Blog

  • Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to help establish an international agreement on surrogacy arrangements and harmonisation of the law and practice on surrogacy overseas.

    Jane Ellison

    The Hague Conference on Private International Law, of which the United Kingdom is a Member State, has set up an Experts’ Group to examine whether there is a realistic prospect of progress in this area. The Experts’ Group will report in March 2016.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral Answer to the hon. Member for Hampstead and Kilburn of 3 November 2015, Official Report, column 866, how much revenue the criminal courts charge has generated since its introduction.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    Data relating to the Criminal Courts Charge and information on the enforcement of financial impositions is contained within an annex to Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly statistical bulletin published quarterly by the Ministry of Justice at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics.

    The cost of enforcing the criminal courts charge cannot be separated from the total cost of enforcing all types of court ordered financial impositions. Enforcement action is taken against the total amount an offender owes and offenders are often ordered to pay more than one type of financial imposition.

    “

  • Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will introduce new sentencing guidelines recommending strict penalties to assist magistrates in prosecuting caces under the Equality Act 2010 where a private hire or taxi driver has refused to provide transport to a visually impaired passenger and their guide dog.

    Andrew Selous

    I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 14 September 2015 to Question 8187.

  • Melanie Onn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Melanie Onn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of unmet need for locked rehabilitation units offering intense psychology and substance misuse support to patients with personality disorders and drug or alcohol problems in the Humber area.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has made no such assessment. These services are locally commissioned.

  • Stephen Gethins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stephen Gethins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department is providing to remote communities in Nepal affected by the earthquakes to prepare for and cope with winter.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    The UK’s response to the recent devastating earthquakes in Nepal now stands at £70 million, making it one of the largest bilateral donors to the humanitarian response. With the onset of winter DFID is stepping up its support, particularly for communities in high altitudes. We are providing over 200,000 people with clothes, blankets, shelter kits, cooking stoves and solar lamps; reaching an additional 60,000 people with temporary shelter; and helping over 58,000 internally displaced people currently living in makeshift camps. In addition, we are providing logistic support to help transport emergency relief overland, including with mules and porters, to the most remote areas. We are also supporting helicopter operations to reach out to remote high altitude regions.

    The UK support to the humanitarian response has already delivered important results including: 5,600,000 people benefitting from the restoration of healthcare services in their area; 200,000 benefitting from shelter support; and 80,000 people receiving cash transfers for restoration of houses and livelihoods.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, which regulations her Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015 to date; which regulations her Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017; and what estimate she has made of the cost of such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to relax immigration rules on the reunification of families and allow members of a refugee’s extended family to join them in the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    Our refugee family reunion policy allows immediate family members of a person in the UK with refugee leave or humanitarian protection status – that is a spouse or partner and children under the age of 18, who formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin – to reunite with them in the UK.

    We have no plans to widen these criteria, which are fully compliant with our international obligations and enable thousands of people each year to be reunited with their families in the UK.

    We are also making a significant contribution to support refugees and their families in other ways. The UK has contributed over £1 billion in humanitarian aid in response to the Syrian crisis and we intend to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees displaced to neighbouring countries over the lifetime of this Parliament.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugee families she expects to be relocated to Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency; where such families will be housed; and what steps the Government is taking to ensure that such families have access to education for their children.

    James Brokenshire

    With regard to the resettlement of 20,000 Syrians that the Prime Minister announced on 7 September, this is a voluntary scheme whereby local authorities sign up to accept refugees on a voluntary basis and there is no expectation on any particular local authority.

    We are working closely with those local authorities that have indicated they wish to be involved as well as with the Local Government Association and with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. We do not disclose the details of where refugees are resettled upon their arrival in the UK under the Government resettlement schemes as this may undermine the privacy and recovery of this vulnerable group of people.

    The Home Office alongside other departments and the Local Government Association and the Convention of Scottish Authorities will work with individual local authorities who are volunteering to take Syrian refugees to secure appropriate accommodation.

    The Government has committed to investing £7 billion on new school places over the next six years, and in the last Parliament funding for school places doubled to £5 billion to create 445,000 additional places. Local Authorities are allocated funding for school places based on their own local data on school capacity and pupil forecasts, in which they take account of factors including rising birth rates, housing development, trends in internal migration and migration to England from elsewhere in the United Kingdom and from overseas. We continue to work with Local Authorities to make sure that every child has a school place.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David T. C. Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for judicial review against decisions on asylum applications made by UK Visas and Immigration have been brought in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

    James Brokenshire

    Whilst data relating to judicial reviews is available, I am unable to provide the information requested. Due to the way in which such data is captured, we are unable to separate the data relating solely to judicial reviews lodged against asylum decisions.

  • Stuart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart McDonald on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees from each UN camp she expects to be resettled in the UK in 2015.

    Richard Harrington

    The Prime Minister has said that we want to see 1,000 Syrian refugees brought to the UK by Christmas. The Government is working closely with local authorities, international delivery partners and the voluntary sector, putting in place the plans and structures to deliver this and ensuring the system is scaled up in a way that protects the interests of all concerned. Details on numbers will be published in the regular quarterly immigration statistics.

    The UNHCR identifies and proposes Syrian refugees for the VPR scheme from among the whole of the registered refugee population in the region, over 4 million people. This includes people in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities. Therefore, not all of those coming to the UK for resettlement will be coming from UN camps.