The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-09-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many serving armed forces personnel are in receipt of Continuity of Education Allowance; and in respect of how many children such allowances are allocated.
Mark Lancaster
There are 3,008 serving Armed Forces personnel in receipt of Continuity of Education Allowance for 4,454 children.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Suttie on 2016-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current procedures for processing official documents of homeless people wishing to return to their country of origin, and whether they have plans to improve those procedures.
Lord Bates
Immigration Enforcement works closely with homeless charities conducting activity across the country often encountering EU or foreign nationals who are homeless. Any individual that wishes to return home can be assisted either by the charity or Immigration Enforcement to obtain a travel document, liaising with embassies and high commissions if necessary to obtain a document quickly. Immigration Enforcement can also issue a European Union letter if an individual wishes to travel to their home country within the EU.
In addition, the Home Office Voluntary Departures Service provides support to those with identified vulnerability who wish to make a voluntary return. The support available depends on the unique circumstances of each individual but may include help with travel, transfers, medical support and help to reintegrate in the country of return.
The Department is constantly reviewing its processes to further improve its engagement with partners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-09.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the press release of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills of 5 February 2016, entitled New National Minimum Wage offenders named and shamed, for what reasons HM Revenue and Customs did not seek to prosecute Total Security Services Limited for non-payment of minimum wage arrears.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs cannot comment on the affairs of individual employers. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills set out how the Government operates civil and criminal enforcement of National Minimum Wage, which can be accessed by the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/enforcing-national-minimum-wage-law
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that more prisoners obtain employment on release.
Andrew Selous
Supporting offenders into meaningful employment is a vital aspect of the Government’s approach to rehabilitation. We already work with a wide range of employers in prison through One3One Solutions and engagement by Prison Governors. And we want Governors to do more so we are putting the tools to drive this change in the hands of those at the frontline who best know what works. We are keen to increase the number of employers who can provide valuable vocational work for offenders while in prison and who are able to offer them support in preparation for release and employment opportunities following their release. I regularly meet businesses across the country including at 2 successful roadshows at HMP Sudbury and HMP/YOI Drake hall. New businesses are now coming on board as a consequence. The Employers Forum for Reducing Reoffending brings together employers willing to employ offenders and we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the involvement of more businesses. The Prime Minister has announced changes to recruitment practises across the civil service to ensure that people are considered on their merits and not on their criminal conviction and we want to encourage more employers to do the same.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31329, on deportation: EU nationals, how many of the EEA foreign national offenders awaiting deportation are (a) in immigration removal centres, (b) in custody or other form of detention, (c) on bail and (d) living in the community.
James Brokenshire
Removals have been increasing year on year since 2010. In 2015, we removed 5,602 FNOs and over 29,000 foreign national offenders have been removed since 2010.
Our records indicate that as of December 2015, there were 4,217 EEA foreign national offenders awaiting deportation.
Of which:
2,748 are still serving a custodial sentence
A total of 302 are time served detained in immigration removal centres (IRC) and prisons. (242 in IRCs and 60 in prison)
1,167 are living in the community.
Of the above, for those detained and living in the community (1,469), the time since the end of their custodial sentence is as follows:
Less than one month 50
One to three months 84
Three to six months 58
Six to nine months 60
Nine to 12 months 49
One to two years 132
More than two years 80
No UK conviction or sentence end date not recorded 956
Total 1,469
(1) The figures quoted have been derived from management information from the Home Office databases and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols.
(2) FNOs living in the community include those released by an Immigration Judge, those released by the Secretary of State and those with oversees convictions who may not have received a custodial sentence in the UK.
(3) The data provided is up to December 2015. This is not routinely published data. General protocol is that the figures should not breach the National Statistics, so we are not able to disclose figures that are for a later period than those that we have published. Published figures are available up to 31 December 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) translation services and (b) other specialist provisions the Government provides to unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Eritrea.
James Brokenshire
All unaccompanied asylum seeking children, including those from Eritrea, are provided with an interpreter where necessary, access to legal advice, and are referred to the Refugee Council children’s panel.
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children are placed in the care of local authority children’s services and have access to the same support as all other looked after children.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-06-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assistance her Department provides to UK-based companies seeking to export energy and fuel; and if she will make a statement.
Andrea Leadsom
For electricity, the Government supports the development of interconnectors to other markets. These allow cross-border trade in electricity, determined by market prices. The GB system currently has 4GW of capacity, and in the Budget the Chancellor set out that it is in British consumers interests that this increases by at least 9GW. This will improve our security of supply, deliver significant benefits to consumers, and help integrate more low carbon generation into the system.
On oil products, DECC policy is to secure a competitive market for suppliers by ensuring smarter regulation and addressing market distortions meaning UK companies – well established in the global oil markets – are freely able to export and import the fuels we need.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-09-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what reports he has received on whether a UK-made cluster munition was (a) found and (b) used in Yemen in the last two years.
Mike Penning
Amnesty International wrote to the Prime Minister on 23 May 2016, and to the Ministry of Defence on 3 June 2016, on the alleged use of UK-produced BL-755 cluster munitions by the Saudi-led coallition in Yeman.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord McColl of Dulwich on 2016-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between malnutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene.
Baroness Verma
DFID commissioned the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to undertake a review of the evidence on the links between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and nutrition in 2012. The review concluded that there was good evidence that WASH has an impact on under-nutrition. At the very basic level, the act of infant and child feeding needs good personal hygiene – hand washing with soap and water, plus good food hygiene. In addition, water is important in that it is generally required to prepare complementary foods. It needs to come from a safe source and then be collected, transported and stored safely. The living environment of infants has to be free from faecal contamination to minimise the risk of ingesting pathogens or coming into contact with intestinal worms.
This review is currently being updated drawing on a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2014 which estimated that 50% of child under-nutrition is associated with repeated diarrhoea or intestinal worm infections as a result of unsafe water, inadequate sanitation or insufficient hygiene. There is increasing evidence that chronic diarrheal disease may inhibit nutrient absorption even if sufficient food is consumed. This latter condition referred to as Environmental Enteropathy is currently one of the subjects of a large randomised control trial being conducted in Zimbabwe with DFID support.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help small and medium-sized enterprises protect themselves against cyber-attack.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Government’s National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) aims to tackle cyber crime and make the UK the safest place in the world to do business in the world. This includes the Cyber Essentials Scheme to protect businesses against common cyber threats and the cyber streetwise campaign which offers simple cyber security advice to small businesses and consumers. In addition to the £860 million investment under the NCSP between 2011-2016, in November 2015 the Chancellor announced a new five year £1.9 billion investment in cyber security to make the UK one of the best protected countries in cyber space.