Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Siobhain McDonagh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Siobhain McDonagh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Siobhain McDonagh on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times her Department has been made aware of people from Pakistan using a false identity to obtain entry clearance to the UK in the last five years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Home Office does not hold the specific information in relation to people from Pakistan using false identity, in the format requested. To obtain it would involve interrogating individual case records, at disproportionate cost.

    All out of country entry clearance applications are subject to an extensive range of mandatory and discretionary checks.

    These include, but are not limited to, identity, travel document verification, searches against national and international police records and against previous Immigration history.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many legally trained staff are contracted to his Department for the purposes of their legal expertise; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Robin Walker

    The Department for Exiting the European Union has a dedicated legal team that is provided by the Government Legal Department. That team includes 28 qualified lawyers.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has to ensure the full participation of the Northern Ireland Executive and people in memorialising UK servicemen and civilians who have died in conflict.

    Mark Lancaster

    While the Ministry of Defence makes every effort to ensure that those who have died as a result of conflict are remembered and honoured, it is for local communities to decide on their own memorials to the fallen as they see fit.

    Nationally, the names of all Servicemen who lost their lives on operations are recorded on the Memorial Wall at the National Arboretum.

  • Barbara Keeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barbara Keeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barbara Keeley on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with his Cabinet colleagues on making additional funding available to local authorities to help fund the introduction of the national living wage into social care from April 2016; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    Over the course of the Spending Review there have been a large number of in-depth discussions at both official and Ministerial level to inform the outcome. These discussions and analysis informed the decision to provide a settlement which means local government has access to the funding it needs to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament, including:

    – The introduction of a social care precept, which puts money raising powers into the hands of local areas who understand the need in their area and who are best placed to respond. This could raise up to £2 billion by the end of the Parliament; and

    – From 2017/18, additional funds for social care will be made available through the Better Care Fund. This will rise to £1.5 billion by 2019/20.

    Following this additional funding, we expect councils will be able to increase the prices they pay for care in order to cover costs providers are facing such as the national living wage.

  • Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Liz McInnes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of people under the age of (a) 16 and (b) 18 sleeping rough in Greater Manchester in the last 12 months.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Information on the ages of rough sleepers is not collected centrally.

    We will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We have also protected homelessness prevention funding for local authorities, through the provisional local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

  • Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Byford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2016-02-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the results from the latest Blueprint for Water Scorecard as launched on 6 November 2012.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Blueprint for Water is an ongoing campaign of Non-Government Organisations that make an assessment against the scorecard they have produced.

    Government has already taken substantive action to protect and improve the water environment. For example, through reducing phosphate pollution in rivers from sewage works by a fifth and ammonia by a sixth compared to 2010 through investment at almost 500 sewage treatment works. Also, £87 million invested in local actions to restore our rivers and this has supported projects to improve over nearly 10,000 miles of rivers

    Looking ahead, £900 million has been made available under Countryside Stewardship for environmental action by farmers and there are plans by water companies to invest £3.5 billion.

    These investments, together with other actions, are drawn together in River Basin Management Plans which contain a comprehensive programme for the water environment up to 2021 and which will be published soon.

    Since the Water Scorecard of 2012, Blueprint for Water published a further report ‘Water Matters’ in September 2015. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs accepted an invitation from the group to speak at the launch of this report in the Palace of Westminster, hosted by the hon. Member for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith.

    In her speech the Secretary of State made it clear that Government shares many of the long-term outcomes put forward by the Blueprint for Water and went on to explain how Government intends to pursue them through the 25 Year Plan for the Environment. Blueprint and its constituent organisations will have an opportunity to contribute to this plan as it is refined further over summer and autumn 2016.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2015 to Question 13645, whether she plans to include young people in her Department’s direct consultation with stakeholders on PSHE and SRE.

    Edward Timpson

    The Department regularly speaks to a wide range of interested parties and will continue to do so regarding personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and sex and relationship education (SRE), including those who represent the views of young people.

    The Secretary of State wrote to the ESC in February 2016 stating that the Department will continue to keep the status of PSHE in the curriculum under review. We will continue to work with headteachers, PSHE practitioners and other experts to identify further action the Government can take to ensure that all pupils receive high quality, appropriate PSHE and SRE.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the top five reasons were for imposing sanctions on jobseeker’s allowance claimants in each year for which data is available.

    Priti Patel

    The available information for the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance sanction decisions, by referral reason, is published and can be found at:

    https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk

    Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

    https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started—SuperWEB2.html

  • Jeremy Lefroy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jeremy Lefroy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department and NHS England plan to take to improve birth outcomes for women (a) from ethnic minority groups, (b) of lower socio-economic status and (c) from other groups who experience poorer birth outcomes.

    Ben Gummer

    In November, the Government announced a national ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth by 2030. To help meet these aims the Government established a capital fund of £2.24 million to support trusts to buy equipment to improve safety. More than 90 trusts were successful in sharing this funding. In addition, the Government is investing £500,000 to develop a new web-based system to be used consistently across the National Health Service so staff can review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death, and over £1 millon in multi-disciplinary training programmes to ensure staff have the skills they need to deliver world-leading safe care.

    In February 2016, the report of the National Maternity Review ‘Better Births’ was published. It sets out a vision for the future of maternity care in England and puts forward a series of recommendations to ensure that services become safer, more personalised, kinder, professional and more family-friendly. Additionally, in March, NHS England launched the Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle designed to support providers and commissioners of maternity care to take action to reduce stillbirths and early neonatal deaths.

    There is evidence to suggest that when implemented the proposals outlined in Better Births will lead to a reduction in inequality of outcomes from maternity services. In particular, more continuity of carer and greater personalisation of care should result in improvements in services to groups of women who tend to experience poorer outcomes, and in turn lead to improved outcomes for women and their babies.

    Later this year the Department will begin a targeted campaign to raise awareness of stillbirth, neonatal death and maternal death risk factors which will be aimed at 16-21 year olds, lower socio-economic groups and ethnic minority groups.

  • Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Clwyd on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to recommendation 5 on page 251 of the Report of the Macur Review, published in March 2016, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a police investigation to consider whether there is sufficient evidence and public interest relating to matters of malfeasance in public office in the Welsh Office in relation to the abuse of children in care in North Wales.

    Caroline Dinenage

    As the then Secretary of State for Wales said in his statement to the House on 17 March, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service are aware of the specifics of this matter and it is for them to consider further.