The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much the UK contributes towards the subsidisation of sugar production.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Sugar production is not directly subsidised in the UK. However, sugar beet growers in the UK are entitled to make a claim for support under the Basic Payment Scheme of the Common Agricultural Policy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-05-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to ensure that the next East Anglia franchise delivers greater punctuality and fewer cancellations on train services to Clacton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze.
Claire Perry
In the invitation tender for the East Anglia franchise we have asked bidders to come forward with proposals to improve operational performance and passenger experience during times of disruption across all the franchise services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Crawley on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women who have reported (a) sexual abuse and (b) rape whilst in detention have subsequently been deported in each of the last three years.
James Brokenshire
All complaints made by detainees are investigated by the relevant supplier in accordance with Detention Services Order 03/2015 ‘Handling complaints’. Any allegations of serious misconduct made by a detainee against staff are also referred to the Home Office Professional Standards Unit (PSU) for investigation. Where a detainee, or someone on behalf of a detainee, alleges that a member of staff has committed a sexual offence against them the police will automatically be notified, even if the detainee does not wish the matter to be reported or to make a formal complaint.
Management information shows that there have been six allegations of sexual assault made by detainees against staff at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre between 2013 and 2015. Of these six allegations, one was made in 2013, three in 2014 and two in 2015.
In the same period there have been two Home Office PSU investigations into allegations of sexual assault made by detainees against staff in other immigration removal centres. Both allegations were made in 2015. There have been no allegations of rape made by a detainee against staff at any immigration removal centre during this period.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Information on the number of women who have been deported following an allegation of sexual abuse or rape while in detention is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tanlaw on 2016-09-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to identify accurately the GPS Prime Meridian with a corresponding marker at the correct location in Greenwich Park.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
As the reference frame for the Global Positioning System (GPS) is established through a mathematical interpretation of satellite radio signals, rather than a physical meridian, it is not conceptually appropriate to represent it in the same way as other meridians have historically been marked at Greenwich.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons refugees with disabilities who have been deemed entitled to disability living allowance have different backdating entitlements depending on whether their claim happened to be stockpiled before or after the Upper Tribunal ruling of 17 March 2016 on the past presence test.
Penny Mordaunt
No claims were stockpiled before the Upper Tribunal ruling of 17 March 2016, 40 Disability Living Allowance claims were stockpiled after the ruling.
Section 27 of the Social Security Act 1998 provides that, where the Upper Tribunal decides on a social security appeal that the Secretary of State has made an error of law in his original decision and other claims subsequently fall to be decided by the Secretary of State, the judgment generally is not to be applied in relation to any period that predates the Upper Tribunal’s decision (s.27(3)). This statutory rule does not apply to the person who brought the original appeal, to people who have already lodged an appeal against a decision or who are still in time to do so, or to people whose case the Secretary of State has stockpiled (or whose appeal he has stayed) pending the judgment under section 25 of the Act.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2015-11-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current availability of qualified speech therapists at the point of assessment throughout the NHS and community healthcare provision.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Health and Social Care Information Centre annual census data shows that as at 30 September 2014, there were 6,207 full time equivalent speech and language therapists working in the National Health Service in England, this is a rise of 2% since May 2010.
Health Education England (HEE) and the Department of Health commissioned the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI) to undertake a stock take of the speech and language therapists workforce in England. The CfWI published Securing the future workforce supply – Speech and language therapy stocktake, in December 2014. A copy of this is attached. The stocktake investigated the current balance of demand and supply for speech and language therapists and explored how this is expected to change by 2025, including those working in the public and private sector.
HEE has increased the number of speech and language therapist training places in 2015-16 to 668, an increase of 3.7% over 2014-15. HEE will take the content of the CfWI speech and language therapy stocktake into account in their workforce planning and future commissioning decisions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons the New Medicine Service is not available to mental health patients.
George Freeman
The conditions/therapy areas selected for the New Medicine Service (NMS) are those where community pharmacies are best able to demonstrate the value of the service and could provide the greatest benefit to patients. The conditions/therapy areas are currently asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes, antiplatelet/anticoagulant therapy and hypertension.
As the commissioners of National Health Service pharmaceutical services it is for NHS England to consider, in light of the best available evidence, whether to negotiate changes to the NMS including whether the NMS should be offered to mental health patients.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of ticket machines were fitted with labels advertising ticket offices of each train operating company on the most recent date for which figures are available.
Claire Perry
Under the terms of the Ticketing Settlement Agreement
“the opening hours of each Ticket Office must be prominently displayed at a location nearby that is accessible to members of the public at all times unless the Authority agrees otherwise” (s6-16, p.144).
It is for the operator to decide where the times are displayed. Therefore, the Department has no information as to how many would be on ticket machines.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated radiological dose uptake was in terms of (a) individual whole equivalent dose in milli-Sievert and (b) collective dose in man-Sievert for (i) Services and his Department’s civilian personnel involved in and responding to the incident, (ii) civilian emergency services personnel responders attending and (iii) members of the public during each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
Penny Mordaunt
The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.
I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that refugees arriving in other EU member-states who have family in the UK are identified and supported in being reunited with their relatives.
James Brokenshire
All migrants arriving in other EU Member States who wish to seek asylum should do so in those States and provide information to the asylum authorities about any family members in the UK or other Member States so that the family unity provisions in the Dublin Regulation can be applied.
We are providing further resources to the European Asylum Support Office, including help in border “hotspots” in Greece and Italy, to identify and register asylum applicants, including children at risk on first arrival in the EU.
We will consider any request made to us by other Member States to take responsibility for asylum applicants because they have close family who are legally in the UK in accordance with the terms of the Dublin Regulation.
If not claiming asylum, individuals outside the UK are entitled to apply under the Immigration Rules to join relatives in the UK by making the appropriate visa application.