The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many counter-terrorism personnel were employed in the West Midlands in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Mr John Hayes
For security reasons we do not publish a breakdown of counter-terrorism budget or staffing by region.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicles purchased from Thales have been handed over to the British Army.
Mr Philip Dunne
As at 15 December 2015, 37 Watchkeeper Unmanned Air Vehicles have been delivered by Thales and accepted by the Ministry of Defence. Of these, 10 are currently held by the Army to meet its current flying training programme and readiness requirements. The remainder are either being used for flight trials at West Wales Airport, or being stored and maintained until required by the Army.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nia Griffith on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether it is his policy to allow members of the public to make an application for a cremation in Welsh.
Caroline Dinenage
The Cremation (England and Wales) Regulations 2008 require that, in order for a cremation to proceed, the crematorium medical referee must scrutinise the application and associated medical or coroner forms before authorising a cremation.
An application made in Wales may be for a cremation in Wales or a cremation in England. A medical referee in Wales may not be a Welsh speaker, and a medical referee in England will almost certainly not be a Welsh speaker.
Applications in Wales must therefore be made in English, to make sure that the medical referee can understand and authorise the cremation in a timely manner wherever the cremation is to take place.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions Solutions for Public Health has had with the European Medicines Agency and US Food and Drug Administration on developing a draft commissioning policy for everolimus.
George Freeman
Solutions for Public Health has confirmed that they have not had any discussions with either the European Medicines Agency or US Food and Drug Administration in relation to Everolimus.
This is outside of the scope of the evidence review methodology commissioned by NHS England and would not be relevant to their role as a provider of stand-alone clinical evidence reviews.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the trends in the number of bus reliability public inquiries held by the traffic commissioners since 2010.
Andrew Jones
No assessment has been made of the trends in the number of public inquiries held by the Traffic Commissioners into bus punctuality since 2010.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that police officers are aware of the outcome of prosecutions in which they have been involved.
Mike Penning
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service, through its IT systems, passes data onto the police national computer so that records of convictions and sentences can be maintained by the police.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department’s policy is on the maximum travelling time for applicants to personal independence payment assessments; and what proportion of such assessments have complied with that maximum time in the last 12 months.
Justin Tomlinson
The requirement placed on the providers delivering Personal Independence Payment assessments is that claimants are not expected to travel more than 90 minutes by public transport to attend assessments. We expect them to minimise travel times wherever possible but, in scheduling appointments, they need to balance both keeping journey times down and ensuring claimants are assessed in a reasonable time period. To increase capacity and reduce journey times the providers have been opening new assessment centres across the country.
The information requested about the proportion of such assessments having complied with the maximum time in the last 12 months is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people referred to Help to Work since April 2014 have left the scheme after opening a claim for working tax credit.
Priti Patel
The information as requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The information that is available on Help to Work, on the number of programme referrals and Community Work Placement starts can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-work-quarterly-statistics
The latest published information on Help to Work covers the period from April 2014 to June 2015 inclusive.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Amanda Milling on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of women taking up apprenticeships.
Joseph Johnson
Women made up over 50% of apprenticeship starts in England over the past 4 years, just as they make up more than half of people entering higher education.
We want to make apprenticeships accessible to the widest possible range of people, as part of meeting our commitment to reach 3 million starts by 2020.
To increase apprenticeship starts, the Enterprise Bill will set targets for public bodies to employ apprentices. We have amended procurement rules to demonstrate a clear commitment to apprenticeships.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2015-11-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of the average electricity bill was attributable to the levy imposed by the Levy Control Framework to meet the cost of feed-in tariffs in 2014-15.
Andrea Leadsom
The costs of the small scale Feed-in Tariffs scheme in 2014/15 are estimated to have accounted for around 2 percent, on average, of the household electricity bill.