The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of dairy products procured for her Department was sourced from Northern Irish producers in the latest period for which figures are available.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
Figures which detail the origin of dairy products are not held by my Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data or other information on the deployment of tasers in mental health settings was provided by Chief Constable David Shaw’s review of taser use.
Mike Penning
Data is not recorded centrally on the number of times the police have deployed Taser devices on psychiatric wards. A Taser record is completed by police officers each time a Taser is used. However, this record does not currently show the detailed geographical or type of location.
Police Use of Taser statistics are published by the Home Office and most recently on 28 April 2016. These provide a snapshot of Taser use.
We have been very clear that the public need greater transparency and that is why the Home Secretary asked Chief Constable David Shaw to lead an in-depth review of the publication of Taser data and other use of force by police officers.
The review recommended that the police record and publish the ethnicity, age, location and outcome of all serious use of force by police officers, including physical restraint and Taser. Pathfinder forces started to collect this data from April this year, and it is anticipated that the collection will form part of the 2017-18 Home Office Annual Data Return.
A copy of Chief Constable David Shaw’s review will be placed in the House library. The review contained no data on the number of times the police have used Taser in mental health settings.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-09-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much funding is given annually by the UK to assist refugee projects in the Middle East.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Department for International Development is providing support to refugees in a number of countries in the Middle East including in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In financial year 2015/16 our support totalled more than £204 million.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the effectiveness of the Need to Sell scheme for residents who are reapplying, (b) the level of flexibility offered by that scheme for those who are reapplying under different criteria, (c) how that scheme streamlines its procedures for those constituents who have terminal illnesses, financial burdens arising from High Speed 2 or any other pressing requirement to sell.
Andrew Jones
The Need to Sell scheme is operating as it was intended, and operating fairly. We have already updated guidance to reflect learning from the scheme since its inception in January 2015. This demonstrates that we keep the scheme under review and act if necessary to improve the way it operates.
Those reapplying for the Need to Sell scheme within six months of their initial application are only judged on the criteria on which they previously failed to meet. Furthermore the assessment panel provides detailed feedback directly to applicants on the criteria they failed to meet. This means that when reapplying applicants can provide targeted evidence that may increase the chance of a re-application being accepted.
HS2 Ltd endeavours to make decisions on all applications as quickly as possible. As all applicants are applying with a compelling reason to sell it would not be fair to introduce a fast-track system for some applicants. We aim to deal with all applications within three months, however currently the average time to deal with an application is seven weeks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by what proportion UK military capabilities have been reduced in the last five years; and what assessment he has made of the resources available to the armed forces to defend the UK in the event of a major conflict.
Michael Fallon
The Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2010 set out a clear plan for the future structure of the Armed Forces to ensure they could meet new and emerging threats to our security. We are currently conducting a Strategic Defence and Security Review which will consider the threats to the UK and the resources required to meet current and future threats. We are also committed to making no further reductions in the number of Armed forces personnel, including an Army of 82,000, and we have some of the most sophisticated aircraft, ships and submarines in the world. We will spend 2% of our GDP on defence, in line with NATO targets, and have the largest defence budget in the EU and the second largest in NATO.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2015-12-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.62 in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, published on 23 November 2015, what projection he has made of the savings to the public purse from the sale of 30 per cent of the built estate.
Mark Lancaster
The Ministry of Defence is developing a Footprint Strategy to enable the reduction of its built estate by 30% by 2040. This Strategy is currently being developed and is due to be published in 2016. It is therefore too soon to state what scale of efficiencies might be achieved from our intended estate rationalisation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents have moved to direct pay since the introduction of the 2012 child maintenance scheme.
Priti Patel
As at the end of August 2015, 82,600 cases were paying via Direct Pay.
More details can be found on page 6 of the Child Maintenance Scheme quarterly summary of statistics which can be accessed online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/2012-statutory-child-maintenance-scheme-aug-2013-to-aug-2015-experimental.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-04.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the National Crime Agency has made of the methods used by criminals in the UK to re-traffic Vietnamese child victims out of foster care.
Lord Bates
The National Crime Agency is responsible for the assessment of threats, including methods of trafficking by criminals. Information on this is not centrally recorded on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Data included in NRM referral forms concentrates on detail specifically required to prove the three constituent elements of human trafficking. This would not necessarily include the detail required to assess methodology used to re-traffick victims and as such does not form part of assessment reporting. The independent evaluation of the trial by the University of Bedfordshire collected data on the number of all potentially trafficked children referred to the trial, along with their characteristics including age, gender and geographical location, as well as the number of children that were recorded as missing. However the evaluation did not collect data on the number of children in the trial that were re-trafficked and it is not possible to determine how many of those children who went missing were subsequently re-trafficked.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wes Streeting on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the UK was paid under the European Health Insurance Card scheme for the treatment of UK-registered patients in European Economic Area countries in each of the last five years.
Alistair Burt
The United Kingdom European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) means that people living in the UK are able to travel to the European Economic Area (EEA) safe in the knowledge that they will be able to receive free or reduced cost healthcare should they need it.
EEA countries reimburse the UK for the cost of the National Health Service providing treatment to EEA EHIC holders, just as the UK reimburses other EEA countries for the cost of them providing healthcare to UK EHIC holders.
The Department does not hold information on how many people have used their UK EHIC to obtain state provided healthcare in another EEA country in any 12 month period. This is because data on UK EHIC usage is recorded by individual treatment episode rather than the card holder.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Nye on 2016-03-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many level 2 Craft, Creative Arts and Design (9.2) vocational qualifications were completed in each year since 2011 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.
Lord Nash
As there is no formal definition of what constitutes “Craft, Creative Arts and Design”, it has not been possible to provide the information that is requested.