Tag: Gareth Johnson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the capacity and the availability of seating for passengers on peak services on High Speed 1 trains between Ebbsfleet and London St Pancras.

Claire Perry

No such assessment has been made by the Department but franchisees have an obligation to minimise overcrowding. Therefore it is the Train Operating Company running the service that is responsible for what rolling stock it allocates to which service, both in type and in quantity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the quantity of cannabis recovered from cannabis factories in the UK in each of the last 10 years.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the quantity of cannabis recovered specifically from cannabis factories in the UK. However, the Home Office does hold data on the total quantity of cannabis seized in England and Wales.

The statistical release ‘Drug Seizures in England and Wales, 2014/15’ covers the number and quantity of drug seizures made by both police forces and Border Force in England and Wales from 2006/07 to 2014/15.

The publication contains the number and quantity of seizures of herbal cannabis, resin cannabis, and cannabis plants for England and Wales only. The Home Office does not hold information centrally on the number of drug seizures in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

The publication can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seizures-of-drugs-in-england-and-wales-financial-year-ending-2015

Data specifically on the quantity of cannabis seizures, made by police forces and Border Force in England and Wales, can be found in Summary Table 2 of the data tables.

Border Force publishes the number and quantity of seizures of drugs at the UK border on Gov.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-force-transparency-data-february-2016

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Attorney General, how many sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years.

Jeremy Wright

The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.

The number of offenders who have had their sentence increased under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Offenders who have had their sentence increased by the Court of Appeal	95	62	61	106	102

Some cases attract multiple referrals from various sources and we do not record how many referrals each case has received. The total number of cases where requests were received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of referrals received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed under the scheme	377	435	498	674	713

The number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal	117	82	70	122	136
Total number of sentences that were increased	95	62	61	106	102
Total number of sentences that remained unchanged	22	20	9	16	34

The number of referrals under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of the scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Number of referrals that have been rejected due to the offence falling outside the remit of the scheme	62	75	131	194	228
Number of referrals received out of time	3	12	9	10	16

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department has allocated to Kent County Council for local road maintenance for (a) 2015-16 and (b) 2016-17.

Andrew Jones

This Government is providing both tools and funding to local highway authorities in England, outside London, to tackle the condition of our local road network. In the Spending Review 2015, the Government announced that we are allocating a total of £6.1 billion funding for local highways maintenance between now and 2021. This funding includes an additional £250 million between 2016 and 2021 for a potholes action fund to improve local roads, to promote innovation within the sector and to ensure that taxpayers get greater value for money.

For Kent we are providing the following funding for local highways maintenance for the financial years 2015/16 and 2016/17:

Funding Stream	2015/16 £m	2016/17 £m
Highways Maintenance Block Needs Element	27.277	25.006
Highways Maintenance Block Incentive Element		1.377
Pothole Action Fund		1.473
Total	27.277	27.856

Further details of the funding we are providing to all local highway authorities in England outside London can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/6-billion-funding-to-tackle-potholes-and-improve-local-roads

Local authorities are able to use revenue funding for maintaining their local highways and this is allocated by the Department of Communities and Local Government through the Revenue Support Grant.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police custody suites in the UK have technology to allow live-link interpretation; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of such interpretation.

Mike Penning

The Home Office does not collect this data. However, we support the use of video to minimise time spent in court and streamlined procedures that save time and money. The police and the wider Criminal Justice System need to meet the needs of a public who increasingly use technology in their day-to-day lives. They must have the tools and the skills to deal with digital information, to tackle crime, support victims and ensure swift justice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Attorney General, how many applications under the unduly lenient sentence scheme have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of that scheme in each of the last five years.

Jeremy Wright

The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.

The number of offenders who have had their sentence increased under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Offenders who have had their sentence increased by the Court of Appeal	95	62	61	106	102

Some cases attract multiple referrals from various sources and we do not record how many referrals each case has received. The total number of cases where requests were received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of referrals received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed under the scheme	377	435	498	674	713

The number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal	117	82	70	122	136
Total number of sentences that were increased	95	62	61	106	102
Total number of sentences that remained unchanged	22	20	9	16	34

The number of referrals under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of the scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Number of referrals that have been rejected due to the offence falling outside the remit of the scheme	62	75	131	194	228
Number of referrals received out of time	3	12	9	10	16

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what total revenue has been generated from foreign-registered freight lorries under the Dart Charge scheme since that scheme’s inception.

Andrew Jones

From the introduction of Dart Charge on 30 November 2014 to the end of March 2016 £11,212,158 in revenue has been collected from the registered keepers of foreign freight vehicles.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the value of fines issued to lorry drivers under section 32 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 has been in each year since 2005.

James Brokenshire

The value of fines issued to lorry drivers under section 32 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in each year since 2005 is as follows:

01/04/2005-31/03/2006 £1,105,103
01/04/2006-31/03/2007 £1,898,866
01/04/2007-31/03/2008 £1,946,705
01/04/2008-31/03/2009 £2,552,490
01/04/2009-31/03/2010 £2,609,737
01/04/2010-31/03/2011 £1,083,390
01/04/2011-31/03/2012 £931,618
01/04/2012-31/03/2013 £890,544
01/04/2013-31/03/2014 £4,070,471
01/04/2014-31/03/2015 £6,490,232
01/04/2015-31/03/2016 £5,249,894

This information is from management information reports. The data held on the Civil Penalty data base does not allow the penalty amounts to be separated between driver’s and hauliers, hence the data provided is the total number of penalties imposed for the period.

The number of appeals against fines to lorry drivers under section 32 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in each year since 2005 is as follows:

01/04/2005-31/03/2006 7
01/04/2006-31/03/2007 8
01/04/2007-31/03/2008 12
01/04/2008-31/03/2009 13
01/04/2009-31/03/2010 9
01/04/2010-31/03/2011 10
01/04/2011-31/03/2012 11
01/04/2012-31/03/2013 0 *
01/04/2013-31/03/2014 24
01/04/2014-31/03/2015 64
01/04/2015-31/03/2016 36

*High Court appeal cases, all appeals were held behind at the time until resolved. Appeals then fell into subsequent years.

This information is from management information reports.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have had stem cell transplantation procedures interrupted in England in each of the last five years.

Nicola Blackwood

Stem treatments may be discontinued due to a range of clinical reasons or patient choice. NHS England does not hold information on the number of patients that start but do not complete this form of treatment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve services for people with coeliac disease; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

The treatment of coeliac disease is a lifelong gluten-free diet. It is therefore important clinicians understand the symptomatic picture of the condition and the investigations required to support an appropriate diagnosis. It is also important that patients who are diagnosed with coeliac disease are given suitable advice and support about how to manage their diet accordingly and can be referred to specialist services if clinically appropriate.

To support NHS services in the diagnosis, treatment care and support of children and adults with coeliac disease, in September 2015 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated its best practice guideline Coeliac disease: recognition, assessment and management. The new guideline sets out seven recommendations to improve services for coeliac patients and includes implementation advice for the local NHS on the provision of the laboratory testing and interpretation of results and access to healthcare professionals trained to give specialist dietetic advice in relation to coeliac disease. The guidance can be found at the following link

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng20