The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who has (a) visited and (b) stayed at Chevening House since 7 May 2015.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
This Government regularly publishes information on the use of official residences and ministerial meetings.
Details are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Kendall on 2016-04-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients with a diagnosis of autism have been held on mental health wards in each of the last three years because they could not get a suitable living placement; and how many of those patients were (a) children and (b) adults.
Alistair Burt
The total number of adults with a diagnosis of autism who have been held on mental health wards was five in 2014 and 10 in 2015.
The table below provides average and longest length for adults with a diagnosis of autism who were held on mental health wards in each of the last two years because they could not get a suitable living placement.
|
Longest length of stay (days) |
Average length of stay (days) |
|
|
2014 Adults (aged 18 and over) |
435 |
236 |
|
2015 Adults (aged 18 and over) |
249 |
71 |
Data for children for this same period cannot be provided as the total is fewer than five in each given year and cannot be made available in order to minimise disclosure risks associated with small numbers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-05-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to publish the equality impact assessment on the proposed HPV vaccination programme for men who have sex with men.
Jane Ellison
Public Health England is starting a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination pilot for men who have sex with men in June 2016. Information gathered during the pilot will help inform an equality impact assessment for a national programme if the pilot is successful.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-07-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to invoke Article 50 of the TEU immediately; and whether they will negotiate to withdraw from the EU within months, and not later than March 2017.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Government has no such plans.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have applied for asylum on the basis of sexual orientation; how many of these claims have been unsuccessful; on what grounds those unsuccessful applications were refused in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Home Office is currently undertaking a process to quality assure information on its Case Information Database relating to sexuality based asylum claims.
Until this exercise has concluded it is not possible to provide an accurate picture of the number of asylum claims based solely, or partly on sexuality.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Campbell-Savours on 2016-01-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to carry out an inquiry into VAT fraud in the London souvenir and gift trade.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are committed to tackling tax avoidance, evasion and fraud at all levels to ensure everyone pays the right tax at the right time.
HMRC introduced a series of taskforces in 2011 to target specific high risk sectors in certain locations. There are currently no plans for a taskforce dedicated to the London souvenir and gift trade, although that does not mean that HMRC takes no action against fraud in this sector.
Other, existing taskforces – for example those focusing on London retail, indoor and outdoor markets, and VAT repayments – will have an impact on the sector. Additionally, the sector will be impacted through HMRC’s normal intelligence- and data-led way of identifying and addressing tax risks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Chesterton on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to establish targets to reduce energy use across the government estate to reduce carbon emissions over the next five years.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has already reduced the greenhouse gas emissions from its estate and operations by 22% from 2009/10 to 2014/15 under the Greening Government Commitments. We are in the process of developing a new set of Greening Government Commitments for this Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the public purse was of winding up the College of Social Work.
Alistair Burt
The Government agreed to make a grant payment of £225,000 to the College of Social Work for the 2015-16 financial year, to enable completion of existing projects and provide an orderly transfer of functions and resources to other organisations by September 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of children in Calais who are waiting to be reunited with their families in the UK.
James Brokenshire
There is no official estimate of the number of children in Calais, this is primarily a matter for the French authorities. It is only possible to assess whether an individual has links to the UK that could enable a transfer on family unity grounds once they make an application for asylum in France.
Once an asylum claim is lodged in France the Dublin Regulation procedure requesting the UK to take charge of a child on family unity grounds takes place very quickly, often in a matter of weeks, subject to consideration of the evidence in each individual case. An average time is not available for each of the last three years.
Since February 2016 the UK has accepted 30 family reunification applications from minors in France of which 23 have already been transferred to the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average hourly earnings were of his Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.
Jane Ellison
The information requested (as at 31 March in each of the two years) is presented below. The figures given take into consideration only information about staff who have formally declared their ethnicity.
|
Average Hourly Rate 2015 |
Average Hourly Rate 2016 |
|
|
Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Staff |
£18.50 |
£19.03 |
|
Non-Black and Minority Ethnic (Non-BME) Staff |
£24.23 |
£24.34 |
17% of the Department’s staff are BME which is above the Civil Service average. The difference in average hourly rates between BME and non BME staff is due to there being a higher proportion of BME staff in junior grades at present.
To encourage recruitment and promotion of talented individuals from a BME background, the Department has undertaken several initiatives including, but not limited to, blind recruitment forms, mandatory unconscious bias training for all staff and a suite of other Diversity and Inclusion training, such as Race Awareness, Positive Action Pathways, and Future Leaders Schemes.