Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with Clearsprings Ready Home Limited for the region of Wales and South West England, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such faults were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.

    James Brokenshire

    Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of public health nursing to (a) improving the health of the population and preventing acute hospital admissions and (b) delivering the Government’s commitment to seven-day NHS services.

    Ben Gummer

    Improving population health is the responsibility of every nurse and they have a role in working with individuals, communities and/or the population to prevent illness, protect health and promote wellbeing. The National Health Service Five Year Forward View (FYFV) sets out the need to close the health and wellbeing gap, radically upgrade prevention as part of a drive to reduce acute hospital admissions, and deliver seven-day hospital services for patients with urgent or emergency care needs. The new framework for nurses, midwives and care staff in England, Leading Change, Adding Value, scheduled for publication later this month, sets out how these professionals will support delivery of the FYFV. There are 10 commitments in the framework, of which three specifically relate to population health and population health and prevention.

    To support all health care professionals including nurses to provide evidence based preventative interventions and measure their impact, Public Health England will be launching a resource called All Our Health later this month.

  • Michael Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Michael Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Tomlinson on 2016-06-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will provide additional funding for broadband provision to difficult to reach properties in (a) rural and (b) urban areas which have not been provided with access under the Universal Service Obligation to date and where Openreach fibre rollout has been delayed for more than a year.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Superfast broadband coverage will reach 95% of UK premises by the end of 2017. Further funding from clawback and efficiency savings in the local broadband contracts with BT will allow this coverage to be extended further.

    In addition it is the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation. This will give people the legal right to request a broadband connection, no matter where they live, by the end of this Parliament. Our ambition is that this should initially be set at 10 Mbps.

  • Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Karl Turner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-09-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the exclusion of sexual assault, voyeurism, exposure and sexual activity in a public lavatory from the schedule of offences that are subject to the mandatory referrals process on the ability of victims to report such acts.

    Mark Lancaster

    A person who believes they have been a victim of crime may report the matter to the Service or civilian Police, or to their chain of command. Commanding Officers are under a statutory duty to ensure that all allegations which indicate that a service offence may have been committed – including the offences of sexual assault, voyeurism, exposure and sexual activity in a public lavatory – are properly investigated. The Ministry of Defence has undertaken to review the existing provisions whereby Commanding Officers can decide how best to investigate those allegations of sexual offences which do not fall to be automatically referred to the Police. We expect the review to be complete by the end of the year.

  • Nick Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Nick Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reasons the Rural Payments Agency was not able to make advance basic payments from 16 October 2015.

    George Eustice

    The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) remains focused on making full payments from December. The RPA is on track to make full payments on 2015 Basic Payment Scheme claims as soon as possible within the payment window, making the majority of payments in December and the vast majority by the end of January 2016.

  • Ian Lavery – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Ian Lavery – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of Overseas Development Aid her Department used to tackle the refugee crisis in the last 12 months; and how much her Department plans to allocate in future years to tackling that situation.

    Justine Greening

    My department has contributed nearly £16 million for the refugee crisis in Europe this year to date. In the long term we are focussed on using the UK’s aid budget to support refugees to have a viable option to stay where they are by tackling the root causes of migration.

  • Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides to police forces on how to deal with a situation in which an emergency 999 call is erroneously directed to the wrong police force; and what procedures police forces have put in place to deal with such a situation.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

    The 999/112 Liaison Committee, chaired by DCMS, provides a forum for representatives from Government; Communications Providers, including BT (which provides the 999 call handling agency) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs); emergency services and Ofcom, to discuss 999 operational matters The LC’s main concern is the effective handling and transfer of emergency calls from the public, through call handling agents ,to emergency authorities.

    The “Code of Practice for the Public Emergency Call Service (PECS) between Communications Providers, Call Handing Agencies and the Emergency Authorities” sets out protocols governing 999 calls. This includes guidelines for the Emergency Authorities to manage any occasional situation in which an emergency 999 call is misdirected.

  • Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Quin on 2016-02-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the average waiting time for a result to be given of a DEXA bone density scan in each NHS region in England; and what assessment they have made of the average waiting time for such results in (1) Scotland, and (2) Wales.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Data are not collected on the average waiting time for a result to be given for a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. Data are collected on the average waiting time from referral to test, and these are shown in the following table for the four NHS England commissioning regions for most recent period, which is November 2015. Health is a devolved matter in Scotland and Wales.

    Table: average median waiting times in weeks for a DEXA scan from referral by NHS England commissioning region, November 2015

    Region

    Number of weeks

    North of England

    2.1

    Midlands and East of England

    1.7

    London

    1.8

    South of England

    1.8

    England

    1.9

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-03-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children were educated at home in the UK in the academic year 2014–15.

    Lord Nash

    The department does not collect data relating to the number of home educated children in England. Home education elsewhere in the United Kingdom is the responsibility of the devolved administrations.

    It is unacceptable for any child of compulsory school age not to be receiving a suitable education. We recognise parents may choose to home school their children and many do a good job, but that education must be of a suitable quality.

    We are taking steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be when it comes to protecting young people, while at the same time safeguarding the rights of parents to determine how and where to educate their children.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31329, on deportation: EU nationals, how many EEA foreign national offenders awaiting deportation have been waiting (a) less than one month, (b) one to three months, (c) three to six months, (d) six to nine months, (e) nine to 12 months, (f) one to two years and (g) more than two years.

    James Brokenshire

    Removals have been increasing year on year since 2010. In 2015, we removed 5,602 FNOs and over 29,000 foreign national offenders have been removed since 2010.

    Our records indicate that as of December 2015, there were 4,217 EEA foreign national offenders awaiting deportation.

    Of which:

    2,748 are still serving a custodial sentence

    A total of 302 are time served detained in immigration removal centres (IRC) and prisons. (242 in IRCs and 60 in prison)

    1,167 are living in the community.

    Of the above, for those detained and living in the community (1,469), the time since the end of their custodial sentence is as follows:

    Less than one month 50

    One to three months 84

    Three to six months 58

    Six to nine months 60

    Nine to 12 months 49

    One to two years 132

    More than two years 80

    No UK conviction or sentence end date not recorded 956

    Total 1,469

    (1) The figures quoted have been derived from management information from the Home Office databases and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols.

    (2) FNOs living in the community include those released by an Immigration Judge, those released by the Secretary of State and those with oversees convictions who may not have received a custodial sentence in the UK.

    (3) The data provided is up to December 2015. This is not routinely published data. General protocol is that the figures should not breach the National Statistics, so we are not able to disclose figures that are for a later period than those that we have published. Published figures are available up to 31 December 2015.