The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offences were committed by (a) escaped or (b) absconded prisoners in each year since 2010; and what those offences were.
Andrew Selous
The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Government’s policies of the recognition of acts constituting genocide in the European Parliament’s Resolution, Systematic mass murder of religious minorities by ISIS, agreed on 4 February 2016.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
European Parliament resolutions are not binding and do not create legal obligations on member states.
It is the long-standing policy of successive governments that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred should be a matter for the international judicial system rather than governments or other non-judicial bodies. Our approach is to seek an end to all violations of International Humanitarian Law, and to prevent their further escalation, irrespective of whether these violations fit the definition of specific international crimes.
Ultimately, the best way of preventing future atrocities is to defeat Daesh and its violent ideology. That’s why the UK is playing a leading role in a Global Coalition of more than 65 countries and international organisations to respond to Daesh’s inhumanity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what controls arising from health considerations are placed on manufacturers on the use of formaldehyde.
Justin Tomlinson
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has responsibility for the regulation of workplace health and safety in the UK, and it is the legal duty of those who create risks through work activities to understand those risks and ensure they are adequately controlled. This includes ensuring that duty holders/employers identify and obtain relevant information on the hazardous properties of the substances or materials they use or manufacture.
The Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals Regulation (REACH) requires those who place chemicals such as formaldehyde on the market to provide information on the hazards associated with the chemical both up and down the supply chain. This includes the provision of Safety Data Sheets which must accompany chemicals through the supply chain, providing the information users need to ensure that chemicals are safely used and managed.
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) also applies in the workplace when hazardous substances, such as formaldehyde, are manufactured, used, or where processes are undertaken that generate hazardous substances. COSHH requires the employer to carry out a risk assessment to establish what, if any, risks to health are associated with the products/processes their employees are using/undertaking and then to put in place measures to eliminate or control exposure to those risks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many export licence applications made since March 2015 related to the supply of equipment to Saudi Arabia have not been approved due to non-compliance with criterion 2 of the National Arms Export Licensing Criteria.
Anna Soubry
We rigorously assess each application on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. A licence will not be granted if to do so would breach these Criteria.
Since March 2015 no export licence applications have been refused due to non-compliance with Criterion 2, although seven have been refused under Criterion 7 (risk of diversion to undesirable end users or end use).
Information on military and dual use export licences is published as Official Statistics in the quarterly and annual reports on Strategic Export Controls which are all available to view on GOV.UK. These reports contain detailed information on export licences issued, refused or revoked, by destination, including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-05-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many European Health Insurance Cards they have issued to citizens of each European Economic Area country in each of the last five years.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government does not hold the information requested.
The United Kingdom European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs) enable people living in the UK to travel to the European Economic Area safe in the knowledge that they will be able to receive free or reduced cost healthcare should they need it.
Entitlement to EHICs (in all European Economic Area countries) is based on ‘insurability’ under European Union law, not on a person’s nationality. In the UK, we operate a residency-based healthcare system which means that, ‘insurability’ is generally determined by a person’s residency status.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-07-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures are in place to ensure that there is an adequate supply of history, geography, and language teachers to meet the forecast demand stemming from the introduction of the English Baccalaureate.
Lord Nash
We have more teachers in our schools than ever before and the number of teachers has kept pace with changing numbers of pupils. There are more than 456,000 teachers in schools throughout England – up more than 15,000 since 2010. Teaching continues to be a popular profession with more than 14,000 former teachers coming back to the classroom in the last year.
We recognise that as schools increase their entry rates to English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects there will be more demand for specialist teachers, particularly language teachers. That is why we are spending over £1.3 billion up to 2020 to attract new teachers into the profession including continuing to offer teacher training bursaries in history, geography and languages to make sure that we continue to attract the brightest graduates. We have recently announced the expansion of the teacher subject specialism training to include modern foreign languages.
This investment in training the next generation of teachers clearly demonstrates the political will we have to make sure that all schools are able to recruit the teachers they need.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that its humanitarian response in Mosul does not involve screening procedures for children which separate them from their families.
Rory Stewart
The screening of fighting-age men fleeing from Daesh-controlled areas is conducted by the Government of Iraq as a security measure.
The UK and other major donors to the UN response in Iraq continue to vigorously lobby the Government of Iraq and other authorities to respect International Humanitarian Law during screening operations. We lobby for screening to take place in a transparent manner, under a fully accountable chain of command, and to be monitored independently by the UN and other neutral and impartial humanitarian actors.
On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, taking our total commitment to £169.5 million since June 2014. This new support will be targeted specifically to enable a scale up of humanitarian assistance ahead of Mosul operations. An element of this support will aim to help protect civilians displaced as a result of the operations – including children.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what modelling his Department has undertaken of the effect on adult social care of different funding allocations for such services.
Alistair Burt
Officials in the Department and across Government are working hard to understand pressures on the system and are considering adult social care expenditure and future demand as part of the Spending Review process. This includes modelling of the effect on adult social care of different funding allocations.
The Spending Review process will formally conclude on 25 November 2015, when the Chancellor will announce the outcome.
The Department has already commissioned a full review of the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula (which is used to allocate funding to local authorities based on indicators such as need, population and wealth) from the Personal Social Services Research Unit (at the University of Kent and the London School of Economics) and LG Futures (a consultancy).
As part of this review, 53 councils have contributed the most detailed data yet obtained for social care allocations. The researchers are currently writing up the research which will be published in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Madeleine Moon on 2015-12-10.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for the HMRC public service helpline.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has recruited 3,000 new staff into customer service roles this year. In particular, this has increased the number of people available on its telephone helplines outside normal office hours, when many customers choose to call.
HMRC has also undertaken its biggest-ever training programme as it seeks to build its customer support teams. This has included training 1,600 existing staff on a wider range of work to better meet customer demand.
Average call waiting times have improved significantly. From April to June it was 19 mins; from July to September it was 13 mins; in November it was under 10 minutes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times police cells were used to hold prisoners overnight in each month in 2014 and 2015.
Andrew Selous
There are occasions, for logistical reasons, where prisoners may be temporarily held overnight in police cells. Police cells are used not due to a lack of space across the prison estate but because it is not always possible to transfer prisoners from courts to prisons in the time available at the end of court sittings.
The number of prisoners held overnight in a police cell has been cut from a peak of over 50,000 in financial year 2007-08.
We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and will aim to deal with the prison population in a way that gives taxpayers the best possible value for money. Operation Safeguard, have not been used since 22 September 2008 and no police cells under Operation Safeguard have been on stand-by since the end of October 2008.
The following table shows the total number of prisoners who were temporarily held overnight in police cells in England and Wales in each month in 2014-15. The totals include adults, young adults (18 to 20-year-olds) and young people (15 to 17-year-olds).
|
Number of uses of police cells |
||
|
2014 |
2015 |
|
|
January |
168 |
89 |
|
February |
372 |
112 |
|
March |
175 |
74 |
|
April |
64 |
107 |
|
May |
46 |
47 |
|
June |
112 |
113 |
|
July |
274 |
180 |
|
August |
116 |
63 |
|
September |
62 |
137 |
|
October |
96 |
174 |
|
November |
149 |
195 |
|
December |
111 |
151 |
|
Total |
1745 |
1442 |
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