Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussion, if any, they have had with the government of Turkey and the UNHCR about urgent plans for the return home of Yazidi refugees, currently in a camp near Diyarbakir.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK Government is not aware of plans to return Yezidi refugees to their homes from Diyarbakir. The UK works with the Government of Turkey, the United Nations and the international community to support the rights of all minorities.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the number of Syrian refugees brought to the UK under the Private Sponsorship Scheme will be in addition to the Government’s commitment to take 50,000 refugees over the next five years.

    Richard Harrington

    The Prime Minister announced on 7 September 2015 that the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) scheme would be expanded to resettle 20,000 Syrians in need of protection during this Parliament.

    We will build on offers of support to develop a community sponsorship scheme to allow individuals, charities, faith groups, churches and businesses to support refugees directly.

  • Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dairy farmers have gone out of business in each of the last five years.

    George Eustice

    The table below shows the net change in the number of dairy farms. Data is only available on the total number of dairy farms in June and December of each year, so the table only shows the net change, rather than the number entering and the number leaving dairy farming. The latest data available on the number of dairy farms in England is for June 2015. This is shown below with data for the previous 5 years. The change in the number of farms includes new holdings which have been registered with dairy cattle, holdings that have ceased to have cattle and holdings that have merged.

    The number of dairy cows on these dairy farms is also shown below. This shows that despite a 16% decrease in the overall number of dairy farms between June 2010 and June 2015, the number of dairy cows has remained almost unchanged, suggesting consolidation within the industry.

    Date

    Number of dairy farms(a)

    Number of cows in the dairy herd(b)

    Jun-2010

    9 461

    1 142 497

    Dec-2010

    9 287

    1 147 450

    Jun-2011

    9 041

    1 112 459

    Dec-2011

    8 823

    1 105 290

    Jun-2012

    8 663

    1 104 676

    Dec-2012

    8 503

    1 107 045

    Jun-2013

    8 342

    1 098 610

    Dec-2013

    8 197

    1 124 368

    Jun-2014

    8 092

    1 128 548

    Dec-2014

    8 051

    1 150 007

    Jun-2015

    7 982

    1 148 089

    % change Jun15/Jun10

    -16%

    0.5%

    (a) Sourced from Cattle Tracing System. Dairy farms are defined as the number of holdings with more than 10 cows in the dairy herd.

    (b) Cows in the dairy herd are defined as female dairy cows over 2 years old in the milking herd (i.e. with offspring).

    “

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contracts Atos holds with the Home Office.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office holds three contracts with Atos.

    The first is “IND Procurement of Infrastructure Development and Support” (IPIDS), which provides application management supporting and hosting for major immigration IT systems. This contract expired on 31st January 2016, and a six-month transition period was invoked to provide support for a smaller subset of applications not covered by the replacement programme.

    The whole life cost of IPIDS was circa £220 million (exclusive of any additional project charges) until 31st January 2016. The maximum cost of the six-month transition period will be £642,000 (excluding VAT).

    The Department’s second contract with Atos is “Contain,” which is a direct replacement for IPIDS. The programme provides continuity for seven major Immigration IT systems, whilst work continues on the Immigration Platform Technology (IPT) platform. The Contain contract allows legacy immigration applications to be phased out whilst service continuity is preserved, and enables new applications delivered by the IPT programme to be brought in without disruption. The contract will run for a maximum of two years, and the total contract value is £18.1 million (excl VAT), which includes run and decommission costs.

    The third contract with Atos Worldline is a small G-Cloud Call-Off Agreement to enable passport application payments to be made online; the total contract value is £183,000.

  • Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the cost of IVF treatment to the NHS in England.

    Jane Ellison

    The level of provision of infertility treatment, as for all health services they commission, is decided by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will take into account the needs of the population overall. The CCG’s decisions are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services will vary in response to local needs.

    CCGs have a legal duty to have regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. As such, NHS England expects that all those involved in commissioning infertility treatment services to be fully aware of the importance of having regard to the NICE fertility guidelines.

    Following a meeting with Fertility Fairness in December 2015, officials from the Department and NHS England is considering options for addressing variation in the prices that CCGs are currently paying for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

    Information about cycles of IVF treatment is not collected centrally.

  • Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jeff Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many fines have been issued for claiming free prescriptions without a valid exemption certificate in each (a) month and (b) year since the NHS Business Services Authority began checking eligibility for free prescriptions in September 2014.

    Alistair Burt

    Since September 2014, when the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took on responsibility for the service, a total of 747,790 penalty charge notices have been issued where someone claimed exemption on the basis that they held a valid exemption certificate but this could not be verified by the NHSBSA. A further 278,053 surcharge letters have been issued to follow up on penalty charge notices which have not been resolved through payment, cancellation (due to correction of erroneous information, for example) or waiving of the penalty charge. The annual and monthly breakdown is set out below.

    Annual breakdown of Penalty Charges Notices and Surcharge letters

    Penalty Charge Notices

    Surcharge letters

    September 2014 – December 2014

    59,564

    20,562

    January 2015 – December 2015

    430,971

    171,065

    January 2016 – April 2016

    257,255

    86,426

    Total

    757,790

    278,053

    Monthly breakdown of Penalty Charge Notices and Surcharge letters

    Penalty Charge Notices

    Surcharge letter

    September 2014

    5,298

    1,733

    October 2014

    5,007

    1,697

    November 2014

    23,511

    8,344

    December 2014

    25,748

    8,788

    January 2015

    53,668

    11,445

    February 2015

    21,706

    7,969

    March 2015

    15,316

    6,182

    April 2015

    12,687

    5,032

    May 2015

    20,122

    8,189

    June 2015

    22,472

    8,984

    July 2015

    18,249

    6,550

    August 2015

    39,626

    17,282

    September 2015

    57,661

    24,634

    October 2015

    56,952

    25,075

    November 2015

    64,573

    28,655

    December 2015

    47,939

    21,068

    January 2016

    82,881

    36,766

    February 2016

    55,650

    24,079

    March 2016

    49,767

    20,340

    April 2016

    68,957

    5,241

    Total

    747,790

    278,053
  • Lord Lexden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Lexden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lexden on 2016-07-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the size of the Privy Council on 13 July; and how many appointments had been made to it up to that date since 11 May 2010.

    Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

    The information is set out in the table below.

    Date

    Number of Privy Counsellors

    13th July 2016

    657

    Appointments since 11th May 2010

    179
  • Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much compensation her Department paid for the unlawful detention of individuals under immigration powers in each of the last three financial years; for what categories of reason such compensation was paid; and how many such payments were made for each such category of reason.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Our records indicate that over the past 3 financial years (covering 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15), that a total of £13.8 million has been paid out to 573 claimants, as per the below table. All of whom were paid compensation following a period of unlawful detention.

    Financial Year

    Total Unlawful Detention Compensation payments (£ million)

    Number of claimants for the last 3 financial years

    FY 2012-13

    £ 5.0

    195

    FY 2013-14

    £ 4.8

    199

    FY 2014-15

    £ 4.0

    179

    Caveat to provided data: This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.

  • Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on support for people with mental health conditions who claim jobseeker’s allowance.

    Alistair Burt

    Ministers at the Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions met on 3 June and agreed to greater cross government working between our respective Departments. Following that meeting, the Department of Health and Department for Work and Pensions Work and Health Unit was created to improve the health and employment outcomes of benefit claimants. Next year, the unit will launch a range of voluntary mental health and employment pilots to support working age individuals with or at risk of developing a mental health condition retain and return to employment.

    We know that people come into contact with the welfare system at a time when they may be vulnerable because of unemployment and its associated consequences. The Department for Work and Pensions provides guidance and training for staff to help them identify and support people who may be vulnerable.

  • Lord Mawson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Mawson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mawson on 2015-12-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what practical actions they are taking to promote and encourage inward investment into the Lower Lea Valley.

    Lord Maude of Horsham

    UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) has overall responsibility for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into the UK. For investors with an interest in London it shares leads with London & Partners (London’s promotional organisation) to land those investors here in what is a very competitive international market for FDI.

    The Mayor of London is also responsible for attracting FDI into London and as such London & Partners also generates its own leads.

    As part of its ‘UK First’ approach to attracting inward investment, UKTI actively supports these efforts and those of London Councils, including those that cover the Lower Lea Valley.