The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many defibrillators are provided in each building her Department manages.
Mr Desmond Swayne
DFID has 2 HQ buildings in the UK, one in Whitehall and the other in East Kilbride, Glasgow. Each building has one defibrillator and all staff who are trained in first aid have had the appropriate training to use the equipment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Grey-Thompson on 2016-02-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the cost of operating wheelchair services in England in the last year for which figures are available.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Information on the cost of operating wheelchair services in England is not available centrally. Such information as is available is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to patients. The total cost of operating wheelchair services reported in 2014-15 reference costs was £143.4 million.
NHS England advises that as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, it does not collect data on how much is spent on the purchase of wheelchairs. NHS England is however supporting improvement in wheelchair services and has just established a new national data collection. This will enable tracking at local and national levels of issues such as the number of wheelchair users, the costs of services and the length of time people have to wait.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much the Government plans to provide to each local authority to meet the costs of the apprenticeship levy.
Mr Marcus Jones
All new Government policies which impact on local government are assessed for whether they will represent a new burden on local authorities, against the criteria published in the New Burdens guidance. The New Burdens doctrine does not apply to policies which apply the same rules to local authorities and to private sector bodies, such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance. The guidance is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-burdens-doctrine-guidance-for-government-departments.
In setting the future funding settlement for local government at the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government took account of a wide range of factors, including some which fell outside the New Burdens doctrine but nonetheless represented new costs for local authorities such as the apprenticeships levy, the national living wage and changes to national insurance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Since 2012 we have provided £500 per pupil funding to secondary schools for year 7 pupils who did not meet the expected standard in reading or mathematics at primary school. This funding enables schools to deliver additional support, such as individual tuition or intensive support in small groups, for those pupils that most need it.
It is not possible to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level, as the first cohort of pupils to benefit from this funding in 2012 will now be in year 10 and have not yet entered GCSEs.
We provide advice and guidance to schools on how they should use their funding and have published guidance on literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies which schools can consult when making decisions on how to spend their funding. Schools must publish details of how they spend their year 7 catch-up premium funding on the school website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Prisk on 2016-04-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reasons the exemption for the railway sector from the provisions of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 has been extended until October 2016.
Claire Perry
Last year we consulted on an exemption from certain provisions of the Consumer Rights Act for rail, aviation and maritime transport. We have listened to the views we have received, and have decided not to seek a permanent exemption for these sectors.
The temporary exemption for rail only, which will last for one year until October 2017, will allow the industry time to move to a more consistent compensation scheme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many applications for brain tumour research were made to the National Institute for Health Research in the last 24 months; and how many of those applications were successful.
George Freeman
In the last 24 months, 12 brain tumour research applications have been submitted to National Institute for Health Research programmes and fellowship schemes. Three are under review and nine have been rejected.
I am convening a Task and Finish Working Group on Brain Tumour Research to bring together clinicians, charities and officials to discuss how, working together with research funding partners, we can address the need to increase the level and impact of brain tumour research.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Marion Fellows on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with the International Olympic Committee and the British Olympic Association on ensuring that British athletes who placed behind athletes found guilty of doping in competitions have their medals and awards upgraded.
Tracey Crouch
The Government is supportive of the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda approach that honours clean athletes by awarding an Olympic medal following a positive doping case. Formal medal ceremonies are arranged for medal-winners who receive their Olympic medal following the disqualification of a competitor. There is absolutely no place for drug cheats in sport and it is completely right that clean athletes receive medals when tests have proven doping violations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish Dame Louise Casey’s review into opportunity and integration without alteration or delay.
Sarah Newton
Dame Louise Casey’s independent review on boosting opportunity and integration in isolated and vulnerable communities will report to the Prime Minister and be published in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to relax immigration rules on the reunification of families and allow members of a refugee’s extended family to join them in the UK.
James Brokenshire
Our refugee family reunion policy allows immediate family members of a person in the UK with refugee leave or humanitarian protection status – that is a spouse or partner and children under the age of 18, who formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin – to reunite with them in the UK.
We have no plans to widen these criteria, which are fully compliant with our international obligations and enable thousands of people each year to be reunited with their families in the UK.
We are also making a significant contribution to support refugees and their families in other ways. The UK has contributed over £1 billion in humanitarian aid in response to the Syrian crisis and we intend to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees displaced to neighbouring countries over the lifetime of this Parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nia Griffith on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of the forms on her Department’s website is available in Welsh.
James Brokenshire
The Home Office currently provides 336 forms in total on GOV.UK, of which 5 are published in the Welsh language, representing 1.5% of the total.