The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, from which countries other than India the import of mangoes to the EU is banned.
Dan Rogerson
None. The ban only applies to mangoes from India.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of the emails sent by his Department to schools on 3 April 2014 setting out guidance on keeping children safe have not been opened by the recipient to date.
Mr Edward Timpson
On 3 April the Department for Education published updated statutory guidance on safeguarding, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’. On the same day, we emailed all headteachers a letter from the Secretary of State drawing their attention to the guidance. We will be publishing this on the website in due course.
The letter was emailed to 31,660 addressees in 25,035 schools. As of 30 April, 13,285 (43.1%) recipients had opened the email, and 9,402 (30.5%) recipients had clicked through to the guidance on safeguarding.
Other records show that the guidance has been seen by a greater number of people. Between 3 and 29 April the web page hosting the guidance received 65,729 page views. The Department also published 5 tweets in support of the publication. These achieved a total reach of 639,315, and the embedded links were clicked 755 times.
The guidance will also be highlighted in the summer term 2014 schools’ email and Need to Know timelines that will be sent to all schools in May. Schools can also access relevant information through social media, and messages from the Education Funding Agency and the National College for Teaching and Leadership. The Department also sends regular emails to all local authorities.
Officials have also promoted the guidance through various stakeholder groups that work with the Department, including the Headteacher Reference Groups and the Education Forum; members of the latter include chairs of local safeguarding children boards. And they have written to head and teacher unions who met Ministers in January to discuss female genital mutilation and broader safeguarding issues.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Burns on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many expressions of interest from eligible providers to develop the HIV/STI national clinical audit NHS England has received to date.
Jane Ellison
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) commissions and manages the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme on behalf of NHS England. The HQIP has asked for expressions of interest from suitable providers who are able to design and complete a one year feasibility study to inform any future national clinical audit of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. The contract for the work will be awarded this summer. NHS England cannot disclose the number of expressions of interest that have been received at this stage as this is commercially sensitive information.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the meta-analysis by Huang Y et al. published in the journal Cancer Causes Control in November 2013, investigating the link between termination of pregnancy and breast cancer.
Jane Ellison
The Royal College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (RCOG) reviewed its evidence based guidance on abortion (The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion) in 2011 in which the issue of a link between abortion and breast cancer was given careful consideration.
When the RCOG carries out the next review of its guidance, consideration will be given to all relevant research and evidence available that has come to light, to help inform the guidance and recommendations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) number and (b) proportion of adult cystic fibrosis centres in England have (i) reached and (ii) exceeded the maximum capacity of 250 patients recommended by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust in each of the last four years.
Norman Lamb
Information concerning the number of adult cystic fibrosis (CF) patients cared for by CF centres in England in each of the last four years is not available. This data has only been collected since the introduction of the tariff for CF services in 2011.
In the attached table we have provided the number and proportion of CF centres treating 250 patients or more in each of the last three years.
It should be noted that theStandards of Care, updated by CF Trust in 2011 does not state that 250 patients is the maximum number a CF centre should treat, but rather that when a centre reaches 250 patients, and anticipates that numbers will continue to rise, the development of alternative specialist centres should be considered.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average housing benefit award is for housing benefit claimants paying Affordable Rent under the Affordable Homes Programme in each region of the UK.
Kris Hopkins
The information is not centrally held in the form requested.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Huppert on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been resettled in the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme since its launch; and how many people are expected to arrive in the UK under that scheme by December 2014.
Karen Bradley
To date 50 Syrians have arrived in the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme.
The scheme is based on need, rather than designed to meet set arrival projections. However, we will continue to bring groups here on a regular basis, and envisage that several hundred people will be helped over the next three years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison staff were allocated to the handling, processing and checking of prisoners’ post, in each prison, on 1 April in each of the last four years.
Jeremy Wright
The levels of staff in each prison allocated to handling, processing and checking of prisoners’ post varies according to the security category and size of each prison and is not recorded centrally. To determine the numbers of staff engaged in this activity for the periods in question could only be determined by asking each prison to calculate these numbers using historic records. This cannot be done without incurring disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she received from the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner on changes to guidelines for police stop and search.
Damian Green
Essex Police have acknowledged receipt of the Home Secretary’s letter sent to Chief Constables on 30th April and have advised that they will submit a formal response in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much will have been spent on maintining the closed wings at HM Prison Hull and HM Prison Chelmsford by the time both will re-open.
Jeremy Wright
We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer
This Government has a long term strategy for managing the prison estate. We will have increased the adult male prison capacity so that we have more places than we inherited from the previous Government.
The retention of significant spare prison capacity over and above what is required is expensive and cannot be justified given the current financial climate. The mothballing of spare capacity at HM Prisons Chelmsford and Hull saved the taxpayer £3.6m in the financial year 2013-14. This compares to the significantly lower cost of maintaining this accommodation on a mothballed basis, so that it could be reactivated if necessary.
We have reviewed the refurbishment requirements at both sites and believe that, with minor investment, they can now be reopened on a contingency basis without carrying out a full refurbishment. These costs are anticipated to be around £132k by the time they have reopened. From the end of March to date, around £12k has been spent on Chelmsford, and around £107k has been spent on Hull.
The indicative additional staffing requirement to reactivate the places at Hull is around 65 members of staff – of which approximately 40 are uniformed. The indicative additional staffing requirement to reactivate the places at Chelmsford is around 30 members of staff – of which approximately 20 are uniformed grades. This means we are able to create additional places at an average cost of £7k per place (subject to final benchmarking review), as opposed to the average cost of a prison per place of £26,139.
The staffing requirement will initially be met by short term detached duty from other prisons, before looking to redeploy staff permanently where surpluses exist – and if necessary through external recruitment.
Subject to certification, Hull will create 282 places and Chelmsford 148 places, with prisoners due to start arriving this summer.
The reactivation of these places is a prudent and good value for money response to an increased prison population. Under the previous administration, police and court cells were turned into temporary prisons, with over 50,000 prisoners held in these cells in 2007-08 alone.