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.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults against prison staff there have been in HM Prison High Down in each month since September 2013.
Jeremy Wright
The number of assaults on staff and prisoner on prisoner assaults at HMP High Down between September 2013 and December 2013 can be found in Table 1. The monthly figures between September 2013 and December 2013 are broadly in line with the average number of assaults at HMP High Down over the last 5 years. Assault statistics by establishment are published annually in April with the latest statistics published covering up to 2013.
There are many factors that can drive changes in the number of assaults at individual establishments from one month to the next, including changes in admissions rates and composition of the prison population. Short-term monthly figures do not give a good indication of trends, and a view over a long time period should be taken when considering trends.
Table 1: Number of assaults, HMP High Down, September 2013 to December 2013
|
September |
October |
November |
December |
|
|
Assaults on staff |
2 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
|
Prisoner on prisoner assaults (including fights) |
19 |
11 |
12 |
8 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many child victims and witnesses have given evidence from insside a court building in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Damian Green
We must do everything we can to support child witnesses and help them give their best possible evidence to bring offenders to justice.
The department does not hold data on the number of child victim and witnesses that use video links to give evidence (either a court building, or from a remote site).
The list below sets out the number of courthouses in each of the seven HMCTS Regions in England & Wales; criminal justice is a devolved matter for Scotland and Northern Ireland. These facilities enable any victim or witness to appear by video link from a different court location to that of the trial court; it is also possible for third party users to access the court system through a secure bridge.
|
HMCTS Region |
Number of courthouses enabled for remote video link. |
|
Wales |
22 |
|
London |
32 |
|
South East |
52 |
|
South West |
35 |
|
Midlands |
40 |
|
North West |
31 |
|
North East |
37 |
|
Total |
249 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the (a) fairness and (b) viability of reforming the firefighters’ pension scheme allow members to retire on the basis of length of service rather than age.
Brandon Lewis
The Government is reforming all public service pension schemes to ensure that they remain fair to workers and sustainable for taxpayers. The transitional protection arrangements for the firefighters’ pension schemes are set out in the Proposed Final Agreement which was published in May 2012. The transitional protections use age to calculate a member’s entitlement to protection. More firefighters are protected from changes than any other large public service workforce.
There has been recent correspondence with the Fire Brigades Union on the scope and timing of discussions on this issue. Copies of this correspondence can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firefighters-pension-scheme-reforms.
“