The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome there have been in each of the last five years.
Ben Gummer
We are advised by the Health and Social Care Information Centre that the data requested is not held.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to improve defence capacity building.
Michael Fallon
We engage in capacity building activities with a wide range of international partners, covering a broad spectrum of topics including Humanitarian and Disaster Relief; Countering Violent Extremism; Peace Support Operations and countering illicit trafficking.
We committed in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 to increase our capacity building with partners, and have since then expanded our activity in a number of ways.
For example, we have launched a new three year Counter-IED capacity building programme with Pakistan. We have also joined the US-German Trans-Atlantic Capability Enhancement and Training (TACET) initiative, under which we will deploy Short Term Training Teams to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. In Ukraine, where we have already trained over 2,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we are aiming to provide additional support to Ukrainian Defence reform including practical interventions in areas such as strategic communication and modernisation of procurement and logistics systems. In Nigeria we continue to expand our resident British Military Advisory and Training Team, and have committed to more than doubling the number of UK military personnel who deploy on short term training tasks to 300 in 2016. We have also significantly increased the support we provide to the Jordanian Army to help them improve border security.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will estimate the level of creditor claims related to insolvency litigation in each of the last five years.
Andrew Selous
The Ministry of Justice does not hold this information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-04-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to encourage greater co-operation between police forces in the constituent parts of the UK to better enable them to address online crime.
Mr John Hayes
Online crime covers a vast range of criminality; what is illegal offline is also illegal online. However, the internet has enabled crime to be committed in a different way, which requires a different type of approach from Law Enforcement. That is why this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including for tackling cyber crime.
The 2015 Strategic Policing Requirement states that ‘capabilities will be delivered locally by police forces but may need to be brought together nationally through collaborative arrangements between forces or with other partners when the threat or risk demand joint working’. In some cases they are combined to provide an ongoing regional resource that provides a national network of capabilities to disrupt serious and organised crime, for example, through the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs).
The Government has invested over £90 million in ROCUs, over the last three years. In addition to at least a further £20 million in 2016/17, in order to increase and sustain the specialist capabilities required in law enforcement to respond to Serious and Organised Crime including online crime, and to support local forces to investigate online crime in a collaborative way in England and Wales.
Action Fraud, within the City of London Police also plays an important role in educating and assisting local forces to investigate cyber crime and cyber enabled fraud, with a particular focus on improving the service to victims.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) operates UK wide and works in close collaboration with all UK police forces and other law enforcement partners, including PSNI and Police Scotland (including through two-way tasking and coordination processes). The NCA leads some investigations, whilst supporting and coordinating others.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the (a) Secretary of State for Education and (b) Northern Ireland Executive on increasing the involvement of children and young people of school age in commemorative events for the First World War.
David Evennett
My Department works in close partnership with the Department for Education on the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours and Legacy 110 programmes for secondary schools, which we encourage schools to sign up to throughout the centenary period. To get even more young people involved in commemorations, we will soon launch the Great War Debate series for schools. We plan to hold one of these debates at the Clandeboye Estate, a First World War army training site, in November.
Children will take part in all our national commemorative events to mark the Battle of Jutland in Orkney on 31 May, and the Battle of the Somme at Thiepval and Manchester on 1 July. As one example, over 1300 school children are due to visit the Experience Field at Heaton Park in Manchester on 1 July, as part of the Somme commemorations.
Commemorative events in Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland WWI Centenary Committee. The Chair of the Committee attends Government Advisory Group meetings where all aspects of the centenary programmes are discussed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many divorces between people aged 30 and under took place in the UK 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 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has had discussions with his German counterpart on improving the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease by the NHS.
Jane Ellison
No specific discussions have been held but the National Health Service, Public Health England and national laboratories across Europe use well established, standardised, tests and international External Quality Assurance schemes are in place to ensure consistency across Europe.
However, Lyme disease is a complex infection and we recognise that challenges in diagnosis and treatment remain. In light of this, the Department is commissioning three reviews on the diagnosis, treatment and transmission of Lyme disease to inform future decision making.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to make available to people without online access guidance on comparisons of energy prices among different energy providers.
Andrea Leadsom
Consumers without access to the internet can shop around to find a better deal for their energy by using a price comparison company, which is accredited to the Confidence Code operated by Ofgem and provides a free telephone price comparison service. In addition Citizen Advice offers advice and support on energy switching.
The following companies offer such a service:
Energyhelpline 0800 074 0745
Moneysupermarket 0800 177 7087
SimplySwitch 0800 011 1395
UK Power.co.uk 0800 188 4906
uSwitch 0800 051 5493
Energylinx 0800 849 7077
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the UN Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict, published in April 2016, if his Department will support the immediate establishment of an international, impartial investigation into reported international humanitarian law violations by all parties in the conflict.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK Government has been clear that we want to see thorough and conclusive investigations where allegations have been made against parties to the conflict in Yemen regarding international humanitarian law. The Saudi Arabian government has its own internal procedures for investigations and they announced more detail on how they investigate such incidents earlier this year and that any lessons learned would be acted upon. We note the announcement on 6 June of the UN Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, that the United Nations and the Saudi-led Coalition will jointly review the cases and numbers in the Children and Armed Conflict Report.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to improve end-of-life care over the next five years.
Ben Gummer
We are committed to ensuring that everyone at the end of life receives high quality, compassionate care that is tailored to their needs and preferences.
The Government will shortly publish its response to the independent Review of Choice in End of Life Care which will set out actions to improve quality, choice and personalisation of end of life care in the context of delivering the NHS Five Year Forward View throughout this Parliament.