The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken is for family reunification of unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.
Mr Robert Goodwill
For unaccompanied refugee children accepted for transfer to the UK, transfer requests are generally processed within 10 days and children transferred within weeks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Government has made plans to assist with additional funding or aid subsequent to the changes in refugee numbers entering into Mosul.
Rory Stewart
On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, on top of £50 million committed earlier this year. This brings our total commitment in Iraq to £169.5 million since June 2014. This support will provide emergency life-saving assistance – such as food, shelter, medical and protection services – to support the Government of Iraq-led Mosul humanitarian response as well as continuing to provide assistance for displaced and vulnerable people across the country.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times officials in his Department responsible for procurement checked whether a contractor employed by his Department was under investigation for corruption with law enforcement agencies in the last two years.
Harriett Baldwin
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) routinely carries out checks on potential contractors prior to contract award, including on criminal activity, such as convictions for tax evasion, bribery or fraud, and a review of a company’s audited accounts. These enquiries are conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011.
This process is reiterated in all competitive and single source tender documentation issued to tenderers prior to any contract award.
Any suspicion of corruption is reported to the appropriate authority. Where justified, the MOD can exclude potential suppliers who pose an unacceptable risk to public money.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 October 2016 to Question 46417, what assessment the Government has made of the likelihood of reaching its target of resettling 20,000 Syrians before the end of the current Parliament at current resettlement rates.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Work continues with local authorities and International Partners to deliver the Government’s commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees over the lifetime of this Parliament and we are on track to do this.
Progress on resettlement will be indicated in quarterly immigration statistics. The last set of statistics, published on 25 August 2016 showed that 2,646 Syrians were relocated to the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme between October 2015 and June 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made on the accelerated access review for drugs for rare cancers; by what date he plans for that review to be concluded; and if he will set a deadline by which arrangements must be in place for the assessment of new drugs.
George Freeman
The Accelerated Access Review which was set up to look at speeding up access to innovative drugs including those for rare diseases, devices and diagnostics for National Health Service patients has been making strong progress since it was first announced in November 2014.
The review which is independently chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor has been engaging stakeholders extensively over the summer to gather evidence on the big questions the review is considering, and has developed a number of emerging solutions.
Sir Hugh published his interim report of the review on 27 October 2015. The report is high-level, direction-setting and grounded in evidence gathered through the review’s stakeholder engagement to date. The review is embarking on a second phase of engagement with stakeholders to further build the evidence, stress-test and refine the reports interim findings.
The review will conclude with Sir Hugh making his final recommendations to Government by April 2016. The Government will thereafter consider how best to respond.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will intervene on behalf of Khalid Younis so that he receives drugs needed to treat his chronic myeloid leukaemia condition.
George Freeman
Ministers are unable to intervene in or comment specifically on an individual patient’s clinical care, which is a matter for the relevant clinicians.
In the absence of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, funding decisions for individual treatments should be made by the relevant National Health Service commissioner, based on an assessment of the available evidence. Commissioners are also required to have processes in place for the consideration of exceptional funding requests.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2015 to Question 16265, what procedures jobcentre advisers follow when their clients request a referral to a foodbank for the fourth time in any given year.
Priti Patel
If a claimant wishes to access the services of a foodbank, Jobcentre Plus can signpost them to an appropriate organisation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 20080, by what date his Department will review all reports which relate to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill; and whether his Department will publish a response to or make a statement on those reports after completing that review.
Priti Patel
The Department continually monitors published reports in the public domain. This includes those which relate to policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which is currently being discussed in Committee in the House of Lords.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-14.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Government plans to launch its planned consultation on increasing the transparency of property ownership by foreign companies.
Matthew Hancock
In due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to support children who have experienced abuse; how much funding has been allocated to (a) mental health services, (b) therapeutic services and (c) other support services for such children over each of the last five years; and what plans there are to vary the level of that funding.
Alistair Burt
The Government is committed to delivering the vision set out in the Future in mind report and is driving forward the transformation of children and young people’s mental health services to improve access to high quality support across the country. This transformation is being supported by £1.25 billion of additional Government investment, as well as an extra £150 million to help young people with eating disorders.
Local Transformation Plans will set out how local organisations will use the additional investment of £1.4 billion the Government is making during the course of this Parliament to transform local child and adolescent mental health services. All clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), working closely with their partners in local government, Children’s Services and education, have developed plans to transform their local offer. These plans cover the full spectrum of mental health issues: from prevention and resilience building, to support and care for existing and emerging mental health problems, as well as transitions between services and addressing the needs of the most vulnerable. This includes those who have been exposed to sexual abuse or exploitation.
NHS England increased funding of sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) from £8.98 million to £16.5 million in 2014/15 recurrently, especially to improve the paediatric response to the needs of sexually abused children. NHS England continues to make the health services response to sexual abuse a priority, and in addition to producing a five year plan for commissioning SARCs, they are planning to engage with CCGs on the delivery of therapeutic care to support survivors.
The Government has set up the first ever cross-Government Ministerial Child Protection Taskforce to overhaul the way police, schools, social services and others work together in tackling abuse of children. The Taskforce’s work will build on the Government’s wide-ranging reforms to create a care system that puts children’s needs first.