Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities have requested permission from his Department to introduce licensing of private landlords since 1 April 2015; and whether each such request (a) was granted, (b) was refused or (c) is awaiting a decision.

    Brandon Lewis

    Since April 2015, my Department has received three large selective licensing applications from the following local authorities: London Borough of Redbridge, Burnley Borough Council and Peterborough City Council.

    Redbridge’s application to introduce a borough wide scheme has been declined as their plans did not meet the selective licensing approval criteria. The Burnley and Peterborough applications are currently under consideration.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role the National Crime Agency plays in tackling tax evasion.

    Mr John Hayes

    The National Crime Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 sets out the Agency’s staffing numbers and funding allocations including gross expenditure for the Economic Crime Command for 2013-14, and 2014-15.

    The gross expenditure of the Economic Crime Command in 2013/14, the first year of the NCA’s operation, was £10,571,000. In 2014-15 gross expenditure was £21,718,000. In June 2015, the International Corruption Unit was established in the Economic Crime Command. It brought together resources from the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the NCA into a single unit and is responsible for investigating the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK, and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates.

    The Economic Crime Command also leads the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) through which the financial sector, law enforcement agencies and the Financial Conduct Authority share information to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing. The NCA as a whole has around 4,000 staff. The majority of the NCA’s staff work as a flexible investigative resource, not in a particular Command, but assigned to particular operations across all areas of the NCA as needed. The agency also houses a number of deployable specialist capabilities.

    The number of staff working in a particular Command is not a reliable indicator of the overall NCA resource linked to a particular type of crime. The Criminal Finances Threat Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the NCA which includes representatives from across law enforcement, meeting quarterly. As the Group is not a unit within the NCA, the information sought is not available. HMRC leads on tax evasion.

    The NCA works closely with HMRC in relation to tax evasion that relates to serious and organised crime. Through the NCA’s national tasking and coordination mechanisms the Agency is able act on these cases by utilising its specialist capabilities, for example undertaking tax investigations to recover assets from serious and organised criminals under part 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

  • Yvette Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Yvette Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yvette Cooper on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials of her Department are on secondment in France to assist with the identification of potential requests for the UK to take charge of an asylum-seeking child in France.

    James Brokenshire

    We have a number of officials already working on migration matters in France, Greece and Italy. A number of deployments to France from the Home Office and Foreign Office are supporting joint efforts with France to ensure Dublin Regulation transfers are carried out effectively and efficiently. Our support included the secondment of a UK asylum expert to the Dublin unit in France to assist and facilitate the improvement of all stages of the process of identifying, protecting and transferring relevant cases to the UK. A team of Home Office officials are part of the joint communications programme in Calais and there are weekly meetings between the heads of the UK and French Dublin Units. There is a Home Official seconded on a bi-lateral basis to the Italian Dublin Unit and we are about to second a UK official to Greece as additional support for Dublin family transfers to the UK.

    Since May we have also deployed asylum experts to support hotspots and Dublin units in both Greece and Italy under the European Asylum Support Office and as notified in my statement of 21 April, HCWS687, up to 75 UK expert personnel will be deployed to Greece to support implementation of the EU-Turkey Migration Agreement. These officials are being deployed in stages. We are considering if we need to deploy any additional resource to assist with the family reunification of children.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out her plans for the future of Cumbria Police; and whether that police force’s (a) budget and (b) number of police officers will be reduced in the current financial year.

    Brandon Lewis

    Decisions about the policing priorities in Cumbria are a matter for the locally elected and accountable Police and Crime Commissioner. In Cumbria, police recorded crime fell by 5% between June 2010 and March 2016.

    In 2016/17, direct resource funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including precept (the element of police funding derived from council tax), has been protected to at least flat cash levels. This means that no PCC who chose to maximise precept is facing a reduction in cash funding in 2016/17 compared to 2015/16 and the majority are seeing marginal cash increases in their spending power.

  • Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel have been trained aboard HMS (a) Astute and (b) Ambush.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Training onboard Royal Navy Submarines is a continual process with specific Command courses for submarine Captains and organised training for replacement Officers and Other Ranks by suitably qualified and experienced personnel.

    Identifying all those personnel who have undertaken any aspect of training on these vessels could only be provided at disproportionate costs.

  • Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Julian Lewis – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when HMS Ocean was last refitted; how much that refit cost; and what the intended out-of-service date was stated to be at the time of that refit.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Work on the last refit of HMS Ocean began in December 2012 and was completed in August 2014 at a cost of £71 million. The timing of the refit was driven by the mandatory requirement to revalidate the ships safety and environmental certification.

    The decommissioning date of 2018 is the same as that planned at the time of her refit.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in (a) Burnley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West had an appointment with an NHS dentist in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

    Alistair Burt

    Information is not available in the format requested.

    The table below shows the unique number of patients who received National Health Service dental care in the previous 24 months. An equivalent measure covering the 12 month period is not available.

    1 April 2008 – 31 March 2010

    1 April 2009 – 31 March 2011

    1 April 2010 – 31 March 2012

    1 April 2011- 31 March 2013

    1 April 2012 – 31 March 2014

    1 April 2013 – 31 March 2015

    NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

    –

    –

    –

    –

    218,979

    222,038

    Lancashire Local Authority

    –

    –

    –

    –

    671,482

    670,931

    NHS England North (Lancashire and Greater Manchester)

    –

    –

    –

    –

    2,496,149

    2,508,845

    East Lancashire Primary Care Trust (PCT)

    186,295

    200,034

    210,839

    219,406

    –

    –

    North West Strategic Health Authority (SHA)

    4,180,855

    4,251,505

    4,302,218

    4,323,082

    –

    –

    Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)

    Notes:

    1. Includes patients seen by an NHS dentist, including work undertaken by dentists under vocational training and orthodontic patients. Does not cover dental treatment carried out in hospitals under Hospital Dental Services, nor under services provided privately.
    2. Number of patients seen shows the number of individual patients who received care or treatment from an NHS dentist at least once in a 24 month period (patients are counted on their first visit only, e.g. if a patient has visited the dentist twice, they will only appear in the patients seen data set once).
    3. HSCIC dental data are not available at the geographies requested. The latest information is available at CCG, LA and NHS Geography Region and earlier years are only available at PCT and SHA level.

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which UK assets were supporting the USS Harry S. Truman in the Persian Gulf on 12 January 2016.

    Penny Mordaunt

    On 12 January 2016 HMS Defender, a Type 45 destroyer, was providing air defence to the US carrier USS Harry S Truman as part of her recent role supporting both the French and American carriers in the Gulf.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with the government of Cyprus on ensuring that wild migratory birds are not netted on the Sovereign Base Areas or any other land used by his Department in Cyprus.

    Mark Lancaster

    My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence, (Michael Fallon) has had no direct discussions with the Government of the Republic of Cyprus on this subject, but the Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) Administration has regular meetings on this issue with the relevant authorities in the Republic of Cyprus and relevant Non-Government Organisations to exchange and share information. The SBAs in Cyprus are covered by the Bern convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats and adhere to its provisions. The SBA Police have for a number of years put considerable effort into anti-poaching measures, and recently there has been an especially robust campaign through enhanced enforcement and the removal of non-native invasive acacia trees that are deliberately cultivated by trappers to attract birds. The SBA Police also work in close co-operation with the Cyprus Game and Fauna Service and the SBA Administration intends to continue to work with the Republic of Cyprus to bring an end to this unpleasant and outlawed practice.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many homes have been purchased in (a) England, (b) the East Midlands and (c) Ashfield constituency through the Help to Buy Scheme in each year since that scheme was introduced.

    Brandon Lewis

    Since the launch of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan, Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee and Help to Buy: NewBuy schemes, the total number of homes sold under all schemes total 138,997 in England, of which 15,684 are in the East Midlands.

    Figures for the Help to Buy: Equity Loan and Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee show 494 homes sold in the Ashfield constituency. Figures for the total number of homes sold under the Help to Buy: NewBuy schemes are not published at this level.