The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS has spent on external management consultants’ pay in (a) 2015 and (b) 2016 to date.
Mr Philip Dunne
We do not hold the information in the format requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-01-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the claim by Aegis Europe that granting market economy status to China could put more than one million European jobs at risk.
Lord Maude of Horsham
A report by the Economic Policy Institute, on which the claim by Aegis Europe draws makes some significant omissions, uses some questionable assumptions and does not take account of a number of potential positive or mitigating effects in reaching its estimates. We understand that the European Commission will be undertaking a detailed assessment of the economic impacts of granting MES as part of their consideration of this issue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of how many men who have sex with men (MSM) are expected to receive the HPV vaccine each year as a result of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s recommendation that it be offered at sexual health clinics; and what proportion of the MSM population aged up to 45 his Department estimates will have been vaccinated within (a) one year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years of that vaccine first being so offered.
Jane Ellison
In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted human papillomavirus vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men (MSM) up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price. JCVI acknowledged that finding a way to implement its advice would be challenging and made clear that work was needed by the Department and others to consider commissioning and delivery routes for this programme. This work is already underway and we will announce our plans as soon as we can.
The Department is not yet in a position to suggest estimates of the numbers or proportion of MSM who might be vaccinated from this potential vaccination programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wasserman on 2016-03-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the 41 persons presently employed to discharge the function of Chief Executive of the Office of Police and Crime Commissioner in police forces in England and Wales are (1) women, (2) members of the BME communities, (3) legally qualified, and (4) former police officers.
Lord Bates
The Home Office does not hold this information.
The Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are statutorily required to recruit a Chief of Staff (Chief Executive) and a Chief Financial Officer. However, it is then for the PCC to determine what further staff they require to support them in their duties.
Under paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 of the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) Order 2011, PCCs are obliged to publish certain staffing information, including an organisational chart showing the structure of their office.
This level of transparency enables the public to effectively hold them to account in a way that was not possible under the police authority governance model.
The Home Office does not hold further information centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities have requested permission from his Department to introduce licensing of private landlords since 1 April 2015; and whether each such request (a) was granted, (b) was refused or (c) is awaiting a decision.
Brandon Lewis
Since April 2015, my Department has received three large selective licensing applications from the following local authorities: London Borough of Redbridge, Burnley Borough Council and Peterborough City Council.
Redbridge’s application to introduce a borough wide scheme has been declined as their plans did not meet the selective licensing approval criteria. The Burnley and Peterborough applications are currently under consideration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role the National Crime Agency plays in tackling tax evasion.
Mr John Hayes
The National Crime Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 sets out the Agency’s staffing numbers and funding allocations including gross expenditure for the Economic Crime Command for 2013-14, and 2014-15.
The gross expenditure of the Economic Crime Command in 2013/14, the first year of the NCA’s operation, was £10,571,000. In 2014-15 gross expenditure was £21,718,000. In June 2015, the International Corruption Unit was established in the Economic Crime Command. It brought together resources from the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the NCA into a single unit and is responsible for investigating the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK, and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates.
The Economic Crime Command also leads the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) through which the financial sector, law enforcement agencies and the Financial Conduct Authority share information to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing. The NCA as a whole has around 4,000 staff. The majority of the NCA’s staff work as a flexible investigative resource, not in a particular Command, but assigned to particular operations across all areas of the NCA as needed. The agency also houses a number of deployable specialist capabilities.
The number of staff working in a particular Command is not a reliable indicator of the overall NCA resource linked to a particular type of crime. The Criminal Finances Threat Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the NCA which includes representatives from across law enforcement, meeting quarterly. As the Group is not a unit within the NCA, the information sought is not available. HMRC leads on tax evasion.
The NCA works closely with HMRC in relation to tax evasion that relates to serious and organised crime. Through the NCA’s national tasking and coordination mechanisms the Agency is able act on these cases by utilising its specialist capabilities, for example undertaking tax investigations to recover assets from serious and organised criminals under part 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yvette Cooper on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials of her Department are on secondment in France to assist with the identification of potential requests for the UK to take charge of an asylum-seeking child in France.
James Brokenshire
We have a number of officials already working on migration matters in France, Greece and Italy. A number of deployments to France from the Home Office and Foreign Office are supporting joint efforts with France to ensure Dublin Regulation transfers are carried out effectively and efficiently. Our support included the secondment of a UK asylum expert to the Dublin unit in France to assist and facilitate the improvement of all stages of the process of identifying, protecting and transferring relevant cases to the UK. A team of Home Office officials are part of the joint communications programme in Calais and there are weekly meetings between the heads of the UK and French Dublin Units. There is a Home Official seconded on a bi-lateral basis to the Italian Dublin Unit and we are about to second a UK official to Greece as additional support for Dublin family transfers to the UK.
Since May we have also deployed asylum experts to support hotspots and Dublin units in both Greece and Italy under the European Asylum Support Office and as notified in my statement of 21 April, HCWS687, up to 75 UK expert personnel will be deployed to Greece to support implementation of the EU-Turkey Migration Agreement. These officials are being deployed in stages. We are considering if we need to deploy any additional resource to assist with the family reunification of children.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out her plans for the future of Cumbria Police; and whether that police force’s (a) budget and (b) number of police officers will be reduced in the current financial year.
Brandon Lewis
Decisions about the policing priorities in Cumbria are a matter for the locally elected and accountable Police and Crime Commissioner. In Cumbria, police recorded crime fell by 5% between June 2010 and March 2016.
In 2016/17, direct resource funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including precept (the element of police funding derived from council tax), has been protected to at least flat cash levels. This means that no PCC who chose to maximise precept is facing a reduction in cash funding in 2016/17 compared to 2015/16 and the majority are seeing marginal cash increases in their spending power.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2016-01-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the role of (1) the Department for Culture, Media And Sport, (2) the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (3) the Department of Health, (4) the Department for Education, and (5) the Department for Communities and Local Government, in the promotion of non-competitive outdoor activities; the provision of, and access to, outdoor green spaces, and the development of healthier life styles by involvement in such activities and the use of such spaces; what priority they give to the promotion of such activities; and which is the lead department in this area.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Government recognises the importance of cross-government cooperation in considering policies which impact on the provision, access and promotion of outside spaces. There is not one single government department, which that leads on the promotion of healthier lifestyles through non-competitive outdoor recreation activities. Instead, Government departments jointly recognise the value of outdoor recreation to health, environment and education. Outdoor recreation is referenced in the Government’s new sport and physical activity strategy, which was published on 17th December 2015. Government will submit a formal annual report to Parliament, which sets out progress in implementing this strategy later this year. Individual government department’s involvement in outdoor activities is outlined below:
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The importance of outdoor recreation is reflected in our new sport and physical activity strategy, published in December 2015. Sport England is currently working with the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) on the ‘Getting Active Outdoors’ insight report – the largest ever of its kind – to get the nation active – particularly children, pensioners and women. In the meantime, Sport England is investing over £68 million in outdoor recreation sports, including £3 million invested in the Britain on Foot campaign, to get more people hillwalking, trail running and mountaineering.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs holds policy responsibility for the legal and land-use aspects of access to the countryside (in forests, protected landscapes, on public rights of way, commons, town and village greens, open access spaces and on waterways).
The Department of Health
The Department of Health acknowledges the health benefits of being in a natural environment are significant and that it is important that children have opportunities to play in clean, secure outdoor environments. The department recognises the importance of outdoor activities and they have included an indicator on use of green space for exercise and health purposes in the Public Health Outcomes Framework. The health promotes outdoor physical activity through a variety of channels, which includes: Change4Life Sports Clubs – a programme providing indoor and outdoor non-competitive physical activity to the least active children; the 10 Minute Shake Up campaign – Change4Life teamed up with Disney to inspire children to get active with over the summers of 2014 and 2015; providing funding of over 1million to Play England for a three year project ‘Street Play’ to promote outdoor play activities; and National Institute of Care and Excellence (NICE) guidance to promoting outdoor physical activity.
The Department for Education
The Department for Education are is determined that all children lead healthy active lives. Physical Education is compulsory at all four key stages in the national curriculum for maintained schools. The programmes of study at key stages 2, 3 and 4 sets out the expectation that pupils should take part in outdoor adventurous activities. At key stage 4 these activities should take place in a range of environments and present intellectual and physical challenges. Independent research on the primary PE and sport premium demonstrates that some schools are using their funding to provide enhanced opportunities for their pupils in this area – including rock-climbing, surfing and sailing. The Department does not specifically promote non-competitive outdoor activities as teachers have the freedom to organise and deliver the curriculum to ensure it is challenging and effectively meets programme of study.
The Department for Communities and Local Government
The Department for Communities and Local Government role in outdoor recreation is community focussed. It recognises that Parks, sports grounds and other green spaces, which are shared by lots of people, holds great benefits to the health and wellbeing of local communities. We want local communities to be empowered to play a significant role in maintaining and protecting green spaces of most importance to them. The Department owns the Green Flag Award scheme, a recognised accreditation setting the national standard for parks and green spaces across the UK, which is currently run under licence by Keep Britain Tidy. The scheme awards well-managed green spaces run by the local authority and has a separate category for community managed green spaces. The Department is currently running a Pocket Parks programme to establish up to 100 pocket parks – small areas of inviting public space where people can enjoy relief from city streets. It is expected that an announcement of the successful projects will be made in February. Through the Community Right to Bid, communities are listing the parks and green spaces that are important to them. Hundreds have been listed including allotments and playing fields.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the police take to ensure the safety of people sleeping rough.
Karen Bradley
The Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. One person without a home is one too many, which is why we will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.
We also want to help local authorities provide advice and assistance to those at risk of homelessness which is why we have protected the homelessness prevention funding for local authorities through the provisional local government finance settlement, totalling £315 million by 2019-20.
Decisions about frontline policing, and how resources are best deployed, are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. We have seen forces make significant changes to frontline policing to reflect the priorities of local people, including the most vulnerable. For example, several forces have established multi- agency teams to work collaboratively with other local public and voluntary sector services to tackle rough sleeping.