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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to pages 13 and 39 of the White Paper, A BBC for the future: a broadcaster of distinction, published in May 2016, what his Department plans to spend the £85 million of new funding for the World Service on.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The additional Government funding for the BBC World Service was agreed as part of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 and will be provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It will be used to provide additional language services subject to agreement by the Foreign Secretary and the BBC Trust.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with (a) her international counterparts, (b) international organisations and (c) NGOs on the situation in Yemen.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK is playing a leading role in responding to the crisis in Yemen. DFID Ministers regularly have discussions with international counterparts, organisations, and NGOs on the situation in Yemen. The World Humanitarian Summit in May was obviously a key moment for such discussions.

    Senior officials also have regular discussions on the situation in Yemen. Mark Lowcock, DFID Permanent Secretary, recently discussed the humanitarian and economic situation in Yemen with international counterparts on 11 July, at the annual Tidewater conference of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD-DAC).

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.

    Mr John Hayes

    The Department does not directly employ any cleaning staff on its Westminster estate. All cleaning staff are employed and managed under outsourced estates and facilities contracts. Information on nationality in such situations is not held by the Department.

  • Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of respect for human rights in Nepal.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We note the milestone represented by the new Nepalese Constitution and welcome the adoption of 31 different rights, which include rights for women and Dalits. However, we are concerned about discrimination against women in the citizenship provisions and the violence which followed the adoption of the Constitution. We welcome progress on Nepal’s implementation of the recommendations made in 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review on transitional justice but remain concerned about amnesty provisions and the absence of legislation to criminalise torture.

    We issued a statement and a series of recommendations to this effect on 4 November 2015, at the 23rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/uk-statement-on-nepal-at-the-23rd-session-of-the-universal-periodic-review-geneva-2-to-13-november-2015

    “

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2015 to Question 18554, on housing benefit: social rented housing, what proportion of the estimated 80,000 claimants referred to in that answer are in receipt of (a) disability and (b) in-work benefits.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The estimated 80,000 claimants referred to in Question 18554 are not disabled for the purposes of the shared accommodation rate exemption. Above this figure there are some disabled claimants within this category who were identified as having rents above the relevant Local Housing Allowance rate. However as these are exempted from the policy they were not included in the original response.

    Of the estimated 80,000, around 31% have self-declared disabilities which are not exempt from the shared accommodation rate. Of these around 18% are in receipt of disability benefits (DLA/PIP/AA) and around 13% are in receipt of either Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit and are in work.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, by how much levels of pollution have changed in the UK territorial seas in the last five years.

    George Eustice

    Inputs into the marine environment of the six most hazardous polluting substances (cadmium, lindane, mercury, zinc, copper and lead) have fallen significantly over the last 25 years. In the five years to 2013 inputs of five of the substances have declined while mercury inputs were stable. These trends are reported in the UK’s Biodiversity Indicators, published this month.

    The volume of oil accidentally spilled varies widely from year to year, is generally small and of relatively minor significance, with no major spills in UK waters having occurred over the last five years.

    Assessments of contaminants in the recent UK Marine Strategy Part 3, published in December, have shown that most problems (i.e. where concentrations or biological effects parameters exceed assessment thresholds) are local in nature and close to the sources, particularly in industrialised estuaries and coasts, and largely caused by historic pollution.

  • Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) children under 9 years of age, (2) children aged between 9 and 16 inclusive, and (3) adults over 18, have been diagnosed with autism in each of the last five years.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    The number of children, young people and adults diagnosed with autism by the National Health Service is not collected centrally. Latest figures from the School Census (2015) state that there were 90,775 pupils with an autistic spectrum disorder at state funded schools and non-maintained special schools in England. This has increased from a total of 56,250 in 2010 who were recorded as having a primary need of autism, but it is not directly comparable to the 2015 figures because of a change in collection methodology. Local authority areas provide information for Public Health England’s annual self-assessment exercise on implementing the Autism Strategy. This includes the number of adults receiving an autism diagnosis but because information is submitted on a voluntary basis a complete total for England is not available.

    The Department has discussed with NHS England the difficulties that people on the autistic spectrum can have in getting an appropriate diagnosis and support in a timely manner. NHS England has commenced a programme to visit clinical commissioning groups to identify and share good practice in accessing autism diagnosis, and look at possible barriers. The Department is funding the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services to support this work. NHS England will complete a report on this by the end of April 2016.

    The Department is also encouraging the autism third sector to work together and the four charity representatives on the Cross Government Autism Programme Board, which oversees the implementation of the Autism Strategy, gave presentations at the meeting on 18 February on work they are doing to increase public awareness. The charities are the National Autistic Society, the Autism Alliance UK, Autism Plus and Ambitious about Autism. The Autism Alliance UK is also being funded by the Department to undertake work with national and local organisations, to make reasonable adjustments to services and to train staff to be aware of what autism can mean to individuals who have the condition and their families.

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s publication Estimating the Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Conditions in Adults – Extending the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) gave the overall prevalence of autism in England as 1.1% (95% confidence interval 0.3% to 1.9%). Among adults with learning disabilities living in private households whose learning disability was sufficiently severe that they could not have taken part in the 2007 APMS, the prevalence of autism was 35.4% (95% confidence interval 24.7% to 46.2%). Among adults with mild or severe learning disabilities living in communal care establishments, the prevalence of autism was 31% (95% confidence interval 23.9% to 38%). Detailed supporting information regarding the underlying data and how figures have been derived is found within the detail of the report, a copy of which is attached.

    The APMS was repeated in 2014 and findings are scheduled to be published in September 2016.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the proportion of (a) mothers and (b) fathers in the labour force who were not able to claim statutory parental leave because of the requirement for 26 weeks of continuous employment with the same employer in the last 12 months.

    Nick Boles

    The Shared Parental Leave and Pay system is designed to strike the right balance between giving employees flexibility and giving their employers the certainty that they need to plan.

    We do not routinely collect information that would enable us to estimate the proportion of (a) mothers and (b) fathers in the labour force who were not able to claim Shared Parental Leave and Pay because of the ‘continuity of employment requirement’.

  • Kate Hoey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kate Hoey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time was for a Disclosure and Barring Service check to be completed in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

    Karen Bradley

    The Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body which provides access to appropriate criminal record information for employers through its disclosure service for England and Wales. It also makes independent barring decisions about people who have harmed, or where there is considered to be a risk of harm to, a child or vulnerable person within the workplace. Given the sensitive nature of this work and the reliance on police forces to provide locally held intelligence, it would not be appropriate to introduce competition.

    Whilst no assessment has been made of the affect of timeliness on the number of job opportunities which may have been lost, the impact which delays may have on applicants is recognised. The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.

    The average end to end time taken to complete a DBS check, including the time taken by police forces, is listed in following table.

    Financial Year

    Average calendar days for a disclosure to be processed

    13/14

    11.5

    14/15

    14.4

    15/16

    14.5

    The proportion of checks which took longer than (a) eight weeks (b) 12 weeks and (c) six months is listed in the following table.

    Financial Year

    Disclosures which took longer than 8 weeks

    Disclosures which took longer than 12 weeks

    Disclosures which took longer than 6 Months

    % of Disclosures

    % of Disclosures

    % of Disclosures

    13/14

    2.6%

    0.8%

    0.0%

    14/15

    4.9%

    2.1%

    0.1%

    15/16

    5.2%

    3.5%

    0.3%

    “

  • Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) households and (b) businesses unable to access broadband speeds of (i) 10 Mbit/s and (ii) two Mbit/s in the latest period for which figures are available.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2015 report – based on the state of the market in May 2015 – 8% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 10Mbp/s and 2% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 2Mbp/s. These figures are likely to have reduced due to continued commercial and BDUK broadband deployment across the UK – superfast broadband access has increased from 45% in 2010 to 90%, and by the end of next year, 95% of homes and businesses will have access to superfast broadband. In addition, all premises with speeds below 2Mbp/s now have access to speeds greater than this through the Government’s Basic Broadband Scheme, and the Prime Minister has announced the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation, with a minimum speed of 10Mbps, to help ensure no-one is left behind.