Tag: 2016

Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2016-10-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 18 July (HL1279) and in the light of the recent report by NHS Digital concerning social media pressure and mental health, whether they will now conduct that research.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Institute for Health Research and the Department’s Policy Research Programme have no current plans to commission research into the possible mental and psychological impact on children of using Twitter and Facebook.

In their report, the Mental Health Taskforce recommended that the United Kingdom should aspire to be a world leader in the development and application of new mental health research. The Taskforce asked specifically that the Department, working with relevant partners, should publish a report by February 2017 setting out a ten year strategy for mental health research. The final ten-year strategy is planned for publication in February 2017 and will identify future needs in mental health research. This will include a specific focus on the mental health of children and young people.

01/01/2023
Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to meet the United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide to discuss the situation of Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The British Government has received a number of recent representations on these issues from Parliament and members of the public and is responding in writing.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the atrocities committed by Daesh against all civilians, including Christians, Mandeans, Yazidis, and other minorities, as well as the majority Muslim population who continue to bear the brunt of Daesh’s brutality. The UK has led efforts within the UN to tackle and condemn Daesh and on the protection of civilians more widely. For example, we co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council Resolution mandating the UN to investigate and report on Daesh abuses.

It is a long-standing Government policy that any judgements on whether genocide has occurred are a matter for the international judicial system rather than governments or other non-judicial bodies.

Ultimately, the only way to protect Christians, Yazidis and other minorities in the region from Daesh is by defeating this terrible organisation, which in turn requires, amongst other things, ending the conflict in Syria. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), set out the UK’s comprehensive strategy for defeating Daesh and finding a political settlement to the Syria conflict in his response to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 26 November 2015.

The joint Office of the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect (the Office) are engaged with these issues and publish much of their activity online, including statements in relation to the situation of Christians and other minorities in Syria and Iraq. Our officials maintain regular contact with officials from the Office to discuss issues related to the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. The Government provides funding for the Office, including for their work with religious leaders and faith based organisations in the Middle East and North Africa region, aimed at the prevention of incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes.

01/01/2023

Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) drugs of each type and (b) other items were confiscated from visitors to each prison in each year since 2010.

Andrew Selous

We have a range of security measures and searching techniques to prevent smuggling into prisons and to detect items of contraband including drugs. We have legislated to make smuggling New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) into prison illegal, use specially trained dogs to detect illicit drugs and will evaluate the use of Body Scanners to reveal drugs concealed within the body.

We refer all visitors to prisons found in possession of drugs to the police. We also use closed visits, where the prisoner and visitor are prevented from physical contact, to deal with visitors and prisoners who smuggle or are suspected of conveying drugs through visits.

The table below shows the number and type of drugs confiscated from visitors in each prison for the period 01 October 2015 to 31 December 2015. Prior to 01 October 2015 the Incident Reporting System (IRS) did not specifically record who possessed the drugs found.

Number of incidents where drugs were found in visitor’s possession, October to December 2015, by establishment and drug type

Establishment	Drug type	Number of incidents¹²
Aylesbury	Cannabis	3
Birmingham	NPS: Black Mamba	1
Brinsford	Cannabis	1
	Unknown	1
Bristol	Other	1
Bullingdon	NPS: Spice	1
Cardiff	Amphetamines	1
	Buprenorphine/Subutex	1
	Heroin	1
	NPS: Spice	1
	Other	1
	Unknown	1
Channings Wood	Heroin	1
Chelmsford	Cannabis	2
	NPS: Spice	2
Coldingley	Unknown	1
Doncaster	Amphetamines	1
	NPS: Other	1
	Other	2
	Unknown	3
Dovegate	Other	1
	Unknown	1
Elmley	Cocaine	1
Featherstone	Unknown	1
Feltham	NPS: Other	1
	NPS: Spice	1
Forest Bank	NPS: Black Mamba	1
	Unknown	1
Guys Marsh	Unknown	1
Haverigg	Unknown	3
High Down	Unknown	1
Highpoint	NPS: Other	1
	NPS: Spice	2
Hewell	Cannabis	3
	NPS: Other	1
	NPS: Spice	2
	Other	1
	Steroids	1
Holme House	NPS: Spice	1
Humber	Amphetamines	1
Lancaster Farms	Unknown	1
Leeds	Amphetamines	1
	Cocaine	1
	NPS: Other	1
Lindholme	Cannabis	1
	NPS: Spice	1
	Unknown	1
Lowdham Grange	Cannabis Plant	1
Manchester	Cannabis	1
	NPS: Spice	1
Moorland	NPS: Spice	3
	Other	1
	Unknown	1
Morton Hall	NPS: Spice	1
New Hall	Unknown	1
Northumberland	Unknown	2
Norwich	Heroin	1
Oakwood	Heroin	1
	Other	1
	Unknown	1
Onley	NPS: Spice	1
	Steroids	1
	Unknown	1
Parc	Unknown	1
Peterborough Male	Other	1
Peterborough Female	Crack	1
	Heroin	1
Ranby	NPS: Other	1
Risley	Cannabis	1
	NPS: Spice	2
	Unknown	2
Rochester	Cannabis	1
	Crack	1
	Unknown	2
Stoke Heath	NPS: Other	1
The Mount	Cannabis	1
	Heroin	1
	NPS: Other	1
	NPS: Spice	2
Verne	NPS: Other	1
Wayland	NPS: Spice	2
Wymott	NPS: Other	1

(1) Number of incidents where each drug type were found.

(2) Where establishment is not listed, no confiscations were reported in the period

Data Sources and Quality
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.

01/01/2023

Phil Boswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phil Boswell on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations his Department received on the requirements to be set for businesses in the retail and commercial enterprise sector to qualify for funding under the apprenticeship programme before those requirements were determined.

Nick Boles

In England, to qualify for apprenticeships funding, an apprenticeship offered in any sector must comply with the Skills Funding Agency’s funding rules: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sfa-funding-rules-2016-to-2017.

“

01/01/2023
Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what independent scrutiny her Department commissioned of reports of invalid and questionable results in English Language tests conducted by ETS.

James Brokenshire

We are disappointed by the decision of the recent Upper Tribunal. Once we have the full determination we will carefully consider next steps, including appealing the decision.

01/01/2023
Baroness Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Cox on 2016-04-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assistance they are providing for the reconstruction of schools in north-east Nigeria following the destruction of those schools by Boko Haram.

Baroness Verma

DFID is supporting the Government of Nigeria’s “Safe Schools Initiative” to help protect children at school in north east Nigeria, provide schooling to children displaced by the violence and support to the school reconstruction efforts of the Government of Nigeria. This includes support to the UN to provide temporary learning spaces for more than 3000 children.

01/01/2023
Chris Law – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Law on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times he has visited Scotland in an official capacity since the 2015 General Election; and what meetings were held on each such visit.

Justin Tomlinson

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and his Ministerial team are working closely with their Scottish Government counterparts. The Secretary of State will be visiting Scotland shortly, and also attending the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare.

01/01/2023
Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Hodge on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Attorney General, if he will publish a list of all secondees to the Law Officers’ Departments from (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms in the last three financial years; and what the role was of each of those secondees.

Robert Buckland

There have been no secondees from any consulting firm to the Attorney General’s Office, Government Legal Department, Crown Prosecution Service or Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate in the last three financial years.

The Serious Fraud Office had one KPMG employee with them on secondment in 2015-16 covering a Principal Investigator role as an accountant on an operational case team.

01/01/2023
Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-10-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the illegal dumping of steel by China will form part of the discussions at the UK-China economic and financial dialogue meeting in November 2016.

Simon Kirby

The Chancellor, alongside other Government Ministers, will discuss a range of issues during the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue in November 2016.

The steel industry is currently dealing with very challenging global economic conditions, and the Government has been working hard to address the sector’s concerns. This includes successfully pressing the European Commission for higher import duties on several types of steel. The UK also worked with international partners to secure agreement at the G20 Leader’s Summit in China in September 2016 to create a Global Forum on excess steel capacity. Domestically, the Government is compensating firms for energy costs, ensuring social and economic factors are taken into account when procuring steel, and has set up the Steel Council to look at the long term future of the sector.

01/01/2023
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the awarding of the Staffordshire Cancer and End of Life Services Contract will be delayed pending publication of the investigation commissioned by NHS England into the circumstances leading up to the termination of the contract between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and UnitingCare Partnership to deliver urgent care for the over-65s and adult community services.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England advises that the award of any contract for the cancer and end of life service procurements in Staffordshire will take place only after NHS England has carried out an assurance exercise around the proposed arrangements. The design of this assurance exercise will be informed by the outcome of the review of the termination of the contract between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and UnitingCare Partnership.

01/01/2023