The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans that the new tobacco control plan will address the effects of (a) electronic vaping devices and (b) heat not burn devices.
Jane Ellison
The new tobacco control plan will cover the use and effects of electronic vaping devices and novel tobacco products, including heat not burn devices.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in the public sector.
Ben Gummer
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and blockchain are exciting new developments. The Government is open minded about their potential, along with other emerging technologies, to help better meet user needs. At this stage more research is needed in order to determine their potential uses and whether the technologies are appropriate as a vehicle for public service delivery. The Government will be guided by the Chief Scientific Adviser’s 2016 report on the topic available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/distributed-ledger-technology-beyond-block-chain
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the quality of education at university technical colleges.
Nick Boles
University technical colleges (UTCs) harness students’ talents, offering them technical learning alongside GCSEs and A levels, and providing them with knowledge and skills which employers value. The programme is still at an early stage. The best UTCs, such as UTC Reading, are providing excellent education, which is reflected in their exam results.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when the Government will introduce incentives for the adoption of new technologies designed to manage noise from aircraft on the ground.
Anna Soubry
The Government is supporting investment in new technologies to reduce aircraft noise through grants for R&D supported by the Aerospace Technology Institute. The Government has committed £1.95 billion for aerospace R&D to 2025/26, bringing the total joint Government and industry funding commitment since 2013 to £3.9 billion. So far, 20 projects, worth £136 million, are directly concerned with new technologies to reduce noise from aircraft engines, propellers, rotors, wings and landing gear. These projects are focused on demanding international environmental targets and ensure UK aerospace companies are leading the technological evolution to achieve these.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to increase the range of statistics that his Department collects on income mobility.
Justin Tomlinson
The Department for Work and Pensions (as well as the Office for National Statistics) publishes a wide range of information looking at the income distribution. We have announced we will be producing a new publication, Income Dynamics in February/March 2017, which will look at income mobility, including a measure of persistent low income, based on new data from the Understanding Society survey.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has made an estimate of the effect on smoker mortality levels as a result of people giving up smoking by using electronic vaping devices in each of the last three years.
Nicola Blackwood
No such estimate has been made.
The Government recognises that e-cigarettes can help some smokers quit and the evidence indicates that they are considerably less harmful to health than cigarettes. Data on the long term harms of these products is not available and it is not clear how many users will go on to give up vaping as well. Smokers who continue to use tobacco alongside vaping will not benefit from the harm reduction offered by sole use of e-cigarettes.
Data from Action on Smoking and Health indicates that around 2.8 million adults in Great Britain currently use electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). Of these e-cigarette users, approximately 1.3 million are ex-smokers while 1.4 million continue to use tobacco alongside their e-cigarette use. In 2014, two thirds of e-cigarette users continued to use tobacco and one third were ex-smokers. This indicates that, of those using e-cigarettes, an increasing proportion no longer use tobacco and are only vaping.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to encourage higher donor registration among (a) all people and (b) mixed ethnicity donors to the UK stem cell and bone marrow register.
Jane Ellison
Since 2012, the Department has provided nearly £19 million to improve the provision of stem cells in the United Kingdom for all people. This funding has enabled the recruitment of over 75,000 young male donors who are more likely to be able to donate bone marrow and we continue to expand the pool of young male donors.
The stem cell improvement programme has directly addressed the difficulty faced by patients from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community and those with mixed ethnicity through targeted recruitment. The Department also continues to support the work of the National BAME Transplant Alliance. The programme has also funded the collection of umbilical cord blood samples, which has a specific target to achieve 40% of samples come from BAME and mixed ethnicity births.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will support changing the Air Traffic Management in the Future Airspace Strategy to give residents a higher priority than commercial interests.
Mr Robert Goodwill
As part of the Government’s ongoing review of its airspace and noise policies, consideration is being given to ensuring that an appropriate balance exists between the beneficiaries of airspace changes and residents who may be affected by them.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department has made an estimate of the potential number of jobs which will be replaced by automation over the next two decades.
Nick Boles
The Department has not made a specific forecast of how many jobs will be replaced (or how many additional jobs will be created) over the next two decades due to automation. However, the Government’s Horizon Scanning Programme exploring the impacts of automation on the labour market, and engaging with our international partners.
Government is taking action to provide individuals with the skills that will help prepare them for changes to the labour market, such as the new school computing curriculum, developing new apprenticeship standards, growing the apprenticeships programme, and introducing the Institute for Coding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of foreign nationals convicted of a crime in the UK were deported to their country of origin in each of the last three years.
James Brokenshire
The following table shows the number of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) who have been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to a period of imprisonment and subsequently referred to Immigration Enforcement for consideration of removal action.
Whilst we aim to deport foreign national offenders at the earliest opportunity not all of those referred to the Home Office will meet the deportation threshold, some may later be confirmed as British or exempt from Immigration Control and some will be successful at appeal. Removal may also be delayed as some offenders will repeatedly refuse to comply with the deportation and documentation process, deliberately seek to flout the system to disrupt our efforts to deport them or attempt to lodge multiple appeals. Factors such as these can lead to deportation being delayed.
In May 2013, a new system was introduced for recording and monitoring all FNO referrals, even where an offender did not meet the deportation threshold. Prior to this, referrals of those who did not meet deportation criteria were not routed through a central system so this data was not centrally recorded. The introduction of this system therefore shows an increase in the referral numbers from 2012/13 onwards.
|
Financial year |
Number of referrals to Immigration Enforcement |
Number of removals |
|
2010/11 |
6,452 |
5,367 |
|
2011/12 |
7,326 |
4,539 |
|
2012/13 |
6,874 |
4,720 |
|
2013/14 |
10,786 |
5,118 |
|
2014/15 |
10,461 |
5,277 |
|
2015/16 (to Sept 2015) |
5,262 |
2,855 |
The National Offender Management Service operate on a nationality self declaration basis, which means that not all those referred for action will be in scope for removal. Some offenders may later be confirmed as British nationals or exempt from immigration control.
The removals shown are not a representative proportion of those referred in the same period. Those referred will not always be removable in the same year due to sentence length. The removals data will include those who have been referred prior to the period shown in the table.
Please note that figures prior to the 2011/12 financial year precede the implementation of a later reporting application and as such were not subject to the same level of data assurance for data recorded after 2011/12.