Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to review the policy limiting the reuniting of refugee families to children under the age of 18 and partners of refugees who have been granted asylum in the UK.

James Brokenshire

Our refugee family reunion policy allows immediate family members of a person in the UK with refugee leave or humanitarian protection status – that is a spouse or partner and children under the age of 18, who formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin – to reunite with them in the UK. We have no plans to widen these criteria, which are fully compliant with our international obligations and enable thousands of people each year to be reunited with their families in the UK.

However, where a family reunion application fails under the Immigration Rules, the Entry Clearance Officer must also consider whether there are exceptional circumstances or compassionate reasons to justify granting a visa outside the Rules. This caters for extended family members in exceptional circumstances.

We are currently reviewing our process for dealing with family reunion applications in consultation with the Ministry of Justice and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As part of that review we are working closely with the British Red Cross. We have committed to improving our guidance to caseworkers and redesigning the application form to ensure that applicants better understand the process and what is required of them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria she uses to assess a bid from a metro mayor to assume the additional role of police and crime commissioner.

Mike Penning

Any proposal submitted by a local area for an elected mayor to take on police and crime commissioner (PCC) functions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

In keeping with the Government’s broader approach to the devolution of powers to local people, it is for local areas to make the case and demonstrate that the transfer of PCC functions would be in the best interests of local communities and the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in relevant areas.

There is no presumption that an elected mayor would take on PCC functions. Local circumstances and the views of relevant PCCs are important factors in any consideration. Alongside this, another significant consideration is the issue of geographic boundaries and co-terminosity between the police area and the combined authority area.

Against that background, it is for local areas to make the case for any proposals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2016 to Question 30648, what details of family members her Department records in respect of refugees who are granted asylum in the UK.

Mike Penning

Asylum claims may include one or more family members who are accepted as dependant on the principal claimant’s asylum claim. Information on family members is requested at the screening and substantive interviews and, where given, this includes name, date of birth, nationality, gender and method of entry into the country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many individual injunction cases the Planning Enforcement Fund helped finance in (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.

Brandon Lewis

The Department received six applications for enforcement grants before the deadline for submitting applications and all were successful.

Two grants were made in the financial year 2014-15 to Staffordshire County Council (£8,010) and Stratford-on-Avon District Council (£3,200).

Four grants were made in the financial year 2015-16 to Bath and North East Somerset Council (£7,993.75), London Borough of Camden (£8,184.50), Chelmsford City Council (£2,755) and South Gloucestershire Council (£3,291.66).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31103, what the average local authority expenditure for each looked after child was in each year from 2011 to 2015.

Edward Timpson

Local authority funding for the provision of children’s services, including fostering services, is provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, local authorities are required to submit annual budget and outturn statements about their actual spending to the Secretary of State for Education.

The total local authority expenditure on looked after children, based upon the section 251 outturn statements, is set out below for each financial year between 2011 – 2015.

Total local authority expenditure per looked after child per week is also set out. This is given by total expenditure in each financial year divided by the total number of looked after children at the 31 March of each year. This is then divided by the number of weeks in a year to give a weekly figure.

	2011-12 (£000s)	2012-13 (£000s)	2013-14 (£000s)	2014-15 (£000s)
Looked After Children Spending	£3,383,664	£3,495,626	£3,661,327	£3,768,523

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Spending per Looked after Child per week	£880	£985	£1,020	£1,040

Source: Section 251 outturn statements and SSDA903

Note: Unit costs rounded to the neared £5.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of clinical commissioning groups are fully implementing NICE guidelines on fertility treatment.

Jane Ellison

Information about clinical commissioning groups’ approach to commissioning fertility services is not collected centrally.

The Department has not made any estimate of the proportion of children conceived in the United Kingdom using in-vitro fertilisation relative to those countries mentioned.

The Department has no plans to instruct NHS England to commission fertility treatment centrally. Fertility services do not meet the criteria set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to be nationally commissioned by NHS England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33135, on employment and support allowance: inflammatory bowel disease, how many new claimants there have been in this Parliament.

Priti Patel

The information provided in response to Question 33135 dated the 18^th of April is the latest data available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34026, what types of data her Department holds on unaccompanied children who have (a) applied for asylum in accordance with Article 8 of the Dublin III Regulation and (b) been granted asylum in accordance with Article 8 of the Dublin III Regulation.

James Brokenshire

Dublin III is the mechanism in place used to determine the Member State deemed to be responsible for hearing an applicant’s asylum claim, providing the asylum claim has been lodged in at lease one of Member States. Article 8 of the Dublin regulations deals specifically with asylum claimants who are unaccompanied minor. Asylum claims are not granted under Article 8 of the Dublin III Regulations.

Home Office records regarding the processing of Dublin III cases are recorded on the Case Information Database (CID), and would include but are not restricted to, name, nationality, date of birth, Member State where the asylum claim was lodged, Dublin Article relevant to the claim, request/decision details and Dublin case outcome details. Currently case progression data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is currently subject to a full manual interrogation of individual records to improve the quality of the central data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2016 to Question 37487, whether the Education Funding Agency has directed academies to admit pupils 10 or 12 times since 2012; and how many directions sought by local authorities and referred on to the Schools Adjudicator were upheld in each year from 2005 to 2010.

Nick Gibb

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2016 to Question 37487, the Education Funding Agency has directed academies to admit pupils 12 times between April 2012 and April 2016.

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) does not issue directions in relation to maintained schools but will determine the case if a school which a local authority is seeking to direct refers the case on to the adjudicator.

Prior to 2007, directions under section 96 and 97 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (SSFA) were determined by the Secretary of State. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 amended the SSFA to bring powers to the OSA to determine appeals.

The table below shows the number of directions upheld in each year from 2007 to 2010.

Year	LA directions upheld by OSA
2007	6
2008	20
2009	9
2010	7

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2016 to Question 37683, on child maintenance arrears, on how many occasions his Department has used each of the enforcement powers referred to in that Answer in each of the last five years.

Priti Patel

For the 1993 and 2003 Schemes the information you requested is set out on Page 40 of the Child Support Agency quarterly summary of statistics which can be accessed online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-support-agency-quarterly-summary-of-statistics-march-2016

Information on enforcement for the 2012 scheme could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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