Tag: Jim Cunningham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2015 to Question 19454, how many mental health specialists were employed by his Department in each of the last five years.

Mark Lancaster

The information requested is shown in the table below. The rounded figures are based on the Defence Medical Services manning returns for each year, and show the trained strength in each of the categories shown as at 1 October. Civilian numbers are not readily available prior to 2015.

2011	Regular	Reserve	Civilian	Total
Psychiatrist	10	~	Not available	20
Psychologist	–	–	Not available	–
Mental Health Nurse	120	50	Not available	160
2012
Psychiatrist	20	~	Not available	20
Psychologist	–	–	Not available	–
Mental Health Nurse	120	30	Not available	150
2013
Psychiatrist	10	10	Not available	20
Psychologist	~	–	Not available	~
Mental Health Nurse	120	50	Not available	170
2014
Psychiatrist	10	~	Not available	20
Psychologist	~	–	Not available	~
Mental Health Nurse	120	40	Not available	160
2015
Psychiatrist	10	~	~	20
Psychologist	~	–	20	20
Mental Health Nurse	110	40	20*	180

*Mental Health Nurse (inc. Community Psychiatric Nurses)

In accordance with Defence Statistics guidance, all figures are rounded to the nearest 10; numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid systematic bias. Figures below 5 are denoted by ~; zero denoted by -.

Totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and may not equal the sum of their rounded parts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to broker negotiated ceasefires to allow the creation of aid corridors across Syria; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK plays a key role in ensuring humanitarian access to Syria. The UK co-sponsored and lobbied hard for UN Security Council Resolutions 2165, 2191 and 2258 which enable the UN to deliver aid across borders, without the consent of the regime, to assist those in the hardest to reach areas.

The UK will consider options compliant with international law that might save lives in Syria. However, experience suggests that so-called ‘safe’ areas or corridors can prove difficult to demilitarise and protect against all threats. In fact, there is a risk that they can become targets. For an aid corridor to work, all parties to the conflict would need to agree to its establishment. In the absence of such consent, foreign military intervention may be necessary, under the authority of a UN Security Council resolution.

An estimated £275 million of humanitarian assistance funded by the UK for inside Syria has been allocated to the UN and NGOs for cross-border operations. We are now encouraging the UN to consider alternative means of assistance such as cash, to support vulnerable populations that are increasingly hard to reach. We continue to call on all sides to the conflict to respect International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and ensure free, unimpeded access for humanitarian agencies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is providing universities to increase collaboration with Chinese research institutions; and if he will make a statement.

Joseph Johnson

We are working with UK universities in a number of important ways to increase our collaboration with Chinese researchers.

We have regular discussions with the Chinese government on education and research collaboration These discussions are both at the working level, where BIS science and higher education teams have a close relationship with their opposite numbers, and also through regular Ministerial exchanges such as the annual People to People Dialogue, the UK-China Education Summit, the biennial UK-China Science and Innovation Joint Committee meetings and the annual Prime Ministerial summit meetings.

In addition, our flagship international science and innovation fund, the Newton Fund, has achieved a transformation in UK-China research collaboration since it was launched in April 2014 and continues to strengthen our collaborative work. The fund, includes significant university participation in programmes on urbanisation, climate change, environment, food security and health. Universities also play a major role in building research capacity in China through means of Newton grants for partnerships, PhD placements, training and joint workshops.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 22118, what steps her Department is taking to tackle shortfalls of mathematics teachers in state-funded primary schools; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb

The number of primary teachers in state funded primary schools in England is the highest on record, and we exceeded our target for primary postgraduate trainee teachers for 2015/16.

Excellent mathematics teaching in primary schools is a high priority for this government, and we have taken a number of steps to promote this.

We have established a national network of 35 Maths Hubs, backed by £11million of funding to raise standards in mathematics. These centres of excellence are helping schools to improve the quality of their mathematics teaching. Through the Maths Hub network we are making improvements via exchanges with Shanghai, as Hubs develop a deep understanding of the ‘mastery’ approach to mathematics teaching and trial its implementation within schools. We also fund good quality mathematics professional development opportunities for primary teachers through The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics.

In addition, we have encouraged the development of primary mathematics specialist and specialism initial teacher training (ITT) courses, to allow trainee primary teachers to specialise in the subject. Since 2013/14 we have provided an ITT bursary uplift for trainees on these courses. This means that trainees with a B grade at mathematics A level, or equivalent knowledge, receive a higher bursary than those who train on primary general courses. For courses starting in 2016/17 primary mathematics specialists with a 1^st class, 2:1 or 2:2 degree will receive a £6,000 bursary, compared to the maximum £3,000 bursary for primary general trainees.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the National Institute for Health Research has invested in research into (a) lung cancer, (b) adult asthma, (c) pneumonia, (d) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, (e) idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, (f) mesothelioma and (g) childhood wheezing and childhood respiratory infection in each of the last five years.

George Freeman

The information requested is not available. Spend on research funded directly by the Department’s National Institute for Health Research is categorised by Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health categories including ‘cancer’ and ‘respiratory’. There are no HRCS health sub-categories, such as for specific cancer sites or respiratory diseases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Attorney General, if he will estimate the costs attributed to the Department for Education in cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by the Government Legal Department since 2010.

Robert Buckland

The Treasury Solicitor’s Department was renamed the Government Legal Department (GLD) on 1 April 2015. It is primarily funded through the fees it charges for its legal services. It provides Litigation, Employment, Commercial and Advisory legal services to the Department for Education (DfE). The fees charged to DfE for this work, including the cost of disbursements, are as follows:

Financial year	Fees (excluding VAT) £
2010-11	4,208,845
2011-12	4,499,546
2012-13	4,805,840
2013-14	4,409,976
2014-15	4,098,629

Providing information on the costs attributed to cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would incur disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual exercise to identify those historical cases that relate to FOI.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what representations he has received from charities on the adequacy of employment and support allowance payments; and if he will make a statement.

Priti Patel

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many freedom of information requests were (a) granted and (b) refused by his Department in each of the last five years.

Mr David Lidington

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) submits statistics on freedom of information performance to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis. These statistics, along with those of other departments of state, are published in a quarterly statistics bulletin (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics). The quarter four bulletin includes annual figures.

The FCO annual figures for 2010-2014 are shown in the attached table.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent on meningitis vaccine stocks in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

Vaccine prices are commercially confidential, and so we are unable to provide this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people aged under 18 who have been (a) involved in gang violence and (b) a member of a gang in each year since 2010.

Karen Bradley

There are no centrally held estimates of the numbers of under 18s involved in gang violence or numbers of gang members and we cannot provide a breakdown for each year since 2010. However some police forces collect data locally. The Metropolitan Police Service, for example, state that there were 201 active gangs in London involving 3,628 gang members as of 1 January 2016.