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Tag: 2016

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-06-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what percentage of asylum applications were accepted over the past 12 months.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    In the year ending March 2016, there were 33,713 initial decisions on asylum applications from main applicants and dependants. Of these decisions, 37% (12,410) were grants of asylum or an alternative form of protection.

    The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum applications and initial decisions within the Immigration Statistics release. A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics January to March 2016, is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2016.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to remove restrictions on local authorities raising council tax to meet the needs of their communities.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The Government is committed to working with local authorities to protect hard-working council tax payers from excessive increases. In the Spending Review, the Government announced a new adult social care precept worth 2 per cent for authorities with responsibility for adult social care for the remainder of the Parliament, subject to the approval of the House of Commons. This new precept was in addition to a ‘core’ council tax referendum principle of 2 per cent, which would be reviewed annually. The Government has set out its proposals for council tax referendum principles for 2017-18 in the Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation, released on 15 September 2016.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress her Department has made on reducing costs for consumers in making financial claims.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    Information on the number of people who have lost more than 25 per cent of their financial claims compensation to the claims management company (CMC) handling their claim is not held centrally.

    Our priority is to protect consumers who choose to use CMCs. We have consulted on proposals to cap the level of fees that CMCs providing financial claims services can charge consumers. These proposals aim to help consumers get more of the compensation due to them. We are carefully considering the consultation responses and the Government will publish its response in due course.

  • Phil Boswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Phil Boswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Phil Boswell on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value is of the personal independence payment assessment contract with ATOS; what the main key performance indicators (KPIs) are under that contract; and what the (a) financial and (b) other penalties are for failure to meet KPIs.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Department has two Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts with Atos, each covering a geographical area. North of England & Scotland (Lot 1) has a value of £206,703,507. London & South of England (Lot 3) has a value of £183,894,556.

    There are a number of Service Levels (Key Performance Indicators are not used in PIP contracts) which Atos are required to deliver to meet the Department’s service requirements. These are detailed in the attached Annex 1. In addition, a number of interim Service Levels have been introduced to address specific performance targets.

    In the event Atos fail to achieve a key service level, contracts provide for Service Credits to be applied. Service Credits are a contractual remedy applied to Atos to recognise the loss of service received and to ensure any performance issues are rectified quickly.

  • Lord Addington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Addington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Addington on 2016-02-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to enact in full the recommendations from the Department for Education’s independent expert group, led by Stephen Munday CBE.

    Lord Nash

    Ministers of the Department for Education are awaiting the report from Stephen Munday’s independent expert group on the content of initial teacher training, which is expected this spring. The Government will consider the group’s recommendations carefully and determine how they should be taken forward.

  • Catherine McKinnell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine McKinnell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 21 September 2015 to Question HL2285, what progress Public Health England has made on making the Systemic Anticancer Therapy dataset publicly available; what the timetable is for that dataset being fully accessible; and whether he plans that the dataset will be used to collect data on patient outcomes for treatment funded through the new Cancer Drugs Fund.

    George Freeman

    Public Health England (PHE) is working to making data collected as part of the Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) dataset available through its Office for Data Release function by summer 2016. The absolute priority of PHE is to maintain patient confidentiality and therefore data will only be released to external parties in a format that does not compromise patient confidentiality either directly or by inference.

    NHS England is currently working closely with PHE on a proposition which will enable the SACT dataset to be used to collect data on patient outcomes for treatment funded through the new Cancer Drugs Fund.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is working closely with NHS England to support the new way of working for the Cancer Drugs Fund from 1 April 2016 and the NICE Technology Appraisal process and methods will be considered by the NICE Board at their next meeting on 16 March 2016. We do not have any information on whether the dataset used by PHE will be used to collect data on patient outcomes for treatment funded through the new Cancer Drugs Fund.

  • Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the levels of toxic heavy metals, cadmium and mercury, in the sea on the brains and organs of pilot whales in 2012.

    George Eustice

    Scientists working for Defra have not made any assessment of the levels of cadmium and mercury in the brains and organs of pilot whales in 2012.

    However, I am aware that the University of Aberdeen carried out assessments of this kind on pilot whales stranded on Scottish beaches in the same year.

  • Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gould of Potternewton on 2016-05-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children have been prevented from leaving the country when it is believed they are going abroad to undergo female genital mutilation.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    We are clear that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. On 1 April we published updated multi-agency statutory guidance on FGM including information to help professionals understand the risk factors that they should be looking out for and what action they should take. In addition, free e-learning is available to all professionals, providing training on how to recognise and respond to FGM. To date the course has been completed by over 30,000 people. In addition, the Department of Health’s £3M FGM Prevention Programme is focused on improving the NHS response and includes free e-learning for healthcare professionals. A new mandatory reporting duty requiring regulated health and social care professionals and teachers to report known cases of FGM in under 18s to the police came into force on 31 October 2015. Professionals encountering instances of FGM in women over 18, or who believe that a girl or woman is at risk, should follow established safeguarding procedures. Anyone who is concerned that a girl or woman has undergone FGM or is at risk can contact the NSPCC FGM helpline. Reports to this helpline can be made anonymously. The Home Office’s Border Force plays a vital role in helping to identify and protect potential victims of FGM travelling to and from the UK. Border Force work with the police in protecting girls and young women at risk of FGM, including carrying out joint operations. FGM Protection Orders (FGMPOs) were fast-tracked for implementation last July and are being used to protect girls at risk of FGM, including those who may be taken abroad. Ministry of Justice data released on 31 March shows 32 FGMPOs were issued between July and December 2015.

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-06-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Nash on 9 June (HL353), whether Birmingham City Council could continue with an updated Improvement Plan after 2017 if a new Ofsted inspection reveals satisfactory improvements since the last inspection in March 2014.

    Lord Nash

    If Ofsted find that Birmingham City Council have improved to the point where their children’s social care services are no longer inadequate, they will be removed from Department for Education intervention. At this point, the Department will continue to provide supervision and support to ensure that improvements remain on track.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    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 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of the UK–China Human Rights Dialogue and the EU–China Human Rights Dialogue, and whether they will establish specific benchmarks for progress in those dialogues.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK-China Human Rights Dialogue provides a platform to highlight a wide range of the Government’s human rights concerns to relevant Chinese officials. It also provides an opportunity for frank, expert exchanges on policies as they are applied in the UK and China. In recent years workshop themes have included: judicial procedures; disability rights; and minority languages.

    The Dialogue is an addition to, rather than a replacement for discussions in other bilateral and multilateral fora. It is one part of our strategy to promote British values in China, and we do not have benchmarks to measure the Dialogue in isolation. We do measure progress against our overall strategy and we report on it in the FCO Annual Human Rights report.

    The EU-China Human Rights dialogue functions in a similar way, and we engage closely with the organisers to share views and objectives. We are confident that the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue is coherent with UK objectives.