Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Tom Elliott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Tom Elliott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Elliott on 2015-11-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to page eight of the Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan, published on 17 November 2015, what the further financial support of around £500 million from the Government will consist of and for what purposes it can be used.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    The financial support of around £500m consists of:

    – £160m in Additional Security Funding;

    – £25m to tackle Continuing Paramilitary Activity;

    – £3m to establish and fund a Monitoring and Implementation body; and

    – £60m for Shared Future measures.

    Additionally, welfare deductions stopped when the Assembly passed a consent motion for UK legislation to implement reforms. The UK Government will refund the deduction due for the remainder of the year, which is estimated to be around £40m.

    The Executive is also to develop effective Spend to Save proposals. The Treasury will work with them to finalise proposals, help fund them (up to £125m), and let the Executive keep half the savings that can be verified by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR). The parties project that this will generate significant savings in the next five years, taking the total package over £500m.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will exempt (a) domestic violence refuges and (b) other supported accommodation where higher rates of housing benefit are paid from planned changes to the housing benefit cap.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The introduction of Local Housing Allowance limits to social sector tenants in receipt of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit will only apply from April 2018 where new tenancies have been taken out or renewed after April 2016.

    The Department is working on the exact policy design details for tenants in supported accommodation which includes domestic violence refuges.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners diagnosed with a mental health illness are being held with another prisoner in a cell designed for one person.

    Andrew Selous

    As the Secretary of State has said, the prison estate is overcrowded and out of date. That’s why we have announced that we will close down aging and ineffective prisons, replacing them with buildings fit for today’s demands, including better management of prisoners with mental health illnesses.

    On arrival all prisoners have a health assessment that looks in particular at mental health, risk of self-harm and suicide, risk of harm to others and vulnerability or risk of harm from others. A cell sharing risk assessment is also undertaken to inform whether a prisoner can share a cell, which includes looking at the health assessment. All prisons have on-site primary health care teams who can provide mental health care, refer prisoners to talking therapies or refer them for a further psychiatric assessment for serious mental illness.

    While the National Offender Management Service collects centrally the data on when two prisoners are held in a cell designed for one, it does not centrally record how many of these prisoners have an identified mental health concern.

    This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to address inequalities in cancer incidence across England resulting from smoking.

    Jane Ellison

    We know that smoking causes over a quarter of cancer deaths in the United Kingdom and that these deaths disproportionally occur in the poorest areas and most vulnerable populations.

    The Government has committed to publishing a new tobacco control plan to further reduce the prevalence of smoking in England. Addressing the health inequality caused by smoking will be one of the key priorities underpinning this strategy and we are working with partners across the system to embed locally, the success we have had reducing prevalence nationally.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to implement the recommendations for trauma-focussed care outlined in the report Future in Mind.

    Alistair Burt

    It is important that awareness of trauma (from abuse or neglect) and the impact it can have on children and young people’s mental health is raised across the workforce and that there is clarity on roles and responsibilities. The Department has asked that Health Education England (HEE) and NHS England work together to consider the training required for the health and wider children’s workforce to become more trauma aware, building this into HEE’s work programme.

    Routine Enquiry (asking about experience of trauma at every appropriate health appointment for over 16 year olds) and sensitive enquiry in all children and young people’s services (which was proposed in Future in Mind) will be tested in key services shortly. However, there is still work to do to make sure we reach out to all parts of the workforce who may see the presentation of trauma in the children that they work with. Routine and sensitive enquiry by frontline health professionals such as general practitioners and mental health professionals is an important starting point, but it will be just as important to use those working in schools and the community to raise awareness more broadly and initiate learning about trauma and its impact on mental health.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free schools have been delayed in opening due to the inability to secure a site for the school in each year since 2010.

    Edward Timpson

    Since 2010, where free schools have opened at a later date, this has been for a variety and often a combination of reasons – it would be misleading to attempt to identify which had been delayed solely or largely due to site issues. In each case the department will have balanced the risk of opening on the original date against all of the elements needed to be in place for a successful school.

  • Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions have taken place between the Department of Health and the Department for International Development regarding the draft Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis 2016–2021.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK Government welcomes the development of this strategy for preventing, diagnosing and treating viral hepatitis. DFID works very closely with the Department of Health and we have a joint delegation to the World Health Assembly.

    DFID supports improving the access to clean and safe water and hygiene promotion to reduce the risk of transmission of hepatitis A and E. We are the largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which increases access to immunisation in low income countries. This includes protection against hepatitis B. The UK supports UNITAID, which is working to improve access to better diagnostics for Hepatits C and we are supporting the Clinton Health Access Initiative to reduce prices and increase access to new treatments. In addition DFID supports comprehensive harm reduction programmes and strategies through its support to the Global Fund, which help reduce transmission of both HIV and Hepatitis C.

  • Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Calum Kerr on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if her Department will make it its policy to launch commercial 5G services in at least one city by 2020.

    Matt Hancock

    We are sponsoring the Future Communications Challenge Group (FCCG) of senior academics, industry experts and funders, chaired by the President of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, which is considering how we should drive forward our commitment to ensure that UK has a leading role in 5G development.

    In parallel the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) is conducting a study, launched in Budget 2016, into how UK can achieve early deployment of 5G networks.

    Both of these will report by the end of the year and the results will feed into a comprehensive 5G strategy for the UK, to be published in 2017.

  • Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners are serving indefinite sentences in England.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Data on indeterminate sentence prisoners (both those serving life and Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences) are routinely published as part of the Offender management statistics quarterly bulletin, and can be found on GOV.UK.

  • Lord Blencathra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Blencathra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2015-11-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to follow the example of the government of Belgium which has passed a law to arrest all suspected extremists who have returned to Belgium from Syria or Iraq.

    Lord Bates

    The UK has a wide range of disruptive tools and offences under which a suspected terrorist or violent extremist can be arrested and prosecuted. Earlier this year, we legislated, through the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and the Serious Crime Act 2015, to strengthen further our capabilities to deal with the threat from foreign fighters and British-born jihadis who seek to harm the UK, including where they have undertaken prohibited activities abroad.We keep our counter-terrorism powers under constant review.

    All decisions relating to the arrest, charge and prosecution of terrorism suspects are a matter for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.