Tag: Keith Vaz

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many weapons have been seized at the UK border by (a) type of weapon and (b) port of entry in each year since 2010.

James Brokenshire

The tables attached show the number of weapons seized by Border Force at the UK border by type, from 2010/11 up to the end of November 2015. These tables do not include firearms as they are treated as a separate category for statistical purposes.

In relation to the port of entry, Border Force does not release port specific figures due to security issues .

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government has taken to (a) alleviate the blockade of Yemen and (b) address the shortage of essential medicines in that country.

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. This includes support to the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) to import essential medical supplies. From 27 April until 31 December 2015 UNHAS transported 9,547 kg of medical cargo on passenger flights. They also organised separate cargo flights to transport a total of 192 metric tons of medical and nutrition supplies. The UK also fund the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to support critical relief projects, including the provision of emergency drugs and medical supplies.

There is no blockade, although some restrictions have been put in place to prevent the flow of arms to Yemen. One of our top priorities now is working to help commercial shipping return to pre-conflict levels. This is why the UK is providing £1.42m of support to the UN’s Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM). UNVIM will help speed up checks for commercial cargo, including food, fuel and medical supplies, entering Yemen and increase commercial confidence to get markets working again and lower very high commodity prices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.

The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.

The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).

The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.

The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what scientific testing Spirit Healthcare’s Empower type 2 diabetes education programme underwent for the outcomes it produces.

Jane Ellison

The information requested is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are currently on the HM Passport Office stop file.

James Brokenshire

Entries are retained on the Her Majesty’s Passport Office Stop File for reasons of public protection and the prevention of crime.

Given the nature of the data, it would be inappropriate to disclose the volume of entries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS spent on drugs related to diabetes in the most recent year for which figures are available.

David Mowat

In the 2015/16 financial year, the total net ingredient cost of prescription items prescribed in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom for drugs listed within trhe British National Formulary section 6.1 “Drugs used in diabetes”(using the classification system prior to edition 70), was £956.7 million¹.

¹Source: Prescriptions for Diabetes, England 2005/06 to 2015/16, NHS Digital

http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB21158/pres-diab-eng-200506-201516.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions the e-gates at UK airports have broken down since 2015.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Protecting the UK border is, and always has been, of paramount importance to this Government. It has never been government practice, for reasons of national security, to comment on operational issues relating to border security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of the number of lorries travelling through Calais to the UK were scanned by lorry body scanners in each month of 2015.

James Brokenshire

To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border, Her Majesty’s Government cannot provide port specific statistics.

Border Force operates a multi-layered search regime using a range of interventions to screen all freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed ports. This includes the use of specialist technologies such as Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging devices, heartbeat monitors and carbon dioxide detectors as well as physical searches by sniffer dogs, Border Force staff and specialist search contractors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the Government has taken to reduce fuel insecurity 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.

Yemen is highly dependent on commercial imports for essential fuel supplies. That is why one of our top priorities is working to help commercial shipping return to pre-conflict levels. We welcome the progress made on maritime access in recent months, but more needs to be done. DFID is providing £1.42m of support to the UN’s Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) which will help speed up checks for commercial cargo, including fuel, entering Yemen and increase commercial confidence to get markets working again and lower very high commodity prices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contracts the Home Office holds with Motorola Solutions.

Mike Penning

The Home Office holds three contracts with Motorola Solutions. These are:

(a) The Public Safety Radio Communications Service (PSRCS) Framework Arrangement for the provision of the Airwave service to the police services of Eng-land, Scotland and Wales.

(b) Contract ST03 10/641/9 for the provision of telecommunications services to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

(c) Emergency Services Network (ESN) — Lot 2 User Services; one of the contracts that will replace the current Airwave contract.

The cost to the public purse of the Home Office contract with Airwave in Financial Year 2015-16 is forecast to be £283 million comprising £230 million paid centrally by the Home Office and £53 million paid locally by police forces to Airwave. By way of comparison, under the newly procured Emergency Services Network, the policing share of costs is expected to be less than half of the current Airwave costs.

Airwave Solutions Ltd provides mobile telecommunications services for emer-gency services. The Home Office Airwave contracts only relate to police forces, and immigration and nationality functions within the Home Office. The Home Office is not party to the contracts which many other organisations in the public sector have entered into with Airwave.

The acquisition of Airwave by Motorola Solutions means all three Emergency Services contracts now end on 31st December 2019. This provides continuity of service for the transition to the Emergency Services Network.