Tag: 2016

  • Tommy Sheppard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Tommy Sheppard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tommy Sheppard on 2016-01-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time a person waited after applying to a hardship fund to receive funding was in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland and (c) Edinburgh in the last 12 months.

    Priti Patel

    The information is not available at the level requested and could only be provided at disproportionate costs.

    The Department has, however, published information on the number of hardship applications and awards for Jobseekers Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance which can be accessed via the link below.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/jsa-and-esa-hardship-applications-and-awards-apr-2012-to-jun-2015

    “

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hostage situations have arisen in each prison and youth facility in each month since March 2014.

    Andrew Selous

    The vast majority of incidents are minor in nature and resolved quickly and professionally without injury, damage or disruption to the running of the prison. Each incident is investigated fully to ensure lessons are learnt and best practice in managing incidents is shared across NOMS.

    Many incidents at height are relatively short in duration, lasting less than 15 minutes, and take place on netting or over railings. Hostage incidents are relatively rare and in many cases of hostage taking collusion between the perpetrator and victim is suspected. We do not tolerate violence or disorder in our prisons. Prisoners who take part in violent incidents can be referred to the police for prosecution or receive additional time on their sentences following internal adjudication.

    The tables attached provide numbers of incidents at height and hostage incidents in each month between March 2014 and December 2015 and broken down by establishment.

    Note: These figures have been drawn from the NOMS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last case the figures may not be accurate to that level.

  • 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 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2016 to Question 29571, on prescriptions: learning disability, if he will make it his policy to collect that information.

    Alistair Burt

    A prescription does not record whether someone has a learning disability so a collection of the requested information would require a change in the prescribing process.

    As part of the Government’s commitment to improve care for people with learning disabilities NHS England is planning a programme of work to reduce inappropriate prescribing.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with G4S for the region of North East England and Yorkshire and Humber, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such faults were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.

    James Brokenshire

    Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of public health nurses to delivering the prevention agenda in the NHS England Five Year Forward View.

    Ben Gummer

    Improving population health is the responsibility of every nurse and each has a role in working with individuals, communities and/or the population to prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing. The National Health Service Five Year Forward View (FYFV) sets out the need to close the health and wellbeing gap and radically upgrade prevention. The new framework for nurses, midwives and care staff in England, Leading Change, Adding Value, scheduled for publication later this month, sets out how these professionals will support delivery of the FYFV. There are 10 commitments in the framework, of which three are specifically related to population health and prevention.

    To support all health care professionals including nurses to provide evidence based preventative interventions and measure their impact, Public Health England will be launching a resource called All Our Health later this month.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will investigate reports that BT is installing and charging for telephone lines for customers who have not requested one and who are only customers of fibre optic services.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Department’s understanding is that BT Openreach installs fibre and other services, ordered by communications providers for their customers. This includes fibre broadband services, most of which require a copper line to be installed in order to provide a telephone service. Assurance has been provided by BT that they would not provide a telephone service, or any other chargeable service, without the customer’s knowledge and authorisation. However, should this for any reason be the case, then consumers are advised to seek redress through the usual protections that are in place.

  • Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to introduce independent oversight of the Service Police.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Service Police are already subject to independent oversight by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabularies and their reports are placed in the public domain. We also remain committed to the introduction of independent oversight of complaints made against the Service Police and work continues in order to identify the most appropriate means of achieving that.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether North Wales is to be included in the Northern Powerhouse.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The Northern Powerhouse presents a once in a generation opportunity to redress the North-South economic imbalance. North Wales is an integral part of the Government’s Northern Powerhouse vision.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on the proposal from the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee for a mandatory Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) in the EU, in order to have one set of rules for calculating the taxable profits of companies operating in more than one member state; and if he will press for the introduction of such a CCCTB with other EU member states in the Council.

    Mr David Gauke

    The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) has a keen interest in tax, and hence put forward certain proposals. However, the Commission has the sole power of initiative in relation to legislative measures. Tax files are to be agreed by unanimity at the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). The European Parliament’s role in this process in not formal, and purely consultative.

    The term tax haven is often used as shorthand for low or zero tax jurisdictions. However, low tax rates are not by themselves harmful and the UK supports fair tax competition. The UK is working with other Member States in the EU Code of Conduct Group to identify harmful tax regimes and will continue to take strong action against aggressive avoidance and evasion.

    The UK and other Member States have not yet seen any proposals from the European Commission or the European Parliament on public country-by-country reporting (CbCR). The Commission is due to publish an Impact Assessment on public CbCR shortly, and we are interested in the results of their analysis. The UK will carefully consider any proposals put forward by the Commission.

    The UK played a leading role in encouraging other countries and jurisdictions to sign up to international tax transparency agreements during its G8 presidency in 2013. Thanks in large part to the UK’s continuing leadership on this agenda, over 90 countries have now committed to exchange information on offshore accounts, beginning in 2017 or 2018. The UK also initiated the international work on CbCR and was the first country to formally commit to implementing the OECD model for CbCR, with legislation in the Finance Act 2015. We support the proposal to amend the Directive on Administrative Co-operation to require all EU Member States to adopt and exchange the OECD CbCR template.

    The European Commission intends to publish a revised proposal for a mandatory Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) later this year. The Government will wait to see the detail of the Commission’s proposal, including a robust impact assessment, before finalising its position. However, we have stated that the UK will not sign up to anything that undermines our tax sovereignty.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2016 to Question 29272, how many of the 2635 EEA nationals upon whom administrative travel papers were served in 2014 have left the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    After an EEA national has been served with administrative removal papers, they have 30 days to leave the country. They do not have to inform us of their departure. This period is set out in the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006.

    Following this 30-day period, if the EEA national has not voluntarily left the UK Immigration Enforcement officers can and do forcibly remove these individuals. Out of the 2,635 EEA nationals who were served administrative removal papers in 2014 1,019 were forcibly removed.