The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress the Government has made on increasing the level of employment in (a) North Lincolnshire, (b) East Yorkshire and (c) England since 2010.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2015-12-16.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the P5+1 agreement with Iran, what evidence they have that political prisoners such as Kamal Foroughi and Jason Rezaian have been released, or are being considered for early release, from detention; and what specific evidence they have of any overall progress in respect of such prisoners with UK or US passports.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We have no evidence that dual national political prisoners such as Kamal Foroughi and Jason Rezaian have been, or are being considered, for early release from detention. Nor have we received specific evidence of any overall progress in respect of these dual national cases. Iran does not recognise dual nationality and as such we are not granted consular access in these cases. We continue to lobby the Iranian Government at the highest level. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) raised these issues with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and President Rouhani during his trip to Iran in August. The Foreign Secretary also raised it with Foreign Minister Zarif at the UN General Assembly in September. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) raised the case with President Rouhani during a telephone call in July, and wrote a further letter on this matter in October.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Thompson on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of national lottery sales income has been allocated to the Big Lottery Fund budget for Scotland in each of the last five years.
Tracey Crouch
The Big Lottery Fund decides how much of its funding to allocate to each of the home nations. Scotland is allocated 11.5 per cent of the Big Lottery Funds proceeds from the National Lottery after administration costs, and 10 per cent of the Fund’s Lottery income is allocated to a UK portfolio, from which Scotland also benefits.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Howe of Idlicote on 2015-12-16.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of Barnardo’s recent report Locked Out: Children’s experiences of visiting a parent in prison, in particular claims that visits by children to fathers who are in prison are severely restricted.
Lord Faulks
The Government agrees that strong family ties are an important part of helping prisoners turn away from crime, and the recommendations from the recent Barnardo’s report are currently being considered in the context of the wider prison reforms.
All convicted prisoners have a long-standing statutory entitlement to a minimum of two visits every 28 days. In addition, prisoners may also be rewarded with additional visits for good behaviour and for engaging with their rehabilitation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 3 November 2015 to Question 14118, when she plans to respond to the consultation on the feed-in tariff review.
Andrea Leadsom
We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the Feed-in Tariff review consultation and intend to publish a Government response as soon as possible.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kinnock on 2015-12-16.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will provide all factual evidence they have, together with their sources, that UK in-work and out-of-work benefits are a factor in encouraging immigration to the UK from other EU member states.
Lord Freud
The benefits system is one of a range of factors attracting migrants to Britain. Net migration to the UK stood at 336,000 in the year to June 2015 according to the November 2015 Migration Statistics Quarterly Report from the Office for National Statistics, and EU nationals are a significant contributor to recent increases. Meanwhile, an analysis of administrative data held by the Department for Work and Pensions showed that between 37% and 45% of all recent EU migrants were in households supported by the benefits system as of March 2013.
The Government has already introduced tough new measures to ensure that EU jobseekers will have no access to means-tested benefits whatsoever as Universal Credit is rolled out.
And now we want to ensure that the welfare system plays no part in the migration decisions of any EU national. The Prime Minister is therefore pursuing further reforms to ensure that EU migrants who come to the UK for low-paid work cannot claim in-work benefits until they have lived here and contributed to our country for a minimum of four years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2015 to Question 227804, if his Department plans to commission further research on (a) patterns of long-term prescription of dependency-forming medicines and (b) the scale of addiction to benzodiazepines, z drugs and other such medicines.
George Freeman
The Department has commissioned the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Public Health Research Consortium to conduct a study to explore patterns of prescribing for specific medicines that have a risk of dependence, using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. These include: benzodiazepines; z-drugs; opioid-containing prescription drugs for pain; and the GABA-ergic drugs, pregabalin and gabapentin.
This study will not assess dependence on such medicines, because being in receipt of a prescription is not indicative of dependence. However, it will seek to explore the circumstances in which prescriptions of medicines with a risk of dependence are issued. A better understanding of prescribing patterns is an important step in helping clinicians identify patients at risk of dependence on the medicines they prescribe.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Redfern on 2015-12-16.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to encourage local authorities to include personal assessments as part of a broader care programme alongside other measures to help individuals to achieve greater control over the support they receive.
Lord Prior of Brampton
One of the overarching aims of the Care Act 2014 is to give people more choice and control over their care and support. Local authorities must assess any person who appears to have care and support needs. The aim of the needs assessment is to identify what needs individuals may have, what impact these needs have on their wellbeing, and what outcomes they are looking to achieve. The Act also requires that the person, their carer and anyone else they request must be involved in the assessment.
The Act clarifies that one method of carrying out an assessment is through a supported self-assessment, where the person and local authority carry out the assessment jointly. This gives the person more control over their own assessment and supports their involvement in the development of their care and support plan.
The Department published statutory guidance which provides more detail on the assessment provisions for local authorities. The Department also commissioned Skills for Care and the Social Care Institute for Care Excellence to develop materials to support local authorities with the implementation of the assessment requirements, including supported self-assessment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-11-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department’s policy is on testing detainees for infectious diseases such as TB.
Jane Ellison
In April 2015, Public Health England, NHS England, and Home Office Immigration Enforcement jointly published a National Partnership Agreement which outlines shared commitments and priorities across the three organisations relating to the health and wellbeing of people in detention in the immigration removal estate. This includes a joint priority to improve the pro-active detection, surveillance and management of infectious diseases in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), particularly in respect of blood-borne viruses (BBVs) and tuberculosis (TB), and to improve capability to detect and respond to outbreaks and incidents.
A programme of work to implement the provisions of the National Partnership Agreement is being taken forward by the three organisations. Use of new technology is being explored in some IRCs including using digital x-ray technology to detect active TB disease in the lungs as well as blood tests to detect both latent TB and BBV infection.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Condon on 2015-12-15.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage the full-time employment of adults with special learning needs, and what assessment they have made of how successful those measures have been in 2015.
Baroness Altmann
Increasing disability employment is a key part of the government’s aim to achieve full employment. That is why this Government has an ambition to halve the disability employment gap by creating the opportunity for a million more disabled people to work.
The Government has a variety of initiatives and programmes in place to support and encourage people with special learning needs to find and retain work. Performance statistics are published for a number of these.
For example: