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  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what cooperation arrangements are in place to tackle the potential utilisation of the land border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic by Islamist terrorists.

    Mr John Hayes

    The UK and the Republic of Ireland have long enjoyed a Common Travel Area (CTA) free of routine border controls. However, there are long-established and effective working relationships between the police and intelligence agencies in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to mitigate threats. The Government takes protecting our border security very seriously, and there is also a high level of collaboration on work with the Irish Government on strengthening of CTA’s external border.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library copies of the (a) labour and (b) materials data used to calculate the area cost adjustment factor element of the Sussex Police grant.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Area Cost Adjustment data referred to in the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2015/16 is that used for the 2013-14 Local Government Finance Settlement.

    The main data used for the labour cost element are anonymised personal records from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Any release is governed by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and is the responsibility of the Office for National Statistics.

    The main sources of data used for the rates cost element come from Valuation Office Agency estimates for offices. This data is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/business-floorspace-experimental-statistics

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Irish government on security at airport and ferry ports in the Republic of Ireland.

    James Brokenshire

    Home Office Ministers and officials have regular contact with their Irish counterparts; there is excellent government and operational level co-operation to prevent those seeking to abuse the CTA arrangement from doing so.

    In particular, we are working together to further align our respective border and visa policy processes in order to strengthen the external CTA border.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Police and Crime Commissioners about the funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

    Mike Penning

    Home Office Ministers have a range of discussions on a wide variety of subjects. Police and Crime Commissioners are helping to ensure that police forces’ priorities reflect those of the communities they serve, with individual police forces enjoying the flexibility to deploy their resources without unnecessary interference from central government.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with Police and Crime Commissioners on the priority afforded to the enforcement of wildlife crime.

    Mike Penning

    Home Office Ministers have a range of discussions on a wide variety of subjects. Police and Crime Commissioners are helping to ensure that police forces’ priorities reflect those of the communities they serve, with individual police forces enjoying the flexibility to deploy their resources without unnecessary interference from central government.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has for the funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

    Mike Penning

    The Spending Review announcement set the overall budget for the Home Office. Officials are now going through the detail and will provide advice to the Home Secretary on individual allocations and spending commitments.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the educational needs of young people in mental health facilities are assessed; and what system is in place to ensure that the needs of those patients are monitored and provided for as they change.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Local authorities have a duty to ensure suitable education is in place for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it. This includes pupils with medical conditions that prevent them from attending a mainstream school. Where pupils are in-patients in medical facilities, this education would in many cases be provided by the facility itself via an on-site hospital school.

    In all cases, decisions on the education required should be based on an assessment of the pupil’s needs and in consultation with the pupil, parents, medical practitioners and other relevant professionals. Providers and the local authority must ensure that the education a pupil receives is of good quality, allows them to take appropriate qualifications, prevents them from slipping behind their peers in school and allows them to reintegrate successfully back into school as soon as possible. Monitoring and assurance processes should be established to ensure this quality education is in place and in all cases, effective collaboration between all relevant services is essential to delivering effective education for children with additional health needs.

    The Department for Education’s guidance ‘Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs’ sets out the legal duties and responsibilities of the local authority with regards education for such pupils. It is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/269469/health_needs_guidance__-_revised_may_2013_final.pdf

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  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications of coroners recording narrative verdicts in cases of suicide on the provision of accurate suicide statistics.

    Alistair Burt

    We have been working with the Chief Coroner to address areas around suicide, including narrative verdicts and the information recorded by coroners in deaths where suicide may have been suspected. However, coroners must meet the standard of proof of an intention beyond reasonable doubt in order to record a conclusion of suicide – to establish beyond reasonable doubt that a person took their own life and that they intended to take their own life.

    The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has also worked with the Chief Coroner to improve the coding for narrative verdicts to improve data quality around suicide. The suicide rates published by the ONS may include deaths that were given an open verdict where the person’s intent was unknown.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rachel Reeves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Docetaxel chemotherapy medication is available from the Cancer Drugs Fund.

    George Freeman

    Docetaxel has not been made available through the national Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) list. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended docetaxel for the treatment of hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer (where the disease becomes unresponsive to hormone treatment). Commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and treatments recommended in NICE technology appraisal guidance.

    NHS England will consider Individual CDF Requests for cancer medicines not on the CDF list and not recommended by NICE to treat individuals whose clinician can demonstrate clinical exceptionality.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the additional £1.25 billion allocated in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 for funding for child and adolescent mental health services over five years will be allocated in each financial year to 2020.

    Alistair Burt

    In total £1.4 billion will be made available over the course of this Parliament to improve children and young people’s mental health. In addition to the £1.25 billion made available in the March 2015 budget, which includes £75 million for perinatal mental health services, an additional £150 million was also allocated in the 2014 Autumn Statement to improve community-based eating disorder services.

    The Government is firmly committed to delivering the major changes needed to improve services for children and young people with mental health problems, including investment in early intervention and prevention.

    The Government is taking a targeted and phased approach to the additional investment to enable local areas to develop additional capacity and a collaborative approach across health, education and children’s services. This is what is needed to make a real difference. We are spending £143 million this year, much of which is going to local area, underpinned by a national programme of work.

    Exact allocations for each financial year will be confirmed as part of the annual planning process, but the government remains committed to delivering the full amount over the five year period to 2019/20.