The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the number of staff required at HM Revenue and Customs in Cumbernauld following his Department’s decision to award the mail management contract to the EDM Group.
Mr David Gauke
The timetable for implementation is still being finalised, HMRC does not yet have details of how and when teams currently handling post will be impacted.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in the 70 to 79 age group have received a shingles vaccination since the vaccination programme began in September 2013; how many people he expects to take up the offer in the current cohort; when he expects that figure to be met; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
Provisional vaccine uptake data for England show that about 360,000 70 to 79 year olds received the shingles vaccine between 1 September 2013 and 30 April 2014. The actual number will be higher as about 20% of general practitioner (GP) practices are not able to automatically submit uptake information. If it is assumed that the non-reporting practices have similar uptake rates to those that have reported, then the estimated total number of people aged 70 to 79 years receiving the vaccine in the first eight months of the programme, would be around 450,000.
This is the first year of this immunisation programme and there is no formal target for the number to be vaccinated. Eligible patients aged 70 and 79 who have not yet received shingles vaccine during the 2013-14 programme will continue to be offered vaccination under the national programme until 31 August 2014. It is not possible to predict how many will take up the offer of vaccination in this period, but Public Health England expects vaccine uptake to continue to rise, and we would encourage those eligible individuals to contact their GP to arrange their vaccination if they have not already done so.
Further provisional cumulative coverage data will be published on a quarterly basis, with the final annual coverage data for the 2013-14 programme due to be published in autumn 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what consideration his Department gave to procuring the Rangeless Airborne Instrumented Debriefing System with Collision Warning software for installation on the Tornado aircraft.
Mr Philip Dunne
The requirement of the Ministry of Defence was for an Instrument Debriefing System. Records of any consideration given to the procurement of additional capabilities are no longer centrally held and the retrieval of this information would be possible only at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Beith on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) arrangements and (b) contracts NHS England has for non-emergency specialist care and treatment of English residents in Scottish hospitals.
Jane Ellison
NHS England has a block contract (value £250,000 a year) for vein of Galen malformation services with the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to roll out mobile telephone blocking technology across HM prisons estate.
Jeremy Wright
The National Offender Management Service is committed to addressing the risks that mobile phones present in prisons. Part of its response is to deploy technology in prisons that prevents mobile phones from working.
In 2012 the government enacted the Prisons (Interference with Wireless Telegraphy) Act 2012. The Act places the use of mobile phone signal interference technology in prisons on a clear legal footing, enabling maximum use of such technology and to enable private prisons to use it.
A number of prisons are equipped with ‘fixed’ (as opposed to ‘portable’) signal interference technology. Since 21 October 2013 around 300 short-range portable blockers have been deployed to 88 public sector prisons.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS spent on hearing aids in each of the last five years.
Norman Lamb
Information on National Health Service expenditure on hearing aids is not collected centrally. However, reference costs, which are the unit costs to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients, provide some information which is shown in the following table.
Estimated cost to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts of hearing aid provision, 2008-09 to 2012-13, £ million
|
Year |
Hearing aid costs |
Associated hearing aid costs |
Cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aids |
|
2008-09 |
60.7 |
89.0 |
18.7 |
|
2009-10 |
57.7 |
96.0 |
17.7 |
|
2010-11 |
55.8 |
103.2 |
19.2 |
|
2011-12 |
62.1 |
118.5 |
26.6 |
|
2012-13 |
62.7 |
127.6 |
25.8 |
Source: Reference Costs, Department of Health
Notes:
1. Hearing aid costs are the actual costs of the hearing aids excluding other associated costs.
2. Associated hearing aid costs include assessment, fitting, follow-up and aftercare.
3. Reference costs are submitted on a fully absorbed basis, which means that all the costs of running the organisation are included in the return except where their exclusion is permitted.
4. Some relevant costs may be excluded. For example, maintenance and reprogramming costs for cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aid costs were excluded from reference costs for these years.
5. The supply and fitting of hearing aids is also commissioned from the independent sector, and this expenditure is not reflected in the table.
6. 2012-13 is the latest year for which reference costs data are available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many surgical care practitioners have practised in the NHS in each year since 2005.
Dr Daniel Poulter
The information is not held centrally. The number of surgical care practitioners who have practised in the National Health Service in each year since 2005 are not identified separately in the annual NHS workforce census.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Huppert on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department takes to ensure that accommodation provided by the COMPASS contracts meets the Decent Homes Standards.
Karen Bradley
It is a statutory requirement that social housing meets the Decent Homes
Standard as defined in the Housing Act 2004.
All COMPASS contracts incorporate the requirements of the Decent Home Standards
for social housing as part of the contractual performance management
arrangements and are robustly monitored through three key performance
indicators which relate specifically to property standards.
Providers are required to inspect all properties on a monthly basis or at the
point when a service user first occupies the property. In addition, the Home
Office has a team of 17 contract compliance officers who also closely monitor
property standards as part of their contract compliance and assurance role.
Any failure of the critical service levels may result in financial penalties.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were employed in work in jails on 1 April in each of the last four years.
Jeremy Wright
Work in prisons is a key priority to ensure prisoners are engaged purposefully whilst they are in custody. It also gives them the opportunity to learn skills and a work ethic which can increase their chances of finding employment on release, a key element to reducing reoffending.
The number of prisoners working in industrial activity in public sector prisons increased from around 8,600 in 2010-11 (the first year for which figures are available) to around 9,700 in 2012-13. This delivered an increase in the total hours worked in industrial activities from 10.6 million hours to 13.1 million hours. Private sector prisons have also been supporting this agenda and have reported that they delivered over 1½ million prisoner working hours in commercial and industrial workshops in 2012-13 which provided work for over 1,200 prisoners.
In addition there are substantial numbers of prisoners who work to keep prisons running on tasks such as cooking, serving meals, maintenance and cleaning.
Figures for public sector prisons are published in the NOMS Annual Report Management Information Addendum: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf
Figures for the number of prisoners working in the community are not held centrally and could only be obtained from local records at disproportionate cost.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dominic Raab on 2014-06-17.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions have been brought for tax offences in each year since 2008-09.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is not a prosecuting authority. Where cases do proceed to the criminal courts the prosecution is carried out by the relevant independent prosecuting authority. This is the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in Scotland, and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPSNI).
Please note that figures for tax evasion exclude those cases prosecuted for money laundering, other prohibitions and restrictions and other non-fiscal offences.
We can provide the following information in respect of totals of tax evasion prosecutions
|
Year |
Total number of persons prosecuted for tax evasion |
|
2010-11 |
372 |
|
2011-12 |
501 |
|
2012-13 |
739 |
|
2013-14 |
880 |
HMRC is not able to supply a time series of full year prosecution decisions and convictions resulting from their criminal investigations for years up to 2009–10. Complete, comparable data is only available from 2010–11 onwards.