Tag: 2016

  • Ann Coffey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ann Coffey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Coffey on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time between (a) offence commission and charge, (b) charge and first court appearance and (c) first court appearance to sentencing or acquittal was for all sexual offences cases completed in Greater Manchester in (i) 2013, (ii) 2014 and (iii) 2015.

    Mike Penning

    Our courts system is in need of urgent reform, which is why we have committed to building a justice system that is swifter and more certain.

    We are investing £700 million over the next five years to create a more effective service. We will utilise modern technology to meet the needs of everyone who uses our services.

    MOJ do not hold figures on dates of sentencing or acquittals and have instead provided the time from first listing to completion.

    The age of a victim is only known where specified as part of the wording of an offence in statute. Figures for sexual offences cases where the victim was a minor are based on cases where the victim was known to be a minor, and figures where the victim was an adult include cases where the age of the victim was not known.

    Data included in the attached tables.

    Table 1 – the average duration from offence to charge, from charge to first listing, and from first listing to completion for sexual offences cases in Greater Manchester LCJB and in England and Wales, for cases completing in 2013, 2014 and January to September 2015.

    Table 2 – the average duration (days) between offence to charge, charge to first listing, and first listing to completion for sexual offence cases completed in England and Wales where the victim was a minor or an adult, 2013 to Q1-Q3 2015.

    Table 3 – the average durations for sexual offences cases in England and Wales. These are an update of Tables 5.1 and 5.2 in the ‘Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales’ publication. Figures are for the last 12 months available, from October 2014 to September 2015.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-03-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what new proposals they have for tackling levels of congestion in towns and cities in the light of the reduction in police service numbers available for enforcement.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    I refer the Noble Lord to the answer I provided on 2 December 2015 (HL 3693) which clarified this Government has an ambitious strategy for tackling congestion in our cities and towns and improving performance on our roads.

    Local highway authorities who are responsible for managing the local road network have a statutory duty under the Traffic Management Act to provide better conditions for all road users and to help tackle congestion in towns and cities. The size and make-up of the police workforce is a matter for Chief Constables to determine locally in conjunction with their democratically-elected Police and Crime Commissioners and working with other local stakeholders. It is, therefore, ultimately a decision for the Chief Constable to deploy resources according to the priorities agreed in its policing plan.

  • – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, with reference to the statement in their pamphlet Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK that the UK has secured a special status in a reformed EU”

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The settlement reached in February, as set out in the 22 February 2016 White Paper “The Best of Both Worlds: the United Kingdom’s Special Status in a Reformed European Union,” secures the UK’s objectives for reform. The settlement covers four key areas: economic governance; competitiveness; sovereignty; and welfare and free movement. It gives the UK a special status within the EU, as well as setting the EU as a whole on a path of long-term reform.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas have been issued to Latvians who are categorised as non-citizens in each year since 2010.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office does not hold the specific information in the format requested. To obtain it would involve interrogating individual case records, at disproportionate cost.

  • Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-07-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are concurrently claiming employment and support allowance and personal independence payments for long-term and degenerative conditions.

    Justin Tomlinson

    In March 2016 approximately 6,600 Employment and Support Allowance claimants with a long-term and degenerative condition as their primary condition also received Personal Independence Payment.

    ‘Long-term and degenerative conditions’ include cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, other rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s disease and spinal muscular atrophy.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.

    Mr David Jones

    All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

    Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

    More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Caulfield on 2016-01-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to extend the age group entitled to receive the human papilloma virus vaccinations for women.

    Jane Ellison

    The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for girls was introduced in 2008, on the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters. The aim of the programme is to prevent cervical cancer related to HPV infection.

    When the routine programme was introduced in 2008, a catch-up programme was also rolled out to offer the vaccine to women up to age 18 years. This was also based on advice from the JCVI that the catch-up, as well as the routine programme, would be cost-effective.

    The JCVI also noted that ‘catch up’ vaccination for women aged 18 to 25 years was not cost-effective at the vaccine price considered and, on this basis, did not advise the routine vaccination of women beyond the age 18. In 2015, the JCVI revisited the issue and noted that the cost-effectiveness of a catch-up programme for women above 18 years who had not received the vaccine was considered unlikely to be cost-effective. On this basis, we do not have any plans to offer HPV vaccine routinely to women aged 18 and over at this time. Clinicians are however able to offer vaccinations outside of the national programme to women at high risk using individual clinical judgement.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff in his Department and non-departmental public bodies receive (a) home to work travel allowance, (b) a car allowance and (c) subsidised health insurance.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    As a legally compliant employer we do provide healthcare benefits where we have a legal obligation to do so imposed by The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). This means that where staff transfer with their work into the Civil Service then we are legally obliged to match their terms and conditions and these might include travel allowances and subsidised health insurance

    No staff in the Department currently receive a home to work travel allowance, a car allowance or subsidised health insurance, which compares to the position before 2010 where fewer than 5 staff received subsidised health insurance.

    The number of staff in the Department for Transport’s non-departmental public bodies who currently receive a home to work travel allowance, a car allowance or subsidised health insurance is shown in the table below:

    Home to work travel allowance

    Car allowance

    Subsidised health insurance

    Number of staff

    less than 5

    less than 5

    12

    Where there are less than 5 staff receiving these allowances we are not releasing the number to ensure they cannot be identified.

  • Lord Vinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Vinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Vinson on 2016-03-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the fact that the net long-term international migration figure for the year ending September 2015 was 323,000 rather than their ambition of tens of thousands, what is the high migration assumption in the latest ONS population projections, and what they estimate will be the increase in the UK population over the next five years.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Attorney General, what procedures are in place to share information from the Serious Fraud Office’s dedicated reporting channel with other investigatory bodies and prosecuting authorities.

    Jeremy Wright

    The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is an intelligence led agency and follows the National Intelligence Model (NIM) when sharing information with law enforcement partners.

    Every report made to the SFO is assessed by a member of its Intelligence Unit in conjunction with other information available. The SFO passes information on to others when it has appropriate intelligence to share. This could be information from a single report, or a collated intelligence package.

    The vast majority of reports made to the SFO are not matters which it can investigate, and are more appropriate for the police or other agencies. Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud reporting centre. Individuals are asked to report matters directly to them so that Action Fraud can make best use of their information. They will also be given a crime report number for future reference.

    The table below shows the minimum number of intelligence referrals made by the SFO to other agencies which are directly referable to reports made through the dedicated reporting channel(1) since these statistics have been recorded. It also shows the number of SFO investigations opened since 2012 where the initial report to the SFO came through its online reporting system.

    Year

    Number of referrals

    SFO investigations that originated through online reporting system

    2012

    Not recorded

    1

    2013

    Not recorded

    2

    2014

    144

    3

    2015

    154

    3

    1. The SFO does not record statistical information about all types of referrals that it makes to other agencies that are directly referable to reports made through the dedicated reporting channel, so the total number may be higher.