The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of whether paragraph 20 of Schedule 9 of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987 accurately reflects the real costs borne by a claimant who takes a boarder into their home.
Priti Patel
There has been no such assessment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the cost of outsourced mental health services.
Alistair Burt
We do not hold this information centrally.
Departmental Ministers regularly discuss a number of mental health issues with NHS England officials, although no discussions specifically about the cost of outsourced mental health services have taken place.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people waited six weeks or longer for a diagnostic test in Lancashire in 2015.
Jane Ellison
This information is not available in the format requested.
However, NHS England publishes diagnostics waiting times and activity, including performance against the six week target, by clinical commissioning group (CCG) on a monthly basis.
For 2014-15 and 2015-16 this can be found at the following links in the Monthly Diagnostics Commissioner data under the ‘CCG Summary’ tab:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carolyn Harris on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the progress made by bookmakers in reducing gambling-related harm.
David Evennett
This Government has been clear with the whole gambling industry that they are expected to demonstrate they are continuously improving player protection initiatives and evaluating the effects of previous initiatives. The Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) revised its social responsibility Code of Conduct in 2015. On 6 April the industry also launched the multi-operator self-exclusion scheme, which allows customers to self-exclude from all bookmakers at once.
In January, we published the Evaluation of Gaming Machine (Circumstances of Use) (Amendment) Regulations 2015, which can can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-gaming-machine-circumstances-of-useamendment-regulations-2015. We are considering the findings of the evaluation before deciding if there is a need for further action.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to work with local authorities whose areas experienced flooding over winter 2015-16 in order to support their local high street economy.
James Wharton
DCLG launched a funding package in December worth £100 million to directly support flooded householders and businesses by:
Our Recovery Package also supports homes and businesses to protect their properties against future floods through the Property Level Resilience Scheme.
In addition to this bespoke recovery package, we’re taking action to help high streets thrive through a range of targeted tax breaks, sensible planning changes and measures to ensure fairer parking for motorists. At the Budget, we announced the biggest ever cut in business rates in England – worth £6.7 billion over the next five years and cutting business rates for all ratepayers, meaning 600,000 of the smallest businesses won’t have to pay business rates again.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Neill on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce delays processing medical discharges in the Army Health Medical Directorate.
Mark Lancaster
As I explained to you in my letter of 21 March, the delays in processing requests for retrospective medical discharges by the Army are due to a shortage of clinicians, but that a new member of staff had been appointed to assist with these reviews. I wrote to you again on 12 July and advised you that the backlog is now being processed and each individual will be informed of the outcome of their review as soon as it is completed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-15.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department is making on the implementation of the proposed secondary market for annuities.
Simon Kirby
To date, the Government has published the following consultation documents in relation to the secondary market in annuities policy:
Creating a secondary annuity market – March 2015
Creating a secondary annuity market: response to the call for evidence – December 2015
Creating a secondary annuity market: tax framework – April 2016
Creating a secondary market for annuities – secondary legislation – April 2016
These consultations have now closed. The Government will respond shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gary Streeter on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle extremism in British young people.
Karen Bradley
Extremism poses a serious threat to this country including our young people. The Government’s Counter-Extremism Strategy aims to tackle extremism in all its forms and takes action in four areas:
• Countering extremist ideology;
• Building a partnership with all those opposed to extremism;
• Disrupting extremists; and
• Building more cohesive communities
We have a responsibility to protect our young people from extremist views and build a safe environment priotising the safeguarding of children. That is why our local networks work with schools to help children know how to identify extremist narratives online [P.15 Strategy Q&A pack].
We also have a responsibility to protect our young people from extremist views in school. That is why since 1 July 2015 all schools have been required to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. To widen the protection of school children further we are consulting on a new system for registering and inspecting supplementary schools, to protect children and young people from harm, including exposure to extremist views. We have also launched ‘Educate Against Hate’, a new resource to provide parents and teachers with practical advice on protecting children from extremism and radicalisation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were victims of online fraud in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West in each year since 2010.
Mr John Hayes
The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the number of victims of online frauds committed annually.
The Office for National Statistics recently published a provisional estimate of 5.1 million fraud offences a year in England and Wales, based on trial data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. This did not include details of how many fraud offences were online or on the number of victims of online fraud.
The ONS also published the number of frauds referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) in the year to September 2015 – 604,601. It is not possible to establish how many of these were online.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent representations she has received from local authorities on tackling stone theft.
Karen Bradley
Stone theft has a detrimental effect on towns and communities across England and Wales. The impact of these crimes includes both the economic cost to the victim, but there are also wider costs to the community, for example where schools, churches or heritage items are targeted by criminals.
We have received no recent representations from local authorities on this issue, nor have we had recent discussions with the police on stone theft specifically. However, the police are working with Historic England, the Crown Prosecution Service and others to share intelligence and shape good practice in tackling and preventing heritage crime, such as stone theft.
We would encourage all victims of stone theft, whether individuals or organisations, to report instances of these crimes to their local police, so that the crimes can be properly recorded and investigated. The local response is a matter for individual chief officers of police and Police and Crime Commissioners, taking into account the specific local issues and demands that they face.
We are satisfied that the existing legislation provides the police and courts with sufficient powers to respond to stone theft.