The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of pregnancies affected by neural tube defects are terminated after the 20 week scan.
Jane Ellison
Information on the socio-economic group for women having abortions is not collected centrally.
In 2014, 442 abortions were performed because of neural tube defects; 34% of these were performed at 20 weeks gestation or over.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many (a) unsuccessful and (b) successful applications there were for planning permission for residential homes in each of the last five years.
Brandon Lewis
We publish statistics on our website concerning dwellings. In the results attached we have used figures from ‘Table 2.5 s78 planning appeals – dwellings decided & allowed’ on the Planning Inspectorate Statistics page. Below is a link to this page.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/planning-inspectorate-statistics
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government Equalities Office is taking to implement the actions identified for it in the Government’s Ending Violence against Women and Girls 2016-2020, published in March 2016; and when a member of staff from the Government Equalities Office last attended a Violence against Women and Girls Stakeholder Meeting chaired by the Home Office.
Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to delivering the Strategy published in March. The table below shows the progress made in delivering the actions allocated to the Government Equalities Office (GEO).
|
REF |
ACTION |
PROGRESS |
|
1 |
Develop new guidance in consultation with teachers for PHSE lessons specifically about gender equality (Apr 2016). |
GEO has been working with the PSHE Association to consult teachers on how best to deliver this commitment. |
|
2 |
Fund the Freedom Charity to expand the ‘Train the Trainers’ project…. (Apr 2016). |
GEO funded the Freedom Charity to expand their ‘Train the Trainers’ project to reach a greater number of communities and empower teachers to deal with the topic of forced marriage sensitively and confidently. This funding enabled an additional 3,620 students and 1,230 staff to learn about forced marriage with Freedom. |
|
5 |
Launch the second phase of the national prevention campaign to challenge abuse in teenage relationships and promote understanding of health relationships and consent – including among LGB&T teenagers (Feb 2016). |
GEO, in partnership with the Home Office, launched Disrespect Nobody, the second phase of the national prevention campaign to challenge abuse in teenage relationships. This included a TV advert, along with a dedicated website, blogs and guidance for teachers. |
|
8 |
Update Media Smart resources (with the Advertising Association) to help teachers and parents improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media and their resilience to negative content (Sep 2016). |
GEO commissioned the charity Media Smart to develop a new resource to help teachers and parents improve primary school children’s understanding of how gender is represented in the media and their resilience to negative content. The resource was published in August 2016 and will be disseminated to schools this term. |
|
10 |
Conduct or commission mapping of the evidence base and initiatives that engage men, boys and bystanders in VAWG prevention to identify how Government can build on these initiatives to further social change (Apr 2017). |
GEO is currently mapping the evidence base and initiatives that engage men, boys and bystanders in VAWG prevention, as well as meeting with stakeholders working in this area. |
|
28 |
Establish an official Government working group to map out current issues, prevalence, initiatives and barriers to addressing gendered online abuse to improve understanding and coordinate the response to online manifestations of VAWG (Dec 2016). |
In partnership with the Home Office, GEO has established an official Government working group to do this. This work is ongoing. |
|
30 |
Continue to ensure victims of revenge pornography have access to bespoke support and advice about their right to have the images removed from websites (review Apr 2017). |
GEO has funded the Revenge Porn Helpline for a further year to continue its important work supporting victims of revenge porn and working to have such images removed from websites. |
GEO officials attend the Home Office-chaired cross-government working group on VAWG, the last of which took place on 23 June 2016. In addition, GEO officials have attended a number of Home Office-led consultation meetings with VAWG stakeholders, the last of which was in February 2016. Such discussions run alongside inter-ministerial meetings, the most recent of which I attended in June.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2016 to Question 48717, how many customers were interviewed in the small-scale qualitative evaluation of the Warm Home Discount scheme.
Jesse Norman
A total of 41 customers were interviewed as part of the evaluation of the Energy Rebate scheme.
These customers were drawn from four representative sample groups of interest.
The findings of the research can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/220145/energy-rebate-scheme-evaluation.pdf
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2015-11-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to apply the freeze of the student loan repayment threshold on which his Department has recently consulted to the repayment of 24+ Advanced Learner Loans.
Nick Boles
As set out in the consultation, because both higher education student loans and 24+ Advanced Learning Loans share a repayment threshold, the change will equally affect both groups of learners.
The Spending Review announced that the Government has decided to implement a repayment threshold freeze for all borrowers with post-2012 (‘Plan 2’) loans. The repayment threshold will be £21,000 at April 2016, and it will not be uplifted until at least April 2021, when the threshold will be reviewed. This threshold remains higher in real terms than that of the loans taken out before 2012.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent election in Argentina and its implications for British-Argentinian relations.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We made no secret of our desire for a more constructive bilateral relationship with whomever succeeded former President Kirchner. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has spoken to President Macri to congratulate him on his election win and both leaders – whilst acknowledging our differences – agreed that this was an opportunity to build on the historic ties and shared interests of our people and develop existing trade and investment links.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what change there has been in the number of personnel in the Maritime Reserves Units in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months.
Mr Julian Brazier
The Maritime Reserves are represented in Northern Ireland by the Royal Naval Reserve unit HMS HIBERNIA in Lisburn, and the Royal Marines Reserve Belfast Detachment of RMR Scotland.
The table below sets out the number of all personnel in the Maritime Reserve units in Northern Ireland for the period required:
|
Unit |
Number of personnel as of 1 December 2014 |
Number of personnel as of 1 December 2015 |
|
HMS HIBERNIA |
80 |
110 |
|
Belfast Detachment |
20 |
40 |
Note: Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 in accordance with the Departmental rounding policy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people (a) applied for and (b) were granted divorce in each of the last five years.
Caroline Dinenage
Details of the number of applications for divorce and the number of decrees issued by the courts are published in Table 7 of the Family Court Statistics Quarterly and the December 2015 report is at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2015
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-02-26.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much central government expenditure on small and medium-sized enterprises in 2014-15 was spent in the North West.
Matthew Hancock
The Crown Commercial Service only collects regional spend data for direct spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), so the following figures, which are taken from the Governments Spend Analytical tool, Bravo, do not incorporate spend through the supply chain.
Direct spend with SMEs of £205,978,657.91 was reported in 2014-15 for the North West of England.
During the same period, the following amounts were reported as going to small businesses in the requested locations:
OL1 – £2,706,290.86
OL2 – £18,611.30
OL3 – £54,984.10
OL4 – £66,325.40
OL8 – £83,737.93
OL9 – £566,399.25
M35 – £76,074.91
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department issues guidance to schools on how to identify and manage incidences of parental alienation.
Edward Timpson
Protection from abuse and neglect is a fundamental right of all children and young people, regardless of their family situation, and the government will continue to review how schools, police, social services and other agencies work together to protect all children.
The Department published updated statutory guidance in 2015 on Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children. Schools and colleges must have regard to this guidance when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. All school and college staff should be aware of the various forms of abuse, including emotional harm, so that they are able to identify children in need of help and support and know what action to take. This would include recognising where children are suffering as the result of family relationship breakdown.