Tag: Karl Turner

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the costs to his Department associated with unmeritorious claims resulting from changes to a fixed cost recoverable scheme for clinical negligence.

Ben Gummer

The Department is working closely with stakeholders to develop the proposal to introduce fixed recoverable costs. We have undertaken a pre-consultation exercise with a number of key stakeholders, including representatives of claimant lawyers, and are planning an open public consultation shortly. We welcome views on the proposal from all sectors.

The consultation documentation, including the Impact Assessment, will be published in early 2016 subject to relevant Committee clearances. We are working upon the assumption that there is nothing about Fixed Recoverable Costs regime which will alter the percentage of unmeritorious claims.

Any scheme proposed will include consideration of the right incentives to support a fairer and quicker process that provides the improvements to the system whilst maintaining access to justice.

The NHS Litigation Authority reported in their annual report for 2014/15 that it resolves over 4,000 clinical negligence cases annually for no payment of damages and in 2014/15 it saved over £1.2 billion for the National Health Service in rejecting claims which had no merit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 22284, how many members of (a) the National Tactical Response Group and (b) Tornado Teams have been injured during a call out at HM Prison Oakwood in each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous

There have been zero injuries to members of the National Tactical Response Group and Tornado Teams during a callout at HM Prison Oakwood in each of the last three years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Attorney General, how many tip-offs were made to the Serious Fraud Office tip-off line in each year since 2010.

Jeremy Wright

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) launched its dedicated reporting channel on 1 November 2011. The service was intended to encourage reports of serious or complex fraud by whistleblowers and accepted referrals by post, email and telephone. The SFO decided to close the telephone element of the service on 12 June 2012 because a disproportionate amount of staff time was being spent dealing with telephone calls that did not contribute to this aim.

The total number of calls, emails and other referrals through the channel in each year since it was established is shown in the table below. These figures may include multiple reports from single individuals, or multiple referrals about the same matter received from different individuals. Referrals made through the dedicated reporting channel in November and December 2011 were not counted separately from other referrals to the SFO in those months.

Year	Total number of reports
2012	2,731
2013	2,996
2014	3,001
2015	3,163

The SFO now offers guidance on its website as to how the public may best report any information it may have about fraud to the most appropriate law enforcement authority, including Action Fraud, which is the UK’s central reporting mechanism for fraud and cyber crime.

The SFO continues to receive and assess reports from the public sent directly to it via the online reporting tool, by email or post, or referred to it by other law enforcement and regulatory bodies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Attorney General, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for each category of hate crime since 2010.

Robert Buckland

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of prosecutions flagged as hate crimes. Hate crimes comprise offences motivated by hostility or prejudice to a person’s race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, disability or perceived disability and transgender identity or perceived transgender identity. These data are accurate only to the extent that the flag has been correctly applied.

The tables below show the number and proportion of convictions and overall prosecutions, by each category of hate crime, during each of the last five available years:

TOTAL HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

	Convictions		Total
2010-11	12,651	82.8%	15,284
2011-12	11,843	83.4%	14,196
2012-13	10,794	82.6%	13,070
2013-14	11,915	84.7%	14,074
2014-15	12,220	82.9%	14,738

RACIAL HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

	Convictions		Total
2010-11	10,566	83.1%	12,711
2011-12	9,933	84.4%	11,774
2012-13	9,107	83.3%	10,935
2013-14	10,069	85.2%	11,818
2014-15	10,123	83.5%	12,130

RELIGIOUS HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

	Convictions		Total
2010-11	472	83.4%	566
2011-12	479	80.8%	593
2012-13	308	77.2%	399
2013-14	463	84.2%	550
2014-15	557	83.8%	665

HOMOPHOBIC & TRANSPHOBIC HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS (1)

	Convictions		Total
2010-11	1,034	80.7%	1,281
2011-12	951	78.7%	1,208
2012-13	885	80.7%	1,096
2013-14	913	80.7%	1,132
2014-15	1,037	81.2%	1,277

(1) A separate flag for Transphobic crime was introduced in December 2012 following the amendment to the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

DISABILITY HATE CRIME PROSECUTIONS

	Convictions		Total
2010-11	579	79.8%	726
2011-12	480	77.3%	621
2012-13	494	77.2%	640
2013-14	470	81.9%	574
2014-15	503	75.5%	666

Data Source: CPS Management Information System

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the propriety of his Department overseeing the consultation on a fixed recoverable cost regime in clinical negligence cases when it is the defendant in most such cases.

Ben Gummer

The Department is working closely with stakeholders to develop the proposal to introduce fixed recoverable costs. We have undertaken a pre-consultation exercise with a number of key stakeholders, including representatives of claimant lawyers, and are planning an open public consultation shortly. We welcome views on the proposal from all sectors.

The consultation documentation, including the Impact Assessment, will be published in early 2016 subject to relevant Committee clearances. We are working upon the assumption that there is nothing about Fixed Recoverable Costs regime which will alter the percentage of unmeritorious claims.

Any scheme proposed will include consideration of the right incentives to support a fairer and quicker process that provides the improvements to the system whilst maintaining access to justice.

The NHS Litigation Authority reported in their annual report for 2014/15 that it resolves over 4,000 clinical negligence cases annually for no payment of damages and in 2014/15 it saved over £1.2 billion for the National Health Service in rejecting claims which had no merit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the rate of compliance on routes from (a) Hull and (b) in the North Sea with lower sulphur dioxide emission limit for merchant vessels which came into force on 1 January 2015.

Mr Robert Goodwill

There are no figures for 2015.

However, since 1 January 2016 the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has inspected 34 ships within the North Sea Sulphur Emission Control for compliance with the lower 0.1 per cent sulphur limit. Eleven of these ships had fuel samples taken and analysed, and one ship was found to be marginally non-compliant.

The one ship that was inspected and had its fuel sampled at the port of Hull was found to be within the limit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Attorney General, how many cases of alleged (a) rape, (b) sexual assault and (c) domestic violence where the alleged offence took place in the UK were prosecuted by the Services Prosecuting Authority in (i) 2013, (ii) 2014 and (iii) 2015.

Robert Buckland

Figures for all prosecutions by the Services Prosecuting Authority of Rape, Sexual Assault & Domestic violence covering the period 2013 to 2015 where the alleged offence took place in the UK are contained in the following table.

Year	Rape Prosecutions	Sexual Assault Prosecutions	Domestic Violence Prosecutions
2013	2	8	0
2014	2	11	5
2015	3	14	6 (1 case yet to go to trial)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to encourage the Turkish government to protect citizens’ rights after the attempted coup in that country.

Sir Alan Duncan

The Government has firmly condemned the attempted coup in Turkey on 15 July. Britain stands firmly in support of Turkey’s democratically elected government and institutions.

We are aware that on 21 July Turkey introduced a state of emergency. It is important that measures under the state of emergency be proportionate, justified and in line with its democratic principles and its international human rights obligations. I emphasised the need for Turkey to respect human rights including press freedom and the rule of law during my visit to Ankara on 20-21 July. We continue to engage with the Turkish Government at all levels on these issues, and to monitor the situation closely.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the incentives for defendants in clinical negligence cases to encourage early admissions and settlements.

Ben Gummer

Admissions should be made and compensation paid to those who are entitled to it based on the evidence. The proposed scheme will also apply to defendants and incentives for early resolution are included in the consultation. NHS Litigation Authority data shows that on average clinical negligence claims resolve within 1.31 years of the claim being made, and those valued under £25,000 are resolved in less than 12 months.

Following the pre-consultation process, the Department is currently working with the Civil Procedure Rule Committee on the rules to support the Fixed Recoverable Cost work before an open public consultation is undertaken.