year olds within this time period was expected due to this introduction. Use of the quadrivalent vaccine within this age group prior to its introduction in the national immunisation programme was assessed as a possible but highly unlikely cause of the reductions seen.
The latest data from PHE showing reductions in genital warts diagnoses in GUM clinics amongst ages offered the bivalent vaccine are data for 2014: the future duration of any protection from genital warts associated with the bivalent vaccine has not been (and cannot be) inferred.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-05-25.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the arrest in Diyarbakir on 10 May of Mr Kamuran Yüksek of the Democratic Region Party and make appropriate representations to the government of Turkey.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK as well as in Turkey, continues to mount deadly terrorist attacks in Turkey, particularly in the country’s south-east. In the course of security operations in that region, a number of Democratic Regions Party officials have been detained, including Kamuran Yüksek. We regularly urge the Turkish authorities to respect human rights, including the right to freedom of expression, in the course of anti-terror operations, and to support the rule of law. We will continue to monitor these issues closely.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-07-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with representatives of charities and voluntary groups concerned with child welfare on possible amendments to the meaning of the term supply in the Video Recordings Act 1984 to include adults providing children with access to recordings categorised as containing age-inappropriate content.
Matt Hancock
Following public consultations involving representations from classification bodies, child welfare groups, local authorities, content producers and many others, since 2010 we have legislated twice to strengthen the protections provided by the Act. This has ensured that retailers now cannot sell or rent any age-inappropriate DVDs or video games discs or cartridges to children. It also ensures these products are all labelled with relevant British Board of Film Classification (DVDs) and PEGI (video games) age ratings and content advice. This means adults have better information to help them make responsible decisions about the material children can access.
We will continue to work with industry and the age ratings bodies to encourage further promotion of the BBFC and PEGI age ratings to consumers including through initiatives such as BBFCInsight and AskAboutGames.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make available to the hon. Member for Easington, in electronic form, (a) all Local Government Pension Scheme pooling bids and (b) the investment cost data provided by CEM Benchmarking which have been used to calculate investment costs under each fund and that underpin each bid in each of the last three years.
Mr Marcus Jones
I will place copies of the final proposals on local government pension scheme pooling in the Library of the House.
Investment cost data was provided by CEM Benchmarking to the individual administering authorities and is not held by my Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-10-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial support is in place to help local authorities to resettle Syrian refugees.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Under the expanded Vulnerable Persons scheme, local authorities costs for the first year of a Syrian refugee’s resettlement are funded from the Official Development Assistance budget. To ensure that local authorities can plan ahead we will also provide additional funding to assist with costs incurred in future years (2 to 5). The Government is working closely with the Local Government Association and individual councils on the details of how funding arrangements for years 2 to 5 will operate.