Tag: Shabana Mahmood

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government has taken as a result of the conclusions and recommendations in the Hutton review of forensic pathology in England and Wales, submitted to the Minister of State for Crime and Prevention in March 2015.

Brandon Lewis

The Pathology Delivery Board, chaired by the Director of Home Office Science, assessed all the recommendations in the Hutton review and established a programme of work to address them individually. This programme has progressed to completion and is set to be formally signed-off at the next meeting in November 2016.

In particular the Hutton review identified a lack of training for first attendees at the scenes of sudden and unexpected death therefore a new policy for police investigation of such cases has been developed. Also autopsy data is now included within the homicide index enabling consistency between police forces in England & Wales regarding the use of forensic pathology services. This helps to address Hutton’s concern over inconsistent approaches between forces. Furthermore, a national register of sub-speciality pathologists has been established to meet the shortfall in such capability identified by Hutton. It was also recommended by Hutton that there should be a review of the code of practice for forensic pathologists to address a number of concerns. This is being progressed by the Forensic Science Regulator.

Options for implementing the main recommendation in Professor Hutton’s review, namely for the establishment of a ‘National Death Investigation Service’; has been the subject of consultation with stakeholders since the review’s completion. Recommendations on the preferred option will be presented to Home Office Ministers in October 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases are (a) awaiting a decision and (b) dormant at the Complex Casework Directorate in Liverpool.

James Brokenshire

Complex Casework Directorate was set up to be responsible for the remaining un-concluded asylum cases where the initial asylum application was lodged before March 2007. The work to review and communicate decisions to the cohort of older asylum cases was completed by the end of December 2014, other than for a small number of cases that were on hold, although work continues to progress the removal of applicants who received a negative decision from the Home Office and who otherwise have no lawful basis to remain in the United Kingdom.

As of 31 December 2015 there were 524 older asylum records requiring review, and a further 742 were on hold. These cases were on hold for legitimate process reasons. There are no dormant records.

The older asylum records relate to asylum applications made prior to 5 March 2007, and there are therefore no new cases, although cases that are reopened following contact with an individual whose record was previously closed are added to the cohort of older live asylum records. It is not possible to say how many reopened cases were subsequently granted leave without incurring disproportionate cost.

Information relating to older asylum records is published as part of the Asylum Transparency Data. This data includes the work in progress, on take of people who enter the cohort and the number of individuals granted leave.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much time has been allocated for the public consultation on the sustainability and transformation plans for Birmingham and Solihull and the Black Country and West Birmingham; and if he will ensure that the feedback from this public consultation will be published.

David Mowat

NHS England, with other national health and care bodies, released guidance to the local areas developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) entitled ‘Engaging local people’ in September 2016 which can be found on their website. Local proposals for health and care transformation are not expected to have gone through formal local National Health Service or other organisations’ board approval and/or formal public engagement or consultation at this early stage. We expect that areas will publish a version of their STPs between late October and the end of the year. We would also expect that most areas will undertake public engagement during this period, building on the engagement they have already done to shape thinking. Every area will be working to a different timeframe, based on its own circumstances and how well-progressed its plan is.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for discretionary leave to remain have been (a) received, (b) rejected and (c) treated as invalid in the latest period for which figures are available; and how many such applications were rejected owing to (i) failure to pay the fee and (ii) refusal of fee waiver.

James Brokenshire

Our records indicate that 12,656 (a) applications for further discretionary leave to remain were received from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015.

164 (b) were rejected for failure to pay the fee or Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and

175 (c) rejected as invalid.

Of the 164 rejections 55 (i) were rejected owing to failure to pay the application fee and 89 (ii) owing to refusal of a fee waiver. 20 were also rejected solely due to failure to pay the IHS.

Notes:

• The data relates to applications for Further Discretionary Leave to Remain.

• The 12,656 (a) applications were made by 12,430 people (due to repeat applications).

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

• All of the statistics referred to in the answer come with necessary caveats about the accuracy of the data. The data provided to answer (b), (c), (i) and (ii) above has been drawn from manual records on the Home Office Case Information Database, which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible human errors with data entry and processing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which contractors have been sanctioned for breaching contractual obligations in relation to accommodation for asylum seekers in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in the last two years; when each such contractor was sanctioned; and what each sanction so applied was.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The COMPASS contracts include Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for monitoring and measuring performance against required standards.

If a breach of the contractual obligations in relation to accommodation is identified then the Provider has a set timescale in which to rectify the breach. Should this not be rectified within that timescale then a KPI failure is recorded and may result in the application of a Service Credit. A ‘Service Credit’ is a rebate / money deducted from the Providers monthly invoice.

There were no service credits recovered from providers of the COMPASS accommodation in a) Birmingham, b) the West Midlands and c) England in the last two years, in relation to accommodation standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he expects the report on progress on recommendations regarding child detention in Palestine by the delegation of lawyers visiting Palestine in February 2016 to be published.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The visit is currently scheduled for February 2016 and the report will be published in due course. The original report that produced these recommendations was released in June 2012, following a visit in September 2011.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-05-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on reducing medical indemnity costs for GPs.

Alistair Burt

The Department is having ongoing discussions with NHS England to review the way in which indemnity costs in primary care are funded and will bring forward proposals for discussion in July 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to Israel of the implications of its obligations under the Geneva Convention for the practice of forcible transportation of child prisoners from Palestine to Israeli jails.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

As I made clear on 6 January during a Westminster Hall debate, the UK remains concerned about the detention of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

On 23 November 2015, officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv raised our concerns about the treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military detention with the Israeli Chief Military Prosecutor. We welcome recent improvements made by the Israeli authorities, including increasing the age of majority from 16 to 18 years old. However, we remain concerned at the number of Palestinian minors held in Israeli detention. We will also fund another visit of the delegation who authored the independent report on Children in Military Custody in February to report on further progress.

We continue to push for further measures to ensure that international standards are upheld in regards to the treatment of Palestinian children detained.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-05-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to increase the level of funding allocated for staffing in GP practices.

Alistair Burt

General practitioner (GP) practices are independent businesses and best placed to make the decisions about staffing numbers and skill mix to meet the needs of their patients. Funding for staffing is not allocated separately but forms part of a practice’s core funding allocation.

The GP Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016, sets a commitment to increase overall funding for general practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21. This includes core funding for practices, as well as funding for a range of national programmes to support general practice. As part of this investment, £206 million will fund a programme of measures to increase the general practice workforce.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of (a) the extent of differential treatment of Palestinian and Israeli child detainees by Israel and (b) whether that differential is consistent with Israelis international human rights obligations.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We remain concerned about the use of a dual court system whereby Palestinians, except East Jerusalem residents, are subject to the Israeli military court system, irrespective of the charge, whereas Israeli citizens are dealt with by the Israeli civil justice system. We are clear that Israel has legal obligations as an Occupying Power with respect to the Occupied Palestinian Territories under applicable international law. We regularly discuss with the Government of Israel implementation of those obligations and raise our serious concerns regarding such issues as the treatment of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons.