The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to issue guidance on how its proposed extension of jobseeker’s allowance conditionality will apply to claimants with mental illness.
Priti Patel
We have made no proposals to extend Jobseekers Allowance conditionality.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-11-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much financial support they have provided directly to refugee camps in the Middle East since the beginning of 2015.
Baroness Verma
The vast majority of Syrians who have fled Syria live amongst host communities. HMG’s response is therefore focused on refugees in these communities, not solely those living in formal and informal camps.
In financial year 2015/2016, DFID has allocated £151 million to support Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities in the region, including £94 million in Lebanon, £47 million in Jordan and £10 million in Turkey. Spending in these countries in financial year 2014/2014 was £120 million, including £62 million in Lebanon, £48 million in Jordan and £10 million in Turkey.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Tomlinson on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of green belt land in the East Dorset District Council area has been redesignated in the last five years.
Brandon Lewis
The Department does not hold information centrally on the amount or type of land held by community land trusts.
The Department’s annual Green Belt statistics monitor the amount of land designated as Green Belt in England and any changes to the designated area since the previous year. The statistics record the change by local planning authority.
Of the local planning authorities for which information was requested, the following have made changes to the Green Belt in the last five years:
East Dorset reduced the area of designated Green Belt in 2014-15 by 160 hectares to 16,720 hectares, a reduction of 1 per cent; and
Purbeck increased the area of designated Green Belt in 2012-13 by 460 hectares to 8,200 hectares, an increase of 6 per cent.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support international efforts to improve tax transparency and accountability.
Mr David Gauke
A major focus of the UK’s G8 Presidency was tax transparency and combatting offshore tax evasion. As part of this the UK promoted the development of a new global standard for reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information in order to effectively tackle the global problem of tax evasion. Due in large part to the UK’s leadership, over 90 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to the new global standard – known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – and will begin automatically exchanging information under the standard by 2017 or 2018. The receipt of large amounts of information on offshore accounts under the CRS will mark a step change in HMRC’s ability to crack down on tax evasion.
During our G8 Presidency, we also drove forward the international work on country-by-country reporting (CBCR), calling on the OECD to develop a template for CBCR reporting as part of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The OECD template is aimed at providing tax authorities with information on the global allocation of profits and taxes paid and accrued by multinationals, as well as indicators of economic activity in each country. The UK was one of the first countries to commit to implementing the OECD template for CBCR with legislation in the Finance Act 2015.
The final package of measures developed under the BEPS project was published by the OECD on 5 October 2015, and endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October and the G20 Leaders at their summit on 15-16 November. The UK welcomes the outcomes of the BEPS project and will give full consideration to the OECD’s recommendations.
In addition, the UK has actively supported the revision of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, to ensure the effective exchange of information about cross-border tax rulings between EU Member States. This directive was agreed in October 2015, and will come into force from 1st of January 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Reaper drones are currently deployed in (a) Iraq and (b) Syria.
Penny Mordaunt
To safeguard operational security I am withholding operational information on the number of RAF Reaper aircraft deployed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people from (a) other EU countries and (b) non-EU countries who were deemed homeless have been returned to their home countries in each year since 2010.
Mr Marcus Jones
The Department does not hold data centrally on the number of voluntary reconnections of non-UK rough sleepers. It is for local authorities to determine what homelessness services are required to best meet the needs of their local area. The Home Officeis responsible for administrative removal operations.
We expect people who come to this country to be able to support themselves, and if they cannot find work or accommodation then they should return home. For vulnerable individuals who are sleeping rough on the streets, there are locally funded reconnection services available to help them return to their home countries voluntarily and connect into support services there. In London, the Greater London Authority commission the London Reconnection Team, which is targeted at non-UK nationals with support needs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the definition of paper-assisted digital applications is for the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme.
George Eustice
The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.
For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the rate of suicide among members of the fire service; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce such numbers.
Greg Clark
We do not hold information on the rate of deaths by suicide of firefighters. Individual fire and rescue authorities as employers are responsible for the health and welfare of firefighters, including their mental health. In October last year the Government announced the allocation of nearly £10 million to help support 200,000 emergency services personnel and volunteers, funded through LIBOR fines. Of this funding up to £4 million was allocated to mental health charity MIND to develop a programme of targeted mental health support and information for all emergency services personnel across England. The programme includes an anti-stigma campaign, a confidential advice line for emergency service staff, training for leaders and line managers, peer learning events and resources to promote better mental health in the work place. I encourage fire and rescue authorities to engage with this important programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-12-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much has been spent on the provision of eye clinic care liaison officers in each year since 2010.
Alistair Burt
In England, eye clinics and their staffing, including Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLO), are commissioned and funded by individual clinical commissioning groups on the basis of local assessments of need.
The Department does not collect data on the number of eye clinic liaison officers employed in hospitals or how much has been spent on funding ECLOs.
The Government fully appreciates the impact that sight loss can have on a person’s life and the importance of information being available for those newly diagnosed with sight loss, including signposting patients to appropriate support and rehabilitation services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many referrals for treatment for post traumatic stress disorder from 13 and 39 Squadron service personnel there have been over the last two years.
Mark Lancaster
During Financial Years 2013-14 and 2014-15, there were no Regular Royal Air Force personnel from 13 Squadron or 39 Squadron who were seen for an initial assessment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at Ministry of Defence Specialist Mental Health Services.