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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to improve support resources available to students who have been victims of sexual assault.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government is providing £80 million of dedicated central government funding over the course of this Parliament to tackle violence, including sexual assault, against women and girls. This includes central funding for rape support centres and £1.7 million per year up to 2017 to part-fund 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers who provide appropriate and independent support for victims. These services support all victims of sexual assault including students.

    At the request of the Secretary of State for Business, Universities UK set up a taskforce in September 2015 to bring together relevant stakeholders to explore what more can be done by the higher education sector to prevent, and respond effectively, to incidents of violence and sexual harassment against women, hate crimes and other forms of harassment. The taskforce is considering a range of potential measures, and its work includes an analysis of the nature and scale of the problem. The taskforce is expected to report in the Autumn.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to improve palliative and end-of-life care for LGBT people.

    Ben Gummer

    We are committed to ensuring that everyone who is at, or approaching, the end of life has access to high quality, compassionate care that is tailored to their individual needs and preferences.

    Many people already receive excellent end of life care but, as shown by the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) recent review of inequalities in end of life care, A different ending: Addressing inequalities in end of life care, there is clearly more that can be done to ensure that all patients experience good quality care, regardless of their age, gender, race, condition, sexual orientation or gender identity.

    We welcome the CQC’s review and we will work together with NHS England to use its findings, and those of the ACCESSCare: Advanced Cancer Care Equality Strategy for Sexual Minorities study, when it is published, to inform ongoing work to reduce inequalities in access to care.

  • Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead on 2016-07-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the calls by Women Against State Pension Inequality for transitional state pension arrangements for women born in the 1950s, on or after 6 April 1951.

    Lord Freud

    Transitional arrangements are already in place. At the time of the Pensions Act 2011 the government introduced a concession worth £1.1 billion to limit the impact of the rising state pension age on those most affected. The concession capped the maximum delay that anyone would face in claiming their State Pension to 18 months rather than two years, relative to the previous timetable.

  • Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with Parkinson’s disease and who are in receipt of disability living allowance are waiting reassessment for personal independence payments; and if he will make a statement.

    Penny Mordaunt

    As at February 2016 (the latest data available), I estimate there were about 4,600 working age people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) whose main disabling condition is recorded as Parkinson’s disease on the DLA computer systems, and who will be invited to apply for Personal Independence Payment in the future, or may have been invited to claim within the past 6 months.

    As at July 2016, there were 1,300 claimants in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) who have been reassessed in the last three years, having previously been in receipt of DLA, and whose main disabling condition is recorded as Parkinson’s disease or Parkinson’s syndrome on the PIP computer systems.

    The length of a PIP award is based on an individual’s circumstances. For some of the most severely disabled claimants, a review could be as long as ten years after the initial award, at which point only a light-touch review, rather than a face-to-face assessment, will be necessary.

  • Chris Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Chris Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Evans on 2015-10-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to dog legislation officers on enforcing section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

    George Eustice

    No estimate has been made of the number of dogs humanely destroyed under section 1 of the 1991 Act. There are 3,222 dogs on the list of exempted section 1 dogs in Great Britain. These are dogs assessed by the courts not to be a danger to public safety including, since 13 May 2014 in relation to England and Wales, assessed as being in the charge of a fit and proper person. Guidance for enforcers of the law on dangerous dogs was issued in March 2009 and is available on line via the link below.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69263/dogs-guide-enforcers.pdf

    “

  • Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department plans to spend on new precision weapons systems in each year from 2015 to 2020.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Over the next five years, the Department plans to spend around £6.5 billion on the procurement, support and testing of sophisticated weapons systems.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been prosecuted under the (a) Communications Act 2003, (b) Malicious Communications Act 1988 and (c) Protection from Harassment Act 1997 for offences committed online.

    Robert Buckland

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record to show the number of prosecutions involving defendants prosecuted specifically for criminal activity on-line. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.

  • Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Social Fund funerals were made in each year between 2010 and 2015; how many such applications were refused; and what the (a) budget and (b) lowest payment made was.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Table 1 shows the number of applications for Funeral Expenses Payments which were made and the number refused in the financial years 2010/11 to 2014/15.

    Table 1

    Applications (000)

    Initial Refusals (000)

    2010/11

    69

    34

    2011/12

    69

    36

    2012/13

    66

    34

    2013/14

    59

    27

    2014/15

    51

    24

    Data sourced from the DWP policy, Budget and Management Information System and is published in the Annual Report by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the Social Fund for the relevant year.

    The budget for the Social Fund, Funeral Expenses Payment (FEP) expenditure is demand-led. Legislation prescribes that payments are made to all eligible applicants. That is people responsible for arranging a funeral who meet the rules on relationships with the deceased and receive a qualifying benefit. Provision for FEPs is made by central Government through the supply estimate process, but these figures are not translated into an operational budget and do not impact eligibility or award amounts.

    In a minority of cases funeral expense payments are subsequently recovered from the deceased’s estate and in these cases the net amount can be very small. Given the small numbers involved it is not appropriate to release figures as there is a risk of identifying individuals.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25153, on which Type 45 Destroyers all 16 recommendations of the Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review have been implemented in full; when he expects the implementation of all 16 recommendations to be completed across the class; and if he will publish the recommendations made by the review.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Fourteen of the recommendations involved a modification to the Power and Propulsion system and all fourteen have been completed across all six ships in the class.

    The remaining two recommendations, involving changes to existing training procedures and documentation, have also been adopted. As these two recommendations are administrative in nature, they do not require physical modification of the ships.

    With regard to the request to publish the recommendations made by the Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review, dated March 2011, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) to question 25234 on 8 February 2016.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 8 February 2016 to Question 25741, what criteria the Government plans to use to allocate the funds secured from the European Social Fund for the period 2014-2020.

    Anna Soubry

    EU regulations require the United Kingdom to spend at least 45.9 per cent of its national allocation for structural funds for the period 2014-2020 on the European Social Fund (ESF). The United Kingdom’s Partnership Agreement with the European Commission, which can be found on GOV.UK at ‘European Structural and Investment Funds: UK Partnership Agreement’, sets out how the requirement was met.

    Within England, notional allocations for the European Regional Development Fund and ESF were made on the basis of Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas. The total allocations to each LEP area for the 2014-2020 period can be found on the GOV.UK website at ‘EU Structural Funds: UK allocations 2014 to 2020’. Each LEP area was asked how much it wanted to devote to the ESF, drawing on guidance issued by Government to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements at national level. The guidance can also be found on the GOV.UK website. Iinformation on the Strategies for 2014-2020 prepared by each LEP area can be found on the website ‘The Network of LEPs-LEP Network’, searching by European funding. These set out how much each proposed should be spent on ESF in their area.

    Management of EU structural funds is devolved. The Devolved Administrations decide the criteria for allocation of ESF within their remits, taking account of the need to meet EU regulatory requirements.