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  • Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what remedy exists for enquirers whose electronic communications with the International Enquiry Service are not answered.

    James Brokenshire

    The International Enquiry Service currently handles approximately 12,000 emails a week and, from management information received, continues to answer all emails within the published service standards (100% of emails responded to within one working day (24 hours)) . In addition, all email enquiries receive an auto response which states “Your email has been submitted – We have received your email. You will receive a response within one working day.”

  • Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy for the free email service offered by the International Enquiry Service automatically to acknowledge safe receipt of messages sent to it by enquirers.

    James Brokenshire

    The International Enquiry Service currently handles approximately 12,000 emails a week and continues to answer all emails within the published service standards. All email enquiries receive an auto response which states “Your email has been submitted – We have received your email. You will receive a response within one working day.”

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken and plans to take to ensure that out of city areas are adequately defended and protected from a repetition of the recent attacks in Paris.

    Mr John Hayes

    Since the attacks in Mumbai in 2008 the Home Office has worked with the Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of Health and the police and security and intelligence agencies to develop a strong, police-led capability to deal with large-scale firearms attacks in the UK. We have also improved joint working between the emergency services to deal with the particular challenges of this type of incident so that specialist joint police, ambulance and fire teams are now in place in key areas across England (including London), with equivalents in Scotland and Wales. Firearms police are trained to respond to a marauding firearms attack and fire and ambulance teams are trained and equipped to manage casualties in higher risk environments. Under the Spending Review, the Government has also committed to protecting police spending in real terms and to further strengthen police firearms resource to protect citizens from terrorism. New funding is also available to the security and intelligence agencies to provide for an additional 1,900 officers to better respond to the threat we face from international terrorism, cyber-attacks and other global risks.

    We are reviewing our response to firearms attacks of the type seen in Paris, to see if there is anything we can learn.

  • Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason callers to the International Enquiry Service of UK Visas and Immigration are charged £1.37 per minute.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office sets fees at a level that ensures it has sufficient resources to control migration for the benefit of the UK.

    Income from fees helps provide the resources necessary to operate the immigration system. The remainder is provided through general taxation. The Home Office aims to reduce the overall contribution of funding that comes from general taxation and increase the proportion of income generated from fees. We estimate that about 60 per cent of immigration system costs will be recovered through fees, a slight increase from last year. The remainder of the costs will be met by the UK taxpayer.

    To ensure that the system is fair and equitable, the government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs, thereby reducing the cost to the UK taxpayer. Customers can access a range of information on our application processes for free through our pages on gov.uk.

  • Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much NHS England spent per head on mental health in each year since 2008.

    George Freeman

    NHS England was formed in April 2013.

    The table below shows actual expenditure by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) on mental health in 2013/14 and 2014/15 and forecast spend in 2015/16. This does not include spending on mental health services directly commissioned by NHS England.

    Total actual expenditure by on mental health by CCGs across all providers for 2013/14 and 2014/15 and the total forecast expenditure for 2015/16

    2013/14 actual spend (£ billion million)

    2014/15 actual spend (£ billionmillion)

    2015/16 forecast spend (£ billion million)

    9.6

    10.1

    10.6

    Source: NHS England

    “

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to encourage higher donor registration among (a) all people and (b) mixed ethnicity donors to the UK stem cell and bone marrow register.

    Jane Ellison

    Since 2012, the Department has provided nearly £19 million to improve the provision of stem cells in the United Kingdom for all people. This funding has enabled the recruitment of over 75,000 young male donors who are more likely to be able to donate bone marrow and we continue to expand the pool of young male donors.

    The stem cell improvement programme has directly addressed the difficulty faced by patients from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community and those with mixed ethnicity through targeted recruitment. The Department also continues to support the work of the National BAME Transplant Alliance. The programme has also funded the collection of umbilical cord blood samples, which has a specific target to achieve 40% of samples come from BAME and mixed ethnicity births.

  • David Nuttall – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Nuttall – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the annual budget of the tobacco policy team in his Department is; and what proportion of that budget was spent on external grants or contracts in the last year.

    Jane Ellison

    The Tobacco Control policy team programme budget spend for 2014/15 was £848,000 of which £648,000 was spent on grants and contracts.

  • Graham Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Graham Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he had with EMIS Health on data protection.

    George Freeman

    No discussions between My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State and EMIS about data protection have taken place.

  • David Nuttall – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Nuttall – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received about funding allocated by his Department to the organisation Action on Smoking and Health.

    Jane Ellison

    To identify relevant representations the Department has received would result in disproportionate cost.

  • Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to improve awareness of the health implications of drinking during pregnancy.

    Jane Ellison

    The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is overseeing a United Kingdom-wide review of all alcohol guidelines so that people can make informed choices about their drinking at all stages of their lives.

    The Guidelines Development Group, a group of independent experts, was tasked with developing the lower-risk drinking guidelines for the UK CMOs to consider. The group have researched and developed a proposal on the guidelines, including a UK wide approach for guidance on alcohol and pregnancy. We will be consulting on these shortly.