The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-12-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the recommendations of the independent reviewer of the overseas domestic worker visa will be implemented.
Lord Bates
The Government is considering carefully the recommendations of James Ewins and will announce its response in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Eurostar about child trafficking.
Lord Bates
The UK Government takes child trafficking extremely seriously. All Border Force officers at the Eurostar ports in the UK France and Belgium have received training in keeping children safe and all operational processes involving children comply with requirements as set out in the Children and Young Persons Act. Border Force and Eurostar have daily contact on operational matters. When passengers are identified by Border Force officers as potential victims of trafficking, immediate action is taken to safeguard the individual by following Home Office guidance on the treatment of the victims of trafficking. Border Force collects data on these cases in order to notify the Human Trafficking Centre. Contact is also made with Camden Social Services Safeguarding Team as soon as possible in order to establish safe care of the child. Eurostar has its own policy on unaccompanied children travelling on its services which can be found on the internet at: http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/accessibility#unaccompanied_children
Border Force has not provided training to French border officials on UK child trafficking patterns. All cases of suspected trafficking detected by the French border officials at St Pancras are handed to the BTP to action. In France and Belgium any concerns Border Force officers have about vulnerable children attempting to travel to the UK would be referred to the French and Belgian frontier control authorities. The Home Office has not had any discussions with Patina Rail about a proposed new routing between St Pancras and Ashford.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will widen the Blue Badge criteria to allow for cognitive as well as physical disabilities.
Andrew Jones
The regulations governing the scheme already apply to any permanent and substantial disability which causes very considerable difficulty in walking. We have no plans to widen the scope beyond this.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of those eligible claimed winter fuel payments in 2014-15.
Justin Tomlinson
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The majority of Winter Fuel Payments are made automatically from information already held by the Department. We invite claims mainly from men under 65 who meet the eligibility criteria, as the largest group not identified and paid automatically. Claims can be made up to and including 31 March and are not accepted after that date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Yemen claimed asylum in the UK in 2015.
James Brokenshire
There were 66 and 111 asylum applications from Yemeni nationals in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The Home Office publishes figures on asylum applications by nationality in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics, October to December 2015, is available from:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on what basis the contribution to broadband installation costs for the very remotest properties will be calculated; and whether there will be an upper limit on the contribution which individual households are required to make.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Work is ongoing on the design of the broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) and the reasonable cost threshold. The independent telecoms regulator Ofcom will provide technical analysis and recommendations to help inform both of these, as well as identify the premises likely to be within the USO footprint. These are expected to be predominantly in rural areas, but there will also be urban and suburban homes and businesses eligible to request a connection under the USO.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Khalid Mahmood on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide full financial support and administrative oversight for the relatives of the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974; and if she will ensure that past and future expenses of those victims relating to investigations into those bombings are reimbursed or paid from the public purse.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Prime Minister has received correspondence from the families of the victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, requesting a special scheme be set up for funding of the families’ legal representation at the newly reopened Coroner’s inquest into the bombings. The Government is carefully considering these requests, and will respond directly to these parties in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make it his policy to amend the Cycle to Work scheme to incorporate a higher maximum allowance for disabled cyclists requiring specialist cycles.
Andrew Jones
We are in the process of reviewing the Cycle to Work Scheme guidance published on GOV.UK and are engaging with other Departments, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), HMRC and HMT to get a firmer view on any possible changes that could be made. As part of this review, we will consider the level of the maximum allowance.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 2015-11-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NICE on conducting health technology appraisals for off-patent drugs that have been proven to be effective in new indications.
George Freeman
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the subject of technology appraisals for off-patent drugs in new indications. NICE does not routinely appraise drugs outside their licensed indications.
NICE does, however, issue evidence summaries which summarise the published evidence for selected unlicensed or off-label medicines that are considered to be of significance to the NHS, where there are no clinically appropriate licensed alternatives. They support decision-making on the use of an unlicensed or off-label medicine for an individual patient, where there are good clinical reasons for its use, usually when there is no licensed medicine for the condition requiring treatment, or the licensed medicine is not appropriate for that individual. Examples of evidence summaries can be found at:
http://www.nice.org.uk/advice?type=esuom
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the effect on the public purse of replacing maintenance loans with maintenance grants.
Joseph Johnson
Replacing maintenance grants with loans will reduce grant expenditure by around £2.5bn per year by 2020-21 and therefore make a substantial contribution to reducing the deficit. From that new baseline position, entirely replacing the new, larger maintenance loans with grants would increase grant expenditure – and the deficit – by around £8bn per year.