The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-03-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of disability living allowance claimants have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment to date.
Justin Tomlinson
Information on whether claimants of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment have received an NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment is not centrally recorded and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the (a) salary, (b) bonus and (c) pension arrangements are of the current interim Chief Executive of the Office for Rail and Road.
Claire Perry
The interim Chief Executive of the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) full time equivalent salary is £140,000 (prorated for part-time working), which will be subject to an annual review effective from 1 April 2016. The review will be conducted by ORR’s statutory Board, and subject to the annual guidance issued by the Cabinet Office concerning Senior Civil Service pay.
There are no contractual bonus arrangements. However, the Chief Executive, along with other senior civil servants at ORR, may be considered for a non-consolidated performance related payment in respect of their annual performance. Allocation of these awards at ORR is a matter for the ORR Board, subject to the guidance and constraints set out annually by the Cabinet Office for the whole of the Senior Civil Service.
The Chief Executive is a member of the Civil Service pension arrangements managed by My Civil Service Pension.
As required under statute, the terms and conditions of the Chief Executive’s appointment were approved by the Treasury in December 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33790, if he will raise with the UK’s European partners allowing Yazidi women in Iraq temporary residence in European countries to access medical and psychological support after rape and torture by Daesh.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We remain extremely concerned by the barbarity and inhumanity which Daesh has shown towards all Iraq’s communities, and welcome European partners’ support to the humanitarian response
We understand the depth of feeling at the suffering which Yezidi women have experienced, and calls for them to be granted temporary residence. Our priority is providing assistance to Yezidi women, and other vulnerable Iraqis, within Iraq. We can help more people through providing aid in Iraq compared to bringing people to the UK.
Through the Department for International Development we have committed £79.5 million to the humanitarian effort to help those who have fled Daesh’s brutality in Iraq. This support is reaching hundreds of thousands of people across the country, including the most vulnerable groups, which includes Yezidis. UK aid has provided medicine, emergency kits, psychological support, clean water and improved sanitation, shelter and cash assistance. The UK is the largest donor to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund. This is providing life-saving maternal and child health-care, child protection services, and specialised support for escapees of Daesh terror.
All UK-funded aid is distributed on the basis of need, regardless of race, religion and ethnicity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-06-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether gas supplies to the UK are secure and will remain competitively priced following the vote to leave the EU, and what contingency plans they have in place; what percentage of UK gas supplies originate from Russia; and what assessment they have made of whether the devaluation of sterling against the rouble following the vote to leave the EU will adversely affect gas prices.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
Energy security is my top priority. The Department will take the steps needed to ensure hard working families and business have the energy they need, including from overseas where this adds to the diversity and cost effectiveness of our energy supplies.
The UK has high levels of gas security from a diverse supply mix including storage facilities; pipelines from Norway, Netherlands and Belgium; and LNG terminals. This is in addition to domestic production which met over half our annual demand of 773TWh in 2014. Gas shippers in the UK purchase gas from hubs across Europe without HMG intervention in a competitive market.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce obesity in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Nicola Blackwood
We launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action on 18 August. Our plan focuses on actions that are likely to have the biggest impact on childhood obesity. We will continue to work with the National Health Service, local authorities and other partners to deliver the proposals in our plan.
Public Health England helps local authorities to identify excess weight through various programmes such as the National Child Measurement Programme and NHS Health Checks, and supports local authorities to provide evidence based and effective interventions to help those individuals manage their weight.
A copy of Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action is attached and is available at:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support initiatives to increase hedgehog numbers.
Rory Stewart
Defra is working with partners to identify actions that will help the conservation of hedgehogs though the Terrestrial Biodiversity Group, chaired by Natural England.
In addition, the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package element of the new Countryside Stewardship scheme will deliver specific management focused on improving farmland biodiversity across most farming systems. The package supports management options, including the conservation and enhancement of hedgerow systems and the creation and maintenance of field margins, which will help to provide suitable habitat for a range of species, including hedgehogs.
We also welcome the work being undertaken by a number of non-government organisations in helping to establish the facts behind the decline of the hedgehog and raise public awareness.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Tomlinson on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department is providing to young people who are classified as long-term unemployed in Mid Dorset and North Poole constituency.
Priti Patel
Since March 2012 and throughout the recession DWP has provided additional support, over and above the standard Jobcentre Plus offer, to young people that has included:
Each young person on benefit receives support tailored to their needs, for example referrals to Apprenticeships, to other jobs, traineeships, skills training and work experience.
We are committed to providing every opportunity to encourage young people to either earn or learn. For example, on 27 January 2016, Poole Jobcentre have organised a sector based work academy Jobs Fair event for 18-24 year olds with employers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential link between social media and self-harm among young people.
Alistair Burt
We recognise the potential influence of online platforms, including social media, on both promoting self-harm and supporting people who have or may be at risk of self-harm.
There is a link between bullying including cyberbullying and self-harm and the Department for Education produced guidance in October 2014, advising schools about preventing bullying. This guidance refers to new powers under the Education Act 2011 for teachers to search pupils, to confiscate IT equipment including mobile phones and to destroy offensive or inappropriate images.
The Government continues to provide financial support for the Multi-Centre Study of Self-Harm in England, which monitors trends in self-harm and recognises the potential influence of online platforms on self-harming in young people.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport expects social media companies to have robust processes in place to address inappropriate and abusive content on their sites. This includes having clear reporting channels, acting promptly to assess reports, and removing content which does not comply with their acceptable use policies or terms and conditions. Social media can also help signpost vulnerable users to helpful sources of information and support.
Recently, Ofcom led a social media working group on behalf of UK Council for Child Internet Safety to develop best practice guidance to encourage responsible practice from industry, and ensure children using their services are able to do so in a safe and protected way. This guidance was delivered on 22 December 2015 and can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-council-for-child-internet-safety-ukccis
The Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research has also funded ongoing research by the Samaritans and Bristol University into the influence on online platforms on suicidal behaviour.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Green of Deddington on 2016-02-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an EEA national residing in the UK who wished to bring in a non-EU spouse into the country would, under the draft Decision by the European Council published on 2 February, have to meet the requirements for salary and the spouse the conditions for language as are required of a British citizen and are set out under part 8 of the UK Immigration Rules..
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Government considers that it is important that the interests of energy consumers are represented on the SEC Panel. The current arrangements were consulted on in the Government’s Smart Energy Code Consultation in April 2012, and were concluded in the Government Responses in November 2012 and April 2013. The Government concluded that Consumer Futures, as the exclusive statutory consumer body in the energy sector, was best placed to nominate consumer representatives for the Panel. These statutory responsibilities were transferred to Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland when Consumer Futures was abolished in 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Crawley on 2016-03-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of HMRC’s pilot of the Codentify system, why no other companies or systems have been asked to participate in such a pilot.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) takes the restrictions in the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) very seriously. These require that the development, implementation and enforcement of tobacco policies as part of public health policies should be protected from the influence of the tobacco industry.
Codentify is a system, developed and introduced by the major tobacco manufacturers on their own initiative through the Digital Coding and Tracking Association (DCTA). HMRC played no part in the development or introduction of the system nor did HMRC require that it be introduced. Codentify codes already feature on packs and are there regardless of any HMRC use of them. The trial HMRC is undertaking is to see whether these existing codes could help officers in the field to authenticate products and help tackle illicit tobacco. No other companies currently provide such codes.
The use of Codentify by HMRC is not part of an exercise to evaluate the wider use of potential tools available on the market. Any such exercise would be undertaken in the context of the implementation of the EU Tobacco Products Directive track and trace security feature requirements, which will be implemented by May 2019 for cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.
The European Commission is still considering, with Member States, proposals for new pan European security features and track and trace systems, and has yet to determine any technical specifications. HMRC are not evaluating Codentify as a track and trace tool or potential security feature; the aspects of the system being used are entirely separate from the requirements of the Directive.
The use of Codentify is not a formal pilot and there will not be reports or results to publish. Instead the trial will identify the strengths, weaknesses and usefulness of using Codentify to HMRC as an authentication tool in the field. HMRC will review this later in 2016. Some resource has been spent providing access to the system and training officers in the use of the tool. However, this has been minimal and has not been separately identified. The Department of Health leads on public health policy and has been consulted on this initiative. HMRC sees no conflict between its current use of the Codentify system and FCTC requirements.