The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff were employed in the Passport Office in Belfast in each of the last five years.
James Brokenshire
The table below shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff employed
in the Belfast Passport Office in each of the last five years.
|
Mar-10 |
Mar-11 |
Mar-12 |
Mar-13 |
Mar-14 |
|
|
FTEs |
171 |
163 |
160 |
182 |
205 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether approval will be given for fracking sites on flood plains; and if he will make a statement.
Dan Rogerson
For surface installations required for borehole construction and hydraulic fracturing, the Environment Agency is a statutory adviser in the planning process. Where appropriate, it will require flood risk assessments. It may object to developments if flood risk is unacceptable or require conditions on how the site is constructed and operated to mitigate flood risk, through flood consents.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Winnick on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will arrange for the hon. Member for Walsall North to receive a reply to her letter to the Director General, UK Visas and Immigration, of 1 May 2014 on behalf of a constituent, CTS ref M5845/14.
Karen Bradley
The Director General responsible for Immigration Enforcement, responded to the hon. Member on 17 June 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Italian counterpart on the status of foreign lecturers in Italian universities.
Mr David Lidington
The discrimination faced by UK and foreign national lecturers in Italy is unacceptable and illegal. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague) raised the ‘lettori’ with the then Italian Foreign Minister, Emma Bonino, on 25 October 2013. I met the then Italian Europe Minister, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, on 19 November 2013, and stressed the importance of progress. I also met the Chairman of the Association of Foreign Lecturers in Italy (ALLSI), David Petrie, on 28 November 2013, and assured him of the Government’s commitment to keep up the pressure on the Italian authorities. I raised the issue with Italian Deputy Foreign Minister, Marta Dassu, when I met her on 15 January. Most recently, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, my right hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Mr Willetts), has written to the new Italian Minister for Education, Research and Universities, Stefania Giannini, and underlined the importance of finding a solution.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether a full range of sanitary products is provided free-of-charge to female prisoners.
Simon Hughes
Women should be given any items required to meet essential personal needs for their first 24 hours in custody, including toiletries, clean clothing and a towel. Women also must have easy access to a choice of sanitary provision. Tampons with applicators must be one of the choices.
All prisons across the female custodial estate provide Interlude tampons and sanitary towels to women free of charge. Other brands of sanitary products are available for women to buy via the National Product list.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what comparative assessment her Department has made of the cost to Indian nationals of applying for a (a) UK and (b) US student visa.
James Brokenshire
The Home Office assesses visa fees annually, to ensure the fees charged by the
UK are competitive with similar endorsement types offered by other countries.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what average time was left to be served on a sentence for prisoners serving (a) determinate, (b) indeterminate, (c) life and (d) all sentences moved from closed to open conditions within the prison estate in each year since 2010.
Jeremy Wright
We do not centrally hold data on the number of prisoners transferred from closed to open prisons for the time period requested – or the type of sentence which they were serving. Consequently, the information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost, as it would involve a manual trawl through the records of every prisoner who has formed part of the prison population since 2010, to identify if they had/have ever been held in open conditions during the time period requested.
Determinate sentence prisoners should not generally be moved to open prison if they have more than 2 years to serve to their earliest release date, unless assessment of a prisoner’s individual risks and needs support earlier categorisation to open conditions. Such cases must have the reasons for their categorisation fully documented and confirmed in writing by the Governing Governor.
Indeterminate sentence prisoners do not have fixed release dates, so even if the data on transfers was readily available, it would not be possible to identify a length of time left to be served in these cases.
Depending on the length of tariff and the risk they pose, indeterminate sentenced prisoners (ISPs – both those serving life and IPP sentences) move through their sentence via a series of progressive transfers into lower security establishments in the closed estate and then usually into open conditions. ISPs may be considered for transfer to open conditions up to 3 years before the expiry of their minimum tariff. The decision to transfer ISPs to open conditions is a categorisation decision which is a matter for the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may take this decision after seeking advice from the Parole Board – or without seeking advice from the Board, where the prisoners demonstrate exceptional progress.
Placing a prisoner in open conditions serves two main purposes. Firstly, it facilitates the eventual resettlement of prisoners into the community, in conditions more similar to those that they will face in the community than closed conditions can provide. Secondly, it allows for risk to be assessed in order to inform release decisions and, should the prisoner secure release, to inform risk management plans for ongoing supervision in the community. Thus, for many prisoners who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody, this can assist in their successful reintegration in the community and help protect the public. To release these prisoners directly from a closed prison without the resettlement benefits of the open estate could lead to higher levels of post-release re-offending.
Keeping the public safe is our priority. That is why this Government has taken action on both releases on temporary licence (ROTL) and absconds from prison. We commissioned a fundamental review of ROTL policy and practice last year and, in March, announced a package of measures to ensure that the public was properly protected. We have brought forward some of those measures so that they begin to take effect immediately; particularly with more serious offenders, where the review concluded that an enhanced risk assessment approach should be taken.
The public have understandable concerns about the failure of some prisoners to return from temporary release from open prison. Keeping the public safe is our priority and we will not allow the actions of a small minority of offenders to undermine public confidence in the prison system. The number of temporary release failures remains very low; less that one failure in every 1,000 releases and about five in every 100,000 releases involving alleged offending, but we take each and every incident seriously. The Government has already ordered immediate changes to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. With immediate effect, prisoners will no longer be transferred to open conditions if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or reoffended whilst released on temporary licence.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much her Department has spent on legacy issues in each year since 2010; and how many staff are employed on dealing with such legacy issues.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
It is not possible to provide a breakdown of spend by the Northern Ireland Office on legacy issues annually since 2010 as matters related cut across so many aspects of the Department’s work.
Within the Northern Ireland Office’s Engagement Group there is a Legacy Unit which currently consists of 4 members of staff. This unit deals with a wide range of issues arising from Northern Ireland’s troubled past, including calls for further inquiries and reviews; legal challenges brought in relation to legacy cases; applications for public interest immunity; and compensation for certain miscarriages of justice. In addition, the Legacy Unit oversees the sponsorship of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent estimate he has made of the level of investment in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow and (c) Scotland that resulted from EU membership in each of the last five years.
David Mundell
The Government does not collate figures for the level of investment in Scotland that results from UK membership of the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame M. Morris on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of the helicopter fleet operating in the offshore oil and gas industry is fitted with a side-floating helicopter scheme that is compliant with the Civil Aviation Authority’s relevant statutory specifications.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), as part of its Offshore Helicopter Review, looked at improvements that could be made to helicopters to increase the survivability of passengers in the event of a ditching in the sea. The CAA has made recommendations to industry concerning the use of flotation devices. However, the CAA does not have statutory specifications for side-floating helicopter schemes.
The requirements for such equipment are being developed by the European Aviation Safety Agency.