Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of (a) white and (b) non-white people convicted of a crime were sentenced to immediate custody for each category of offence in each of the last five years.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The proportion of persons sentenced to immediate custody for indictable offences, can be calculated through table 5.20, part of chapter 5: defendants tables of the Race and the Criminal Justice System: 2014 which can be located at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/race-and-the-criminal-justice-system-2014

    “

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to implement the recommendations of the Mental Health Taskforce’s report, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in February 2016.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government welcomes and accepts the recommendations from the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. The Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21: by the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality.

    Investment in mental health rose to its highest ever level, an estimated £11.7 billion, in 2014/15. The £1 billion of additional investment announced by the Prime Minister last month will be in place by 2020/21 and builds on the £280 million per year of new funding for children and young people’s mental health announced last year. This funding will make an important contribution to plugging the gap and fulfilling the Taskforce’s recommendations, helping one million additional children, young people and adults to access high quality care by 2020/21.

    How new investment for NHS priority recommendations is identified and implemented will be for NHS England to determine as part of the planning and allocations process. We anticipate that the majority of commitments outlined in this report will be delivered through clinical commissioning groups.

    Further guidance will be issued shortly as part of the new Sustainability and Transformation Planning process: this will set expectations for how funding will be invested to deliver on the Taskforce recommendations for the NHS and how areas will be supported to deliver them over the following four years.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on the human rights situation in Turkey during negotiations on the proposed EU-Turkey refugee deal.

    Mr David Lidington

    I refer my Rt Hon. Friend to the Written Ministerial Statement made by the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) on 8 March 2016 which detailed his discussions, including on human rights issues, with his EU counterparts during negotiations on the proposed EU-Turkey deal. In addition, in the conclusions adopted by the European Council at its meeting on 17-18 March, the EU reiterated that it expects Turkey to respect the highest standards when it comes to democracy, rule of law and respect of fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.

  • David Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    David Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2016-04-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on the Falkland Islands of the recent decision by the UN to grant rights over waters surrounding those Islands to Argentina.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) has no jurisdiction to consider areas subject to competing claims and therefore has no locus to make recommendations in relation to the Falkland Islands. The UN itself has acknowledged that the CLCS could not consider those parts of the original Argentine submission of 2009 that were subject to dispute. This would include the Falkland Islands.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answer of 31 March 2016 to Question 31997, on employment: telephone services, if he will provide that data for financial years (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) 2013-14.

    Nick Boles

    The table below shows the number of referrals (complaints) from the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) to relevant enforcement authorities for the 2010/11 to 2013/14 financial years.

    Table 1: Referrals from the PWRH to each enforcement agencies, 2010/11 to 2013/14

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    HMRC

    2,080

    2,440

    2,610

    3,690

    EAS

    490

    530

    600

    630

    HSE

    200

    250

    210

    250

    DEFRA

    280

    210

    200

    150

    GLA

    60

    70

    50

    50

    *The Pay and Work Rights Helpline opened in May 2009

    Notes

    1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10.

    2. Calls can be referred to more than one agency so the sum does not amount to the total number of calls referred for the period.

    3. Calls referred to agencies include complaints, complex queries and calls where intelligence was passed to other agencies.

    4. Figures include referrals via all PWRH communication channels, including telephone calls, post and online complaints.

    5. These figures are based on final data submitted by BSS on closure at the end of March 2015. They may not reconcile with provisional data provided while the old helpline was operational.

  • Ian Lavery – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ian Lavery – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2016-07-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the estimated cost to the public purse is of prescribing methadone to prisoners in the last 12 months for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

    Ben Gummer

    This information is not collected centrally.

  • Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-09-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits to the economy of reducing both fuel duty and VAT on all fuels.

    Jane Ellison

    Fuel duty was frozen for its sixth successive year at Budget 2016, saving the average driver £75 every year compared to the pre-2010 fuel duty escalator plans. Like all taxes, the government keeps fuel duty under review, with all options considered and announcements made at fiscal events. Under the current legal framework there is no scope to apply a reduced rate of VAT to all fuels.

  • Madeleine Moon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Madeleine Moon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the relationship between clean water and sanitation in schools and girls’ school attendance in developing countries; and if she will make a statement.

    Grant Shapps

    Clean water and adequate sanitation in schools ensure safe and hygienic environments for learning. The UK Government supports the view that providing toilets at schools for girls is necessary to provide privacy and dignity. There is some evidence that WASH interventions in schools do improve attendance by girls but much evidence points to other important factors as well.

    In 2011, DFID published a systematic review of this issue. This determined that separate facilities for girls were likely to encourage their attendance at school, but insufficient alone to increase attendance and that there are many influential factors, including social and economic pressures on poor families. DFID therefore takes a holistic approach to this issue.

    The UK played a key role in ensuring that the recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals include a dedicated goal on water which aims to ensure universal access to water and sanitation by 2030.

  • Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord West of Spithead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the embarked carrier air wing of Sea Lightnings, Merlins, Crowsnest aircraft, and Wildcats will be under Maritime Task Force command.

    Earl Howe

    Command of embarked aircraft will be dependent on a variety of factors such as but not limited to, the specific task, whether it is a national or coalition commitment, threat levels and theatre of operations.

  • David Crausby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    David Crausby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what monitoring his Department is undertaking to ensure that the level of service to the public is not negatively affected by the transfer of responsibilities from the Child Support Agency to the Child Maintenance Service.

    Priti Patel

    The government has introduced a new statutory Child Maintenance Service for parents who are unable to make a family-based arrangement. It will bring speedier processing of applications, simpler calculations and faster enforcement action for those that choose not to pay. This will help increase the number of payments reaching children on time and in full and will result in a better use of taxpayers’ money.

    We are contacting parents 6 months before their CSA case closes to allow them the opportunity to access the support services available to them. They receive a reminder 1 month before their CSA case ends, and a confirmation once it has actually ended. We do not transfer cases automatically to the Child Maintenance Service. We close them in a way that minimises the risk of disruption to child maintenance payments.

    Cases on the previous CSA schemes are being closed in an order determined by case characteristics. This includes the micro-management of the phases of case closure using our tried and tested pathfinder approach; sequencing and prioritising case closure to minimise disruption for clients.

    The Department set out an evaluation strategy in December 2014 which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/387584/child-maintenance-reforms-evaluation-strategy.pdf

    “