The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-11-13.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HM Revenue and Customs is investigating VAT fraud conducted by online traders operating from outside the EU; and what action his Department is taking to prevent the possibility of such fraud taking place.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs is actively targeting operational and intelligence activity, as well as a range of other options, to tackle this issue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-12-14.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment on whether businesses in Dudley North constituency will be at a competitive disadvantage to businesses in Scotland when the Scottish Government halves the Air Passenger Duty for all flights leaving from Scotland.
Damian Hinds
The government is currently undertaking a consultation into options to support regional airports from the impacts of air passenger duty devolution. We are carefully considering the evidence we have received from stakeholders and will respond in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of homeless families with children who are living in bed and breakfast accommodation have been in that accommodation for more than six weeks.
Mr Marcus Jones
As at 30 September 2015 there were 3,000 families with children in bed and breakfast style accommodation in England, of which 960 had been in bed and breakfast style accommodation for longer than six weeks.
Whilst this is less than the previous peak, we are clear the long term use of bed and breakfast accommodation for families with children is both unacceptable and unlawful. The law and statutory guidance make clear it should only ever be used in an emergency, and then for no longer than six weeks.
Tackling and preventing homelessness remains a priority and that is why we have protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20 , increased central government funding for homelessness programmes to £139 million over the Spending Review period; and have made a commitment to work with local authorities, homelessness organisations and across Departments to consider options, including legislation, to prevent more people from becoming homeless.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Coffey on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time between (a) offence commission and charge, (b) charge and first court appearance and (c) first court appearance to sentencing or acquittal was for all completed sexual offences cases where the victim was (i) a minor and (ii) an adult in each year since 2013.
Mike Penning
Our courts system is in need of urgent reform, which is why we have committed to building a justice system that is swifter and more certain.
We are investing £700 million over the next five years to create a more effective service. We will utilise modern technology to meet the needs of everyone who uses our services.
MOJ do not hold figures on dates of sentencing or acquittals and have instead provided the time from first listing to completion.
The age of a victim is only known where specified as part of the wording of an offence in statute. Figures for sexual offences cases where the victim was a minor are based on cases where the victim was known to be a minor, and figures where the victim was an adult include cases where the age of the victim was not known.
Data included in the attached tables.
Table 1 – the average duration from offence to charge, from charge to first listing, and from first listing to completion for sexual offences cases in Greater Manchester LCJB and in England and Wales, for cases completing in 2013, 2014 and January to September 2015.
Table 2 – the average duration (days) between offence to charge, charge to first listing, and first listing to completion for sexual offence cases completed in England and Wales where the victim was a minor or an adult, 2013 to Q1-Q3 2015.
Table 3 – the average durations for sexual offences cases in England and Wales. These are an update of Tables 5.1 and 5.2 in the ‘Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales’ publication. Figures are for the last 12 months available, from October 2014 to September 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-03-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will announce their response to the consultation Implementing the English Baccalaureate.
Lord Nash
The consultation closed on 29 January. We are currently considering the responses and will publish the Government response and final policy in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of St Albans on 2016-04-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent increases in the number of non-natural deaths in prisons; and what plans they have to improve mental health support for those in prison who are at risk of suicide.
Lord Faulks
Every death in custody is a tragedy. We are taking forward a wide range of work to reduce violence and the use of drugs, including new psychoactive substances, in prisons and to address the levels of suicide and self-harm.
All deaths in prison custody are subject to a police investigation, an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO), and a Coroner’s inquest. We are committed to learning from these investigations to inform the approach of both health and custodial services in identifying and supporting prisoners at risk.
All prisons are required to have procedures in place to identify, manage and support people who are at risk of harming themselves. The Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process is a prisoner-centred, flexible care planning system for prisoners identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm. The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has recently reviewed compliance with the ACCT process and is working to implement the recommendations, which include improvements to multi-disciplinary working between prison and clinical mental health staff.
NHS England is implementing new prison clinical information systems which will improve the availability of clinical information to staff in prisons from the early days in custody.
In addition, the government has initiated a cross departmental Mental Health Taskforce, tasked with developing integrated mental health service pathways in the least restrictive settings and aimed at providing support and intervention to those in need of help at the earliest opportunity.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that Syrian children given asylum in the UK will be able to enter in time for the start of the school year in September.
James Brokenshire
The Syrian resettlement scheme has already provided safe haven to more than 1,000 vulnerable Syrians since the scheme was expanded in September 2015. More than half of these were children and we expect children to make up a significant proportion of the 20,000 resettlement places we are providing under the scheme.
In addition, we have committed to resettling up to 3,000 individuals from the Middle East and North Africa over the lifetime of this Parliament through the resettlement scheme announced on 21 April for children at risk and their family members. As announced by the Prime Minister on 4 May and now reflected in the Immigration Act 2016, we will also work to admit unaccompanied refugee children to the UK from elsewhere in the EU, where this is considered to be in the child’s best interests. Work has begun on how best to implement the legislation and we are committed to act as quickly as we can, while ensuring that we have the necessary services in place to care for these children alongside those who are already in the UK and have claimed asylum here.
We also continue to work closely with France and other EU Member States to ensure that arrangements for transferring asylum cases under the Dublin Regulation are operating as effectively as possible. A senior UK official was seconded to the French Dublin Unit to assist with the identification and transfer of cases and since February more than 20 children have been transferred to the UK from France and there are many other cases in train.
All Syrian and other children brought to the UK will be given the care, support and education they require.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-07-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost to his Department has been of administering attendance allowance in each of the last 10 years.
Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-09-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the accident rate on the M4 motorway between junctions 10 and 12 is equivalent to the average rate for all motorways; and how many accidents in the last year on that part of the motorway involved heavy lorries.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The accident rate for 2012-2014 on the M4 between junctions 10 and 12 is below the average rate for all motorways. There were 7 personal injury accidents in 2014 involving heavy lorries on this section of the motorway.
This is based on the latest validated accident data Highways England holds for the Road Network for 2014, with the 2015 data due to be released in October 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change in the number of firefighter posts was in the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.
Greg Clark
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 6 November 2015, PQ 13946.