Tag: Tulip Siddiq

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many refugee applications from migrants living in the Sovereign Base Areas started before 1 December 2008 had not been determined on 8 August 2014; how many such applications were determined as failed following the enactment of the Refugees (Amendment) Ordinance 2014; and how many migrants have been removed from the Sovereign Base Areas as a consequence of the enactment of that ordinance.

Penny Mordaunt

Thirty-eight refugee applications from migrants living in the Sovereign Base Areas before 1 December 2008 had been open but not determined on 8 August 2014. Delays in processing asylum applications were due to the migrants refusing to co-operate with case workers handling their claims. In 2003, an MOU was agreed with the Republic of Cyprus on the handling of illegal migrants in the Sovereign Base Areas. Under the terms of that agreement, all applications for asylum from migrants present in the Sovereign Base Areas at that time were considered by the Republic on behalf of the Sovereign Base Areas Administration by specialist staff of the Republic of Cyprus Asylum Service.

The 38 migrants were informed they were failed asylum seekers following their prolonged unwillingness to engage with Republic of Cyprus asylum case workers. The intent of the Refugees (Amendment) Ordinance 2014 was to regularise the residency status of failed asylum seekers residing in the Sovereign Base Areas, so as to grant them temporary residence until they could be returned to their country of origin or a third country. No persons amongst this group have yet been removed from the Sovereign Base Areas as a consequence of this ordinance. They remain liable for return.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions in each year since 2009-10 he has directed that a planning application appeal which would otherwise be determined by a person appointed by the Secretary of State will instead be determined by the Secretary of State, using his powers under Schedule 6, Paragraph 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

Brandon Lewis

The attached table shows the number of S78 planning appeals that have been recovered over the last decade.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the legal opinion by Michael Bowsher QC and Azeem Suterwalla on the potential effect of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry

We have recently been provided with legal advice commissioned by Unite the Union and are considering the points raised by it.

Over several decades the UK and EU have signed numerous trade agreements. These treaties have helped both UK and EU businesses grow and create high quality jobs. They have also ensured that it remains for the UK to decide how our public services are run.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will be no different. Decisions on how to deliver public services for the best outcomes for UK citizens are and will be made by UK governments, not our trade partners. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, the European Commission and the US Government have all confirmed this. The NHS is not at risk from TTIP or any other trade and investment agreement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding the Government provided to the Female Genital Mutilation Helpline in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16; how many full-time equivalent staff have been employed by that helpline; how many calls that helpline has received; and how much funding the Government plans to allocate to that helpline in financial year 2016-17.

Karen Bradley

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) runs the UK’s 24-hour female genital mutilation helpline in partnership with the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police Service. The Government does not fund the helpline, but works closely with the NSPCC to raise awareness of the helpline. A total of 1,129 calls and enquiries have been received by the helpline between November 2013 and the end of January 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders have been (a) applied for and (b) issued by courts since those orders were introduced.

Caroline Dinenage

Statistics on FGM Protection Orders are publicly available as part of the Family Courts Statistics Quarterly series at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly. The next publication of Family Court Statistics Quarterly is due on 31 March 2016. This will provide data up to the end of December 2015.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his Department’s press release of 25 November 2015, entitled Department of Health’s settlement at the Spending Review 2015, how the figure of £2 billion of asset sales over five years was calculated; what the 25 potential asset sales with the highest prospective value are; what the value of projected asset sales scheduled to take place will be in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

The £2 billion target was a Spending Review target agreed between the Department and HM Treasury. The target was derived from 2015-16 capital plans submitted to the Department from across the NHS Group, taking account of historic trends and additional future disposals needed to deliver the Department’s policy and finance objectives over the Spending Review period.

Land and buildings are the highest value asset class in the National Health Service. The Department works with a wide range of NHS and foundation trust’s bodies in confidence to identify and help bring forward surplus property. Data on the values of surplus land and property, before it is sold, is commercially sensitive and is not appropriate for the public domain.

The NHS continuously looks at ways of using its assets more efficiently, including disposing of what is surplus. It is not possible to provide a projected value of surplus assets at this stage while this work is ongoing but the Department is aiming to achieve circa £400 million per annum in sales from NHS and NHS Property Services’ assets over the Spending Review period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to recommendation three of the report Operational productivity and performance in English NHS acute hospitals: Unwarranted variations, published in February 2016, when he expects NHS Improvement to publish a list of the top 10 medicines with savings opportunities for trusts to pursue; what methodology will be used to develop that list and whether it will be subject to consultation; whether that list will include medicines prescribed in primary care; what steps NHS Improvement will take to monitor performance of trusts against that list; whether he intends that NHS Improvement will intervene in those trusts failing to realise savings opportunities; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

The Department’s Hospital Pharmacy Transformation Programme team are currently undertaking extensive consultation with trusts, key partner organisations and stakeholders as part of our Model Hospital development process, to produce our shortlist of medicines. Our initial focus will be on medicines prescribed exclusively in National Health Service hospitals.

We expect that trusts will wish to take such opportunities into account as part of the hospital pharmacy transformation plans they must have in place by April 2017. NHS Improvement will support trusts during the process of creating the plans to ensure they are robust and also address the medicines optimisation recommendations in Lord Carter’s report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-27.

To ask the Attorney General, (a) how much funding he has allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by the (i) Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and (ii) SFO’s Proceeds of Crime Division in each year since 2009.

Jeremy Wright

The information requested is contained in the following tables.

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
SFO gross budget	£44.6m	£41.3m	£40.1m	£43.7m	£54m	£59.4m	£62.2m
SFO Proceeds of Crime Division 2	£0.920m	£1.021m	£1.571m	£1.683m	£1.931m	£2.304m	£2.674m
Full time equivalent staff 3	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
SFO	307	305	306	292	305	4014	393
SFO Proceeds of Crime Division	13	17	21	20	23.43	32.71	31.43

1. The figures includes any blockbuster funding received in each year. They exclude capital expenditure, annually managed expenditure.
2. The Proceeds of Crime figures include the budget for the current year and outturn for the previous years. They do not include £110k funding received from the Department for International Development in the financial years 2014-15 & 2015-16.
3. This data covers FTE staff in post as at 31^st March each year including fixed term contractors, but not agency staff. Complete records for staff in post in the Proceeds of Crime division before 2011-12 are not held centrally and the figures provided for these years are based on available data.
4. This is a revised figure which corrects the number previously published in the SFO Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 13 April 2016, Official Report, column 374, on tax avoidance and evasion, whether (a) the Guardian, (b) the BBC, (c) the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and (d) the Süddeutsche Zeitung have agreed to provide the data they received.

Greg Hands

HM Revenue & Customs has asked the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the BBC and The Guardian to share their data. The BBC and The Guardian have confirmed that they do not hold the data. The ICIJ have refused to share their data with us, stating that their policy is not to hand over such material. While we welcome the steps they have taken in exposing this issue, their decision not to release the full set of information to us is disappointing.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the table on page 59 of the HM Revenue and Customs’ document, Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition: methodological annex published in October 2015, if he will provide (a) the same data on corporation tax risks for the (i) 2012-13 and (ii) 2013-14 financial years and (b) the same risk data for the other taxes to which large businesses are subject.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs published its latest tax gap estimates on 22 October 2015 in Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470540/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2015-1.pdf.

A Methodological Annex was also published on the same date at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/469973/HMRC-Measuring-tax-gaps-2015-methodological-annex.pdf.

The number of Corporation Tax risks for Large Business Service groups are set out in table 7.2, page 63 of ‘Measuring tax gaps’ 2015 edition. These figures are not yet available for the years requested due to the lengthy nature of some tax enquiries.

Different methodologies are used to estimate tax gaps for other taxes paid by large businesses, and therefore the information requested on risk data for other taxes is not available.