Tag: Barry Sheerman

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the level of involvement of autistic people in cybercrime offences.

Mr John Hayes

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a non-ministerial government department, however it is accountable to Parliament via the Home Secretary. As such I have contacted the NCA to inform my answer to you.

During the course of cyber-dependent crime operations over the last five years (including SOCA Cyber and Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit led operations) and based on recorded data following a subject’s arrest we are unable to determine the level of involvement of autistic individuals in cybercrime offences, or the level of vulnerability of individuals on the autism spectrum to various other aspects of cyber crime.

The NCA are now embarking on research in partnership with Academia, Private Industry and Special Interest groups to explore the possibility of links between Autism and cyber-dependent crime. Understanding gained from this research will inform the NCA on best practice for managing operations and educational Prevent activity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of new free schools’ capacity to meet pupil place demand in 2016-17.

Edward Timpson

Data reported at May 2015 showed that local authorities (LAs) already had plans in place to deliver more than 80,000 new places in 2016/17, and we know many more will have been planned and delivered since then, including through central programmes.

Free schools can play an important part in helping LAs meet place pressures, and every free school has been opened in response to either the need to provide extra school places, the need to provide parents with greater choice or the need to provide more high quality school places. 85% of mainstream free schools approved since January 2014 are in areas where there was a basic need for additional school places. An additional group of schools were approved on the basis of more up-to-date LA data on future need for places and where section 106 agreements suggest need related to new housing developments. There are currently 117 mainstream free schools in the pipeline.

Many local authorities are recognising the opportunity that the free schools programme provides and are encouraging new and existing high quality education providers to apply to set up a new school in their area. We encourage all local authorities to do likewise.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department has a policy on the payment of homecare workers for travel time.

Nick Boles

The Government is clear that anyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) should receive the NMW/NLW. The same rules apply on the payment of travel time for homecare workers as all other sectors in the economy.

Time spent travelling directly between assignments generally counts as time worked for NMW/NLW purposes. Whether a worker is entitled to the NMW/NLW for other periods – such as the time spent travelling between home and their first assignment and between their last assignment and home – depends on the terms of their contract and whether they are working during that time. Where the travelling time is time for which the NMW/NLW should be paid, any associated expenditure incurred by a worker in respect of that travel must be reimbursed.

In September 2015 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in the case Federación de Servicios that journeys made by workers without a fixed or habitual place of work between their homes and the first and last customer of the day constitute working time. However, this ruling does not require the travel time to be paid, and it is for Member States to determine whether this time should be paid. The National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 state that travel time to and from the home to a place of work or a place where an assignment is carried out is not treated as time or salaried hours work.

The rules on travel time are set out in full on page 31 of the ‘Calculating the minimum wage’ document:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/514897/BIS-16-144-nmw-calculating-the-national-minimum-wage.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will bring forward regulations on the sale of black spot carbon monoxide detectors.

Anna Soubry

We have no plans to bring forward regulations on the sale of black spot carbon monoxide detectors.

Carbon monoxide detectors fall under the General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) 2005 which states any product placed on the market must be safe. Trading Standards will remove products that do not meet the requirements of the GPSR.

These types of carbon monoxide detectors are obsolete and no longer generally available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of refugees the UK will accept in each of the next five years.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The migration crisis has seen a significant increase in the number of people claiming asylum across Europe, including in the UK. In the year ending June 2016, the Home Office granted protection to 11,700 people at initial decision, excluding appeals decisions. Whilst we cannot predict the number of future asylum claims made spontaneously, our approach will continue to be to intervene at every point in the migrant journey to address push factors, tackle organised crime, and provide humanitarian aid to the regions most affected.

At the same time, we are committed to resettling vulnerable refugees who cannot effectively be supported in their region of origin via one of our four schemes. Under the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement scheme, the UK will resettle 20,000 individuals by the end of this Parliament. We have already resettled 2,646 since the scheme was expanded in October 2015. In addition, we will resettle up to 3,000 individuals by the end of this Parliament under the new Vulnerable Children Resettlement Scheme from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with several hundred arriving in the first year. Children will be resettled with their family or carers where appropriate. Under the Gateway resettlement scheme, we aim to resettle around 750 refugees per year who are in protracted situations where there is little prospect of being able to return home. The Mandate resettlement scheme is open to refugees who have a close family member in the UK who is willing to sponsor them. No overall quota is set for the Mandate scheme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help promote and protect the human rights of the Bedouin community in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK is firmly committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and compliance with international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). We have a regular dialogue with the Government of Israel with regard to the implementation of their obligations under international law, and regularly and robustly raise our serious concerns on issues relating to Israeli actions in the OPTs.

We have supported Bedouin communities and Palestinians in Area C facing demolition or eviction through support to Rabbis for Human Rights and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) legal aid programme. This helps individuals challenge decisions in the Israeli legal system. The NRC has successfully suspended demolitions and evictions so that Palestinians can remain in their homes in 97% of the cases they represent.

The treatment of the Bedouin within Green Line Israel is a separate matter. We have been encouraging the Israeli authorities and Bedouin communities to find a satisfactory solution to this issue, respecting the equality of all of Israel’s citizens in a way which avoids forced relocations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve NHS triage systems.

Mr Philip Dunne

As part of NHS England’s review of urgent and emergency care, the intention is to develop a clinical decision support system to enable patients to be directed to or connected with the right service to meet their needs, rather than being sent or taken to accident and emergency unless absolutely necessary.

Commissioners, clinicians and the wider governance of urgent and emergency care have requested a next generation system that builds on the success of NHS Pathways but recognises the needs of individuals on the basis of the language they use, links to patient records and crisis plans and has the potential to factor in phenotypic data from wearables and remote monitoring devices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of changes to tuition fees on the breadth of course provision offered by universities.

Joseph Johnson

The breadth of a higher education institution’s course offering is a decision for the institution itself, rather than Government, though it will inevitably be constrained by the need to cover the cost of that provision. The cap on student tuition fees has been frozen since 2012, which has meant that the maximum fee providers can charge has fallen in real terms, from £9,000 to £8,500.

The Teaching Excellence Framework will mean that those providers who can demonstrate a suitably high standard of teaching quality will be able to maintain their fees in line with inflation.

This is expected to be worth over £1 billion per year to the sector, ensuring the sector can continue to provide a world leading and diverse higher education system that promotes social mobility and the country’s economic success.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of the total number of Employment Support Fund claimants were claimants with dyslexia in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson

Employment Support Funds are maintained and dispensed by University Student Unions. They are typically used to provide support for the cost of attending an interview for a job or further study. Government is not responsible for this funding and we therefore do not hold the data requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what her policy is on the extraction of shale gas in national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty.

Andrea Leadsom

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Bristol West on 16 November 2015 to Question No 15971:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-11-10/15971/.

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