The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-04-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal College of Nursing on connections between hayfever, sleeping and allergy tablets and memory, cognitive and concentration difficulties.
Jane Ellison
No such discussions have taken place.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to continue monitoring breastfeeding rates following the abolition of the infant feeding survey; and if he will make a statement.
Ben Gummer
Following the discontinuation of the Infant Feeding Survey, the Department has been exploring with Public Health England (PHE) and other key stakeholders alternative methods and sources of information to monitor the impact of its policy on infant feeding.
In future, the Maternity and Children’s Dataset will regularly capture data on breastfeeding initiation and prevalence from all women using NHS services rather than using a survey sample. This means that local service providers and commissioners can have up-to-date (e.g. quarterly) information about outcomes for their local populations, enabling service provision to be more agile, responsive and targeted.
The Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding through the Healthy Child Programme. Breastfeeding is also included in the Public Health Outcomes Framework so that the improvements can be tracked, and action taken as needed.
Since 2010, we have recruited more than 2,100 additional midwives who will provide women with the information, advice and support they need with breastfeeding. A further 6,000 midwives are in training. There are also 3,400 more health visitors than in 2010.
The Department is working with PHE, NHS England and UNICEF to try and encourage women to breastfeed for the first six months, although we recognise that not all mothers choose to or are able to breastfeed.
Support and information is currently available to health professionals and parents through NHS Choices, the National Breastfeeding Helpline, UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, the Start4Life Information Service for Parents and local peer support programmes.
The Department has not retained a record of how many full-time equivalent staff there were with a specific focus on breastfeeding between 2010 and 2016; breastfeeding policy has always formed part of the larger maternity policy for which the Department has the policy lead. Resources to cover this policy area would have fluctuated according the level of work required at any one time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2016-07-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to including Design and Technology as a science option within the English Baccalaureate.
Lord Nash
Design and Technology (D&T) is a subject that can inspire and equip young people for further study and careers in a range of design and engineering fields. Our reforms to the D&T curriculum and qualifications move the subject on from its craft-based routes to be aligned with high-tech industry practice.
The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) has been designed to be limited in size to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the curriculum for pupils to study other subjects of their choice. On average, pupils in state-funded schools enter nine GCSEs and equivalent qualifications, rising to more than ten for more able pupils. As the EBacc covers up to eight GCSEs, this leaves room for other choices, including D&T.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many non-UK citizens are employed by his Department.
Kris Hopkins
I refer the Rt hon Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Southport on 14 October 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-10-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of changes to stop and search guidelines on the level of knife crime in (a) north east Essex and (b) other areas with a higher than average incidence of such crime.
Mike Penning
No assessment has been made of the effect on knife crime or other offences of the amendment to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Code of Practice A which makes clear what ‘reasonable grounds for suspicion’ are and that officers would be subject to conduct or performance procedures as a result of misusing the power. The changes came into force on 19 March 2015. More generally, statistical evidence does not suggest a clear relationship between changes in the use of stop and search and knife crime. The Home Office continues to monitor levels of knife crime but the latest figures show that nationally it is 17% lower than in June 2010, and although it has seen a slight rise of 4% in the last year (to June 2015) it remains close to its lowest level since data was first collected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Attorney General, how many employers were (a) charged with and (b) convicted of a criminal offence by the Crown Prosecution Service for non-compliance with minimum wage legislation in each of the last five years.
Robert Buckland
Data held centrally by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), together with information provided by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which has responsibility for enforcing the law in relation to the National Minimum Wage (NMW), shows that in the financial year 2010 – 2011, no employers were charged with a criminal offence for non-compliance with minimum wage legislation but one employer was convicted from an earlier charge. One charge was made in the financial year 2011 – 2012 and one conviction was made in 2012 – 2013. No cases were charged or convicted in 2013 – 2014 and one case was charged in 2014 – 2015.
The majority of employers identified as paying below the National Minimum Wage pay arrears on receipt of a formal Notice of Underpayment. Where they do not do so, HMRC pursues recovery through the civil courts. For deliberate non-compliance or obstructive behaviour HMRC operates a policy of selective and exemplary criminal investigation action as part of a wider enforcement strategy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many police officers from the British Transport Police were deployed in (a) London and (b) the rest of the UK in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.
Claire Perry
The table below sets out the number of officers deployed in each year since 2009-10.
|
Year |
Deployed Officers in B Division (London) |
Deployed Officers in the rest of the UK |
|
2009-10 |
1,518 |
1,360 |
|
2010-11 |
1,541 |
1,379 |
|
2011-12 |
1,534 |
1,364 |
|
2012-13 |
1,541 |
1,305 |
|
2013-14 |
1,507 |
1,350 |
|
2014-15 |
1,531 |
1,359 |
As at January 2016, the total number of deployed officers both in London and across the rest of the UK is 3046, which is the largest number of officers since the creation of the British Transport Police Authority in 2004.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh on 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many missions have been flown by UK military forces in Syria to provide direct humanitarian aid to civilians; where those missions took place; what aid was supplied; and what the cost was of those missions.
Penny Mordaunt
UK military forces have not flown any missions to provide humanitarian aid in Syria. The UN has not requested the use of air drops, which are not currently the best way of getting help to those in need.
The UN, Red Cross and Syrian Arab Red Crescent have successfully delivered aid by road to Madaya, Foah and Kefraya. The UN and non-governmental organisation partners are best placed to deliver humanitarian aid and have the mandate, expertise and capacity to assess needs and deliver an appropriate, timely response.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 3 on page 5 of the Five Year Forward View Mental Health Task Force report, published on 15 February 2016, if he will make it his policy to provide equal funding for mental health services.
Alistair Burt
We are committed to achieving parity of esteem between mental health and physical health. The Mental Health 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.
This builds on the £1.4 billion over this Parliament that has been previously announced for transforming children and young people’s mental health and improving support for eating disorders.
All of the Taskforce report recommendations are funded from within the overall envelope agreed in the Spending Review. All of the £1 billion announced with the Taskforce report represents additional investment over and above what was allocated to the NHS in 2015/16.
We are already spending more money on mental health than ever before – an estimated £11.7 billion last year. This shows our commitment to achieving an equal status between mental and physical health services. We have been clear that commissioners must continue to increase investment in mental health services each year at a level which at least matches their overall expenditure increase.
We will monitor this closely to ensure this happens and know that clinical commissioning group spend is on track to increase as expected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the resilience of the (a) mobile telephone network, (b) landline telephone network and (c) fibre optic broadband network after a power cut; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Government continually assesses the resilience of the communications network and works closely with the communications industry to do this. Power is the main dependency of the communications sector, and the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), published in November 2015, highlighted Government’s commitment to enhancing the UK’s resilience to power disruption. Government will continue to work with industry to ensure the ongoing resilience and availability of services across the sector in the event of power loss.