The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many consultants’ contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.
Justin Tomlinson
No DWP Contracts let for the services of Consultants have been terminated earlier than the Contract end date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to how many appeal hearings her Department did not send a representative at (a) First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) and (b) Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) in (i) 2012-13 (ii) 2013-14 and (iii) 2014-15.
James Brokenshire
The Government publishes the percentage of appeal hearings at which the Secretary of State for the Home Department was represented on a quarterly basis. Below is a table covering the 2012-2015 period.
Appeal Representation Rates
|
Quarters |
All hearings (%) |
First Tier (%) 3 |
Upper Tier (%) 3 |
Deportation (%) 2 |
|
2012 Q1 |
83% |
80% |
100% |
100% |
|
2012 Q2 |
83% |
80% |
100% |
100% |
|
2012 Q3 |
87% |
85% |
100% |
100% |
|
2012 Q4 |
94% |
93% |
100% |
100% |
|
2013 Q1 |
95% |
94% |
100% |
100% |
|
2013 Q2 |
98% |
97% |
100% |
100% |
|
2013 Q3 |
98% |
98% |
100% |
100% |
|
2013 Q4 |
99% |
99% |
100% |
100% |
|
2014 Q1 |
99% |
98% |
100% |
100% |
|
2014 Q2 |
99% |
99% |
100% |
100% |
|
2014 Q3 |
99% |
99% |
100% |
100% |
|
2014 Q4 |
99% |
99% |
100% |
100% |
|
2015 Q1 |
97% |
97% |
100% |
100% |
|
2015 Q2 |
86% |
83% |
100% |
100% |
|
2015 Q3 |
85% |
82% |
100% |
100% |
|
2015 Q4 |
98% |
97% |
100% |
100% |
|
Appeal Representation Rates |
|
|
1 |
The percentage of appeal hearings at first tier/upper tier/deportation where the Home Office was represented. |
|
2 |
Deportation appeals show both first tier and upper tier representation rates. |
|
3 |
The first tier/upper tier information excludes entry clearance appeals and deportation appeals. |
|
4 |
All figures quoted have been derived from management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change. |
|
5 |
This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols. |
|
6 |
Data refers ONLY to those cases recorded on the Casework Immigration Database. |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-04-29.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2015 to Question 35437, what the average length of time was recommended by respondents to his Department’s informal consultation on removing the climate change levy renewables exemption in answer to Question 3 of that consultation on transitional arrangements.
Damian Hinds
At Autumn Statement 2015 it was announced that a transitional period for electricity suppliers to apply the Climate Change Levy exemption on renewably-sourced electricity generated before 1 August 2015 would end on 31 March 2018. Question 3 of the informal consultation asked about the length of time for the transitional period. Some respondents suggested an end date, and others a time period without specific dates. The small sample and varied responses mean it is not possible to provide an average from this information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will take steps to ensure that staff in her Department receive religious literacy training.
Sir Desmond Swayne
In implementing DFID’s ‘Faith Partnership Principles Paper’, DFID has produced material for staff on the role played by faiths in the local, national and global cultural contexts, arranged for faith literacy training and facilitated staff to attend the Foreign and Commonwealth Office faith literacy training courses.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Siobhain McDonagh on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department takes to prevent people using a false identity being granted entry clearance to the UK.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Home Office does not hold the specific information in relation to people from Pakistan using false identity, in the format requested. To obtain it would involve interrogating individual case records, at disproportionate cost.
All out of country entry clearance applications are subject to an extensive range of mandatory and discretionary checks.
These include, but are not limited to, identity, travel document verification, searches against national and international police records and against previous Immigration history.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, pursuant to the Answer of 20 September 2016 to Question 45844, how many of his Department’s officials in Brussels are bound by EU codes of conduct which require them to act only with regard to the European Communities rather than a single member state.
Mr David Jones
Officials in my Department are not bound by any EU codes of conduct. This is true of Home Civil Service officials, Diplomatic Service officials, and locally engaged staff.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many additional modern foreign language teachers they estimate will be needed in order to achieve the target of 90 per cent of mainstream pupils achieving the English Baccalaureate by 2020.
Lord Nash
The proposals in the English Baccalaureate consultation launched on 3 November imply an increase in the numbers of teachers of languages needed. The EBacc-related increase is over and above the additional teachers needed to keep up with the rise in the secondary school pupil population.
We will forecast the demand for additional Modern Foreign Language teachers following the conclusion of the consultation. This will give us a better understanding of how schools plan to respond to the resulting workforce requirements from 2017/18.
The Department does this, in part, by adding policy assumptions into the Teacher Supply Model (TSM), which informs the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) targets each year.
More details as to how the policy assumption process is managed within the TSM itself, along with some previous examples, can be found in both the 2016/17 TSM and the accompanying user guide.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what benefits aside from the 10 per cent price reduction that policy required have accrued from conducting the Lead Provider Framework procurement process to date.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Lead Provider Framework enables clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to run a simpler, legally compliant and more efficient process than typical European procurements in order to source high quality commissioning support from accredited, professional at scale providers.
Sourcing commissioning support collaboratively with other commissioners enables CCGs to benefit from the economies of scale and the diverse range of smaller niche organisations that the nine Lead Providers bring together.
The Lead Provider Framework has already led to consolidation within the market, driving efficiency and has improved the quality and range of services offered. CCGs are expected to benefit from further efficiencies as providers compete for their contracts.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve food hygiene safety in schools, children’s clubs and nurseries that failed to meet satisfactory standards in inspections last year.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Local authorities are responsible for food hygiene inspections of schools, children’s clubs and nurseries at which food is served regularly to children. Food hygiene legislation requires these premises to be registered as food businesses. The Food Standards Agency, which sets policy for and monitors enforcement of food safety legislation by local authorities, has advised that approximately 99% of educational establishments and caring establishments, including schools, children’s clubs and nurseries, have satisfactory or better food hygiene standards.
Local authorities work with food businesses to make improvements in any premises that fail to meet satisfactory standards during inspections and may take a range of enforcement actions as considered appropriate in the circumstances of each case. The honourable member for Bolton North East or members of his constituency may contact the relevant local authority or the Food Standards Agency for detailed information about specific premises that are of concern to him.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Dholakia on 2016-02-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 9 February (HL5469), of those tested, how many were subsequently diagnosed with (1) hepatitis B, (2) hepatitis C, and (3) HIV, over the same time period.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Public Health England (PHE) collects data on people in prison tested for blood-borne viruses (BBVs) via the Sentinel Surveillance Study. This system does not currently receive reports from all prisons in England where testing occurs currently 28 prisons report data. Table 1 below shows data from this system on the total number of prisoners tested positive for BBVs in the calendar years 2012-2014. Similar information from this study for the year 2015 will not be available until mid-2016. NHS England also collects data on levels of testing for BBVs in prisons via the Health & Justice Indicators of Performance. The numbers of positive tests for BBVs in these data are presented in Table 2 using currently available data. The higher number is due to the greater coverage of prisons by this dataset.
Table 1: Reported levels of positive tests for BBVs for people in prisons for calendar years 2012-14
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
|
|
hepatitis B |
60 |
51 |
49 |
|
hepatitis C |
456 |
400 |
327 |
|
HIV |
16 |
19 |
16 |
Source: PHE Sentinel Surveillance Study
Table 2: Reported levels of positive tests for BBVs for people in prisons from April 2015 to December 2015
|
April 2015 – December 2015 |
|
|
hepatitis B |
743 |
|
hepatitis C |
2164 |
|
HIV |
1777 |
Source: NHS England