The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many non-domestic rate arrears appeals were (a) lodged and (b) heard in each of the last 10 years.
Mr David Gauke
The information requested is accessible via Tables LRW1and LRW2 of our 2005 and 2010 NDR Challenges and changes publications. Links below:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with Serco for the region of North West England, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such faults were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.
James Brokenshire
Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.
The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will require NHS England to set out commissioning responsibilities for mental healthcare.
Alistair Burt
NHS England has a five-year strategy – the Mental Health “Five Year Forward View” to improve mental health outcomes across the National Health Service, for people of all ages. The Forward View explains how national bodies will work together between now and 2021 to help people have good mental health and make sure they can access evidence-based treatment rapidly when they need it.
In relation to commissioning, NHS England has direct commissioning responsibility for a number of specialised mental health services – as set out in regulations. These services include: adult secure in-patient services; in-patient services for children and adolescents; in-patient perinatal services; gender identity services; specialist in-patient services for people who have a mental health illness and are deaf; in- patient services for patients who have eating disorders and some specialist personality disorder in-patient services.
The Mental Health Taskforce report – published in February, recommended that NHS England should ensure that by April 2017 population-based budgets are in place, which give clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) or other local partners the opportunity to collaboratively commission the majority of specialised services across the life course.
CCGs are responsible for commissioning all other mental health services for both adults and children; working with partners such as local authorities, where appropriate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-06-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what training is provided to officials of his Department working on his Department’s Saudi Armed Forces Programme and the Saudi Arabia National Guard Communications Project on responding to whistleblowers from the private sector.
Michael Fallon
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I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Philip Dunne) to the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) on 5 November 2015 to Question 13794. |
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-09-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether technical capacity for the launching of cluster munitions was provided with any UK-manufactured (a) aircraft and (b) unmanned aerial device exported to Saudi Arabia in the last 15 years.
Sir Michael Fallon
No.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what work his Department has commissioned to identify the profile of customers with exchange-only lines on the telecom network that are incompatible with fibre to the cabinet broadband technology.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The vast majority of phone lines across the UK connect to the nearest telephone exchange via a street cabinet, which can be upgraded to deliver fibre broadband. Estimates are not available of the number of premises served by exchange only lines which connect directly to the local exchange rather than via one of BT’s street cabinets. There are a variety of reasons why exchange only lines are created. For example, for rural exchanges serving few premises where there was no need for cabinets, or for urban exchanges where it may have been a more cost-effective. Exchange only lines present a greater engineering challenge to deliver fibre broadband than those connected via street cabinets but technical solutions are available. One solution is to rearrange the existing network, lay new cables to reroute lines to new cabinets. This technique was developed as part of the BDUK Superfast Broadband Programme, and the number of exchange only lines is reducing all the time as roll out under the programme continues.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take to ensure that a proper distinction is made between the role of the contractor appointed by the local authority to enable local healthwatches to be established and run, and that of the local healthwatch organisation itself.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department currently has no plans to undertake an investigation in to the performance of local Healthwatch organisations. In March 2015 the Department published a report commissioned from the King’s Fund – Local Healthwatch: Progress and promise – which set out the progress that local Healthwatch have made since being established in 2013. Transparency about the performance of local Healthwatch organisations is provided through the annual reports which they are required to publish. Reports on how the local Healthwatch network as a whole is operating and the nature of the support needed to deliver their activities effectively are discussed at quarterly public meetings of the Healthwatch England Committee.
Arrangements for ensuring local Healthwatch statutory activities are delivered in each area are a matter for local authorities. The Local Government Association has published guidance to support local Healthwatch and local commissioners in putting in place good governance arrangements, which includes clarity about the roles of all parties involved.
Neither the Department nor Healthwatch England are aware of local Healthwatch contractors refusing to engage with the public in their area. Where Healthwatch England is made aware of concerns in relation to local Healthwatch around governance or local relationships with specific individuals or organisations, it seeks to provide support to resolve these where appropriate. Members of the public are able to raise concerns though the complaints process of the local Healthwatch or the commissioning local authority.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the security of data transmission between the F35B Lightning II fighter and remote monitoring and control stations.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Autonomous Logistics Information System is part of the ground based information system and is not fitted on board the F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft. Both the Autonomous Logistics Information System and the F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft have been subject to a comprehensive independent programme of penetration testing.
Risk assessments of the Autonomous Logistics Information System and its interfaces with the F-35B Lightning II fighter are conducted continuously throughout the test programme. All classified data transmissions to and from the F-35B Lightning II fighter aircraft are fully encrypted.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) arrests and (b) convictions have been made under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in each month since May 2013.
Andrew Selous
The number of offenders found guilty at all courts for offences under Section 127 of the Communication Act 2003, in England and Wales, in each month since May 2013 to December 2014 (the latest available) can be viewed in the attached table.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of her Department’s policy of providing information on failed asylum claims to the government of their country of origin on the safety of those claimants on their return to that country.
James Brokenshire
We carefully consider all asylum claims on their individual merits and provide protection for those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This includes an assessment about whether a person who has spoken out against their government is likely to be at risk of persecution or serious harm on return.
We do not provide any information relating to an asylum claim to the government of a claimant’s country of origin. No one who is at risk of serious harm in their country is expected to return there, but we do expect those who do not need our protection to return home voluntarily.