Tag: Jim Shannon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Pakistan applied for asylum and requested certification under section (a) 94(1) and (b) 94(2) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 in each of the last three years.

James Brokenshire

The basis of an individual’s asylum claim is not recorded on Home Office systems. It is not therefore possible to differentiate Pakistani applicants claiming for reasons of religious persecution and discrimination from Pakistani applicants claiming for one or more other reasons in the Detained Fast Track (DFT) or the non-detained process.

Certification under section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 is not requested by an applicant. It is applied by the Secretary of State in circumstances where the applicant’s claim is refused and considered to be so lacking in merit as to be clearly unfounded.

The number of initial certified refusals for Pakistan main asylum applicants, from year ending September 2013 to year ending September 2015, was 604. The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications and decisions on a quarterly and annual basis. The information supplied on certified refusals is based on initial decisions which do not necessarily relate to applications made in the same period.

No assessment has been made of any difference that might exist between grant rates in respect of Pakistani applicants in the DFT process when it operated, and cases entering the non-detained process at the same time. However, as the DFT process avoided claims involving particular complexity and/or vulnerability, and prioritised cases which appeared to be late or opportunistic, it is to be expected that the DFT would have fewer grants than the non-detained process.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department takes to ensure that people divorced from serving officers are not evicted from serviced housing before they have found alternative accommodation.

Mark Lancaster

The Ministry of Defence is as flexible as possible in allowing the maximum time to secure alternative accommodation.

However, only serving personnel are eligible to be housed. In the event of a marriage breakdown, entitlement for a non-serving partner to stay in the property is lost and it may become necessary to free up housing for entitled Service families.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to increase the representation of Muslims on elected bodies.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government believes that democratic institutions make the best decisions when they have a mix of people with different skills, backgrounds and experiences, from right across the country. The Government implemented section 106 of the Equality Act, which makes it possible to require registered political parties to publish anonymised data relating to the diversity of their candidate selection. This is a voluntary approach, which provides greater transparency over candidate selection. It is for political parties to ensure that they have a wide range of candidates to stand for elections.

We have supported and promoted mentoring schemes and internships at local and national Government level to open up political life to black, Asian and minority women and disabled people. Schemes such as the ‘Be a Councillor Campaign’ run by the Local Government Association encourage candidates from all walks of life to come forward and represent their local community.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many sexual assaults and rapes have taken place at UK universities in each of the last three years.

Joseph Johnson

This information is not held centrally by Government, although polices forces will record cases of sexual assault and rape. At the request of the Government, Universities UK has set up a task force that will bring together relevant stakeholders to explore what more can be done to support the higher education sector to prevent, and respond effectively, to incidents of violence and sexual harassment against women, hate crimes and other forms of harassment. The task force is considering a range of potential measures, and its work includes an analysis of the nature and scale of the problem.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people of each (a) gender and (b) age group were diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

This information is not collected. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence 2012 guideline Crohn’s Disease Management in Adults, Children and Young People, states that there are currently at least 115,000 people in the United Kingdom with Crohn’s disease. The full guideline can be found at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg152.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many children have died due to accidents related to blind cords in each of the last five years.

Mr Rob Wilson

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent progress her Department has made on cross-border policing arrangements.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

Following the Fresh Start Agreement I attended a tri-lateral cross-border Ministerial meeting along with the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government on 21 December. At the meeting, and in accordance with the Fresh Start Agreement, we agreed new measures to enhance law enforcement co-operation aimed at tackling organised crime and criminality, including that linked to paramilitarism. In a concerted effort to tackle cross-jurisdictional organised crime, a Joint Agency Task Force has been announced by the United Kingdom Government, the Irish Government and the NI Executive.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent steps the Government has taken to improve toy safety.

Anna Soubry

Toy safety is fully addressed by the Toy Safety Regulations 2011. Officials are engaged with the associated standards developed and maintained through the British Standards Institute and monitoring of Trading Standards enforcement activities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children have registered as transgender in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire

Children born in England or Wales are registered in the birth register as being either male or female. Transgender is not a term used to describe the sex of a child at birth registration.

The Gender Recognition Act 2004 enables transgender people aged 18 or over to apply to the Gender Recognition Panel to obtain a gender recognition certificate – legal recognition of their acquired gender. That certificate is used to create an entry in the Gender Recognition Register, maintained by the Registrar General, from which a new birth certificate can be issued. There are, therefore, no records of children (under the age of 18) in this register.

Gender Recognition Registers are also held in respect of births in Northern Ireland and Scotland by the relevant Registrars General.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent steps his Department has taken in conjunction with NATO to ensure flexibility in NATO’s capacity to respond to hostile actions.

Mr Julian Brazier

The UK was one of the driving forces behind NATO’s Readiness Action Plan (RAP), agreed at the Wales Summit, which includes tripling the strength of the NATO Response Force (NRF); the creation of a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) that is able to deploy at very short notice; and enhancing NATO’s Standing Naval Forces.

The UK is fully involved with NATO work to improve the movement of troops and logistic support to the enhanced NRF and VJTF although improvements to and development of road networks remain the responsibility of each member nation.

NATO Allies regularly discuss the progress of the RAP and the capabilities and deployability of our forces; we will do so again at the NATO Defence Ministerial meeting this month.

The UK will contribute to the VJTF in every year between now and 2021 including: a 1,000 strong battle group for the Spanish-led Land VJTF in 2016; we will act as the Land VJTF lead nation in 2017, with 3,000 UK personnel; and in 2020 we will provide a 1,000 battle group to the Polish-led VJTF