The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average time taken to secure appeal hearings for people whose entry clearance applications have been refused.
Mr Shailesh Vara
Published figures can be found at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2015.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Paddick on 2015-10-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Airwave Solutions about the transition of emergency services communications as part of the emergency services mobile communications programme.
Lord Bates
The Home Office meets senior managers from Airwave Solutions Ltd regularly to discuss the service that ASL provides. The Home Office’s plans for transition from the existing Airwave service to the future ESN service is regularly discussed at these meetings.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-10-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of patents granted in the UK with other (a) EU, (b) OECD and (c) developed economies in each of the last three years for which data is available; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Figures for patents applied for and granted in different jurisdictions can be obtained from the website of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (www.wipo.int), which collates the figures from intellectual property offices around the world.
The table shows the number of patents granted by national offices and by the European Patent Office (EPO) as recorded by WIPO, for both resident and non-resident applicants.
Many applicants choose to apply for patent protection in the UK and other European states via the EPO. However these are not recorded as grants for the individual countries in the table. According to the EPO around 75% of granted EPs take effect in the UK.
The number of granted patents in any one jurisdiction is dependent on many factors including applicants’ business models, local market structure, and the legal requirements of the jurisdiction, since patent law varies. It also reflects the capacity of patent offices to process applications.
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Source: WIPO statistics database. Last updated: March 2015
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent review her Department has conducted of the threat posed to UK agriculture by invasive species; and if she will make a statement.
George Eustice
Defra commissioned Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International to produce a report, entitled “The Economic Cost of Invasive Non-native Species on Great Britain”, which was published in 2010. The report sets out the economic impacts of invasive non-native species to a range of sectors, including agriculture.
The Great Britain Non-native Species Secretariat undertakes risk assessments on potentially invasive non-native species and has completed 75 to date. These risk assessments consider the impacts on a wide range of sectors including agriculture.
An updated Great Britain Invasive Non-native Species Strategy was published in August which sets out a comprehensive framework for delivering action to address the impacts from these species.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in what age groups NHS England has treated for squints in the last five years.
Alistair Burt
Individuals with squints may be treated in either primary care or secondary care.
It is not possible to identify those provided with glasses in primary care, funded by NHS England, to correct a squint.
It is possible to identify those who had a Finished Admission Episode in secondary care, funded by clinical commissioning groups, with a diagnosis of squint and received corrective surgery. The table below, provided by the Health and Social Care Information centre, shows the number of these procedures, broken down by age, carried out in England between 2009-10 and 2013-14. This will not capture other patients seen in secondary care on an outpatient basis where surgery was not necessary.
|
Age |
200910 |
2010-11 |
2011-12 |
2012-13 |
2013-14 |
|
0-4 |
2,212 |
2,130 |
2,241 |
2,154 |
2,064 |
|
5-9 |
2,634 |
2,635 |
2,884 |
2,886 |
3,043 |
|
10-14 |
800 |
811 |
793 |
784 |
850 |
|
15-19 |
547 |
569 |
608 |
635 |
618 |
|
20-24 |
448 |
469 |
484 |
456 |
419 |
|
25-29 |
454 |
463 |
450 |
421 |
471 |
|
30-34 |
408 |
387 |
419 |
405 |
455 |
|
35-39 |
437 |
452 |
415 |
393 |
361 |
|
40-44 |
438 |
422 |
398 |
423 |
420 |
|
45-49 |
355 |
383 |
371 |
371 |
415 |
|
50-54 |
303 |
298 |
310 |
316 |
346 |
|
55-59 |
273 |
290 |
289 |
280 |
292 |
|
60-64 |
279 |
293 |
262 |
225 |
292 |
|
65-69 |
180 |
238 |
239 |
245 |
284 |
|
70-74 |
147 |
160 |
162 |
197 |
217 |
|
75-79 |
113 |
132 |
134 |
126 |
131 |
|
80+ |
87 |
73 |
88 |
94 |
96 |
|
Unknown |
5 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
Total |
10,120 |
10,211 |
10,551 |
10,414 |
10,777 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre
Note: Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has on (a) raising awareness of severe and complex disabilities suspected of having a genetic syndrome for which it is not currently possible to confirm a diagnosis and (b) helping to ensure that patients and their families that are affected by such disabilities have access to appropriate care and support.
George Freeman
The Department is committed to improving the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, including those severe and complex conditions caused by genetic disorders, through implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases, published in November 2013. The UK strategy includes specific recommendations to improve awareness amongst service providers and others of the effects that rare diseases can have on a person’s education, family, social relationships and ability to work. There is also a specific recommendation to improve education and awareness across the healthcare professions and to improve the co-ordination of care, recognising that some patients have complex needs and require expertise from a number of specialists and carers.
The UK Rare Disease Forum will monitor progress against the recommendations in the strategy and is due to produce its first report in early 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2015 to Question 11793, how many full-time equivalent staff her Department allocated to responding to North West of England hon. Members’ enquiries on their constituents’ immigration issues on 1 September (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014 and (d) 2015.
James Brokenshire
As stated in my previous reply of 22 October to Question 11793, it is not possible to provide the Hon. Member with all the information requested as it is not readily available or held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
UKVI requires many of its staff, as part of their roles, to contribute to dealing with immigration enquiries from Members. This can include providing contributions to Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial briefing or for a Select Committee hearing. Since 1 September 2015, UKVI has had dedicated MP Account Management teams whose job is to handle MP enquiries relating to their constituents.
The team designated to responding to members from the North West of England has a total of 9.8 full-time equivalent staff.
Other members of staff will also contribute to the preparation of responses.
The North West MP Account Manager team has performed at a high level and the results will shortly be seen following via the Member of Parliament satisfaction survey results which will soon appear on the Gov.uk website.
Published statistics confirm that UKVI’s overall service to Members has continually exceeded its service standard since Q4 2014. The Hon. Member can access this information at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-august-2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to Answer of 21 October 2015 to Question 12217, when more discussions on judicial co-operation are planned to take place.
Dominic Raab
Discussions are ongoing and are being taken forward by the British Embassy in Riyadh. No work has yet been undertaken by the Ministry of Justice as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s policies on increasing access to public transport for disabled passengers.
Andrew Jones
We have made significant progress since 2010 on increasing access to public transport.
Compliance with bus accessibility regulations is 89% of buses in England in 2015 compared to 59% in 2009-10; while 60% of rail vehicles, up from less than 40% in 2010, were built or fully refurbished to modern access standards.
By the end of this year Access for All will have completed more than 150 step-free routes at rail stations against a target of 125. More than 1,200 stations have also received smaller scale improvements. To build on this success £160m has been allocated to another 68 stations to be delivered by 2019.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Drew Hendry on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to monitor regional variations in benefit uptake.
Priti Patel
Estimates of take-up are not available at geographies below Great Britain. This is due to the size of the survey sample they are based on and methods used to generate robust national figures.
However, on 25th June 2015 the Department for Work and Pensions published the report “Income-related benefits: Estimates of take-up in 2013/14 (experimental)”. The full report can be found at:
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