The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what evidence the Government holds of terrorists linked to Daesh or Al Qaeda crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We are aware of reports in the public domain that terrorist groups, including Daesh, have an ambition to infiltrate migration routes from Libya. We continue to monitor the situation closely.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps are being taken to address and prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus in Yemen.
Mr Desmond Swayne
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We have so far helped more than 1.3 million Yemenis with medical supplies, food, water, and emergency shelter.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that there have been 16 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus identified in Yemen in 2016, and that appropriate treatment has been given. The WHO and Ministry of Public Health continue to conduct Health Education awareness campaigns on the prevention and control of a number of epidemic diseases, including H1N1.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, who was on the procurement board that recently awarded the new contract for type 2 diabetes education programme for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
Jane Ellison
NHS England advises that information about the average cost of the DESMOND and Empower structured diabetes education programmes in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is not collected centrally.
NHS England also advises that the evaluation panel for the new contract for the type 2 diabetes education programme comprised a range of clinicians and commissioning officers, including a patient representative, an equality lead, a specialist general practitioner and a nurse. The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups’ Governing Bodies considered the breadth of experience and skills of the panel was acceptable. A 12-week consultation with patients, which ended on 12 June 2015, informed the development of the contract specification.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of how many Daesh operatives there are in Yemen; and what steps his Department is taking to monitor that group’s activities.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We continue to work with regional and international partners to tackle the threat posed by terrorist organisations including Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Daesh-Yemen. For operational reasons we cannot comment in detail on this activity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to address understaffing at the East Midlands Ambulance Service.
Ben Gummer
NHS Improvement advises that East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has made good progress in implementing its recruitment plan for frontline staff. During 2015/16, the Trust recruited and educated 350 whole time equivalent frontline staff, against a recruitment plan target of 342. However, the Trust experienced a higher level of staff turnover than expected (11% against a target of 8%).
The Trust is addressing this through a number of initiatives, including the introduction of the role of technician, an intermediate qualified role between emergency care assistant and paramedic. It has agreed a funded education and career progression route in partnership with Health Education England (East Midlands) to support existing technicians to become registered paramedics. A three-year contract will support 48 Trust technicians in 2016/17 with further cohorts commencing in 2017/18 and 2018/19.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff of his Department are deployed outside the UK working on issues relating to Yemen.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
It is not possible to identify a precise figure for staff working on Yemen who are deployed outside of the UK, but the UK diplomatic network does regularly raise the situation in Yemen with their host government and other interlocutors, including the devastating humanitarian and economic situation. As the penholder in the UN Security Council on Yemen, the UK also plays an important role in rallying the international community behind the efforts of the UN Special Envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in trying to reach a peaceful agreement between the Yemeni parties. Peace talks remain a top priority and we will continue to engage with key partners through our overseas network.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum cases were awaiting decision for travel documents on 1 February 2014.
James Brokenshire
We are unable to provide figures specific to asylum cases awaiting travel
documents. This information is only held within paper case files, which would
mean this question could only be answered through a disproportionately
expensive manual case search.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-01-07.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many non-UK EEA nationals had dependants eligible to receive child benefit where the dependant is (a) in the UK and (b) outside the UK on 1 January 2014; and how much has been paid in such a fashion in each of the last three years.
Nicky Morgan
HMRC are not able to provide the information in the manner requested. HMRC do not record the nationality of the claimant receiving Child Benefit for children living in another member state.
Published Child Benefit statistics provide annual estimates of the number of families and children claiming. The latest available (August 2012) show that there were 7.92 million families, responsible for 13.77 million children and qualifying young people receiving Child Benefit.
The main purpose of Child Benefit is to support families in the UK. Consequently, the rules generally do not provide for them to be paid in respect of children who live abroad.
Nevertheless, Child Benefit is a family benefit under EC Regulation 883/2004. This regulation protects the social security rights of nationals of all member states of the European economic area, including the UK, and Switzerland when they exercise their rights of free movement under EU law.
HMRC holds information on the number of Child Benefit awards under EC Regulation 883/2004. As at 31 December 2013, there were 20,400 ongoing Child Benefit awards under the EC Regulation in respect of 34.268 children living in another member state.
This is a fall of 3,682 (15.3%) awards in respect of 5,903 (14.7%) fewer children since 31 December 2012.
The breakdown by member state is as follows:
*We have withheld the number where it is fewer than 5, as there is risk that the information could be attributed to an identifiable person, which would prejudice their right to privacy and would therefore be a breach of Principle 1 of the Data Protection Act.
Child Benefit
|
Country of residence of children |
Number of awards |
Number of children |
|
Austria |
23 |
37 |
|
Belgium |
75 |
140 |
|
Bulgaria |
186 |
245 |
|
Croatia |
*5 |
*5 |
|
Cyprus |
39 |
61 |
|
Czech Republic |
124 |
203 |
|
Denmark |
13 |
23 |
|
Estonia |
45 |
65 |
|
Finland |
12 |
23 |
|
France |
789 |
1429 |
|
Germany |
283 |
495 |
|
Greece |
44 |
69 |
|
Hungary |
136 |
196 |
|
Iceland |
*5 |
*5 |
|
Italy |
156 |
273 |
|
Latvia |
797 |
1091 |
|
Liechtenstein |
0 |
0 |
|
Lithuania |
1215 |
1712 |
|
Luxembourg |
7 |
14 |
|
Malta |
15 |
22 |
|
Norway |
30 |
61 |
|
Poland |
13174 |
22093 |
|
Portugal |
202 |
309 |
|
Republic of Ireland |
1231 |
2505 |
|
Romania |
230 |
392 |
|
Slovakia |
692 |
1232 |
|
Slovenia |
11 |
21 |
|
Spain |
600 |
1019 |
|
Sweden |
49 |
95 |
|
Switzerland |
77 |
150 |
|
The Netherlands |
142 |
288 |
|
Totals |
20400 |
34268 |
As announced in the 2014 Budget, to prevent EEA migrants claiming benefits they are not entitled to, the Government will increase compliance checks to establish whether EEA migrants meet the entitlement conditions to receive Child Benefit
Under domestic law, in order to claim Child Benefit EEA Migrants must be present in the UK, ordinarily resident and have a right to reside in the UK and their children must live in the UK.
The recent changes to migrants’ access to benefits announced by the Government sends a strong message that the UK benefit system is not open to abuse, as well as deterring those who may seek residence in the UK primarily to claim benefits.
Strengthening compliance checks will help prevent EEA migrants from claiming, and continuing to claim, benefits they are not entitled to. Checks will be applied to both new claims and existing awards.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-10-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in the UK are currently in possession of Security Industry Authority licences; and how many such licences were obtained since January 2010.
Mike Penning
There are currently 326,144 individuals who hold Security Industry Authority licences. Since 2010, 765,022 licences have been issued.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-10-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people are currently detained in UK prisons for cannabis-related offences.
Andrew Selous
As at 30 June 2015 (latest date for which information is available), the number of offenders in prisons in England and Wales for cannabis related offences was 1,363.
Information on Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive respectively.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.