The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-11-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have sought asylum in the UK through the Dublin III regulation.
James Brokenshire
The Home Office received 2122 asylum claims following a request for claimants to be accepted under the Dublin III regulations. This figure is based on the latest available data from January 2014 to June 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many children and young people were admitted to hospital due to mental health problems in 2014-15.
Alistair Burt
Information in the form requested is not collected centrally but there were 12,309 Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of mental and behavioural disorder for patients aged 0-18 years in 2014-15.
Note:
An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the episode finishes. 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 Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has had discussions with the car insurance sector regarding (a) the cost of premiums and (b) the variations in that cost around the UK.
Andrew Jones
The Department has held a number of meetings with the motor insurance industry on a range of topics. The cost of motor insurance is the responsibility of insurers based on the applicant’s risk. This includes factors such as the driver’s age, driving record, type of vehicle and where they live. Data from the ABI’s quarterly average private comprehensive tracker shows that the average premium in Quarter 3 2015 is 6.7% lower than in Quarter 3 2012.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-11-30.
To ask the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, what consideration has been given to moving to digital voting in the House.
Tom Brake
The Commission has given no formal consideration to a move to digital voting in the House. Its responsibility in this matter is limited to any financial or staffing implications of any change to the present system, were a change to be agreed by the House.
In January 2015 the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy recommended that the House should move to record votes using Members’ security passes but retain the tradition of walking through division lobbies. The House has not yet been invited to respond to this recommendation. House officials have undertaken some preparatory studies in the event of the House deciding to endorse this proposal. Members wishing to pursue the issue can seek a debate via the Backbench Business Committee or raise it with the Procedure Committee. It would also be open to Ministers to bring forward proposals.
Accurate recording of divisions and timely publication of division lists are critical business activities of the House of Commons. The House Service has therefore been investigating means of electronic recording of divisions since October 2014, with a view to improving the timely publication of division lists, making division data more accessible to the public and easier to analyse, and improving accuracy. A trial was held in the House in March 2015 in which seven divisions were recorded in part by division clerks on tablet devices. Full implementation of tablet recording of divisions is expected to take place early in 2016. In the meantime, any divisions held under the new English votes for English laws procedure will be recorded on tablet devices, because the tablets can generate the results required under the ‘double-majority’ system. Electronic recording of votes by division clerks will not in itself alter the requirement for Members to vote by walking through the lobbies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Browne of Belmont on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of road safety awareness educational programmes in reducing accidents.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Road safety education includes a range of interventions including educational courses and publicity campaigns.
The Department funds the THINK! road safety publicity campaign. We evaluate the campaign to ensure it is effective, that we continually improve performance; and that we ultimately deliver value for money for the taxpayer.
Prior to each campaign we set communication objectives and key performance indicators. We measure progress against these by running surveys with our target audience before and immediately after the campaign. We have seen positive shifts in key performance indicators for the majority of our campaigns. All of our recent campaign evaluation reports are published on gov.uk[1].
In the long run, positive changes in key performance indicators on campaigns such as speeding, drink driving and seatbelts have correlated with fewer drivers exceeding the speed limit, fewer accidents involving drink driving and higher seatbelt wearing rates; and ultimately to fewer road casualties.
Publicity campaigns are part of the solution to reduce road casualties and work best when used alongside enforcement and engineering interventions. Due to the multiple factors affecting casualties (weather, road conditions, traffic levels, the economy etc.) it is difficult to demonstrate a causal relationship with a specific intervention. However, in 2012 the department commissioned an independent agency to evaluate the impact drink drive campaigns have had on casualties. They used econometric modelling to estimate that over a 30 year period, drink drive communication campaigns have saved almost 2,000 lives and prevented over 10,000 serious injuries[2].
In 2013, the Transport Research Laboratory published[3] a review and synthesis of evidence on the effectiveness of pre-driver education and training for those under 17 years of age which was undertaken for the Coalition Government. The findings showed that very few interventions had been robustly evaluated and that the evidence base around pre-driver interventions was weak. The Government recently commissioned an evidence base review, to build on existing work, to help us to understand the effectiveness of a range of pre- and post-test behavioural and technological interventions for young drivers. The Government is currently also funding an evaluation of the effectiveness of speed awareness courses.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/think-communication-activity
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/drink-drive-30-years-of-communication
[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249282/novice-driver-research-findings.pdf
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2015-11-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the average operating speed for High Speed trains to Europe.
Claire Perry
Eurostar operate passenger trains from London into Europe at speeds of up to 186 miles per hour.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are taking to assist the organisations and volunteers in the UK taking action to help refugees (1) in the Calais area, (2) in the Dodecanese islands, and (3) elsewhere in Europe.
Baroness Verma
The UK has been at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. The UK has pledged over £1.12 billion, our largest ever humanitarian response to a single crisis. We are the second largest bilateral donor after the US and have done more than any other European country.
The UK’s priority is to stop the deaths of migrants making perilous journeys. We believe the right approach is to support people to stay in a place of safety in their home or host countries. To this end we are increasing our work to support longer term stability and resilience-building inside Syria and in neighbouring countries.
We are providing £15 million to organisations working in Europe, which includes immediate humanitarian support to migrants and refugees who have made the journey to Europe. Our package of support includes life-saving aid to protect the most vulnerable people, as well as support to governments in managing registration in Europe and the Western Balkans.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve the passenger compensation regime for train delays and cancellations.
Claire Perry
In our manifesto we committed to improve compensation for delayed rail passengers. We have already changed the system to get compensation paid in cash, not travel vouchers, and we are putting new compensation obligations like automatic delay/repay into franchise specifications.
We will negotiate hard with rail operators to get even better compensation arrangements for passengers but also focus on what we all want which is to have the trains run on time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Walmsley on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have introduced arrangements for sharing gains on the sale of PFI equity shares in new PFI projects, as recommended by the Public Accounts Committee in its report of 2011 Lessons from PFI and other projects.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
In its response to the Public Accounts Committee’s report, the Government has made clear that it does not agree that it would be desirable to seek a share of gains arising from the sale of shares in existing contracts. There would be a significant negative impact on the confidence of investors, particularly foreign investors, in the UK market and new investment in UK infrastructure would be discouraged.
The Treasury’s full response can be found at on the gov.uk website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish on his Department’s website (a) corroborated information on deaths of (i) ISIS fighters and (ii) civilians as a result of airstrikes on Syrian locations and (b) other information in a daily battle assessment for each day from 2 December 2015.
Penny Mordaunt
Information on RAF airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, and their outcome, is already published on the gov.uk website and is regularly updated. We know of no civilian casualties caused by RAF airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq or Syria.