The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the estimated total of inward and outward journeys between the UK and the European continent, in 1985, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2014.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jolly on 2016-01-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many nationals of (1) Bahrain, (2) Kuwait, (3) Oman, (4) Qatar, (5) Saudi Arabia, and (6) the United Arab Emirates, received training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in each year between 2005 and 2016.
Earl Howe
Defence has a long and proud tradition of training overseas military and civilian personnel at its training establishments throughout the UK and this is an essential ingredient of Defence Engagement. Training establishments such as Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) offer international students prestigious courses which remain highly prized. Courses currently undertaken by foreign nationals are the Commissioning Course, the Army Reserve Commissioning Course, the Professionally Qualified Officer Course and the International Trainer Development Course.
These courses expose international partners to UK policy, and promote concepts of accountability, human rights and transparency. They are important in building skills which enable other countries to deal appropriately with their own internal problems, thereby contributing to regional security. The courses are paid for by a combination of self and UK funding. Information on the number of foreign nations in receipt of training at RMAS is provided in the attached table.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to improve food hygiene safety in schools, children’s clubs and nurseries that failed to meet satisfactory standards in inspections last year.
Mr Sam Gyimah
Local authorities are responsible for food hygiene inspections of schools, children’s clubs and nurseries at which food is served regularly to children. Food hygiene legislation requires these premises to be registered as food businesses. The Food Standards Agency, which sets policy for and monitors enforcement of food safety legislation by local authorities, has advised that approximately 99% of educational establishments and caring establishments, including schools, children’s clubs and nurseries, have satisfactory or better food hygiene standards.
Local authorities work with food businesses to make improvements in any premises that fail to meet satisfactory standards during inspections and may take a range of enforcement actions as considered appropriate in the circumstances of each case. The honourable member for Bolton North East or members of his constituency may contact the relevant local authority or the Food Standards Agency for detailed information about specific premises that are of concern to him.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Dholakia on 2016-02-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 9 February (HL5469), of those tested, how many were subsequently diagnosed with (1) hepatitis B, (2) hepatitis C, and (3) HIV, over the same time period.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Public Health England (PHE) collects data on people in prison tested for blood-borne viruses (BBVs) via the Sentinel Surveillance Study. This system does not currently receive reports from all prisons in England where testing occurs currently 28 prisons report data. Table 1 below shows data from this system on the total number of prisoners tested positive for BBVs in the calendar years 2012-2014. Similar information from this study for the year 2015 will not be available until mid-2016. NHS England also collects data on levels of testing for BBVs in prisons via the Health & Justice Indicators of Performance. The numbers of positive tests for BBVs in these data are presented in Table 2 using currently available data. The higher number is due to the greater coverage of prisons by this dataset.
Table 1: Reported levels of positive tests for BBVs for people in prisons for calendar years 2012-14
|
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
|
|
hepatitis B |
60 |
51 |
49 |
|
hepatitis C |
456 |
400 |
327 |
|
HIV |
16 |
19 |
16 |
Source: PHE Sentinel Surveillance Study
Table 2: Reported levels of positive tests for BBVs for people in prisons from April 2015 to December 2015
|
April 2015 – December 2015 |
|
|
hepatitis B |
743 |
|
hepatitis C |
2164 |
|
HIV |
1777 |
Source: NHS England
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-04-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the contribution of the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims of 10 February 2016, Official Report, column 1594, on the Police Grant Report (England and Wales), how many operational on-duty frontline police officers there were in (a) the latest period for which figures are available and (b) 2010.
Mike Penning
The number and proportion of full time equivalent police officers employed in operational frontline roles as at 31 March 2015, the latest period for which figures are available, and 31 March 2010, are provided in the table.
As HMIC has made clear, there is no simple link between police numbers and crime levels, between numbers and the visibility of police in the community, or between numbers and the quality of service provided.
Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the aerial bombing of the Heiban locality in the South Khordofan and Blue Nile regions on 1 May, what assessment they have made of whether the government of Sudan is now in breach of international humanitarian law.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The reported aerial bombardment of civilians in the Heiban locality of South Kordofan is appalling. Targeting of civilians would be a clear breach of International Humanitarian Law. We continue to make clear to the Government of Sudan that they have a responsibility to protect citizens, distinguish between combatants and non-combatants and uphold International Humanitarian Law.
We consistently raise the importance of ending the conflicts in South Kordofan and Blue Nile directly with both the Government of Sudan and the Opposition; most recently, the UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan raised this issue during his visit to Khartoum earlier this month. We continue to call on all sides to end the violence and believe that the Roadmap proposed by the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel represents a viable way forward.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-07-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to safeguard the wellbeing of UK citizens engaged in UN operations in Juba, South Sudan.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
The UK is a strong supporter of the UN in South Sudan and we are working in the UN Security Council to ensure their peacekeeping mission UNMISS has the equipment and access it needs for its staff to be able to do their jobs safely and effectively. The FCO provided a flight, in the absence of commercial options, for British Nationals, including those working in the UN, who wanted to leave South Sudan on 14 July 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to undertake a formal evaluation of the new Cancer Drugs Fund.
Nicola Blackwood
NHS England’s standard operating procedures for the appraisal and funding of cancer drugs from July 2016 (including the new Cancer Drugs Fund) state that NHS England will keep the operational mechanisms of the new arrangements under continuous review. In addition, NHS England will look to undertake a more formal evaluation of the overall operation of the scheme, no later than autumn 2017.
The standard operating procedures are available at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cdf-sop.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Afshar on 2015-11-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) men, and (2) women, were imprisoned for non-payment of council tax in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, and (c) 2014.
Lord Faulks
Data showing how many people were imprisoned for non-payment of council tax in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are presented in the table below:
|
Year |
Female |
Male |
Not Specified |
|
2012 |
41 |
62 |
4 |
|
2013 |
41 |
60 |
7 |
|
2014 |
33 |
45 |
11 |
It should be noted that there are a few cases where the gender of the defendant has not been specified and these have been shown separately in the table above.
These data are sourced from the Libra Management Information System (MIS). As such this data set is not subject to the same levels of quality assurance as national statistics
In extracting this data only offences of complaint for council tax committal application have been included where the court hearing date occurred within each year reported (i.e. between 1 January and 31 December).
It should also be noted that, although committals to prison are reported as occurring within a particular financial year, the non-payment of council tax itself may relate to a previous financial year or even a period covering more than one financial year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will introduce legislation to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government remains committed to bringing forward legislation to ratify the Hague Convention and accede to its two Protocols at the first opportunity.