Tag: 2016

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial savings she expects to result from the transfer of processing Bangladeshi visa applications to New Delhi.

    James Brokenshire

    Decision making on UK visa applications lodged in Bangladesh was transferred from Dhaka to New Delhi in September 2014. Logistical changes like this are made for operational reasons and to refine the longstanding hub and spoke structure of the visa network, where applications are decided at regional decision making centres. The hub and spoke structure increases resilience, improves security and enhances decision quality. The overall customer experience is unchanged as applications can be submitted at the same visa application centres and continue to be decided within the same global customer service standard. As result of this transfer of work we also estimate a saving of around £0.6m per year.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to paragraph 1.301 of Budget 2016, how much funding will be made available to support delivery of the final phase of the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme; and what proportion of that funding is additional to the £2.3 billion capital programme previously announced.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government has announced a new scheme for Leeds and the wider Aire catchment, which will provide flood defence for the area north of the station. Subject to business case approval, £35 million has been made available for this scheme up to 2021, with a commitment to ensure that the project is completed. This funding is in addition to the £2.3 billion capital programme.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who applied for UK citizenship applied for an exemption from the written life in the UK test between June 2014 and June 2016; and how many such applications were refused.

    James Brokenshire

    The Secretary of State may waive the Knowledge of Language and Life in the UK requirement for British citizenship on the basis of a person’s age, physical or mental condition.

    A person will normally be exempted from this requirement if they provide evidence from an appropriate medical practitioner that their condition is so severe that it prevents them from being able to learn English or prepare for or sit an English test or the Life in the UK test. Each application is considered on its own merits.

    Information cannot be obtained from UKVI data systems to show how many exemption requests were made and granted. This information could only be obtained from looking at individual records at disproportionate cost.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-05-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect British girls in the Dawoodi Bohra community from female genital mutilation, in the light of the sermon by Supreme Leader Mufaddal Saifuddin on 25 April urging that all girls must undergo that procedure.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.

    We will not stop FGM until we have changed attitudes within communities. The Government works closely with a range of community and faith groups, including Muslim women’s groups, to tackle FGM. Over 350 faith leaders from all the major faiths have signed a declaration condemning FGM. They have declared that it is not required by their religions and is a form of child abuse. The declaration makes clear that all religions will work together to end FGM for good. We continue to work with community organisations and survivors through the Governments FGM Unit’s stakeholder group and outreach programme to drive this work forward.

    In 2014 the Government ran a national communications campaign to raise awareness. We also funded 29 community engagement projects, including a network of community champions, who are reaching thousands of women and girls affected by FGM, and, importantly, their families. The work of these projects has included training for teachers, awareness sessions in local mosques, and the establishment of a new national website for, and by, young people giving information about how to prevent FGM. The Department for Communities and Local Government has established a network of community champions which is operating in London, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham. Champions are working with local people to address the myths that sustain FGM and to help keep girls safe.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the implications of the provisions in clause 15 of the Children and Social Work Bill for strengthening safeguarding responsibilities.

    Edward Timpson

    Clause 15 of the Children and Social Work Bill is key to bringing about the changes proposed by Alan Wood in his review of the role and function of Local Safeguarding Children Boards. The review’s recommendations, which we accepted, were to replace the existing Local Safeguarding Children Board structure with a stronger but more flexible framework for multi-agency working in local areas. We believe that this stronger framework and flexibility, as set out in clause 15, will improve outcomes for children and their families and enable the effective sharing of information which is so fundamental to safeguarding children.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether bids can continue to be made by British cities to become European capital of culture after the vote to leave the EU.

    Matt Hancock

    DCMS is currently reviewing the impact of the referendum result on the UK’s ability to participate in this competition, and will provide clarity to all interested cities once we are in a position to do so.

  • Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Ronnie Cowan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ronnie Cowan on 2015-12-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what process his Department uses to estimate the number of civilians killed by the UK’s bombing programme in Syria since 3 December 2015.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Every strike is subjected to careful post-mission scrutiny to confirm the aircrew’s assessment.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been released from custodial sentences as a result of wrongful convictions in each of the last 10 years.

    Mike Penning

    The Ministry of Justice does not hold the number of people released from custodial sentences as a result of wrongful convictions in England and Wales. Obtaining this information would incur disproportionate cost.

  • Victoria Borwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Victoria Borwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Victoria Borwick on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support disabled people affected by the changes to employment and support allowance work-related activity group.

    Priti Patel

    We are providing new funding for additional practical support for claimants with limited capability for work from April 2017, when the removal of the work-related activity component will come into effect, rising from £60 million in 2017/18 to £100 million a year in 2020/21.

    In addition to this, we also plan to provide additional funding of £15 million in 2017/18 to increase the local Jobcentre Flexible Support Fund.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of changes to Health Education England funding on training in (a) child psychotherapy, (b) clinical psychotherapy; and on the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.

    Ben Gummer

    Higher Education training in child psychotherapy, clinical psychotherapy and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies is not currently eligible for NHS Bursary funding and, as such, is not subject to the healthcare education funding reforms.

    The Government will be consulting shortly on healthcare education funding reform as announced in the November 2015 Spending Review and respondents to the consultation may wish to raise issues relating to courses operated outside of the remit of these reforms. The Government will consider these in the context of its consultation response.

    Health Education England (HEE) funding for psychological therapy training is currently determined at a local level based on local need. For 2016-17 HEE will fund those commissions set out in the HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan for 2016-17 which was published in December 2015. HEE’s plans for training child psychotherapists, clinical psychotherapists and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (low intensity and high intensity practitioners) remain unchanged from 2015-16, with 43, 526 and 946 proposed commissions respectively.