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Tag: 2015

  • Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the nature of enquiries received by the NSPCC human trafficking and modern slavery helpline between July 2014 and June 2015; and how many such calls were from survivors of human trafficking.

    Karen Bradley

    The NSPCC-run modern slavery helpline was launched in July 2014, as part of a wider awareness-raising campaign, to better support potential victims of modern slavery. For the period July 2014 to July 2015, £50,000 was made available to the NSPCC to run the modern slavery helpline. To support the launch of the helpline, training was provided by existing staff in the NSPCC child trafficking advice centre, the Metropolitan police’s human trafficking unit and the Modern Slavery Unit to NSPCC call-handlers at zero cost.

    The NSPCC helpline routinely records the number of contacts made each month, how they are made, and by whom. The helpline also records the gender, age and nationality of potential victims, where that information is known or presumed. Between 31 July 2014 and 31 July 2015 the NSPCC modern slavery helpline received, in total, 849 contacts. These were comprised of 491 referrals, 107 advice cases and 251 enquiries. During the period 31 July 2014 to 31 July 2015 the helpline received a total of 57 contacts from potential victims themselves and in that same period the NSPCC made 272 referrals to the police. The NSPCC does not hold data on the number of contacts referred to the helpline by the police and other agencies that were subsequently referred back to those agencies.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Leader of the House

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Leader of the House, on how many occasions a special adviser in his Office accompanied a Minister on an overseas trip since May 2015.

    Chris Grayling

    No Ministers in my office have been on an offical overseas trip since May 2015.

  • Mims Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Mims Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mims Davies on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people are in receipt of a war widow or widower pension.

    Mark Lancaster

    As at 31 March 2015, the latest date for which data was available, the number of people in receipt of a War Widow or Widower Pension was 20,535.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how he takes account of the wellbeing of children in agreeing the activities which lone parents are required to undertake as part of their action plan or claimant commitment.

    Priti Patel

    The claimant commitment, which Work Coaches put together with claimants, sets requirements that are tailored for a broad range of circumstances, including for matters relating to the wellbeing of children. These reasonable requirements are recorded within the jobseeker’s agreement or action plan.

    Where appropriate, the claimant commitment may limit the hours lone parents claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance are available for work to a minimum of 16 hours a week based on their caring responsibilities.

    In addition, lone parents with children aged 12 or under have the right to restrict their availability for work and work-related activities to their children’s normal school or early education hours.

  • Anna Turley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Anna Turley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what action can be taken within state aid rules to secure assets of national strategic significance to the British economy.

    Anna Soubry

    A Member State may purchase or invest in an asset on purely commercial terms, as commercial investment is not subject to state aid rules. However, any subsequent injection of funds would be subject to the rules, unless it too was on commercial terms. It should be noted that the state aid rules apply equally to nationalised and privatised companies. With losses of over £600 million in just over three years and hundreds of millions in debts, commercial terms for SSI UK would have been impossible to meet.

    More generally, it is possible to give a variety of types of aid under the rules including aid for research and development, and environmental protection. Restructuring and rescue of steel however is prohibited.

  • Lord Fearn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Fearn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Fearn on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the annual value of tourism to the UK economy.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Office for National Statistics has estimated that tourism was worth £59.6 billion Gross Value Added to the UK economy in 2014.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of primary schools signed up to (a) Centre for Education and Monitoring, Durham University, (b) Early Excellence, (c) GL Assessment, (d) Hodder Education, (e) National Foundation for Educational Research and (f) Speech Link as baseline assessment providers by 30 April 2015; and which schemes were subsequently approved by her Department.

    Nick Gibb

    A full break down of suppliers which were removed from the approved list has not been provided because of potential commercial sensitivities for the suppliers.

  • Lord Ouseley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Ouseley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the extent of self-harm among school children as a consequence of bullying in the education system.

    Lord Nash

    The Department has not made a systematic assessment of the extent of self-harm as a consequence of bullying. There is wide variation in reported rates of self-harming among school children because individuals often do not disclose it. However, schools are well placed to spot a change in behaviour that may indicate something is wrong. To assist school staff, we published advice for schools on mental health and behaviour, providing teachers with information and tools that will help them to identify and support pupils with mental health needs, including advice about making referrals to a specialist service when necessary. The advice includes specific information about self-harm and effective treatment, as well as a school case study about how to address mental health issues in a non-stigmatising way in the classroom.

    The SEND Code of Practice makes it clear that schools need to look past any behaviour issues to identify underlying problems, including mental health issues, and put support in place where learning is affected. Our new joint training pilots with the NHS will further help to schools to effectively support children and young people with mental health concerns.

    The new PSHE lesson plans include teaching about self-harm and to help schools teach about mental health we have funded the PSHE Association to provide new mental health guidance and resources. This will help schools provide age appropriate teaching about mental health issues through the teaching of PSHE.

    All bullying is unacceptable and every school is required to have a behaviour policy with measures to tackle all forms of bullying. They are held to account by Ofsted and inspectors will look at records and analysis of bullying, discriminatory and prejudicial behaviour. In 2015-16, the Government has provided £3.3m to charitable organisations to help tackle bullying and to provide support for those who are bullied. This is further to the £4m provided over the period 2013-15.

  • Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to revise his Department’s position on the European Commission’s Green Paper on safety of tourism accommodation services to take account of the recent coroner’s report on the death of Christi and Bobby Shepherd.

    Tracey Crouch

    The deaths of Christi and Bobby Shepherd were a horrific tragedy and our deepest condolences remain with their parents. The safety of tourists at home and abroad is an absolute priority and we will continue to keep the area under review.

    The Government is currently examining the Coroner’s recommendations from the inquest into the children’s deaths and will respond in due course.

  • Lord Moonie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Moonie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moonie on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much NHS England pays for paracetamol, and how much paracetamol it procures annually.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England has advised that it does not procure paracetamol. This is done by dispensing contractors in primary care and by hospital trusts in secondary care.