The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Featherstone on 2016-01-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much money they have spent in this Parliamentary Session on support for fracking activities.
Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
I refer the noble Baroness to the answer my Hon. Friend the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change gave to the hon. Member for Huddersfield on 21 January 2016 to House of Commons Parliamentary Question 22696.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to enforce better compliance with the School Admissions Code among religiously selective schools in the light of the findings of the report An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year.
Lord Nash
The Government is giving careful consideration to the report of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator as part of our current review of the School Admissions Code, in addition to other research and publications.
We will be conducting a full public consultation in due course and will give careful consideration to all the views expressed in that consultation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-03-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve the speed with which payments are made to small farmers under the Basic Payment Scheme.
George Eustice
As of 10 March the Rural Payments Agency has paid in the region of 83% of all eligible claims received. Of these some 81% of small farm businesses had received their payments. The Rural Payments agency is working to pay the remainder of claims as promptly as possible with between 800 and 1,000 staff working on processing claims.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-04-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the postcodes for the addresses of mothers of babies born with congenital abnormalities are available on the British Isles Network of Congenital Anomaly Registers.
George Freeman
The National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Disease Registration Service (NCARDRS) is operated by Public Health England. NCARDRS has legal permission to collect patient identifiable data without the need for individual consent. As part of this dataset, patient postcodes for individuals resident in England are recorded on the NCARDRS congenital anomaly database. Protection of individual patient data is paramount and release of this data, including postcode data, is strictly controlled.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2016-05-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 29 April (HL7749), whether they have identified any prospective disadvantages of the Right to Roam policy; and if so, what those disadvantages are.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has not identified any prospective disadvantages of the right of access for open-air recreation on foot on open country (mountain, moor, heath and down) and registered common land which is provided for under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The Act was passed by a previous Government after public consultation and an appraisal of a number of options for increasing access to land where access had not been allowed before.
The legislation was therefore framed so that the right of access over such areas was carefully balanced against the needs of land managers, businesses and wildlife. Areas such as houses and their gardens, and buildings or their curtilage, are automatically exempt from the right of access to avoid intrusion on people’s privacy even where they fall within land which appears on a map of open access land.
The open access regime also includes general restrictions at the national level that exclude specific potentially damaging activities from the right of access and controls on people walking with dogs. To supplement these, local temporary restrictions on the right of access may be put in place to limit where people go or what they do, if it is necessary to protect against the harm that any access may cause to sensitive landscape or wildlife habitat, public safety or the ability of landowners to manage their land.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-07-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the introduction of the English language tuition scheme in supporting Muslim women to learn English.
Mr Marcus Jones
As the first step in rolling out the new £20 million programme we have committed just over £3 million to enable six providers who delivered the Department’s previous community-based English language programme to provide new tuition to over 10,000 people by March next year.
We will shortly be issuing a new Prospectus, inviting applications to run the bulk of the new programme from 2017. The nature and targeting of that provision will be informed by Louise Casey’s Review of Integration and Opportunity.
We will monitor the new Programme to assess its effectiveness in meeting its objectives.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Pakistani government on the death penalty imposed on Imdad Ali.
Alok Sharma
I am concerned about Mr Ali’s case and continue to follow developments. The UK remains firmly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. Abolitionist work is high on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) agenda and is part of the day-to-day work of all diplomatic missions to countries that retain the death penalty. The FCO human rights and democracy report 2015 makes clear our views on the death penalty and the resumption of executions in Pakistan.
Whilst we have not raised the specific case of Imdad Ali with the Pakistani government, the former Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Philip Hammond), raised the issue of the death penalty with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2015, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Tobias Ellwood), since wrote to the Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK expressing deep concern about ongoing executions. Together with our EU partners, we continue to raise our concerns about the death penalty with the Government of Pakistan and urge compliance with international obligations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb on 2015-11-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of research on the links between the risk of cancer and radiation spikes during the refuelling of nuclear power plants, whether they plan to carry out a meta-analysis of European epidemiology studies about incidences of leukaemia in children under five living within five kilometres of nuclear power plants.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Public Health England (PHE) has advised that it considers the conclusions reached by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (COMARE) in their 14th report published in 2011 remain robust, that there was no evidence that living near a nuclear power station in the United Kingdom is associated with an increased risk of childhood cancer. PHE is not aware at this time of any plans for a meta-analysis of European epidemiology studies about incidences of leukaemia in children under five living within five kilometres of nuclear power plants.
COMARE is a Departmental expert advisory committee that provides independent advice to Government on the health effects of natural and man-made radiation. A copy of their 14th report is attached.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-12-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children have been age assessed while in detention in each of the last 12 months; and how such assessments were carried out by immigration officers.
James Brokenshire
The number of individuals who have been age assessed while in detention is not held centrally. Age assessments are carried out by the relevant local authority.
Individuals whose age is disputed will only be considered for detention where:
• there is credible and clear documentary evidence that they are 18 years of age or over
• a full "Merton-compliant" age assessment by a local authority has been carried out and is available stating that they are 18 years of age or over
• their physical appearance/demeanour very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18 years of age and no other credible evidence exists to the contrary.
Otherwise individuals are treated as children until a full age assessment has been conducted by a local authority and all available evidence has been duly considered. This includes victims or potential victims of human trafficking and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 places a presumption about age on a statutory footing when arrangements to assist a potential victim are being carried out.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Dholakia on 2016-01-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether new Operational Delivery Networks established to manage the treatment of hepatitis C have a duty to ensure equity of access to treatment for prisoners within their catchment area.
Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has published the service specification for Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs). The specification directs that ODNs include organisations and providers engaging with populations known to have a high prevalence of infection, such as prisoners, with the view to developing services designed to meet their specific needs. Further, the specification directs that specialist service providers will accept inward referrals of patients for treatment from prisons and other prescribed places of detention. NHS England has worked with each of the ODNs to map every prison to the relevant network and ensure that people in prison are being supported to access treatment.