The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many warrants for the purposes of establishing whether women are being trafficked have been excluded by her Department in each local authority in Lancashire in each month in 2015.
Karen Bradley
The Home Office does not hold this information centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether employers will be able to direct unused funds from their apprenticeship levy accounts towards supporting training apprentices working with (a) their distributers and (b) other companies in their supply chain.
Nick Boles
We want to give employers in England flexibility in how they use levy funds to pay for apprenticeship training that meets their needs. We know that some employers want to direct their funding to other employers, for instance their suppliers. We will consider ways this could be accommodated whilst avoiding additional complexity, maintaining the aims of the system and remaining compatible with State aid rules.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 10 May (HL7949), what factors are thought to be responsible for differences in the number of serious adverse incidents of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) between each of the three years from 2010 to 2012 compared to 2013 and 2014; and whether the reference to professional standards applies only to clinicians or also to the activities of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in attempting to mitigate the risks of OHSS.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that whilst certain factors may increase the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), there is no agreed method to predict the amount of severe OHSS that will occur. Therefore, the Authority cannot infer what factors, if any, would cause year to year variation in the number of incidents reported.
Professional clinical standards are set by the appropriate Royal Colleges and issued to guide clinicians and health professionals directly, not the HFEA.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maclennan of Rogart on 2016-07-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their estimate of the number of victims of female genital mutilation in each of the four nations of the UK; and what steps they are taking to eradicate that practice throughout the UK.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
The most recent NHS data released on 7 June showed 1,242 newly identified cases of FGM within the NHS between January and March 2016. 98% of cases were in adult women, and in the vast majority of these the FGM took place in Asia or Africa.
A 2015 prevalence study part funded by the Home Office estimated that approximately 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales are affected by FGM and 60,000 girls were born to women who had undergone it.
We have significantly strengthened the law through the Serious Crime Act 2015, including introducing FGM Protection Orders to protect girls at risk, and a mandatory reporting duty requiring specified professionals to report known cases in under 18s to the police.
We are improving the response of professionals through the Department of Health’s £4m FGM prevention programme, up to £2m from the Department for Education to support the Barnardo’s and Local Government Association’s National FGM Centre which is strengthening the social care response; and updated multi-agency guidance which we published on the 1 April and which is statutory for the first time.
FGM is a devolved matter and we work closely with the Devolved Administrations in taking forward this work.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Hammond on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the incidence of vishing fraud.
Brandon Lewis
The Home Office do not hold any data on the incidence of vishing fraud. Vishing is when fraudsters obtain personal details of a victim by phone, usually with the intention of using this information to commit fraud. It is an enabler to commit fraud, rather than a fraud type in itself. The Home Office only collects data on the number of incidents of frauds, with no breakdown currently available for enablers used to commit them.
The Joint Fraud Taskforce, which brings together government, law enforcement and industry is considering options to reduce social engineering, alongside other initiatives to combat fraud more broadly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to improve the retention of students who have the potential to succeed in higher education but face financial difficulties.
Joseph Johnson
Continuation rates for students in publicly-funded institutions are at a record high, with 94.3% of young full-time first degree entrants to higher education in English HEIs in 2012/13 continuing after their first year and, 90.0% of full-time first degree starters of all ages in English HEIs in 2012/13 were expected to receive an award or transfer. Improvements in these areas have come at a time of considerable expansion in student numbers and increasing diversity in the backgrounds of students.
Institutions wishing to charge higher fees must agree access agreements with the independent Director of Fair Access. In these, institutions set out what more they will do to attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds and help them to complete their studies and progress to post-graduate study or employment. In 2016/17, institutions expect to spend £425m on financial support through their access agreements.
The Higher Education Green Paper set out further steps to encourage universities to improve retention rates, including for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups, through a Teaching Excellence Framework.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy for the NHS to screen all people over the age of 55 for hearing loss.
Alistair Burt
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the NHS in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy.
In 2009-10 the UK NSC recommended that routine screening for adult hearing loss should not be offered because of the lack of evidence to warrant a screening programme. In particular:
– it is not clear what the test should be;
– there is no agreed time or schedule for carrying out the testing;
– the acceptability of the test and in particular the treatment (hearing aids) is unclear; and
– there had been no randomised trials of screening.
As part of its routine evidence review process the UK NSC has just reviewed its recommendation on screening adults for hearing loss again. Ministers expect to receive a recommendation from the UK NSC shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were wrongly released in each of the last five years; what crime each such prisoner had been convicted of; from which prison each such prisoner has been released; how many such prisoners were released from (a) public and (b) private prisons; what category of prisoner each person wrongly released was; how long it took to return each such prisoner to prison; what further crimes each such prisoner committed while wrongly released; how many such prisoners remained at large in each of the last five years; what crime each at large prisoner was originally convicted of; from which prison each at large prisoner was wrongly released from; whether this was a (i) private and (ii) public prison; and what category of prisoner each at large wrongly released prisoner was.
Andrew Selous
The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal College of Nursing on the effect of sugary drinks on obesity.
Jane Ellison
There have been no such recent discussions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken by the Independent Police Complaints Commission to resolve complaints.
Mike Penning
Home Office officials work closely with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to monitor how they are delivering their objectives. The IPCC provide regular performance information to the Home Office, including information on the timeliness of completed cases, which are scrutinised closely by my officials as part of the business and corporate planning process. The Home office is working with the IPCC to develop appropriate performance measures for 2016-17, including more streamlined public access to IPCC timeliness information.
On 7 March, the Home Secretary announced plans to reform the IPCC’s Governance, to make it more effective and more responsive to the public. These plans were published on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-the-independent-police-complaints-commission-structure-and-governance We continue to provide additional funding to support the IPCC to expand to deliver an increased volume of timely, high quality investigations. I will ask the IPCC to write to the Honourable Member in response to the request for average times to complete the complaints process, and will ask for this response to be made available in the House Library.