Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases were stopped as a result of witness withdrawal or non-attendance in (a) Crown court trials and (b) hearings in magistrates’ courts relating to (i) domestic violence (ii) rape and (iii) other cases in each of the last five years.

    Mike Penning

    Criminal cases discontinued by the prosecution are recorded by Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS). However, the reasons why a case was discontinued are only recorded centrally for cases which are listed for trial but do not go ahead on the day. The reasons for these ‘cracked’ trials, including ‘prosecution end case’, are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics in the supplementary Criminal Courts transparency tables. These data are not broken down by offence.

    The reasons recorded for cases discontinued at any other point in proceedings are not held centrally by HMCTS. This information could only be provided at disproportionate costs.

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  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20189, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the thematic review and future monitoring of the Future in Mind policy address the needs of young carers to have more support for their mental health.

    Alistair Burt

    The purpose of the thematic review is to provide a qualitative assessment of how the Local Transformation Plans (LTPs), covering every clinical commissioning group (CCG), align with the Future in Mind principles to improve children and young people’s mental health, including the needs of young carers. It also aims to, where possible, identify local approaches that could inform future service planning and design in other areas to further improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

    As set out in NHS England’s guidance to support the development of LTPs an integral part was for CCGs to include a tracking template that sets out local progress milestones and financial spend. This tracker will be used as the basis for assurance assessment in 2015/16, and from 2016/17 onwards progress on local transformation will become part of the mainstream planning assurance process to ensure the successful delivery of the transformation of children and young people’s mental health.

  • Yvette Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Yvette Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yvette Cooper on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many take charge requests under the Dublin III Regulation the UK has accepted from France for unaccompanied children for family reunification in the last 12 months.

    James Brokenshire

    Data on cases progressed under the Dublin Convention is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is therefore not currently available.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they consider the impact to be of the displacement of people within Darfur on the legitimacy of the referendum taking place between 11 and 13 April.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We remain concerned by the timing of the Darfur referendum due to ongoing violence and the absence of a peace agreement. The continued fighting and level of civilian displacement in Jebel Marra is particularly troubling, and brings in to question the viability of holding the referendum at this time. We have raised such concerns with the Government of Sudan. We have also pressed for full humanitarian access to be granted, including at the UN Security Council and bilaterally as part our recent strategic dialogue with the Government of Sudan, led by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Africa Director. Officials from our Embassy in Khartoum are monitoring the situation closely.

  • 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 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications from academy trusts to use land for purposes other than education have been (a) approved and (b) refused in each year since 2011.

    Edward Timpson

    The data is not held in the format requested. Any academy wishing to dispose or permanently change the use of its land must obtain the Secretary of State’s consent. However, whilst continuing to hold their land for educational purposes in accordance with their charitable status, academies may allow others to make occasional or limited use of their land, for example, by using this flexibility to play an important role in supporting their local communities.

    Only a minority of academies hold the freehold to their sites; the majority lease the land from local authorities and only the freeholder authority would have the power to request the Secretary of State’s consent to either dispose of or permanently change the use of land. The local authority, as the land owner, would also need to seek consent from the Secretary of State should the land be appropriated for other non-educational purposes.

  • Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Anna Turley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anna Turley on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to monitor the levels of acetaldehyde that workers are exposed to in the chemical industry; and what steps he is taking to reduce routine exposure to acetaldehyde in that industry.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no plans to commission an assessment of the levels of acetaldehyde that workers are exposed to in the UK chemical industry.

    Acetaldehyde has been assigned a Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL). WELs are concentrations of hazardous substances in the air, averaged over a specified period of time, referred to as a time-weighted average (TWA). Two time periods are used; long-term (8 hours) and short-term (15 minutes). For acetaldehyde these are concentrations of 37 milligrams per cubic meter (mg.m-3) and 92mg.m-3 respectively.

    Substances that have been assigned a WEL are subject to the requirements of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH). COSHH requires employers to prevent or control exposure to hazardous substances. Under COSHH, control is defined as adequate only if a) the principles of good control practice are applied; b) any WEL is not exceeded; and c) exposure to asthmagens, carcinogens and mutagens are reduced as low as is reasonably practicable. As part of the assessment required under regulation 6 of COSHH, employers should determine their own working practices and in-house standards for control of exposure.

  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September to Question 45236, to which destinations (a) ministers and (b) officials have taken flights as part of their official duties since his Department was established.

    Greg Hands

    Since the inception of the department, as part of their official duties Ministers and accompanying officials have visited:

    Rt. Hon Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade (Liam Fox) – USA, India, Switzerland, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Northern Ireland, Scotland.

    Rt. Hon Friend the Minister of State (Greg Hands) – USA, Germany, Taiwan, Korea.

    Hon Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Mark Garnier) – Burma, Thailand, Israel, France.

    Noble Friend the Minister of State (Lord Price CVO) – China, South Korea, USA, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia.

  • Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information she holds on the likely publication date for the independent review of Yarl’s Wood, commissioned by Serco.

    James Brokenshire

    Serco intend to publish the main findings of the report by the end of the year.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the incidence of (a) CRE and (b) other superbugs which are persistent to antibiotics.

    Jane Ellison

    The Government has already taken significant action to address carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae and other organisms that are resistant to antibiotics.

    The UK 5 Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy set out key steps for tackling organisms that are resistant to a range of antibiotics. As part of our strategy to reduce the incidence of such infections, we have tightened the regulatory aspects in England by revising the Health and Social Care Act Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections in July 2015. The revised Code strengthens links and references to antimicrobial resistance within primary and secondary care. Furthermore, the NHS Standard Contract published in March 2015 included amendments to require compliance with the Code of Practice. This enables regulators such as the Care Quality Commission to look at compliance with the Code within its inspection programme.

    At the same time, we have ensured that a range of guidance and tool kits have been produced to support healthcare staff to manage carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae and other resistant bacteria. Public Health England has published updated standards in June 2015 covering additional training on infection and control, which includes a carbapenemese-resistant Enterobacteriaceae toolkit for the non-acute and community sector.

    In terms of surveillance of carbapenemase-resistant organisms, Public Health England has rolled out the second generation surveillance system for the reporting of notifiable infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in December 2014. It has also developed an electronic system for reporting carbapenemase-producing organisms, to allow demographic and clinical risk information to be captured and analysed.

  • Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) young offenders and (b) staff the Youth Justice Board recorded as injured in each young offender institute in each of the last eight years; how many such injuries to (i) young offenders and (ii) staff were recorded as serious injuries; and if he will make a statement.

    Mike Penning

    The number of (a) young offenders and (b) staff the Youth Justice Board recorded as injured in each young offender institute in each of the last eight years is set out in the attached table.

    The table includes information on injuries, including severe injuries, relating to Restrictive Physical Intervention (RPI), self-harm and assaults. The number of staff and visitors severely injured as a result of an assault is not included as obtaining these figures would incur disproportionate costs.