Tag: Keith Vaz

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects that the Government’s proposed improvements to subject access request IT infrastructure will be completed.

Mr John Hayes

The Home Office ran a Call for Information on the operation of the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regime between 25 February and 25 March 2015. We received more than 60 responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, the financial sector, and the legal and accountancy sectors. Subsequently, further discussions were held with private and public sector bodies through a series of workshops.

The Government published the Action Plan for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist finance on 21 April 2016. The Action Plan sets out the Government’s programme to deliver a significantly improved anti-money laundering regime for the UK. This includes the replacement of the SARs IT infrastructure. A summary of the submissions received following the Call for Information is set out in the Action Plan at Annex B.

In the Action Plan, we announced our commitment to develop a stronger public private partnership to tackle money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and as part of that we will engage with public and private stakeholders to develop the replacement.

The stakeholders will include law enforcement agencies, government departments, and businesses in the ‘regulated sector’ including banks, the legal and accountancy sectors, and estate agents. We will also include regulatory and supervisory bodies, and public bodies for whom SARs are of value.

This engagement will enable us to ensure that the replacement of the SARs IT architecture will deliver significant benefits for all of the sectors involved in the SARs regime. As we set out in the Action Plan, we will reform the SARs regime, making the necessary legislative, operational and technical changes, by October 2018.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure access to structured education for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Nicola Blackwood

This Government is working hard to improve outcomes and quality of life for those already living with diabetes and those who will develop it in the coming years. One of our key goals in the mandate to the National Health Service is a measurable reduction in variation in the management and care of people with the condition within the lifetime of this Parliament. Funding has been secured through the spending review to help achieve this and NHS England is developing a programme to ensure that those clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which need extra investment in this area, accompanied by sound plans for delivery, receive it.

In addition, the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework will play a key role in delivering this as it contains two recognised evidence based measures of whether patients with diabetes are being supported to successfully manage their condition (achievement of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence treatment targets and participation in structured education programmes).

Using data from the NHS Atlas of Variation, NHS Right Care is also working with CCGs and other local partners to make improvements in diabetes care and reduce variation by providing hands on practical support.

Since 2009/10, there has been an almost 70% increase in the proportion of people newly diagnosed with diabetes recorded as being referred to structured education courses, designed to help them manage their condition in the long term. However, whilst we know that the data on take up needs improving, there is still much further to go in enabling people with diabetes to access these programmes.

The Department, NHS England and Diabetes UK are working on ways to improve the take up of structured education including exploring how more diversity of provision might be delivered through digital and web based approaches. The Department recently held a seminar with key stakeholders to identify actions that would facilitate improved access.

CCGs are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population, are based on the available evidence, taking into account national guidelines. This should include consideration of access to continuous glucose monitoring for people with Type 1 diabetes who might benefit from it.

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

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment her Department has made of how transparently (a) insurance companies and (b) other providers of a public good (i) formulate the price of their products and (ii) ensure any pricing structure is not affected by the consumer’s ethnicity.

Caroline Dinenage

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society and sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone. There are specific exceptions for providers of financial services such as insurance companies, which allow them to use a person’s age as a factor in assessing risk and charging for their products. However, insurers are not able to use a person’s race as a factor in assessing risk and charging for their products.

The pricing of risk is a commercial decision for individual insurers, and differences in premiums reflect different insurers’ experience of claims and other industry-wide statistics. While insurers are not required by the Financial Conduct Authority to be transparent about pricing decisions, it expects firms to comply with relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, and can undertake its own enquiries to better understand what the firm is doing and whether any of its regulatory requirements have been breached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent steps her Department has taken to allow aid to enter and be distributed throughout Yemen without restriction.

Mr Desmond Swayne

Improving access into and within Yemen for commercial goods and humanitarian aid is one of the UK’s top priorities. We have consistently called on all parties to improve commercial access for essential imports of food, fuel and medical supplies; facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered access to all people in need; and safeguard major access routes and key infrastructure in Yemen, including airports, sea ports and fuel distribution sites.

In addition, we fund agencies and NGOs who have the best access and ability to deliver humanitarian aid. In addition, we have provided:

• £1 million to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who broker humanitarian access for the international response.
• £1 million to the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) to provide an air bridge into Yemen for humanitarian staff and essential medical supplies.
• £1.42 million for the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM) to improve supply of essential goods into Yemen.

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 UK is taking to assist in the repair of hospitals damaged by air strikes 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 repair and rebuilding of infrastructure in Yemen will be a key part of any comprehensive recovery and reconstruction plan. We are already working with the Government of Yemen and the international community to promote thinking and planning for Yemen’s recovery. In the meantime, we are helping to meet emergency health care needs for the most vulnerable. Working through UNICEF, we provide health and nutrition services through hospitals and mobile clinics. The UK was also the largest donor to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Yemen Humanitarian Pooled Fund in 2015, with UK support providing over 40,000 people with emergency healthcare.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what services are provided by Airwave to which agencies within the Home Office as part of the Home Office contract with Airwave.

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.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many diabetes specialist nurses there are in (a) Leicester General Hospital, (b) Leicester Royal Infirmary, (c) Glenfield Hospital and (d) Leicestershire.

Ben Gummer

The Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the National Health Service in England but it does not separately identify diabetes specialist nurses.

It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the HM Passport Office’s target is for identifying fraudulently obtained genuine passports.

James Brokenshire

Her Majesty’s Passport Office does not have a numerical target for identifying fraudulently obtained genuine (FOG) passports. The work on detecting FOGs is part of a wider programme which also has a significant focus on preventing passport fraud.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment her Department has made of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Rory Stewart

Yemen is one of the most serious and complex humanitarian crises in the world. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 21.2 million people in Yemen require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs for food, water, sanitation, and healthcare, or protect their fundamental rights. Yemen is also experiencing an economic crisis, which has driven up food and other prices, and reduced people’s purchasing power.

Ultimately, only an end to the conflict will address the humanitarian crisis. The UK is working closely with other countries to de-escalate the conflict and is providing significant support to UN-led peace talks. The UK is also working with the UN and other countries to improve commercial and humanitarian access to and within Yemen. We are providing desperately needed humanitarian aid to Yemen and have so far committed to spending £72 million in Yemen this year.

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

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the report entitled Ethnic Penalties in Motor Insurance Premiums by Webber Phillips, published in July 2016, what assessment her Department has made of concerns raised in that report that some car owners may be being charged higher premiums due to their ethnicity.

Caroline Dinenage

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society and sets out the different ways in which it is unlawful to treat someone. There are specific exceptions for providers of financial services such as insurance companies, which allow them to use a person’s age as a factor in assessing risk and charging for their products. However, insurers are not able to use a person’s race as a factor in assessing risk and charging for their products.

The pricing of risk is a commercial decision for individual insurers, and differences in premiums reflect different insurers’ experience of claims and other industry-wide statistics. While insurers are not required by the Financial Conduct Authority to be transparent about pricing decisions, it expects firms to comply with relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, and can undertake its own enquiries to better understand what the firm is doing and whether any of its regulatory requirements have been breached.