Tag: Tulip Siddiq

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role the National Crime Agency plays in tackling tax evasion.

Mr John Hayes

The National Crime Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 sets out the Agency’s staffing numbers and funding allocations including gross expenditure for the Economic Crime Command for 2013-14, and 2014-15.

The gross expenditure of the Economic Crime Command in 2013/14, the first year of the NCA’s operation, was £10,571,000. In 2014-15 gross expenditure was £21,718,000. In June 2015, the International Corruption Unit was established in the Economic Crime Command. It brought together resources from the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the NCA into a single unit and is responsible for investigating the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK, and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates.

The Economic Crime Command also leads the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) through which the financial sector, law enforcement agencies and the Financial Conduct Authority share information to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing. The NCA as a whole has around 4,000 staff. The majority of the NCA’s staff work as a flexible investigative resource, not in a particular Command, but assigned to particular operations across all areas of the NCA as needed. The agency also houses a number of deployable specialist capabilities.

The number of staff working in a particular Command is not a reliable indicator of the overall NCA resource linked to a particular type of crime. The Criminal Finances Threat Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the NCA which includes representatives from across law enforcement, meeting quarterly. As the Group is not a unit within the NCA, the information sought is not available. HMRC leads on tax evasion.

The NCA works closely with HMRC in relation to tax evasion that relates to serious and organised crime. Through the NCA’s national tasking and coordination mechanisms the Agency is able act on these cases by utilising its specialist capabilities, for example undertaking tax investigations to recover assets from serious and organised criminals under part 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 1 February 2016 to Questions 23158 and 23749, on vetting, what progress she has made in compiling the data.

Karen Bradley

The relevant data is being finalised and I will write to the Honourable Member shortly with the information requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many incidences of loss or deterioration of vision as a result of postponed ophthalmology appointments his Department has recorded in each of the last three years.

Alistair Burt

All follow-up appointments should take place when clinically appropriate. It is for clinicians to make decisions on when they see patients, in line with their clinical priority, and patients should not experience undue delay at any stage of their referral, diagnosis or treatment. The appropriate interval for follow up appointments will vary between different services or specialties, and between individual patients, depending on the severity of their condition.

To ensure that patients are seen at the appropriate time, NHS England’s guidance, “Recording and reporting referral to treatment waiting times for consultant-led elective care” is clear that when patients on planned lists are clinically ready for their care to commence and reach the date for their planned appointment, they should either receive that appointment or be transferred to an active waiting list. At that point, a waiting time clock will be started and their wait reported in the relevant statistical return.

Hospital episode statistics contain details of all outpatient appointments at National Health Service hospitals in England and commissioned by the NHS from independent sector organisations in England. The recording of a primary diagnosis and postponed or cancelled appointments is not mandatory within the outpatient commissioning data set and there are no plans to make it so.

Data is not, therefore, available on the number of cancelled or postponed follow up appointments for patients with age-related macular degeneration, central retinal vein occlusion and diabetic macular oedema.

No assessment has been made of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement or cancellation of ophthalmology follow-up appointments on patients’ sight. However, officials have met with the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning and are considering their concerns.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to tackle online abuse and harassment targeted at Jewish people on (a) social media networks, (b) Facebook and (c) Twitter.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Government recognises the significant harm caused to individual Jewish victims and communities by online hate material. We have a robust legislative framework which allows the operationally independent Crown Prosecution Service and Judiciary to balance the right to exercise free speech with the need to protect communities and individuals from targeted abuse.

In July 2016, we published Action Against Hate: The UK Government’s Plan for Tackling Hate Crime which sets out a range of non-legislative responses. This includes counter-narrative activity and collaborative work with the Internet industry to identify ways to reduce the harm caused, for example, by taking down illegal material within 24 hours.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2015 to Question 13713, for what reasons all of Lord Green of Hustierpoint’s updates on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership dated before 6 August 2015 cannot be deposited in the Library.

Anna Soubry

Previous updates to the European Scrutiny Committees of both Houses and the APPG for EU-US Trade and Investment are being deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many migrants granted leave to remain in the UK did not have No Recourse to Public Funds conditions imposed on them because of exceptional circumstances in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire

The number of cases granted leave to remain in the UK who did not have No Recourse to Public Funds conditions imposed on them in each of the last five years was as follows: 2011: 12,450

2012: 7,275

2013: 13,215

2014: 12,175

2015: 8,500

These figures have been provided by the Home Office database with figures rounded to the nearest 5, interpreting ‘migrants’ as ‘lead cases’, they exclude asylum applications and figures for 2015 are available up to 30 September 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2015 to Question 19711, what the number of such claimants was in (a) 2010-11, (B) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13.

Priti Patel

a) DWP does not hold data on the number of ESOL learning aims started by claimants in the 2010/11 academic year.

b) The 2011/12 statistics can be found in Table 4 of the joint DWP-BIS ‘Further Education for Benefit Claimants: June 2013’ official statistics publication – see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-for-benefit-claimants-june-2013.

c) The 2012/13 statistics can be found in Table 4 of the joint DWP-BIS ‘Further Education for Benefit Claimants 2012 to 2013’ official statistics publication – see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/further-education-for-benefit-claimants-2012-to-2013.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much is allocated in her Department’s operational plan budget for projects in (a) Jordan and (b) Iraq for 2015-16.

Mr Desmond Swayne

In the financial year 2015/16 DFID’s latest Operational Plan budgets are £47 million in Jordan and £40 million in Iraq.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 24 December 2015 to Questions 19956 and 19957, how many migrants granted leave to remain in the UK did not have No Recourse to public funds conditions imposed on them because of exceptional circumstances in (a) 2008, (b) 2009 and (c) 2010.

James Brokenshire

The number of cases in which leave to remain in the UK was granted that did not have No Recourse to Public Funds conditions imposed on them in the years 2008 to 2010 was as follows:

2008: 3,490

2009: 7,795

2010: 9,020

These figures have been provided by the Home Office database with figures rounded to the nearest 5, interpreting ‘migrants’ as ‘lead cases’ and excluding asylum applications.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many appeals were made by civil society organisations to the Education Funding Agency and Local Government Ombudsman in relation to admissions decisions made by (a) academies, (b) academies which were previously maintained schools and (c) free schools in each year since 2009-10.

Edward Timpson

Parents have the right to complain to an admission authority regarding its decision to refuse admission of a child. The admission authority must establish an independent appeals panel to hear the complaint. On behalf of the Secretary of State, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) will investigate complaints about the appeals process operated by independent appeal panels for academies and free schools.

The table below provides information on admission appeals complaints assessed as being in scope for investigation by EFA since April 2012, when it was established. EFA has no record of admission appeal complaints in the last four financial years from any Civil Society Organisations.

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) handles the appeals process operated in respect of maintained schools. The Department does not hold information on the number of admission appeals complaints heard by the LGO. The LGO should hold this information.

	Financial year 2012-13	Financial year 2013-14	Financial year 2014-15	2015-16 Current financial year to date
PQ25402 (A) Total number of admission appeal complaints about academies investigated by EFA	127	163	144	203
PQ25402 (B) Total number of admission appeal complaints about academies which were previously maintained schools investigated by EFA	115	150	130	193
PQ25402 (C) Total number of admission appeal complaints about free schools investigated by EFA	Not recorded centrally for this financial year	4	8	4
Total number of admission appeal complaints fully upheld by EFA	15	13	26	15
Name of schools where EFA has investigated an admission appeal complaint subject to appeals	See attachment	See attachment	See attachment	See attachment
Total appeals complaints investigated, as a proportion of open academies and free schools	5% (of 2,796)	4% (of 3,874)	3% (of 4,881)	4% (of 5,447)