daily report tuesday, 15 may 2018 contentsqnadailyreport.blob.core.windows.net/qnadaily... ·...
Post on 16-Jul-2020
5 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Daily Report Tuesday, 15 May 2018
This report shows written answers and statements provided on 15 May 2018 and the
information is correct at the time of publication (06:29 P.M., 15 May 2018). For the latest
information on written questions and answers, ministerial corrections, and written statements,
please visit: http://www.parliament.uk/writtenanswers/
CONTENTS
ANSWERS 6
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY 6
Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy:
Freedom of Information 6
Renewable Energy 6
Renewable Energy: Feed-in
Tariffs 6
Research: Finance 7
Solar Power: Housing 7
CABINET OFFICE 8
Cabinet Office: Internet 8
Cabinet Office: Interserve 9
Cabinet Office: Public
Expenditure 9
Cancer 9
Government Departments:
Email 9
Lung Cancer 10
Public Records: Digital
Technology 10
Public Sector: Land 10
Public Sector: Procurement 11
Public Service Ombudsman
Bill (Draft) 11
Unemployment: Dyslexia 11
Unemployment: Hearing
Impairment 12
DEFENCE 12
Armed Forces: Deployment 12
Armed Forces: Food 12
Army: Recruitment 12
Clyde Naval Base:
Submarines 13
Ministry of Defence: Ministers 13
Nuclear Weapons: Transport 13
Saudi Arabia: Air Force 14
Saudi Arabia: Armed Forces 15
Saudi Arabia: Arms Trade 15
Saudi Arabia: BAE Systems 16
Saudi Arabia: Civil Servants 16
Saudi Arabia: Military Alliances 16
Submarines 17
Veterans: Post-traumatic
Stress Disorder 17
DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND
SPORT 18
Arts: Northern Ireland 18
Commercial Broadcasting:
Radio 18
Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport:
Disclosure of Information 18
Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport:
Incentives 19
Gaming Machines 19
Public Libraries: Standards 20
Social Media: Radicalism 20
Television: Licencsng 20
EDUCATION 21
16-18 Mathematics Education
Review 21
Apprentices 21
Apprentices: Jarrow 22
Department for Education:
Training 22
Disabled Students' Allowances 24
Headteachers: Costs 24
Open University: Finance 24
Pre-school Education: Living
Wage 25
Schools: Buildings 25
Social Services: Children 26
Young People: Employment 27
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND
RURAL AFFAIRS 27
Agriculture: Waste Disposal 27
Animal Experiments:
Cosmetics 27
Beverage Containers:
Recycling 28
Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs:
Disclosure of Information 29
Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs:
Training 29
Incinerators 30
Nitrogen Oxides: Pollution
Control 30
Trees: Conservation 31
EXITING THE EUROPEAN
UNION 31
Ports 31
Ports: Greater London 32
Security: Northern Ireland 32
FOREIGN AND
COMMONWEALTH OFFICE 33
Bahrain: Elections 33
Bahrain: Torture 33
Burundi: Peace Negotiations 33
Companies: Ownership 34
EU Common Foreign and
Security Policy 34
Foreign and Commonwealth
Office: Training 34
Hezbollah: Weapons 35
India: Diplomatic Relations 35
South Sudan: Peace
Negotiations 36
Sudan: Religious Freedom 36
Turkey: Foreign Relations 37
USA: Diplomatic Relations 37
Zimbabwe: Elections 37
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 38
Ambulance Services 38
Autism 38
Breast Cancer: Screening 38
Clinical Commissioning
Groups 40
Dental Health 40
Department of Health and
Social Care: Training 40
Drugs: Innovation 41
Mental Health Services:
Children and Young People 42
Norovirus 43
Nurses 44
Postnatal Depression 44
Pre-school Education: Mental
Health 44
Suicide: Males 45
Sustainability and
Transformation Partnerships:
South East 45
Visual Impairment: Depressive
Illnesses 46
HOME OFFICE 46
Compulsorily Detained
Psychiatric Patients 46
DNA: Databases 46
Domestic Violence: Homicide 47
Educational Testing Service 48
EU Immigration: Horn of Africa 48
Human Trafficking: Scotland 49
Immigration: EU Nationals 49
Immigration: Married People 50
Knives: Crime 51
Members: Correspondence 51
Prince Harry: Marriage 51
Seasonal Agricultural Workers'
Scheme 52
Social Media: Children 52
UK Border Force: Armed
Forces Covenant 52
Undercover Policing Inquiry 52
Visas: Scotland 53
Visas: Skilled Workers 53
HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 54
[Subject Heading to be
Assigned] 54
Affordable Housing: Young
People 54
Areas of Outstanding Natural
Beauty 55
Building Regulations and Fire
Safety Independent Review 55
Land Use 55
Leasehold 56
Letter Boxes: Standards 56
Local Government Finance 56
Local Government:
Procurement 58
Sleeping Rough 58
INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT 59
Internally Displaced People:
Departmental Coordination 59
Palestinians: Overseas Aid 59
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 60
Department for International
Trade: Training 60
Trade Agreements: Israel 60
JUSTICE 61
Attorney General: Registered
Intermediaries 61
Educational Testing Service 61
Homicide: Reoffenders 62
Ministry Of Justice: Training 62
NORTHERN IRELAND 66
Borders: Northern Ireland 66
City Deals: Northern Ireland 66
Customs Officers: Northern
Ireland 66
Northern Ireland Office:
Apprentices 67
SCOTLAND 67
Scotland Office: Incentives 67
Scotland Office: Official Cars 67
Scotland Office: Training 68
TRANSPORT 68
Department for Transport:
Official Cars 68
Dial-a-Ride: West Lancashire 68
Merchant Shipping:
Registration 69
Roads: Safety 70
Shipping: Apprentices 70
Shipping: Employment 71
Shipping: Training 72
TREASURY 72
Air Passenger Duty 72
Brexit 72
Children: Day Care 73
Financial Services 73
Financial Services: EU
Countries 74
Instalment Credit 75
Royal Bank of Scotland: Fees
and Charges 75
Royal Bank of Scotland: Small
Businesses 76
WALES 76
Wales Office: Apprentices 76
Wales Office: Incentives 77
Wales Office: Official Cars 77
Wales Office: Training 77
WORK AND PENSIONS 78
Bereavement Allowance:
Cohabitation 78
Carers 78
Children: Maintenance 79
Employment and Support
Allowance: Appeals 80
Personal Independence
Payment 80
Personal Independence
Payment: Appeals 81
Social Security Benefits:
Appeals 81
State Retirement Pensions:
Females 82
State Retirement Pensions:
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath 82
Universal Credit 83
MINISTERIAL CORRECTIONS 84
EDUCATION 84
Young People: Employment 84
WRITTEN STATEMENTS 85
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY 85
Consumer Policy Update 85
EXITING THE EUROPEAN
UNION 86
Publication of the Framework
for the UK-EU Security
Partnership, 09/05/2018 86
TREASURY 86
Operation of the UK’s Counter-
Terrorist Asset Freezing
Regime: 1 July 2017 to 30
September 2017 and 1
October 2017 to 31 December
2017 86
Notes:
Questions marked thus [R] indicate that a relevant interest has been declared.
Questions with identification numbers of 900000 or greater indicate that the question was originally tabled as an
oral question and has since been unstarred.
ANSWERS
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Freedom of Information
Christian Matheson: [141813]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he
plans to respond to the Freedom of Information Request relating to PEDL 189 submitted
by Mr Ben Dean on 21 March 2018.
Claire Perry:
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not received a
Freedom of Information Request relating to PEDL 189 submitted by Mr Ben Dean on
21 March 2018. The Department understands that Mr Dean has approached the Oil
and Gas Authority on this matter and that they will respond to Mr Dean as
appropriate.
Renewable Energy
Tracy Brabin: [142905]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support
his Department provides to people who have had renewable energy systems fitted by
businesses fraudulently claiming to be MCS accredited and are therefore unable to
receive the grants from Ofgem.
Claire Perry:
Certification of the products and the installation by the Microgeneration Certification
Scheme (MCS) is a key eligibility requirement for two government incentives, the
Renewable Heat Incentive and the Feed-in Tariff. The Department works closely with
MCS and Consumer Codes operating in this sector to ensure that consumers using
an MCS certified contractor for a renewable energy installation are protected.
Where an installer fraudulently claims to be MCS certified, the consumer can contact
their local trading standards office https://www.gov.uk/find-local-trading-standards-
office.
Where the Department receives individual correspondence regarding such cases,
officials work closely with Ofgem and MCS to ensure best possible outcomes can be
achieved for the consumer.
Renewable Energy: Feed-in Tariffs
Rebecca Long Bailey: [142884]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he
plans to publish the consultation on proposals for replacement of the feed-in tariff policy
framework.
Claire Perry:
We are considering options for small-scale low-carbon generation beyond 2019, and
a consultation on the Feed-in Tariffs scheme will be published in due course.
Research: Finance
Chi Onwurah: [142842]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what
assessment he has made of the effect of the short term project funding model on the
diversity of early years researchers.
Mr Sam Gyimah:
The Research Councils monitor and publish annually the diversity data of their
applicants which has been extended to include data for successfully appointed
students since 2015-16. The data is used to track progress and inform policy. With
the creation of UKRI, we recognise there is a real opportunity to build on this data
collection and we aim to extend this to include a similar dataset for Innovate UK.
UKRI has recently launched the recruitment for establishing an external advisory
group and will be developing an equality, diversity and inclusion action plan.
The UK Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers 2008
provides a single, unambiguous statement of the expectations and responsibilities of
research funders and institutions with respect to the management of
researchers/contract research staff. In accordance with this, diversity and equality
must be promoted in all aspects of the recruitment and career management of
researchers. Vitae leads on its management and implementation, reporting to the
Concordat Strategy Group which includes representatives of all the main UK funders
and employers of researchers. The Concordat Strategy Group is currently carrying
out a ten-year review of the Concordat. The review will be carried out by an
independent expert review panel, with a secretariat provided by UKRI and Innovation.
A report will be published in September 2018.
Chi Onwurah: [142843]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what
employment rights are associated with (a) post-doctoral and (b) project research funding
for researchers in the early stage of their careers.
Mr Sam Gyimah:
Researchers have statutory employment rights as do any other UK employee,
irrespective of their career stage. Any other contractual entitlements they may have
would vary from employer to employer. PhD students are not necessarily employed
by the institution where they are studying.
Solar Power: Housing
Justin Madders: [141832]
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many
domestic solar panels have been installed in each of the last five years.
Claire Perry:
The Central FiTs Register (CFR) contains all of the installations confirmed on the
FiTs scheme; from this database domestic solar installations can be identified. The
number of new domestic installations per year is set out in the table below. Domestic
installations that have not accredited under the FiT scheme are not captured in these
figures.
ANNUAL PERIOD
CFR 1 DOMESTIC PHOTOVOLTAIC
INSTALLATIONS
2013 89,822
2014 118,594
2015 155,459
2016 33,815
2017 16,422
1. Central Feed-in Tariff Register (CFR) data is provided to BEIS quarterly by Ofgem
and details all of the installations currently confirmed on the FiTs scheme. There is
a lag in the CFR data compared to the FiTs application data, due to the process for
approval onto the scheme. Data for 2017 is provisional.
CABINET OFFICE
Cabinet Office: Internet
Jon Trickett: [137912]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to Answer of 29 March 2018 to
Question 132881 on Government Departments: Internet, if he will publish the data for
each publication from his Department in the last 12 months.
Chloe Smith:
Information on Cabinet Office ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and external
meetings is published quarterly. To date, the page views for each set of data are as
follows:
January – March 2017 1976
April – June 2017 2401
July – September 2017 1636
October – December 2017 622
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications
Cabinet Office: Interserve
Jon Trickett: [137916]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April 2018 to
Question 135322, on Government Departments: Interserve, how many of the meetings
with Cabinet Office officials were with Crown Representatives.
Oliver Dowden:
Cabinet Office Officials met with the company 11 times within the last six months.
The Crown Representative attended 9 of these meetings.
Cabinet Office: Public Expenditure
Jon Trickett: [140576]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's publication
entitled Expenditure over £25,000 - March 2018, published on 2 May 2018, for what parts
of the grants efficiency accelerator programme the payments to Ernst & Young were
made.
Chloe Smith:
Ernst & Young (EY) were successful through a procurement process to deliver Phase
1 of the Grants Efficiency Accelerator, which aims to validate risk in general grants
administration and realise efficiency savings. EY worked as part of a blended team
with the Cabinet Office Grants Function and provided flexible access to the expertise
and capabilities required to deliver this work at pace. This included fraud and data
experts as well as economic data modelling and programme delivery specialists.
Cancer
Mr Gregory Campbell: [142781]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the five most common cancer diagnoses
were among (a) men and (b) women in (i) 2007 and (ii) 2017.
Chloe Smith:
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority.
I have asked the Authority to reply.
Government Departments: Email
Martyn Day: [141853]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government has taken to
ensure encryption is provided on all email between hon. Members' offices and
Government departments.
Chloe Smith:
The National Cyber Security Centre published guidance on email security in
September 2017, including specific directions for public sector users at OFFICIAL.
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/email-security-and-anti-spoofing
Government departments are to encrypt emails to a level appropriate to the content
and classification of that communication.
The Cabinet Office cannot, however, speak for the security of emails sent by Hon.
Members from non-government email systems, as this is dependent on which system
and service an email is sent.
Lung Cancer
Jim Shannon: [139491]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the (a) age and
(b) gender of people diagnosed with lung cancer in each of the last five years.
Chloe Smith:
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority.
I have asked the Authority to reply.
Attachments:
1. UKSA Response [PQ139491 .pdf]
Public Records: Digital Technology
Jon Trickett: [140993]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 74 of the
Government Response to the 30 Year Rule Review, whether the review of the strategy
for managing digital records has taken place.
Chloe Smith:
The Review of Government Digital Records was completed by Sir Alex Allan in
December 2015 and published on GOV.UK –
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-digital-records-and-
archives-review-by-sir-alex-allan
Public Sector: Land
Jon Trickett: [141689]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times his Department's Government
Property Finder has been used in the last twelve months.
Oliver Dowden:
The Government Property Finder tool allows you to search the Government property
and land available to rent or buy. It allows you to search by location and department.
There have been 16,872 individual property and land searches on the Government
Property Finder website in the last 12 months.
Public Sector: Procurement
Jon Trickett: [142333]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his oral contribution to the
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 9 May 2018, which
providers outside the UK are being examined and for which contracts.
Oliver Dowden:
Departments are encouraged to maximise competition in order to achieve value for
money. Public procurement are required to go through fair and open competition and
procurers are not permitted to discriminate based upon the nationality of the supplier.
In addition, through the Commercial Operating Standards
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm
ent_data/file/567659/Commercal_Standards_new.pdf, departments are encouraged
to maximise competition by designing service requirements that are accessible to as
many suppliers as possible, including those from overseas.
The current public procurement rules will continue to apply until the UK has left the
EU following the successful conclusion of exit negotiations. The longer-term
opportunities for UK Government procurement regulations are being considered
carefully.
Public Service Ombudsman Bill (Draft)
Jon Trickett: [141686]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to bring forward the Public
Service Ombudsman Bill.
Chloe Smith:
I refer the Hon. Member to previous answers 119692 and 119693.
The Government published the draft Public Service Ombudsman Bill in December
2016, setting out in detail its plans to introduce a new Public Service Ombudsman.
The draft Bill will be progressed as and when a legislative opportunity arises.
Unemployment: Dyslexia
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: [141038]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of
people with dyslexia who are (a) unemployed and (b) not in training or further education.
Chloe Smith:
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority.
I have asked the Authority to reply.
Attachments:
1. UKSA Response [PQ141038 and PQ141039 draft (1).docx]
Unemployment: Hearing Impairment
Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: [140765]
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of
people with hearing impairments who are (a) unemployed and (b) not in training or further
education.
Chloe Smith:
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority.
I have asked the Authority to reply.
Attachments:
1. UKSA Response [PQ140765, 140766, 140770, 140771.pdf]
DEFENCE
Armed Forces: Deployment
Jonathan Edwards: [141766]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, in which countries which are in a state of war
UK armed forces personnel are serving as support staff.
Mark Lancaster:
The only countries currently in a state of war are the Republic of Korea and the
Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, albeit, the Korean Armistice Agreement,
signed on July 27 1953, did bring about a cessation of conflict on the peninsula. A
number of UK Armed Forces personnel are currently serving in the Republic of
Korea, both within the Defence Staff in the British Embassy and filling staff officer
posts within United Nations Command Korea.
Armed Forces: Food
Frank Field: [141316]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2018 to
Question 131423, what progress he has made on reviewing his Department's policy of
redistributing surplus ration packs to the homeless.
Guto Bebb:
The Ministry of Defence continues to review its storage and disposal policy for
Operational Ration Packs.
Army: Recruitment
Mr Mark Francois: [142789]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people (a) applied to join and (b)
were recruited into the British Army between January and March 2018.
Mark Lancaster:
The information requested will be published as Official Statistics. The next release of
the UK Armed Forces Quarterly Service Personnel Statistics will be on Thursday 17
May 2018, and will be available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2018
Clyde Naval Base: Submarines
Deidre Brock: [142889]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many nuclear safety events have occured
on submarines docked at Faslane in each year since 2006 by (a) class of submarine and
(b) type of incident.
Deidre Brock: [142890]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many leaks of radioactive coolant there
have been from submarines berthed at Faslane in each of the last ten years.
Guto Bebb:
The information requested will take time to collate and I will write to the hon. Member
when this has been completed.
Ministry of Defence: Ministers
Andrew Gwynne: [142792]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2018 to
Question 136906, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the spouse of a
Minister who has financial interests divests themselves of those interests upon the
Minister taking office in his Department.
Mr Tobias Ellwood:
In accordance with the Ministerial Code, on appointment to each new office, Ministers
must provide their Departmental Permanent Secretary with a full list in writing of all
interests which might be thought to give rise to a conflict. This list also includes
interests of the Minister's spouse or partner and close family which might be thought
to give rise to a conflict. All Ministerial interest returns are reviewed by the Prime
Minister's Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests. Where appropriate the
Minister will meet the Permanent Secretary and the Prime Minister's Independent
Adviser on Ministers' Interests to agree action on the handling of interests.
Nuclear Weapons: Transport
Deidre Brock: [142888]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many incidents excluding trivial incidents
involving the nuclear weapons convoys between Coulport and Berkshire there have been
in each of the last ten years which were classified as (a) engineering incidents to nuclear
convoy vehicles and (b) operational incidents.
Guto Bebb:
The transportation of Defence Nuclear Material, including warheads, is carried out to
the highest standard in accordance with stringent safety regulations.
We record every incident and occurrence during a convoy, which could consist of
over 20 vehicles, regardless of how minor. This may, for example, include very minor
occurrences such as a vibration in the wing-mirror glass of a vehicle. The list below
comprises largely unscheduled stops to make minor maintenance checks on the
vehicles - none posed any risk to the public.
DEFENCE NUCLEAR MATERIAL MOVEMENTS 2008 -2017
Engineering Operational
2008 9 3
2009 2 4
2010 13 1
2011 10 2
2012 19 3
2013 5 5
2014 6 6
2015 6 4
2016 17 21
2017 20 24
Saudi Arabia: Air Force
Jonathan Edwards: [141760]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Royal Air Force personnel were
seconded to serve in Saudi Arabia in each of the last five years; and what the roles and
responsibilities have been of those personnel.
Guto Bebb:
The number of RAF personnel on secondment in Saudi Arabia in each of the last five
years is:
YEAR RAF PERSONNEL
2013 29
2014 36
2015 34
2016 30
2017 26
2018 (up to 11 May) 21
These personnel were all seconded to BAE Systems to provide training support to
Royal Saudi Air Force aircrew and routine aircraft engineering support.
Jonathan Edwards: [141763]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what role Royal Air Force personnel play in
respect of Saudi Tornado IDS fighter-bombers in Saudi Arabia.
Guto Bebb:
Royal Air Force instructors on secondment to BAE Systems provide training support
to Saudi Tornado IDS aircrew.
Saudi Arabia: Armed Forces
Jonathan Edwards: [141769]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the procedure is for UK military
personnel working on his Department's contracts in Saudi Arabia to report violations of
international humanitarian law.
Guto Bebb:
Military personnel, wherever they are serving, would be expected to report any
concerns about possible violations of international humanitarian law through
submissions to their chain of command.
Saudi Arabia: Arms Trade
Jonathan Edwards: [141767]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the 2005 Al Salam agreement
between the UK and Saudi Arabia.
Guto Bebb:
The arrangements within the Understanding Document signed by the Governments
of the United Kingdom and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in December 2005, that included
the proposed supply of Typhoon aircraft to the Royal Saudi Air Force, are confidential
to the two Governments. I am therefore withholding the document as its disclosure
would, or would be likely to, prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and
another State.
Saudi Arabia: BAE Systems
Jonathan Edwards: [141765]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the Al Yamamah
memorandum of agreement between the UK and Saudi Arabia.
Guto Bebb:
The arrangements within the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the
Governments of the United Kingdom and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in February 1986,
which continue to govern the supply of military equipment and support to the Saudi
Arabian Armed Forces, are confidential to the two Governments. I am therefore
withholding the document as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice
relations between the United Kingdom and another State.
Saudi Arabia: Civil Servants
Jonathan Edwards: [141761]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to the public purse has been of
UK civil servants operating in Saudi Arabia in each of the last five years.
Mark Lancaster:
The Ministry of Defence has funded only one civil servant post in Saudi Arabia for
which the cost has fallen to the public purse. For financial years 2013-14 to 2017-18
inclusive, the pay band for the civil servant ranged from £18,554 to a maximum of
£20,987.
Saudi Arabia: Military Alliances
Jonathan Edwards: [141764]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the UK’s ongoing military commitments
are with the Saudi Government.
Gavin Williamson:
The UK Ministry of Defence supports the Saudi Government across a wide range of
Defence and Security-related issues in pursuit of mutual security and regional
stability. In March this year the Prime Minister launched a new Strategic Partnership
with Saudi Arabia, which will see us develop our cooperation in areas such as military
capacity-building, cyber security, countering terrorism and violent extremism, aviation
security and assisting in the transformation of the Saudi Ministry of Defense.
Jonathan Edwards: [141768]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the 2017 Military and Security
Cooperation Agreement between the UK and Saudi Arabia.
Gavin Williamson:
The Military and Security Cooperation Agreement is a bilateral agreement between
the UK Ministry of Defence and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the detailed content of
which is not disclosable to third parties. I am therefore withholding the document as
its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice relations between the United
Kingdom and another State.
In pursuit of mutual security and regional stability, the Agreement will help Saudi
Arabia better protect her national security, in areas such as counter-terrorism,
intelligence, training and education, medical services and logistics.
Submarines
Nia Griffith: [142375]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2018 to
Question 140023, on Submarines, what the cost has been to the public purse of storing
submarines awaiting recycling at (a) Rosyth and (b) Devonport in each of the last five
years.
Guto Bebb:
The costs of storing and maintaining submarines awaiting recycling at Rosyth and
Devonport in each of the last five years, for which figures are available, are detailed
below:
FINANCIAL
YEAR 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
Total (£ million) 3.9 3.4 1.0 2.2 0.9
Veterans: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Jonathan Edwards: [142830]
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the provision for reintegration into civilian
life is for armed forces personnel who leave the forces in need of help for post traumatic
stress.
Mr Tobias Ellwood:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 26 March 2018 to Question 133430
to the hon. Member for Telford (Lucy Allan).
Attachments:
1. Armed Forces Mental Health Services [Hansard Extract 26 March 2018 UIN
13340.docx]
DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
Arts: Northern Ireland
Nigel Dodds: [140617]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to
visit Northern Ireland to meet with representatives of the creative industries.
Margot James:
The Secretary of State has no current plans to visit Northern Ireland. However he is
constantly reviewing his regional visits programme.
Creative industries policy is a devolved matter. Members of the Devolved
Administrations attend meetings of the Creative Industries Council, which the
Secretary of State co-Chairs.
We work closely with Northern Ireland on creative industries policy through DCMS’s
participation in the British-Irish Council creative industries workstream.
Commercial Broadcasting: Radio
Mr Edward Vaizey: [R] [141343]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to
bring forward legislative proposals to implement commercial radio deregulation.
Margot James:
The commercial radio deregulation consultation closed on 8 May 2017 and the
government response was published on 18 December 2017.
The next phase is for DCMS to begin the detailed work to develop the new legislative
structure and to bring forward legislation prior to analogue licenses coming up for
renewal in 2022. Legislation will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows.
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Disclosure of Information
Jon Trickett: [140581]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many leak
enquiries his Department has undertaken in the last two years.
Margot James:
It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on security
matters other than in exceptional circumstances when it is in the public interest to do
so. The leak of any Government information or material is not acceptable and the
Government takes such incidents very seriously.
Justin Madders: [140818]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many non-
disclosure agreements his Department has signed with employees in each of the last five
years for which figures are available.
Margot James:
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is not able to provide a
response to cover the last five years. In 2017, there were five non-disclosure
agreements, all relating to recruitment of temporary staff. Non-disclosure agreements
are put in place in exceptional circumstances. Non-disclosure agreements in DCMS
are only used for temporary staff who will work on sensitive information, where
commercially or politically sensitive.
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Incentives
Deidre Brock: [141815]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many bonuses
were awarded to senior civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in each
of the last six years; and what the total cost of those bonuses was.
Margot James:
As part of the Government’s transparency agenda, departments publish annual
information on the number of awards and spend on end-year and in-year Non-
Consolidated Performance Related Pay. This information can be found on the
department’s website and on data.gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dcms-non-consolidated-performance-
related-payments-for-the-appraisal-year-2015-to-2016.
Information for future years will be published in the usual way.
Gaming Machines
Mrs Anne Main: [141341]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has
made of the effect of a £2 maximum stake on B2 gaming machines on the number of (a)
betting shop jobs that would potentially be lost and (b) betting shops that would
potentially close.
Mrs Anne Main: [141342]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has
made of the potential switch from fixed odds betting terminals to online gambling if a £2
maximum stake is introduced.
Tracey Crouch:
The consultation on proposals for changes to gaming machines and social
responsibility measures closed on 23 January and the responses are being
considered. The Government’s response will be published in due course with a
revised final impact assessment.
Public Libraries: Standards
Gill Furniss: [142903]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an
assessment of whether local authorities providing unstaffed public libraries using open
technology are fulfilling their duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service.
Michael Ellis:
Local authorities in England have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and
Museums Act 1964 to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. In
considering how best to deliver this statutory duty, each local authority is responsible
for determining local needs and delivering a modern and efficient library service that
meets the requirements of their communities within available resources.
The Department encourages local authorities to make appropriate use of the
expertise of library staff and available technology to support and enhance the delivery
of their library services. The use of technology to allow access to a library outside of
staffed hours would not of itself mean that a local authority is failing in its duty to
provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. It is important that the local
authority strikes a suitable balance between the provision of staffed and self-service
library services to provide a comprehensive and efficient service overall.
Social Media: Radicalism
Mr Jim Cunningham: [142759]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent meetings
he has had with leading social media companies to discuss the prevalence, removal and
prevention of hate speech and other extreme content on social media platforms.
Margot James:
Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with social media
companies on a range of issues including the removal of hate speech and extreme
content. Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the Gov.uk
website.
Television: Licencsng
Mr Gregory Campbell: [142783]
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has
made of the loss of revenue to the public purse as a result of television licence fee
evasion in (a) 2012 and (b) 2017.
Margot James:
We do not hold this information. The BBC is responsible for the administration,
collection and enforcement of the licence fee regime.
EDUCATION
16-18 Mathematics Education Review
Stephen Timms: [142743]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress has been made on
implementing the recommendations of the Smith Review of post-16 mathematics since its
publication on 20 July 2017.
Nick Gibb:
The Government is committed to increasing participation in level 3 mathematics to
ensure the future workforce is skilled, competitive and productive. Since 2004, entries
to A level mathematics have risen by 83% (84,226 in 2017). It is now the most
popular A level and taken by 23.8% of students taking academic qualifications. There
are currently over 250 students attending the two open mathematics schools
sponsored by King’s College London and Exeter University along with Exeter
College.
The Department has already implemented a number of the recommendations made
by the Smith Review. A funding incentive has been introduced to help schools and
colleges increase participation in post-16 academic mathematics qualifications. The
advanced maths premium will provide up to £600 per additional student studying
academic level 3 mathematics qualifications.
The Department has reduced the requirements for an additional payment that
supports those 16 to 19 year olds who are undertaking a greater number of subjects
post 16. The changes aim to provide a further financial incentive for promoting the
further mathematics A level. Students will now need to achieve a grade C rather than
a grade B in their further mathematics A level for their school or college to receive
this additional payment
The Government continues to fund centrally delivered professional development
programmes for core maths, AS/A levels mathematics and further mathematics. A
new Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP), worth £16 million over two
years, started on the 1 May.
The Department is also working with the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on
Maths Education to embed occupation-specific maths within the technical
qualification component of each of the new T levels.
Apprentices
Eddie Hughes: [905263]
What steps his Department is taking to promote apprenticeships.
Anne Milton:
The best promoters of apprenticeships are apprentices themselves and young
apprentice ambassadors network play an important role is this. I would also like to
commend the work of Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network who’s work
makes sure that we reach the widest possible number of people.
The National Apprenticeship Service promotes apprenticeships by working with
schools and works with the largest levy-paying employers to help them grow their
programme. We have a number of campaigns including Get in Go far, targeting
specific sectors and telemarketing.
Apprentices: Jarrow
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [141384]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to increase the
number of apprenticeships available in the Jarrow constituency.
Anne Milton:
We have introduced a wide range of reforms to apprenticeships to improve their
quality and encourage employers to increase the number of apprenticeships they
offer. This includes moving to new apprenticeship standards, designed by employers
themselves, to give apprentices the skills, knowledge and behaviours that businesses
need. Over 250 standards have already been approved, with nearly 300 more in
development.
The apprenticeship levy and wider funding changes are designed to encourage
employers to invest in apprenticeships and improve the skills of their workforce. To
help employers to take advantage of the changes and increase the number of
apprenticeships they offer, levy payers can now transfer 10 per cent of their levy to
other employers, and we have released an additional £68 million to fund
apprenticeships among smaller employers.
In the Jarrow constituency, there were 1,250 apprenticeships starts in 2016/17; and
there have been 3,470 starts since May 2015.
Department for Education: Training
Hywel Williams: [141334]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what training his Department has provided to
(a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil servants on
understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament; how many such
courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such training
courses in each of the last five years.
Anne Milton:
All civil servants have access to the central learning offer provided through Civil
Service Learning (CSL). There are one-day workshops on understanding Parliament,
which are delivered at Foundation and Practitioner levels, which both cover
Parliament’s scrutiny and legislative roles. Dedicated training sessions covering
specific topics are also available including introductions to Parliament, select
committees, debates and voting, pre and post legislative scrutiny, Parliamentary
questions, delegated legislation, and primary legislation. A half-day workshop is
available on producing effective Explanatory Memoranda to accompany secondary
legislation. The Cabinet Office’s Parliamentary Business and Legislation Team
provide training to Bill Teams. The Government Legal Department and Parliamentary
Counsel run a course on ‘Dealing with Parliamentary Bills for Lawyers’, which covers
parliamentary stages and handling. Bespoke sessions for government departments
are also available on request.
There is an e-learning course on understanding Parliament, and access to two
massive open online courses. These have been produced in partnership between the
House of Commons and Future Learn, which is a digital education platform owned by
the Open University.
The only course we have a data for is staff who have accessed e-learning training on
‘Parliamentary Processes’:
STARTED BUT YET NOT COMPLETED COMPLETED TOTAL
2018 20 13 33
2017 55 65 120
2016 23 16 39
Total 98 94 192
Fast Stream civil servants receive a Parliament workshop during their induction,
covering the role of Parliament in scrutinising government policy. For policy
professionals, a Fast Stream Base Camp includes an optional workshop which
focuses on the legislative process in both houses, typical timetables and roles of
Ministers, Bill Teams and civil servants in delivering legislation.
For senior civil servants, a tailored a one-day workshop, ‘Leading in Parliament’, is
available, which covers Parliament’s role, powers and relationship with government,
and the day-to-day work of Members. A workshop delivered jointly between CSL and
HM Treasury is provided for Accounting Officers. CSL provides a workshop
specifically for Senior Responsible Officers with responsibility for secondary
legislation. Every department has an Senior Civil Service Parliamentary Champion.
There is a buddy system in place between Parliamentary Champions and senior
House staff.
We also provide learning opportunities as follows:
The Policy Academy event: ‘Law and Policy: when and how to use legislation’
session, which includes secondary legislation and Explanatory Memoranda for
Statutory Instruments. This is delivered four times a year with enough places for
100 G7 staff per year.
‘Introduction to Policy Making’ event that is aimed at people new to policy making
and policy delivery.
The Parliamentary team also deliver training on parliamentary accountability and
Handling Statutory Instruments.
Disabled Students' Allowances
Angela Rayner: [142874]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 9 May 2018 to
Question 139972 on Disabled Students' Allowances, what estimate he has made of the
potential cost to the public purse of funding the £200 contribution made by students in
receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowance for the purchase of computer hardware in each
year up to 2023.
Mr Sam Gyimah:
The department has no plans to change the requirement for the £200 contribution to
the cost of computer equipment and has made no assessment of the potential cost of
doing so. Computers are a mainstream cost for all students and it is right therefore
that students eligible for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) should contribute
towards the cost of their DSAs-recommended computer equipment.
Headteachers: Costs
Angela Rayner: [142872]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to his Department was of
headteacher boards in 2017-18; and what estimate he has made of the potential cost of
those boards in each year up to 2023.
Nick Gibb:
The compensation paid to elected, co-opted and appointed members of the eight
English Headteacher Boards (HTBs) was £472,530 for 2017/18. For 2018/19 that
cost is expected to be approximately £450,000. The Department has not yet profiled
the budget for years beyond 2018/19.
The schools/trusts of each HTB member are paid £500 per day when head teachers
attend HTB meetings, plus in some cases, £250 for half-day reading/prep time. If
HTB members are not serving head teachers, this money is paid directly to them.
Open University: Finance
Hilary Benn: [142765]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations he has received on the
effect of changes to higher education funding on the Open University.
Mr Sam Gyimah:
The Open University (OU) plays an important role in the higher education sector.
Department for Education officials have met with senior staff from the OU and I am
due to meet with both its interim and immediate former vice chancellors.
The government and the Office for Students (OfS) monitor the financial sustainability
of the higher education sector in England. The OfS monitors the financial
sustainability of individual providers in receipt of public funding, including the OU.
The independent panel supporting the review of post-18 education and funding
recently concluded a call for evidence process which invited all interested parties to
submit evidence to inform its work.
The government has provided £48 million to support teaching in 2017 to 2018 at the
OU, including funds to support part-time students.
Pre-school Education: Living Wage
Tracy Brabin: [142908]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect
of the introduction of the national living wage on the financial viability of early years
providers.
Nadhim Zahawi:
The government will be investing £1 billion a year to increase our hourly funding rates
for the free entitlements and deliver 30 hours of free childcare. These funding rates
are based on our ‘Review of Childcare Costs’, which was described as “thorough and
wide ranging” by the National Audit Office. This looked at both the current costs of
childcare provision and the implications of future cost pressures facing the sector,
including the National Living Wage.
We continue to monitor delivery costs of our early years entitlements and have
commissioned new research to provide us with robust and detailed cost data from a
representative sample of early years providers.
Schools: Buildings
Catherine West: [141862]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding sources are available for
schools with derelict or dilapidated buildings.
Nick Gibb:
[Holding answer 11 May 2018]: The Government has committed to invest over £23
billion in the school estate between 2016-17 and 2020-21.
Since 2015, the Government has invested £5.6 billion to maintain and improve school
facilities. In addition, the £4.4 billion Priority School Building Programme is rebuilding
or refurbishing those buildings in the very worst condition across the country.
All schools receive a direct payment of devolved formula capital funding. In addition,
the Department allocates condition funding to the bodies responsible for school
buildings through the following routes:
Local authorities and larger multi academy trusts (MATs), with at least five schools
and 3000 pupils, receive School Condition Allocations to invest in the schools for
which they are responsible. This funding is calculated formulaically and takes account
of the condition of schools. For voluntary aided (VA) schools, the relevant local
authority facilitates a local discussion at which organisations representing the VA
schools – most commonly the relevant diocese – agree how the funding should be
invested.
Social Services: Children
Steve McCabe: [142756]
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report Crumbling
Futures published by the Children's Society in March 2018, what steps his Department is
taking to ensure that 16 and 17-year-olds referred to children’s services are receiving
adequate support as they transition into adulthood.
Nadhim Zahawi:
We welcome the findings in the Children’s Society ‘Crumbling Futures’ report and
agree that this is a difficult and important transition. The government is committed to
ensuring that vulnerable children are ready for adult life and is taking action to ensure
that services protect and support children. We recognise the importance of avoiding
‘cliff edges’ in support for the most vulnerable children and the offer of support from
local authorities now extends to all care leavers up to 25. ‘Working Together to
Safeguard Children’ makes it clear that when children on Child Protection Plans
reach 18, local authorities should consider whether support services are still required.
As a priority, we are taking forward a review of the educational outcomes of Children
in Need. This review and call for evidence, which was launched on 16 March 2018, is
looking at the quality of support provided to all Children in Need including 16 and 17
year olds. We will consider the full range of views we receive in response to the call
for evidence, including any around transition to adult services.
We are delivering a major programme of reform to improve the support provided to
Children in Need. As set out in ‘Putting Children First’ (2016), we are working to
improve the quality of the workforce, develop and spread innovative practice, and
improve the quality of local authority children’s services. We are also using the
Department for Education’s Social Care Innovation Programme to trial programmes
to improve the quality of support for adolescents, including assessing how early help
and contextual safeguarding can help protect them from the specific threats they
face.
A key finding of ‘Crumbling Futures’ is that the mental health needs of children and
young people appear to be one of the main issues affecting older adolescents as they
progress into adulthood. The new Mental Health Support Teams proposed in the
government’s Mental Health green paper will provide significant support to 16 to 18
year olds in schools and colleges. The Department for Education will also test how
the teams can support vulnerable 16 to 18 year olds and other young people not in
school or college, such as those in apprenticeships and other work-based learning.
Additionally, the Department of Health and Social Care is setting up a new national
strategic partnership with key stakeholders focused on improving the mental health of
16 to 25 year olds by encouraging more coordinated action, experimentation and
robust evaluation.
Young People: Employment
Priti Patel: [905264]
What steps his Department is taking to support more pathways from education into
employment for young people.
Anne Milton:
We are developing 15 prestigious technical routes to set a clear pathway through
apprenticeships and new flagship T levels to skilled employment for young people.
We are working with employers to design the content for T levels, which will provide
in future a distinctive and rigorous technical alternative to A levels.
But apprenticeships must be of high quality. I am pleased that the move from the old
frameworks to the new standards has seen the proportion of these apprenticeships in
the number of all starts grow from 3% to 36% since last year.
Traineeships for those most distant from the labour market are yielding good results.
With two thirds progessing to positive destinations and reporting high levels of
satifaction (82%). With 84% saying it helped them gain the skills they need.
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Agriculture: Waste Disposal
Paul Girvan: [140861]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an
assessment of the potential merits of introducing a grant to encourage farmers with slurry
tanks to erect more effective safety railings around those tanks.
George Eustice:
The Government does not currently provide funding for safety rails around slurry
tanks in England. However, we keep the focus of our Rural Development Programme
schemes under review. If we were to introduce a scheme for slurry management
under the programme in future we would consider what it should fund.
All UK administrations have their own EU funded Rural Development Programmes.
Any funding for slurry tank safety rails in Northern Ireland through this means would
be a matter for the Northern Ireland programme.
Animal Experiments: Cosmetics
Lesley Laird: [143238]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his
Department is taking to seek to end cosmetic animal testing throughout the world.
George Eustice:
Defra has no specific policy responsibility for international efforts to end cosmetic
testing on animals. The Home Office regulate the use of animals in science in the UK.
The Office for Life Sciences has shared the UK’s own experience of introducing a
ban on cosmetics testing on animals with other countries, including, most recently,
China.
Beverage Containers: Recycling
Richard Burden: [140566]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment
he has made of the potential merits of implementing a deposit return scheme for
aluminium cans.
George Eustice:
From 2 October to 20 November 2017, an independent working group set up under
the Litter Strategy for England held a call for evidence on measures to reduce littering
of drinks containers and promote recycling. This included metal drinks containers that
are sold sealed and used for the sale of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages, often
for consumption ‘on the go’. It involved seeking evidence on the costs, benefits and
impacts of deposit and reward and return schemes. Early this year, Ministers
received and reviewed the working group’s report summarising its call for evidence
and recommendations. This can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/drinks-containers-reducing-litter-and-
increasing-recycling-call-for-evidence.
The Government has confirmed that it will introduce a deposit return scheme in
England, subject to a consultation later this year. The consultation will look at the
details of how such a scheme would work, alongside other measures to increase
recycling rates.
Mr Jim Cunningham: [142325]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many
responses were received to his Department's call for evidence on voluntary and
economic incentives to reduce littering of drinks containers and promote recycling which
closed on 20 November 2017.
George Eustice:
The call for evidence on voluntary and economic incentives to reduce littering of
drinks containers and promote recycling was held by the independent Voluntary and
Economic Incentives Working Group.
The Working Group’s report summarising responses to its call for evidence and
including its expert views has been published on the GOV.UK website. Annex B of
this report states that there were 276 responses to the call for evidence. It also
includes a breakdown of the number of responses by organisation and a list of
respondents.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Disclosure of Information
Jon Trickett: [140583]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many leak
enquiries his Department has undertaken in the last two years.
George Eustice:
The leak of any Government information or material is not acceptable and the
Government takes such incidents very seriously.
It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on security
matters other than in exceptional circumstances when it is in the public interest to do
so.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Training
Hywel Williams: [140625]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what training his
Department has provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and
(c) senior civil servants on devolution and inter-governmental relations; how many such
courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such training
courses in each of the last five years.
George Eustice:
Defra uses Civil Service Learning and local delivery for the provision of learning and
development.
Defra provides a range of learning on devolution and intergovernmental relations for
all levels of staff. This includes online learning, face to face workshops, and bespoke
sessions designed for specific requirements of Defra staff. The learning includes
sessions for new and existing staff, senior civil servants, fast stream civil servants,
civil servants registered in talent schemes, civil servants working on legislation, and
those working closely with Ministers.
Since April 2017, Defra has facilitated or delivered 20 devolution seminars to over
1,200 of its staff who have the most engagement with counterparts in the devolved
administrations. We do not hold information on the numbers of Defra staff who
attended devolution training held before 2017.
Hywel Williams: [141327]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what training his
Department has provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and
(c) senior civil servants on understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK
Parliament; how many such courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have
attended such training courses in each of the last five years.
George Eustice:
Defra uses Civil Service Learning (CSL) for the provision of learning and
development to our people. The management information data provided by CSL to
Defra does not differentiate between generalists and fast stream civil servants and
therefore we are not able to provide specific attendance data for CSL courses for fast
streamers. The CSL managed learning offer changed in late 2016 / early 2017 and
the department only has management information data for learning products
accessed via the new managed offer.
CSL’s ‘EU exit and new UK partnerships’ course is a face to face workshop for all
grades. CSL released this course in early 2018 and one pilot session has been
delivered. No Defra general, fast stream or SCS civil servants attended the pilot
course.
Incinerators
Dr David Drew: [140553]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has
to amend the pollution inventory reporting guidance sent to incinerator operators.
George Eustice:
The Environment Agency plans to issue updated pollution inventory reporting
guidance to incinerator operators before the end of 2018. The updated guidance will
apply to the reporting returns for 2018 which operators need to submit during January
or February 2019.
Nitrogen Oxides: Pollution Control
Kerry McCarthy: [140659]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding
has been allocated by (a) Government (b) the EU to Natural England for the
implementation of Shared Nitrogen Action Plans; what annual spend was of Natural
England for that work; and how many employees of National England have been located
to the delivery of that work.
George Eustice:
The development of Shared Nitrogen Action Plans (SNAPs) as an approach for
Natura 2000 sites at risk from excess nitrogen deposition was proposed in the
Atmospheric Nitrogen Theme Plan under the EU LIFE funded IPENS (Improvement
Programme for England’s Natura 2000 Sites) programme. The total EU contribution
to the IPENS programme – which looked at all the major pressures on Natura 2000
sites - was €1,785,388. This included around £45,000 for evidence projects
associated with the nitrogen theme plan, but it is not possible to distinguish the
amount of funding for staff time in developing the SNAPs concept itself.
The SNAPs approach is still at a pilot stage and some initial pilot work led by Natural
England (NE) started in 2016. Although each SNAP does not necessarily need to be
led by NE, over the next two years we expect NE area team staff to be involved in
investigating the approach in at least eight areas where nitrogen emissions from
different types of source are affecting Natura 2000 sites. This pilot work is being
overseen by two NE senior specialists in air quality and supported by staff in each of
the relevant area teams.
By overall reduction in risk at the site level, declines in background reactive nitrogen
concentrations through implementation of the Government’s approaches to meet
targets under the National Emissions Ceiling Directive will contribute to SNAPs. So
too will localised reductions in emissions, including those funded through Rural
Development Programme for England schemes to reduce ammonia emissions from
agriculture, as well as advice on efficient use of nitrogen and ammonia reduction
measures through catchment sensitive farming (CSF). CSF is in the process of
appointing 11 additional members of staff to work on aspects of ammonia reductions
from farming, and to build capability in this area that will also contribute to meeting
objectives under SNAPs.
The pilot work is funded by Government under NE’s Grant in Aid allocation, but it is
not readily possible to determine the specific time spent by our area teams on this
aspect of NE’s site protection work at these Natura 2000 sites. EU LIFE funding is
involved in a few of the sites, though again the SNAPs element is usually only one of
a range of activities being funded at the site in this way.
Trees: Conservation
Neil Parish: [140711]
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent
assessment he has made of the effect of disease on trees.
George Eustice:
Tree health risks are systematically assessed through the publically available UK
Plant Risk Register (approximately one third of the nearly 1000 pests and diseases
on the register are forestry pests and diseases), risks are reviewed monthly and
prioritised for actions such as surveillance. Forestry Commission carry out aerial and
ground based surveillance on priority risks to tree health, including Phytophthora
ramorum, oak processionary moth, ash dieback and the results are published on the
Forestry Commission website.
EXITING THE EUROPEAN UNION
Ports
Andy McDonald: [142866]
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, which of the UK’s ports (a)
he and (b) other Ministers in of his Department have visited since July 2016.
Suella Braverman:
Ministers from across Government have carried out extensive engagement on EU
exit - with businesses and industry bodies from all sectors of the economy and in all
parts of the UK, including representatives from UK ports.
Details of DExEU Ministerial visits to UK ports since July 2016 are as follows:
October 2016, Lord Bridges, Port of Tilbury
November 2016, Lord Bridges, Port of Felixstowe
December 2016, David Jones, Port of Southampton
December 2016, David Jones, Port of Liverpool
July 2017, Robin Walker, Poole Harbour
September 2017, Robin Walker, Belfast Harbour
January 2018, David Davis and Suella Braverman, Teesport
March 2018, Suella Braverman, Port of Southampton
May 2018, Suella Braverman, Port of Dover
Details of Ministerial meetings are published in the Department's Quarterly
Transparency Returns, which are made publicly available on GOV.UK. The next set
of Transparency Returns will be released in June.
Ports: Greater London
Andy McDonald: [142865]
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether he or Ministers of
his Department have made an official visit to the Port of London since July 2016.
Suella Braverman:
Ministers from across Government have carried out extensive engagement on EU
exit - with businesses and industry bodies from all sectors of the economy and in all
parts of the UK, including representatives from UK ports.
Lord Bridges, then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for
Exiting the European Union, made an official visit to the Port of Tilbury, in October
2016.
Details of ministerial meetings are published in the Department's Quarterly
Transparency Returns, which are made publicly available on GOV.UK.
Security: Northern Ireland
Lady Hermon: [142367]
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, pursuant to the Answer of 8
May 2018 to Question 139996 on Security: Northern Ireland, if he will place in the Library
copies of the redacted minutes of his briefings with (a) PSNI officers and (b) Northern
Ireland Office officials during his visit to Northern Ireland of 23 April 2018.
Mr Steve Baker:
The Secretary of State meetings with PSNI Officers and Northern Ireland Office
officials relate to matters concerning our exit from the EU. Release of this information
while our exit from the EU is ongoing would indicate sensitive information relating to
the negotiations. Ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has
endorsed, not to release information that could undermine our negotiating position.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
Bahrain: Elections
Ann Clwyd: [142354]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has
made representations to the Government of Bahrain on its proposed legislation
prohibiting candidates from dissolved societies and organisations running for office in
elections; and if he will make a statement.
Alistair Burt:
We are closely monitoring this proposed legislation. As with all elections in the region
and beyond, we encourage the Government of Bahrain to ensure fair, inclusive and
transparent elections.
Bahrain: Torture
Hilary Benn: [142764]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment
he has made of reports of alleged use of torture and forced confessions in Bahrain.
Alistair Burt:
The Government monitors events in Bahrain closely. We regularly raise human rights
concerns with the Bahraini authorities in private and in public and will continue to do
so. We encourage the Government of Bahrain to deliver on its international and
domestic human rights commitments.
We encourage those with concerns about the treatment of prisoners in detention to
report these to the relevant human rights oversight bodies. We encourage these
oversight bodies to carry out swift and thorough investigations.
Burundi: Peace Negotiations
Fiona Bruce: [142405]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps
the Government has taken to help promote peace in Burundi.
Harriett Baldwin:
The British Government is deeply concerned by the situation in Burundi. Our non-
resident Ambassador and officials hold regular consultations with the Burundi
Government; most recently on 8 May with the Burundi Foreign Minister. These
discussions cover human rights, the rule of law, and the importance of maintaining
the principles of the 2000 Arusha Agreement, including the protection of minority
groups. We are also working with UN, EU and African Union partners to support an
inclusive, negotiated solution to the political crisis. The UK Special Envoy to the Great
Lakes, presently Chair of the International Contact Group on the Great Lakes, visited
the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa on 26 and 27 February and
discussed Burundi with regional and international partners, in the context of the
Peace Security and Cooperation Framework for the Great Lakes region. In addition,
the UK supports projects in Burundi focused on human rights, sexual and gender
based violence and security
Companies: Ownership
Paul Flynn: [142768]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the
Written Statement of 1 May 2018, HCWS660, on beneficial ownership in the Overseas
Territories and Crown Dependencies, whether information on merchant shipping
beneficially owned in Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies is included in the
Exchange of Notes arrangements.
Sir Alan Duncan:
The Exchanges of Notes concluded with the Overseas Territories and Crown
Dependencies in 2016 provide for the exchange of information on the beneficial
ownership of corporate and legal entities incorporated in these jurisdictions. As ships
are assets, and not corporate and legal entities, the beneficial owners of merchant
ships registered in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies would not be
covered by the Exchanges of Notes, unless the vessels are owned by corporate and
legal entities incorporated in these jurisdictions.
EU Common Foreign and Security Policy
Matt Rodda: [905299]
What recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on foreign policy co-
operation after the UK has left the EU.
Boris Johnson:
On leaving the EU, the UK will pursue an independent foreign policy, but we would be
open to co-operating closely, where this is in our shared interest. We are currently in
discussions with the EU on our future security partnership, and we continue to
discuss this with our counterparts across Europe. The UK has also published online
our vision for the future external security relationship.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Training
Hywel Williams: [141330]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what training his
Department has provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and
(c) senior civil servants on understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK
Parliament; how many such courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have
attended such training courses in each of the last five years.
Sir Alan Duncan:
Our records do not cover training provided over the whole period of the last five years
or differentiate between fast stream and main stream civil servants. However, since
July 2015, over 1200 civil servants have completed learning on Parliamentary
scrutiny and Parliament's legislative role as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO) Diplomatic Academy's Foundation and Practitioner Levels. Of these, 23
are senior civil servants.
In addition, the FCO also runs tailored face-to-face courses on Working with
Parliament and on FCO Oral Questions every 5 weeks during the parliamentary
session and provides ad hoc one-to-one level learning where requested. FCO and
Government staff also access material and attend courses organised by Civil Service
Learning, which is a cross-departmental resource and is managed centrally.
All fast stream new entrants to the FCO have since last year been required to study
for and pass a City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in UK Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, as
do some staff to obtain promotion. This diploma includes material on a broad range of
the FCO's parliamentary responsibilities.
Hezbollah: Weapons
Chris Davies: [905304]
What recent assessment he has made of trends in the size of Hezbollah’s weapons
arsenal.
Alistair Burt:
We remain concerned by reports that Hizballah continues to amass an arsenal of
weapons in Lebanon. We condemn the threat this poses to regional stability and that
this is done in direct contravention of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and
1701.
India: Diplomatic Relations
Mr Philip Dunne: [905300]
What recent assessment he has made of the UK's diplomatic relations with India.
Mark Field:
The UK’s relations with India remain excellent, as demonstrated by Prime Minister
Modi’s hugely successful visit in UK. We share a longstanding and deep friendship
with India, and a ‘living bridge’ connecting our people. To be frank, I am keen we
focus less on legacy and nostalgia and more on the future relationship between our
two countries, including the new UK-India Tech Partnership, as I saw on my visit to
New Delhi and Hyderabad only last week.
South Sudan: Peace Negotiations
Stephen Twigg: [141673]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment
he has made of the progress of the peace process in South Sudan.
Harriett Baldwin:
We welcome the expected resumption of the High Level Revitalisation Forum (HLRF)
talks in South Sudan on 17 May. However, the British Government is disappointed
that the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) signed by all parties in December
last year has not held, and that the HLRF has so far failed to generate serious
commitments from the parties to compromise.
We strongly condemn ongoing violations of the COHA, and urge the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development to take immediate action to ensure that
those who violate any agreement, or undermine the peace process, face
consequences for their actions, to leave the parties in no doubt about the region's
commitment to peace.
Alex Sobel: [141893]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent
assessment he has made of the progress of the peace process in South Sudan.
Harriett Baldwin:
We welcome the expected resumption of the High Level Revitalisation Forum (HLRF)
talks in South Sudan on 17 May. However, the British Government is disappointed
that the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) signed by all parties in December
has not held, and that the HLRF has so far failed to generate serious commitments
from the parties to compromise.
We strongly condemn ongoing violations of the COHA, and urge the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development to take immediate action to ensure that
those who undermine the peace process, face consequences for their actions, to
leave the parties in no doubt about the region's commitment to peace.
Sudan: Religious Freedom
Alex Sobel: [141892]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent
assessment he has made of the extent of freedom of religion or belief in Sudan.
Harriett Baldwin:
Sudan remains a Human Rights Priority Country for the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office (FCO), and we are deeply concerned about infringements and restrictions on
freedom of religion or belief. We are considering ways that FCO programme funding
could help to promote freedom of religion or belief in Sudan. We raised our concerns
with the Government as part of the UK-Sudan Strategic Dialogue on 24 April and will
continue to do so as part of our ongoing bilateral engagement.
Turkey: Foreign Relations
Ann Clwyd: [142355]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what matters the
Government plans to raise with the Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, on his visit to the
UK in May 2018.
Sir Alan Duncan:
The visit is an opportunity for the UK and Turkey to discuss our close co-operation on
counter-terrorism, migration, regional stability, trade and to raise other issues,
including human rights.
USA: Diplomatic Relations
Kwasi Kwarteng: [905297]
What recent assessment he has made of the UK’s diplomatic relations with the US.
Boris Johnson:
The UK has a special and enduring relationship with the United States based on our
long history and commitment to shared values. Last week I saw the Vice President,
National Security Advisor and Secretary of State to further strengthen those ties. No
two countries will agree on every issue, but the US remains our No. 1 friend, ally and
partner.
Zimbabwe: Elections
Kate Hoey: [142313]
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans the
Government has to help ensure that elections due to be held in Zimbabwe in 2018 are
conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.
Harriett Baldwin:
The UK has consistently called for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, in line with the
country’s constitution. We have engaged regularly with actors from across the
political spectrum to discuss how the international community can best support
Zimbabwe’s democratisation process. Most recently, our Ambassador in Harare met
President Mnangagwa on 5 May and the Foreign Secretary met MDC Alliance leader
Nelson Chamisa on 9 May to discuss these points.
The UK will participate in the EU Electoral Observation Mission which will be
deployed to Zimbabwe to monitor the electoral process. Between 2014 and 2019 we
are spending £24 million on civil society support for transparency, accountability,
human rights and citizen engagement in Zimbabwe, much of which will help support
democratisation. This includes an increase of £5 million announced in February
specifically to support election-related work.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Ambulance Services
Jonathan Ashworth: [142861]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the performance criteria
are against which 999 ambulance call handlers are assessed.
Stephen Barclay:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 April 2018 to Question 135015.
Autism
Laura Pidcock: [141911]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has
made of the trends in waiting times for Autism Spectrum Disorder assessments; and if he
will make a statement.
Caroline Dinenage:
The Department has made no recent assessment of the trends in waiting times for
autism spectrum disorder assessments.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend
that the time from a referral to a first appointment is no longer than three months.
The latest available data for the country as a whole is available in Public Health
England’s report, ‘Autism Self-Assessment Exercise 2016 Detailed report and
thematic analyses’ (published June 2017). The report states that 33 local authorities
(22%) reported already meeting the NICE recommended waiting times, 35 (23%)
anticipated meeting NICE recommended waiting times by March 2017 and to be able
to sustain this thereafter and 66 (43%) did not anticipate being able to reach NICE
recommended waiting times sustainably by March 2017. 18 local authorities did not
respond to the relevant question.
Collection of national waiting times data from referral to a first appointment and on to
a diagnosis if one is given, began in April this year. Results will be published in due
course.
Breast Cancer: Screening
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [141319]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his oral statement
of 2 May 2018, Official Report, column 315, on Breast Cancer Screening, how many
women have been affected by the NHS breast screening programme failure in (a)
Newcastle Gateshead clinical commissioning group and (b) South Tyneside clinical
commissioning group.
Ian Lavery: [141347]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of
the number of women in (a) Wansbeck Constituency, (b) Northumberland County and (c)
the North East who might have been affected by the breast cancer screening error.
Steve Brine:
Data on the number of women affected by the National Health Service breast
screening programme failure will be published by the end of May.
Jonathan Ashworth: [142850]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to
facilitate the use of private clinics to carry out mammograms as a result of the failures in
the breast cancer screening process for women aged 68 to 71.
Jonathan Ashworth: [142852]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) mammographers
and (b) radiologists his Department plans to recruited to provide the additional capacity
required for the breast screening programme as a result of the failures of the breast
cancer screening programme.
Jonathan Ashworth: [142853]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment (a) his
Department, (b) Public Health England and (c) other organisations made of the timetable
to clear the backlog in the screening programme as a resulted of the failure of the breast
cancer screening programme.
Steve Brine:
NHS England is taking major steps to put in place additional capacity of screening
services to respond to the breast screening incident working with existing staff,
including over evenings and weekends, and advise that they are also working closely
with all local services and commissioners to ensure that they can co-ordinate any
extra screening required across the programme.
In addition, NHS England is confident that all areas of the country will have the
capacity to absorb any increase in demand on diagnostic services for those women
who require follow up tests. Private capacity will only be used if necessary and where
it meets national standards.
The Department, Public Health England and NHS England are working closely to
ensure timelines agreed are met as a result of the failure of the breast cancer
screening programme.
All women affected who wish to have a breast screen will receive an appointment to
take place before the end of October 2018, but the vast majority will be seen sooner.
Jonathan Ashworth: [142851]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to oral statement of 2
May 2018, Official Report, column 315, on Breast Cancer Screening, what steps his
Department are taking to ensure that the additional screenings offered to women affected
by the failure will not affect the (a) speed and (b) quality of the provision of screening to
women aged between 50 and 70 years of age.
Steve Brine:
Any additional capacity being provided in response to this incident is being delivered
in addition to existing capacity. The screening service for women aged 50-70 will
continue to be delivered in the usual way.
Clinical Commissioning Groups
Justin Madders: [141826]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether clinical commissioning
group areas that are subject to the capped expenditure process will continue to be so
subject in the event that are merged with another clinical commissioning group.
Stephen Barclay:
The Capped Expenditure Process was run as an extension to the 2017/18 planning
process aimed at those places that were otherwise unable to live within their means.
It was therefore limited to the 2017/18 financial year and so is now in effect
concluded. For the 2018/19 planning process it is still essential that all clinical
commissioning groups (CCGs) do their utmost to submit a plan to live within their
means, and to repay any cumulative historical overspends. Where CCGs are merging
as of 1 April 2018 the same rules will apply to the merged entity as applied to the
individual entities prior to the merger.
Dental Health
Chi Onwurah: [142841]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the regional distribution of
dental gum disease specialists is.
Steve Brine:
This information is not held centrally.
Department of Health and Social Care: Training
Hywel Williams: [141335]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what training his Department
has provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil
servants on understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament; how
many such courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such
training courses in each of the last five years.
Caroline Dinenage:
The Department runs three training courses on understanding the scrutiny and
legislative roles of the United Kingdom Parliament: legislation, Parliamentary
accountability and select committees. Further information on registrations for these
courses is in the following table.
NAME OF MODULE DATE INTRODUCED NUMBER OF SESSIONS
NUMBER OF
REGISTRATIONS
Legislation March 2015 14 240
Parliamentary
Accountability
February 2015 16 265
Select Committees March 2016 7 117
Note:
These courses are open to civil servants at all grades, including fast streamers, as
well as staff in our arm’s length bodies. Therefore the total number of registrations will
include non-civil servants as well as civil servants. These courses have been running
since February 2015.
Information on organisation and grade of attendee is collected in our feedback forms.
However, not all attendees return feedback forms and this data is not an accurate
representation of the grades of people who attended.
Between November 2017 and January 2018 the Department also ran three
workshops on secondary legislation for staff with statutory instruments due to be laid.
16 civil servants attended these workshops; information on grade was not collected.
Drugs: Innovation
Nic Dakin: [141346]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is
taking to ensure that NHS England rapidly adopts innovative medicines.
Steve Brine:
The Life Sciences Industrial Strategy set out a vision of being a world-leader in
developing and bringing to market innovative medicines to improve patient outcomes.
It highlighted the importance of evolving and simplifying the access system for new
medicines by implementing, and building on, the findings of the Accelerated Access
Review.
The response to the Accelerated Access Review, published last year, set out a series
of actions the Government and the National Health Service are taking to increase the
rate of adoption of innovative products. We have brought together the key
Government, NHS and industry partners through the newly formed Accelerated
Access Collaborative, who will oversee the Accelerated Access Pathway, to
streamline regulatory and market access decisions, getting breakthrough products
that we believe will be truly transformative to patients more quickly. The response
also committed to £86 million of support, including £39 million to improve local
adoption and uptake of innovative medical technologies through a greater role for the
Academic Health and Science Networks and £6 million to help the NHS to adopt and
integrate new technologies into everyday practice, through the Pathway
Transformation Fund. These build on our existing schemes to encourage quicker
patient access such as the Early Access to Medicine Scheme and the Innovation
Technology Tariff. Additionally, the Innovation Scorecard tracks the uptake of cost-
effective new medicines approved by the National Institute for Health and Care
Excellence.
Mental Health Services: Children and Young People
Mary Robinson: [141812]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have died
whilst under the care of inpatient children and adolescent mental health services since
January 2013.
Jackie Doyle-Price:
Since January 2013, the National Health Service has reported 17 deaths of patients
under the care of inpatient children and young people’s mental health services.
Following the written statement to Parliament by the then Parliamentary Under-
Secretary for Public Health and Innovation (Nicola Blackwood) on 20 January 2017
(HCWS 427), all deaths of patients under the care of inpatient children and young
people’s mental health services are reported to Ministers and the National
Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness which
will include the figures in its annual reports.
Patient safety is a key priority for this Government and we published Learning from
Deaths guidance to the NHS in 2017 to improve the way the NHS investigates and
learns from deaths to prevent future tragedies. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of
State for Health and Social Care also announced a zero suicide ambition for mental
health inpatients in January this year, which is supported by £25 million of
investment, so that every mental health provider of NHS services has a zero suicide
policy in place.
Laura Pidcock: [141910]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to
ensure that children and young people have access to appropriate mental health
treatment.
Jackie Doyle-Price:
We have made an additional £1.4 billion available over the course of 2015/16 -
2020/21 to transform services and ensure access to specialist mental health services
for an additional 70,000 children and young people a year by 2020/21.
We have also introduced two waiting time standards for children and young people.
The first is for 95% of children (up to 19 years old) with eating disorders to receive
treatment within a week for urgent cases (and four weeks for routine cases). The
second is for 50% of patients (of all ages) experiencing a first episode of psychosis to
receive treatment within two weeks of referral. We are currently exceeding or on track
to meet these waiting time standards.
The recent Green Paper, ‘Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health
Provision’, published by the Department for Health and Social Care and the
Department for Education, announced the creation of new Mental Health Support
Teams. These teams will deliver mental health interventions for those with mild to
moderate needs in or close to schools and colleges (and refer those with more
severe needs on to specialist services). The Green Paper also announced the
piloting of a four week waiting time to improve access to National Health Service
mental health services, which we will roll out in a number of trailblazer areas
alongside the support teams. The Green Paper is supported by an additional £300
million.
We will also ensure that at least one teacher in every primary and secondary school
will receive mental health awareness training to enable school staff to spot common
signs of mental health issues, and to help children and young people receive
appropriate support.
Norovirus
Justin Madders: [141825]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ward closures in
each of the last five years were due to novovirus outbreaks.
Stephen Barclay:
The following table shows the number of suspected and laboratory confirmed
norovirus outbreaks and ward/bay closures in hospitals reported to Public Health
England from 2013-16.
YEAR
TOTAL NUMBER OF
NOROVIRUS OUTBREAKS
NUMBER OF
LABORATORY
CONFIRMED NOROVIRUS
OUTBREAKS
NUMBER OF WARD/BAY
CLOSURES*
2016 573 433 547
2015 662 436 617
2014 689 459 642
2013 881 593 810
*Note:
Not all outbreaks result in whole ward closures; some closures are restricted to bays
only. The data on ward and bay closures are not available separately.
Nurses
Dr Paul Williams: [142927]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which his Department plans to
respond to the Second Report of the Health and Social Care Committee, Nursing
Workforce, HC353, published on 29 January 2018.
Stephen Barclay:
The Government is considering carefully the important issues raised in the Second
Report of the Health and Social Care Committee, Nursing Workforce HC353 and
plans to publish its response in the coming weeks.
Postnatal Depression
Julie Cooper: [141351]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support General
Practitioners provide to mothers experiencing perinatal mental health problems.
Jackie Doyle-Price:
We are committed to improving mental health support for expectant and new
mothers. General practitioners have a crucial role in identifying and treating perinatal
mental illness. Support provided includes pre-conception counselling, monitoring
during pregnancy, and referring women to Improving Access to Psychological
Therapies (IAPT) and specialist mental health services if necessary. We are
expanding IAPT to reach 1.5 million people by 2020/21, and are investing £365
million in specialist perinatal mental health services so that 30,000 more women are
able to access the right care at the right time, close to home, by 2020/21.
Pre-school Education: Mental Health
Tracy Brabin: [142909]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he his taking to
increase the number of mental health specialists working in early years settings.
Jackie Doyle-Price:
It is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to decide on how local mental health
provision should be made, based on local need and circumstances. CCGs are
required to work with other local services to produce local transformation plans
(LTPs), now included in sustainability and transformation plans, which set out how
children and young people’s mental health services will be delivered locally, including
in early years.
We are making available an additional £1.4 billion to support them in this. NHS
England’s report, ‘Children and young people’s mental health Local Transformation
Plans – a summary of key themes’, estimated that almost 90% of LTPs referenced
having early years programmes in place. The report is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/08/cyp-
mh-ltp.pdf
Suicide: Males
David Simpson: [141750]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department
have taken to tackle male suicide rates.
Jackie Doyle-Price:
The National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England was updated in 2017 to
strengthen delivery in a range of key areas for action including targeting high risk
groups such as men. The updated strategy is supported by £25 million of investment
over the next three years.
Every area is implementing a multi-agency suicide prevention plan to ensure that all
local services are working together to implement tailored approaches to reducing
suicides in their communities. We acknowledge that men may not engage as easily
with services and increasingly, evidence indicates that men feel more comfortable
accessing support and services in non-clinical settings.
This has led to a wide range of innovative responses to provide support to men in
community environments they find accessible and relevant including, for example, the
Men’s Sheds Movement, Andy’s Man Clubs and State of Mind Sport.
We are encouraged that the number of male suicides in England has reduced for the
second consecutive year and the overall suicide rate is at its lowest since 2010, but
there is much more we must do to ensure that everyone at risk of suicide has the
help and support they need.
Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships: South East
Sir Nicholas Soames: [142741]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to
ensure that progress is made on the Sussex and East Surrey Sustainability and
Transformation Partnership's move to integrated care systems; and what the timetable is
for that move.
Stephen Barclay:
All sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) are at different stages with
many not yet ready to apply to become integrated care systems (ICS). Although the
requirements for ICS are recognised, and Sussex and East Surrey STP is working on
all the desired characteristics in 2018/19, the STP is currently focusing on the key
areas of improving system financial and service delivery performance in 2018/19
before making any decision about whether or not to apply to become an ICS.
There is no defined timescale for this as it is a voluntary decision for each STP
depending on their own circumstances.
Visual Impairment: Depressive Illnesses
Jim Shannon: [141797]
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people registered as
blind have been diagnosed with depression.
Caroline Dinenage:
The number of people who are registered as blind or severely sight impaired with a
diagnosis of depression is not collected centrally.
HOME OFFICE
Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients
Luciana Berger: [142435]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people detained
under section 13 of the Mental Health Act 1983 were held in police cells in (a) Liverpool,
Wavertree constituency, (b) Liverpool, (c) Liverpool City Region and (d) England in each
in of the last two years.
Mr Nick Hurd:
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of persons
detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, at police force area level
only.
These data were collected on a mandatory basis for the first time in 2016/17, and are
published as part of the ‘Police powers and procedures, England and Wales’
statistical bulletin, which can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-
and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2017
Table MHA.05c of the accompanying data tables show that, in 2016/17, nobody was
detained in a police station following a section 136 detention in the Merseyside police
force area. In England, 898 people in total were detained in a police station following
a section 136 detention.
Figures for 2015/16 were published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and can be
accessed using the following links:
http://www.npcc.police.uk/documents/S136%20Data%202015%2016.pdf.
DNA: Databases
Philip Davies: [142388]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many DNA profiles have
been removed from the national DNA database since 2014.
Mr Nick Hurd:
Between 1st April 2014 and 31st March 2018 845,267 DNA profiles from individuals
and 22,321 crime scene DNA profiles have been deleted from the National DNA
Database.
Philip Davies: [142389]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many DNA profiles of
prisoners still serving a sentence have not yet been added to the DNA database.
Mr Nick Hurd:
It has been standard practice for the police to take DNA profiles from all persons
arrested for a recordable offence for many years. If the person is then convicted, their
DNA profile is retained indefinitely. The proportion of prisoners whose profiles are not
on the database is therefore likely to be very small.
Philip Davies: [142390]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many successful matches
there have been between DNA profiles taken from crime scenes and those stored on the
national DNA database in each of the last two years.
Mr Nick Hurd:
In 2016-17 there were 31,743 matches between DNA profiles taken from crime
scenes and subject records stored on the National DNA Database
In 2017-18 there were 30,780 matches between DNA profiles taken from crime
scenes and subject records stored on the National DNA Database.
Domestic Violence: Homicide
Philip Davies: [142386]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department
holds on the number of men who were killed by their current or former partner in each of
the last five years.
Mr Nick Hurd:
The Home Office Homicide Index holds information on the relationship between
homicide victims and suspects, including partner/ex-partner.
The Office for National Statistics publishes such information and the latest statistics
on the number of men aged 16 and over killed by a partner/ex-partner in England and
Wales were published in Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2017,
in Appendix Table 9, available here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/ap
pendixtableshomicideinenglandandwales
Educational Testing Service
Stephen Timms: [142744]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department took
to validate allegations made by ETS that individuals had cheated in their Test of English
for International Communication; and if he will make a statement.
Caroline Nokes:
Further to PQ 140550, a number of steps were taken to ensure that the ETS process
for declaring test results invalid was suitably robust. This included commissioning an
independent expert report from a leading Professor of Forensic Speech Science
which concluded that the number of false matches would be very small, and that the
system used were more likely to produce false negatives than false positives.
Where a result was marked as questionable, nobody was refused immigration leave
on that basis without first being given the opportunity to re-sit a test with another
provider or attend an interview.
Stephen Timms: [142747]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions
Ministers in his Department (a) met representatives of ETS between May 2010 and
February 2014 and (b) have met such representatives since February 2014.
Caroline Nokes:
Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international
partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as
part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of Ministerial meetings
are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published
on the Gov.uk website:
https://data.gov.uk/dataset/2eac556f-f2d3-4e84-8230-ca5b7cd9e428/ministerial-gifts-
hospitality-travel-and-meetings-with-external-organisations-in-home-office
EU Immigration: Horn of Africa
Stephen Twigg: [141674]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made
of progress made under the EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative to tackle irregular
migration from the Horn of Africa.
Caroline Nokes:
The Khartoum Process has made good progress to address people smuggling and
human trafficking in the Horn of Africa. The UK chaired two thematic meetings in
2016 and 2017 and Egypt hosted a trilateral meeting (Khartoum/Rabat Processes
and Horn of Africa Initiative) in November 2017 to understand progress to date;
ongoing challenges and the solutions needed for a joined-up and concerted
response.
The Khartoum Process has approved 147 programmes under its Better Migration
Management (BMM) programme in this area and it also continues to implement the
Regional Operation Centre of Khartoum (ROCK) which aims to improve cooperation
and information sharing between law enforcement agencies to effectively disrupt the
people smuggling and trafficking rings exploiting migrants.
The 2018 Italian Chairmanship will build upon these efforts with further thematic and
training workshops alongside a review of thematic conclusions to ensure tangible
future delivery. There will also be a Joint Senior Officials Meeting in November to
assess the progress made under the Joint Valletta Action Plan.
Human Trafficking: Scotland
Mr Alister Jack: [141881]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is
taking to tackle human trafficking in Scotland.
Victoria Atkins:
The tackling of human trafficking is a devolved matter and the Scottish Government
works closely with Police Scotland, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities,
Procurator Fiscal Service and other key partners to address this crime and support
victims. This includes co-ordination with the Home Office and UK-wide bodies
including Border Force and Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.
The Scottish Parliament passed legislation in 2015 entitled “Human Trafficking and
Exploitation (Scotland) Act” to tackle human trafficking in Scotland. Since then, a
range of work has taken place to implement the Scottish Government’s Trafficking
and Exploitation Strategy, focussing on three action areas: identifying and supporting
victims, identifying and disrupting perpetrators, and addressing the conditions that
foster trafficking and exploitation. The Scottish Government will soon publish the first
annual progress report on implementation of the Strategy.
Immigration: EU Nationals
Kate Green: [R] [142440]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the mobile application
for the registration of EU nationals for after the UK leaves the EU will be available in
languages other than English.
Caroline Nokes:
We have established user groups to discuss the development of a scheme for EU
citizens to apply for settled status. This includes the design of the Rules, guidance
and systems; testing them as they are developed; understanding the range of user
needs; and our plans for communications about the Scheme to ensure EU citizens
understand what they need to do.
We are conscious of the need to ensure the application process is straightforward
and accessible, including language needs, particularly of vulnerable groups.
We will be setting out more detail in the coming months.
Kate Green: [R] [142441]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consultations his
Department is holding with trade unions to raise awareness among EU nationals in their
workplaces of the (a) need and (b) process to apply for settled status.
Caroline Nokes:
It is vital that the over three million non-UK EU citizens and their family members
living in the UK understand how and when to apply under the settlement scheme.
That is why the Home Office has already launched a national ‘stay informed’
awareness campaign to set out EU citizens’ rights after the UK leaves the EU and to
point towards reliable sources of information, including official emails from the
government.
Further comprehensive communications activity is planned in line with the roll-out of
the settlement scheme later this year, including a multi-channel advertising campaign
tailored to reach EU citizens. In addition, we have a well-established programme of
stakeholder engagement, including businesses and EU citizens’ representatives –
and will ensure trade unions, regional and employer organisations, associations and
trade bodies are fully involved.
Immigration: Married People
Deidre Brock: [142476]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to issue guidance
to UK citizens who are living with non-EU spouses in the UK under the Surinder Singh
principle on their residence rights after the UK leaves the EU.
Deidre Brock: [142477]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department
has made of the number of UK citizens with non-EU born spouses who have returned to
the UK from another EU Member State under the Surinder Singh principle.
Caroline Nokes:
We have reached an agreement with the EU on citizens’ rights that will protect those
EU citizens and their family members who are lawfully resident in the UK by 31
December 2020. We will introduce a new settlement scheme under UK law for EU
citizens and their family members to secure their rights under the Withdrawal
Agreement.
Although not covered by citizens rights’ agreement with the EU, it is our intention that
family members of UK nationals who have exercised their free movement rights in
another EU Member State before returning to the UK before 31 December 2020, as
per Surinder Singh case law, will be eligible to apply for the UK’s settlement scheme.
We will provide details in advance of the scheme opening on the eligibility of those
who benefit from the Surinder Singh judgment to apply for the settlement scheme.
Currently, non-EU born spouses of British citizens returning to the UK from another
EU member state under the Surinder Singh judgment are not required to apply for a
right of residence and therefore no estimate of numbers is available.
Knives: Crime
Leo Docherty: [141871]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is
taking to reduce knife crime in Hampshire.
Victoria Atkins:
On 9 April 2018, the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy that set
out action being taken to address serious violence and in particular the recent
increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. This also includes the national
knife crime media campaign, #knifefree, to raise awareness of the consequences of
knife crime among young people and to encourage them to take up positive activities.
We will continue to encourage police forces in England and Wales to undertake a
series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation
Sceptre. In February this year, Hampshire Police participated in Operation Sceptre,
which includes targeted stop and searches, weapon sweeps, test purchases of
knives from identified retailers, the use of surrender bins and educational activities.
We also announced up to £1million for a new round of the anti-knife crime
Community Fund which will invite bids for funding later this Spring from community
groups to tackle knife crime in their area.
Members: Correspondence
Tony Lloyd: [142342]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what date he plans to
respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Rochdale dated 22 March 2018 on the
Immigration Health Surcharge, reference number IW/0045.
Caroline Nokes:
I responded to the hon. Member’s correspondence on 10 May 2018.
Prince Harry: Marriage
Tommy Sheppard: [142892]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18
April 2018 to question 135723, on Prince Harry: Marriage, whether Thames Valley Police
have submitted an application to her Department for Special Grant funding for additional
costs associated with policing the royal wedding.
Mr Nick Hurd:
The Home Office is working with Thames Valley Police to support the policing
operation around the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Markle. The Thames Valley
Police and Crime Commissioner has not applied for Special Grant funding at this
point, but any such application will be considered carefully.
Seasonal Agricultural Workers' Scheme
David Warburton: [113255]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce a seasonal
agricultural workers scheme once the UK has left the EU.
Caroline Nokes:
I refer my Hon Friend to the answer given to the Honourable Member for Dundee
West on 5 July UIN 1283.
Social Media: Children
Jim Shannon: [141785]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking
steps to monitor and regulate dating sites to prevent the exploitation of under-age people.
Victoria Atkins:
Children using adult dating sites face serious risk from those who are seeking to
exploit them, and anyone using these platforms to communicate sexually with
someone under the age of 16 is committing a crime.
As set out in the Internet Safety Strategy, the Government would like to work with
adult dating companies to review processes and procedures, and to develop new
protective messaging to help their user community prevent young people being put at
unnecessary risk, and to ensure they remain in line with the law. We will consider
whether there is a stronger role for companies to act to protect young people,
including by terminating accounts belonging to young people.
UK Border Force: Armed Forces Covenant
Gavin Robinson: [142875]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 8 May
2018 to Question 140136 on UK Border Force: Northern Ireland, whether the UK Border
Agency (a) supports the Military Covenant and (b) recognises its UK-wide applicability.
Caroline Nokes:
The Government is in full support of the Military Covenant and its application across
the UK.
Undercover Policing Inquiry
Louise Haigh: [142899]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Strategic
Review into the Undercover Policing Inquiry, what assessment he has made of the
potential merits of appointing panel members to assist the Chairman prior to the
commencement of Module One hearings.
Mr Nick Hurd:
Prior to the publication of the Strategic Review by Sir John Mitting on 10 May 2018,
consideration was given to the appointment of panel members to the Undercover
Policing Inquiry. A decision was taken by the previous Home Secretary to continue
with a single Chair and to keep the inclusion of panel members under review as the
Inquiry progresses.
Visas: Scotland
Dr Philippa Whitford: [142881]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many tier 2 visas were
awarded to licensed sponsors based in Scotland for each month from December 2016 to
April 2018.
Dr Philippa Whitford: [142882]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many tier 2 visas were
awarded to licensed sponsors based in England for each month from December 2016 to
April 2018.
Dr Philippa Whitford: [142883]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many tier 2 visas were
awarded to licensed sponsors based in London for each month from December 2016 to
April 2018.
Caroline Nokes:
The specific information requested is not included in statistics published by the Home
Office. The number of Tier 2 visas awarded to licensed sponsors can be found on the
Home Office website. Published data on Tier 2 Visas can be found in the immigration
statistics release.
The available published Tier 2 information relates to outcomes (grants, refusals,
withdrawn, lapsed) of visa applications, broken down by visa type (including Tier 2
skilled visas) and is published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics, Visas volume 1,
table vi_01_q, latest edition at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-
statistics-october-to-december-2017.
Visas: Skilled Workers
Daniel Zeichner: [142467]
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to update
the Shortage Occupation List; if she will update that list more frequently than once every
12 months; and if she will make a statement.
Caroline Nokes:
The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) reviews the Shortage
Occupation List when commissioned to do so by the Government.
The MAC has carried out two full reviews and four partial reviews of the Shortage
Occupation List since May 2010. The MAC recently reviewed the teaching sector and
published its report in January 2017, alongside an updated methodology on
assessing labour market shortages, and published a review of nursing in March 2016.
Further information about the MAC’s methodology and the reviews it has carried out
are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/migration-advisory-committee
HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
[Subject Heading to be Assigned]
Mrs Louise Ellman: [137054]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will
make representations to the freeholders of Heysmoor Heights, Liverpool on the funding
the fire safety measures required after the Grenfell Tower tragedy as a result of the
decision by the owners of Cityscape to fund their fire safety measures; and if he will make
a statement.
Dominic Raab:
[Holding answer 26 April 2018]: Building owners should do all they can to protect
leaseholders from costs arising from fire safety works in buildings clad with potentially
unsafe aluminium composite material cladding – either funding it themselves or
looking at alternative routes such as insurance claims, warranties or legal action. This
could include working with the developer to reach a solution which avoids costs being
passed to leaseholders. In the case of Citiscape, the decision to cover costs was
made by the original developer, not the current owner. I have also arranged to speak
with the agent of Heysmoor Heights’ freeholder regarding the costs of remediation.
Affordable Housing: Young People
Mr Stephen Hepburn: [141320]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant
to the Answer of 30 April 2018 to Question 137953 on Affordable Housing: Young
People, if he will publish the Government's definition of affordable housing.
Dominic Raab:
The Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21 supports the delivery of a wide range of
affordable homes to rent or buy. Housing associations and local authorities can bid
into the programme to provide homes for social rent, affordable rent, shared
ownership, rent to buy, and specialist affordable homes for vulnerable, older people
and people with disabilities.
Providers will only qualify for funding if their bids meet the requirements for affordable
homes as set out in Homes England’s capital funding guide. Further details can be
found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/capital-funding-guide
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Scott Mann: [140167]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will
introduce new protections for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the revised National
Planning Policy Framework.
Dominic Raab:
The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) makes clear that the
Government attaches great importance to the protection of Areas of Outstanding
Natural Beauty (AONBs). There are no new protections for AONBs in the revised
NPPF as great weight should already be given to conserving their landscape and
scenic beauty within the existing framework.
Building Regulations and Fire Safety Independent Review
Kevin Hollinrake: [R] [142488]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
plans his Department has to report on progress in implementing the recommendations of
the Hackitt Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety.
Dominic Raab:
[Holding answer 14 May 2018]: Dame Judith Hackitt's review into Building
Regulations and Fire Safety final report is expected to be published in late Spring
2018. The Government will respond to its findings in due course.
Land Use
John Healey: [142329]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the
(a) nature and (b) cause of the technical issue relating to the extraction of the underlying
data was which caused the delay of the publication of Land Use Change statistics 2016
to 2017 from 24 January 2018 to 31 May 2018.
Dominic Raab:
[Holding answer 14 May 2018]: The Department will publish Land Use Change
Statistics for 2016-17 on 31 May.
To produce these statistics, the Department obtains data produced by the Ordnance
Survey. Over the course of this year, the Ordnance Survey has been making
technical improvements to the processes it uses to capture up-to-date and robust
information on land use change – these improvements are to ensure that the
methodology continues to detect real world changes in land use during 2016-17 as
accurately as possible and not changes in land use that are due to other regular
Ordnance Survey data updates. These technical improvements meant that the
methodology used to produce the final land use change figures also required
updating, to ensure that the figures for 2016-17 are consistent with past figures and
for this reason the release will be published later this month.
Leasehold
Justin Madders: [141828]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how
many new homes were sold on a leasehold basis in each of the last five years.
Dominic Raab:
This information is available in HM Land Registry's Price Paid Data:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/price-paid-data
House of Commons Library analysis of the data is available here:
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8047/CBP08047---
Tables-for-download.xlsx. See Table 6 for trends in the proportion of properties sold
that were leasehold.
Letter Boxes: Standards
John Healey: [140988]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
steps he is taking to ensure that letter boxes confirm with European Standard EN 13724.
John Healey: [140989]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
assessment he has made of the physical effect on postal workers of properties with low
level letterboxes.
Dominic Raab:
The Department has no current assessment on how level letter boxes effect postal
workers. The statutory guidance which supports the Building Regulations references
industry technical guidance which in turn refers to a British and European standard
(BS EN 134724: 2013). This standard recommends a range for letter box apertures to
be within a height range of 700 millimetres up to 1700 millimetres.
The statutory guidance which support Building Regulations references the Door and
Hardware Federation’s technical specification TS 008: 2012, which in turn refers to a
British and European standard relating to letter boxes: BS EN 134724: 2013.
Local Government Finance
Catherine McKinnell: [142845]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant
to the Answer of 1 May 2018 to Question 138439 on local government finance, and with
reference to Questions 245 to 259 of the evidence given by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to the Treasury Committee on 25 April 2015, how his Department defines the
term at risk with reference to local authority funding.
Rishi Sunak:
We consider a wide range of information around individual local authorities in order to
form judgements about the scale of challenge they may face.
Local authorities that we judge in the near future that may not be able to continue to
deliver a consistent quality of service across a range of priorities due to financial
pressures or any other reason are considered to be at risk.
Catherine McKinnell: [142846]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant
to the Answer of 1 May 2018 to Question 138440, on Local Government Finance, what
processes his Department has in place to provide assurance on the sustainability of
individual local authorities.
Rishi Sunak:
We have processes in place to provide assurance around the sustainability of
individual local authorities as set out in the Accounting Officer system statement:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dclg-accounting-officer-system-
statement
Assurance advice is provided to the Accounting Officer every 6 months that sets out
how the accountability framework is performing. This advice is informed by an on
going programme of work, to assess sustainability risks, both at a sector and
individual authority level.
Catherine McKinnell: [142847]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant
to the Answer of 01 May 2018 to Question 138441, on Local Government Finance, what
the timetable is for the review into the relative needs and resources of local authorities in
England to be completed.
Rishi Sunak:
The Government is conducting a review of relative needs and resources which will
establish new baseline funding levels for local authorities in England. We are working
towards implementation in 2020/21, while keeping this date under review as our work
progresses. This offers the best opportunity to achieve a thorough, evidence-based
review, developed in collaboration with local government.
Catherine McKinnell: [142848]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant
to the Answer of 01 May 2018 to Question 138441, on Local Government Finance, what
drivers of local authorities’ costs have been identified by his Department and local
government representatives.
Rishi Sunak:
The Government is conducting a review of the relative needs and resources of local
authorities in England, with a view to setting fresh baseline funding levels in 2020-21.
We are working closely with local government representatives to consider the
contributory factors of local authorities’ costs, the relative resources available to them
to fund local services, and how we should account for these in a way that draws a
more transparent and understandable link between local circumstances and resource
allocations.
In December 2017 we published a consultation on relative needs which proposed
cost contributory factors that could potentially be included in a future funding formula.
The consultation was an important opportunity for all local authorities to tell us about
the factors which contribute to costs for the services they deliver on a day to day
basis and there was broad agreement from many respondents around the cost
contributory factors identified. Many of the responses received also suggested
additional cost contributory factors which will now be subject to further consideration
as we progress this review. The Government’s aim is to publish a formal response to
the consultation later this year.
The December 2017 consultation is available online:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fair-funding-review-a-review-of-relative-
needs-and-resources
Local Government: Procurement
Chi Onwurah: [142844]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what
requirements there are for local authorities to measure small business access to local
authority procurement.
Rishi Sunak:
There is no requirement on local authorities to measure small business access to
local authority procurement. As independent contracting authorities, local authorities
are responsible for taking their own procurement decisions. While authorities are
subject to the requirements of legislation and should have regard to a combination of
economy, efficiency and effectiveness, I would strongly encourage councils to
consider how the can use their procurement activity to support the local economy and
small businesses.
Sleeping Rough
Kate Green: [142838]
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant
to Written Statement of 9 May 2018, HCWS671, how many of the c.1000 rough sleepers
that the pilots will support will be in (a) Greater Manchester, (b) Liverpool City Region and
(c) West Midlands.
Mrs Heather Wheeler:
Following the announcement of the Housing First Pilot Regions allocations on 9 May,
MHCLG will work with the respective regions to finalise the expected number of
people who will benefit from this important scheme, which invests £28 million of
public money into helping some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Internally Displaced People: Departmental Coordination
Steve McCabe: [142755]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will develop a cross-
departmental strategy for the UK’s approach to supporting the (a) prevention of, (b)
protection of and (c) solution to the increasing number of internally displaced people
around the world.
Alistair Burt:
The UK Government is strongly committed to meeting the needs of internally
displaced persons (IDPs). We published a new Humanitarian Reform Policy in
October last year which includes a focus on forced displacement and measures that
are relevant for mitigating and responding more effectively to displacement. We
believe our primary focus should now be at the global level to press for a more
effective international response. For example, several UN Member States, including
the UK, are now actively exploring options with the UN – including the idea of
launching a UN High Level Panel on Internally Displaced Persons, which presents
one way of galvanising greater political and operational attention and action on IDPs.
Palestinians: Overseas Aid
Jim Shannon: [141795]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what processes her
Department has in place to monitor the delivery and spending of UK aid in the Palestinian
Territories.
Alistair Burt:
As for all DFID programmes, officials regularly monitor and review our programmes in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) to ensure they are delivering results and
that UK aid reaches the intended beneficiaries and achieves the best development
outcomes, with a strong focus on ensuring value for money for the UK taxpayer. The
processes in place include comprehensive annual reviews and project completion
reports. These reviews are available on the DFID Development Tracker at
https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/. DFID has due diligence assessment processes to
provide assurance over the expenditure of our funds, and DFID’s project spending in
the OPTs is subject to annual, independent financial audit. The overall programme is
also subject to the regular audit cycle of DFID’s Internal Audit Department and the
National Audit Office. DFID has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and has robust
controls against diversion of aid to terrorist groups.
Jim Shannon: [141796]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how her Department works
in cooperation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ensure that UK aid to the
Palestinians facilitates peace-building with Israel.
Alistair Burt:
Our financial assistance to the Occupied Palestinian Territories helps to maintain
stability and is underpinned by HMG’s long-standing objective that the only way to
allow Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace is through a negotiated two-state
solution. As joint-Minister for the Department for International Development and the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I ensure that my officials liaise closely to deliver
development programmes in support of a two-state solution which requires
collaborating equally with the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Department for International Trade: Training
Hywel Williams: [141326]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what training his Department has
provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil
servants on understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament; how
many such courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such
training courses in each of the last five years.
Greg Hands:
As part of EU Parliamentary Scrutiny awareness raising and training across the
department, the EU Trade Policy team have held internal training sessions on EU
Parliamentary Scrutiny. Events were open to all grades of staff including fast
streamers. Approximately 30 staff attended each of the sessions.
The Department for International Trade also offers a range of training sessions on the
scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament to all members of staff. This has
included specific training on secondary legislation processes as part of a ‘Secondary
Legislation Awareness Week’ in February 2018, and other sessions that were
included in Parliament Week in November 2017. The Department offers training as
part of its ‘Delivering for Ministers’ programme and delivers bespoke training for
teams on request.
Detailed records of attendance at training sessions on parliament are not held
centrally by the department, but over 300 people have attended such sessions since
the Department’s formation in July 2016. Attendance has not been broken down by
grade.
Trade Agreements: Israel
Jim Shannon: [141793]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps he is taking to
strengthen the UK’s trade relationship with Israel in medical research and development.
Graham Stuart:
I refer the hon Member for Strangford to the answer I gave to the hon Member for
North Antrim on 14 February 2018, UIN 127029.
Jim Shannon: [141794]
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps he is taking to
encourage and facilitate trade cooperation between the UK and Israel in the agricultural
technology sector.
Graham Stuart:
I refer the Hon Member for Strangford to the answer given to him by the then Minister
of State for Investment (Mark Garnier MP) on 7 July 2017, UIN:2645.
JUSTICE
Attorney General: Registered Intermediaries
Philip Davies: [142395]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent from the public
purse on Registered Intermediaries in each of the last four years.
Lucy Frazer:
The Department does not hold the information requested. The Ministry of Justice
manages the overall Witness Intermediary Scheme, with the payment of Registered
Intermediaries coming from police forces, the CPS and courts as the end-users of
their services.
Educational Testing Service
Stephen Timms: [142745]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many decisions since February 2014 to
curtail a person's leave to remain in the UK on the ground of cheating in an English
language test administered by ETS have been overturned on appeal.
Stephen Timms: [142746]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many decisions since February 2014 to
curtail a person's leave to remain in the UK on the ground of cheating in an English
language test administered by ETS are subject to appeal.
Lucy Frazer:
The information requested is not held centrally, and could only be provided at
disproportionate cost.
Homicide: Reoffenders
Philip Davies: [140686]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been murdered since
2012 by people who were previously convicted of murder and then released having
served their prison sentences.
Rory Stewart:
Serious further offences are very rare (less than 0.5% of offenders under statutory
supervision commit serious further offences) and each one is taken extremely
seriously and investigated fully, in order to identify any lessons for the better
management of future cases.
Of course, murder is the most serious of all offences, and between 2012 and the end
of 2017, 7 people have been murdered by people who were previously convicted of
murder and then released by the Parole Board on licence, having served the
minimum custodial term of their prison sentence.
Ministry Of Justice: Training
Hywel Williams: [141333]
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what training his Department has provided to
(a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil servants on
understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament; how many such
courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such training
courses in each of the last five years.
Dr Phillip Lee:
a) All Civil Servants
Civil Service Learning provide a range of central learning opportunities, including
online and face-to-face training, for all civil servants on Devolution &
Intergovernmental Working.
STARTED COMPLETED TOTAL ENGAGEMENTS
2018 67 346 413
2017 53 171 224
STARTED COMPLETED TOTAL ENGAGEMENTS
2016 2 7 9
Total 122 524 646
ii) The half day face-to-face Devolution & Intergovernmental Working workshop
is also available to all civil servants. Building on the above online module, delegates
learn from experienced professionals who have worked on a range of devolution
matters about topics such as confidentiality, when to seek legal advice and the
boundaries of devolution, where reserved and devolved powers meet. A total of 28
policy professionals have undertaken this training through two workshops, since June
2017.
Both the online and face-to-face workshops are included in the recommended
learning for all civil servants working in a role related to EU exit. The online learning is
included in the new EU Essentials for Policy Professionals programme, for those new
to policy making or the civil service; and the face-to-face workshop is included in the
EU Policy Practitioner Programme for those with more policy experience. These
programmes were launched in April 2018, with a total of 56 policy professionals
undertaking the training programmes so far.
iii) Also available to civil servants are the EU exit: devolution settlements and
intergovernmental working events. Delegates hear the views of Permanent
Secretaries, and other senior civil servants from the devolved administrations and
territorial offices, on intergovernmental relations within the current political climate.
Seven of these events have been delivered to 96 attendees across three
Departments, since March 2017.
b) Fast Stream
Introduced in 2017 as part of Fast Stream policy learning, delegates take part in a
Devolution workshop, which all brand new entrant centrally managed Fast Streamers
attend as part of their Induction offer. This was delivered in 2017 to over 800 Fast
Streamers. We've also delivered four optional Devolution workshops as part of Fast
Stream Policy Base Camp to 150 year 3/4 centrally managed Fast Streamers over
the last two years.
Fast Streamers are also required to complete the online 'Devolution and
Intergovernmental Working' e-learning product as mandatory e-learning within their
first year on the Fast Stream programme.
c) SCS
Each nation of the UK leads and hosts an annual SCS conference to learn from
each other and build networks across the Policy Profession. These have been held
on 28/29 April 2016 in Cardiff, 20/21 April 2017 in Belfast (this included Irish
Government Civil Servants too) and 26/27 April 2018 in Edinburgh. It will be for
England to host in 2019. All of these events each have around 100 participants
across the administrations.
The Devolution and You program
Devolution and You was established in 2015 following a Civil Service Board
commission and promotes greater understanding of devolution among civil servants
and for better intergovernmental working across the different administrations in the
UK. The program is led by Cabinet Office in partnership with the Scottish and Welsh
Governments. It aims to build devolution awareness and civil servant networks
across the One Civil Service through shared learning and knowledge exchange
throughout the year.
The Devolution and You programme enables civil servants to strengthen their skill
sets and build open and positive relationships as they engage in complex discussions
across the One Civil Service. In 2017 the program trained over 2000 civil servants
from across the UK through a variety of forums, including Civil Service Learning
resources and through bespoke training;
Local inductions for new starters
Departmental masterclasses, including tailored sessions for specialised teams
such as communications, private office, policy and legislation
Civil Service Live presentations
Civil Service Local Devolution Masterclasses
Resource material available to civil servants across the One Civil Service
We also work in partnership with the Scottish and Welsh Governments to run the One
Civil Service Interchange program which supports these objectives by providing a
platform on which civil servants can engage directly with their peers working in other
UK administrations, through an immersive programme of work-shadowing and
educational events over the course of a week. The programme runs three times a
year, with the UK, Welsh, and Scottish Governments each hosting an annual event.
Since 2017, the Northern Ireland Civil Service has also participated in the programme
by providing participants to the events.
The most recent iteration of the UK Government Interchange Week ran 5-9 March
2018 and, with a record number of applications, it was the largest Interchange Week
to date. In total, 83 Civil Servants from the Scottish (43) and Welsh (18) Governments
and the Northern Ireland Executive (22) participated in a series of whole-group
sessions and individual work shadowing across nineteen UK Government
departments.
Welsh Government Interchange week will take place 2-6 July 2018.
There are a range of workshops and digital courses that give specific training to the
Ministry of Justice in the understanding of the scrutiny and legislative role of the UK
parliament.
Data on the number of civil servants that have attended these courses is not
available for each of the last 5 years for all training. Due to a change of provider, data
is only available for the last 2 years for digital learning and the last 5 years for
workshops, as shown in table 1.
Table 1 – Number of workshops and digital courses attended by Ministry of
Justice staff, 2013 to 2017
2013
Learning method Fast Streamers Senior Civil Servant All Staff
Workshops 52 0 97
2014
Learning method Fast Streamers Senior Civil Servant All Staff
Workshops 66 0 277
2015
Learning method Fast Streamers Senior Civil Servant All Staff
Workshops 46 0 175
2016
Learning method Fast Streamers Senior Civil Servant All Staff
Digital Learning unknown 4 757
Workshops 0 0 80
2017
Learning method Fast Streamers Senior Civil Servant All Staff
Digital Learning unknown 1 1219
Note: All staff including fast streamers and Senior Civil Servants.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Borders: Northern Ireland
Lady Hermon: [142366]
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2018
to Question 13996 on Security: Northern Ireland, on what dates the Police Service of
Northern Ireland met with (a) Ministers and (b) officials of her Department to discuss the
security implications of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of
Ireland after the UK leaves the EU.
Karen Bradley:
I would refer the hon Member to my previous answer of 8 May 2018. The PSNI have
been, and will continue to be, fully engaged in ongoing constructive meetings with
representatives from both the Northern Ireland Office and other Whitehall
departments on a wide range of matters, including the security implications of a hard
border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after the UK leaves the
EU.
City Deals: Northern Ireland
Mr Gregory Campbell: [142780]
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what the timescale is for the Belfast
and Londonderry city deals to become fully operational.
Mr Shailesh Vara:
The Government has set out several public commitments, including in the Budget
and in the Confidence and Supply Agreement, to work towards a ‘comprehensive and
ambitious’ set of City Deals across Northern Ireland.
Negotiations have been opened for a Belfast City Regions deal; however, a timetable
has not been set to deliver a City Deal for Belfast or for Londonderry. A timetable
cannot be agreed until proposals are completed and submitted to Government.
Officials from across Whitehall and the Northern Ireland Civil Service have been
engaging with partners on their proposals.
Customs Officers: Northern Ireland
Alan Brown: [142893]
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to the oral contribution
of the hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, of 9 May 2018, Official Report, column
664, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the proportion of
additional customs officials who will be based in Northern Ireland; and if she will make a
statement.
Karen Bradley:
I have regular conversations with the Home Secretary on a range of issues.
I reiterate the Government’s clear commitment to there being no hard border between
Northern Ireland and Ireland, and no physical infrastructure or related checks and
controls at the border. The Border Force recruitment campaign will largely replace
individual recruitment rounds to specific roles. It will meet a range of business needs,
including meeting the normal staff turnover associated with a large operational
business such as Border Force.
Northern Ireland Office: Apprentices
Jack Lopresti: [142409]
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what levels of apprenticeships are
offered by her Department; and how many apprenticeship starts there were at each level
in each of the last three years.
Mr Shailesh Vara:
I can advise that the Northern Ireland Office has offered apprenticeships at Levels
three and four.
During 2015/16, one apprentice started at Level 3.
During 2016/17, no apprentices started.
During 2017/18, three apprentices started - two at Level 3 and one at Level 4.
SCOTLAND
Scotland Office: Incentives
Deidre Brock: [141814]
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many bonuses were awarded to senior
civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in each of the last six years;
and what the total cost of those bonuses was.
David Mundell:
Two bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working in the Scotland Office at
a total cost of £20,000.
Scotland Office: Official Cars
Philip Davies: [141746]
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the job titles are of civil servants in his
Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver; and how
many civil servants are so provided for.
David Mundell:
No civil servants in the Scotland Office have an official car or driver.
Scotland Office: Training
Hywel Williams: [141323]
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what training his Department has provided to
(a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil servants on
devolution and inter-governmental relations; how many such courses have taken place;
and how many civil servants have attended such training courses in each of the last five
years.
David Mundell:
Civil Servants in the Scotland Office play a central role working with Cabinet Office to
provide formal and informal advice across Whitehall on devolution and
intergovernmental relations. We also participate in various devolution focussed
events including the Devolution and You programme, Devolution Learning Week and
the Civil Service Interchange programme. Civil servants new to the department also
have access to a wide range of central Civil Service learning opportunities on
devolution and intergovernmental relations. We do not hold exact numbers of staff
who have attended these courses.
In addition, each nation of the UK leads and hosts an annual SCS conference to
learn from each other and build networks across the Policy Profession. These have
been held on 28/29 April 2016 in Cardiff, 20/21 April 2017 in Belfast (this included
Irish Government Civil Servants too) and 26/27 April 2018 in Edinburgh. It will be for
England to host in 2019. All of these events each have around 100 participants
across the administrations.
TRANSPORT
Department for Transport: Official Cars
Philip Davies: [141743]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the job titles are of civil servants in his
Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver; and how
many civils servants are so provided for.
Ms Nusrat Ghani:
The Department does not provide an official car or driver for any civil servants.
Dial-a-Ride: West Lancashire
Rosie Cooper: [142802]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 3.14 of his
Department's consultation on the use of section 19 and section 22 permits for road
passenger transport in Great Britain, whether the West Lancashire Dial A Ride services
will be considered to be substantially less than cost and therefore exempt under EU and
UK regulations on PSV.
Rosie Cooper: [142804]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 3.14 of his
Department's consultation on the use of section 19 and section 22 permits for road
passenger transport in Great Britain, whether the West Lancashire Dial A Ride services
will be considered as only operating in non-contestable markets and therefore exempt
under EU and UK regulations on PSV.
Rosie Cooper: [142805]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to paragraph 3.20 of his
Department's consultation on the use of section 19 and section 22 permits for road
passenger transport in Great Britain, whether the West Lancashire Dial A Ride services
will be considered as only incidental to a main, non-transport occupation and therefore
exempt under EU and UK regulations on PSV.
Rosie Cooper: [142806]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's
consultation on the use of section 19 and section 22 permits for road passenger transport
in Great Britain, whether the West Lancashire Dial A Ride services will be considered as
only as only for short distances and therefore exempt under EU and UK regulations on
PSV.
Jesse Norman:
There are wide variations between different community transport organisations and
the work that they do. This Department cannot advise on whether or not a specific
community transport organisation can continue to provide the services it currently
operates in reliance on permits instead of an operating licence. I would encourage
community transport providers who are unsure about their position to seek
independent advice. The Community Transport Association’s Advice Service may be
able to help. They are available on: 0345 130 6195, between 10:00 - 16:00, on
Monday to Friday.
The Department’s consultation on how Regulation 1071/2009 applies to permits
under the Transport Act 1985 has now closed and over 500 responses have been
received. The Department will analyse the responses fully and provide a summary
response before summer recess.
Merchant Shipping: Registration
Paul Flynn: [142769]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information on beneficial ownership is
requested from shipowners by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency when it receives an
application to register a merchant vessel on the UK Ship Register.
Ms Nusrat Ghani:
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency requests beneficiary ownership details, when
an application is received to register a merchant vessel on the UK Ship Register,
through the requirement of the Bill of Sale, or if the vessel is new build, the New Build
Certificate; the Declaration of Eligibility; and the Certificate of Incorporation, to be
supplied as part of the registration process.
Paul Flynn: [142771]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information on beneficial ownership of
merchant vessels is collected from Red Ensign Group registers by the Maritime and
Coastguard Agency.
Ms Nusrat Ghani:
Apart from the UK Ship Register, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency does not
collect information on the beneficial ownership of merchant vessels from the other
Red Ensign Group registers operated by the Governments of the UK Overseas
Territories and Crown Dependencies.
Records will be maintained by the individual Governments.
Roads: Safety
Martin Whitfield: [141882]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department's strategy is on (a)
improving road safety and (b) decreasing motorcycle accident rates relating to drivers'
impaired vision.
Jesse Norman:
The British Road Safety Statement sets out the Government’s commitment to
improve road safety and reduce the number of people killed or injured on the roads
every year.
All drivers and riders must be able to meet the required visual acuity and visual field
standards, which includes being able to read a number plate from 20 metres. Drivers
are also legally responsible for notifying the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency
(DVLA) at any time of a change in their health or vision which may affect their ability
to meet the appropriate standards.
The government fully supports the NHS’s recommendation that adults should have
their eyes tested every two years. The DVLA has changed its driving licence
application forms to highlight the importance of having regular eyesight tests. The
photocard driving licence renewal letter the DVLA sends to drivers has also been
amended to include this important message.
Shipping: Apprentices
Karl Turner: [142429]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many seafarer Ratings were trained
using apprenticeships agreed with the Maritime Trailblazer Working Group in each year
since 2015.
Ms Nusrat Ghani:
The statistics for apprenticeship numbers are published online at this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-
apprenticeships#apprenticeship-starts-and-achievements
The number of seafarer ratings trained using apprenticeships is steadily increasing in
each year since the able seafarer (deck) apprenticeship was introduced in August
2015 bringing the total number of seafarers trained through this route to 70. The
annual breakdown is in the table below:
2015/16 2016/17
2017/18 (Q1 &2
ONLY) TOTALS
Able Seafarer
(Deck)
0 30 40 70
The statistics for the full 2017/18 year have not yet been published so only the first 2
quarters have been included.
Shipping: Employment
Karl Turner: [142426]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to promote
employment of UK seafarers in the domestic maritime cargo sector.
Ms Nusrat Ghani:
The Department has a number of initiatives to promote employment of UK seafarers.
Two leading schemes include: the training commitment link in UK Tonnage Tax and
SMarT/SMarT Plus maritime training funding. Both of these have helped bolster the
number of UK seafarers and will continue to ensure through put of skilled seafarers
needed for the sectors future economic success and growth.
In our “Maritime 2050: Call for Evidence” we recognised the importance of our people
in the maritime workplace, whether at sea or on land. Consequently people is one of
the six themes where we have asked respondents to concentrate their views as any
long term plans for the UK maritime sector must ensure it has the skilled staff it needs
to maintain the UK’s position as a leading maritime nation. We are keen to see more
people at all levels entering the industry and enjoying a career in the maritime area.
The Government values apprenticeships as a route to obtaining the skills needed for
the future workforce. The Department is also leading the Government’s Year of
Engineering campaign, which is committed to boosting engineering skills across the
UK.
Shipping: Training
Karl Turner: [142427]
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to promote the
training of UK seafarer Ratings to shipping company groups that have qualified for the
Tonnage Tax scheme.
Ms Nusrat Ghani:
The Department has always encouraged companies in tonnage tax to employ UK
Ratings. In 2015, following proposals from industry in 2014, this position was
solidified through a change in regulations which explicitly allowed tonnage tax
companies to employ and train three Ratings instead of one Officer cadet. It is the
responsibility of both Government and industry, as a whole, to promote these
opportunities and further advice can be found in the Department’s tonnage tax
guidance.
TREASURY
Air Passenger Duty
Steve Double: [141355]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of
air passenger duty on levels of tourism in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales.
Robert Jenrick:
International treaties ensure that there is no taxation of international aviation fuel, and
the Government does not levy VAT on flights. Air Passenger Duty (APD) ensures the
aviation sector contributes its fair share to general taxation.
The Government has not conducted an assessment of the effect of APD on tourism
in England, Scotland and Wales. However, even at the current rates of APD, UK
airports have enjoyed strong passenger growth: exceeding 15% in the previous five
years.
The government is seeking views on the effects of APD and VAT on tourism in
Northern Ireland. Respondents to the call for evidence can submit evidence on the
wider impacts of APD upon UK tourism by 5 June 2018.
Brexit
Hywel Williams: [141711]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what elements of his Department's preparations
for the UK leaving the EU will not be completed by March 2019.
John Glen:
The government is committed to ensuring that the UK is ready for all possible
outcomes on exit day– and HM Treasury plays its part to achieve this goal:
The Chancellor announced £3bn across 18/19 and 19/20 in the Autumn Budget and
confirmed individual departments’ allocations in the 2018 Spring Statement to ensure
that departments are funded to prepare effectively for a range of exit scenarios;
HM Treasury continues with detailed preparations for all scenarios; in particular for
financial services and customs to ensure there are functioning regimes in place on
the day the UK leaves the EU;
The Treasury takes an active role in supporting the negotiation process, in particular
on the UK’s economic and financial relationship with the EU.
Children: Day Care
Tracy Brabin: [142906]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 27 April 2018 to
Question 137634, on Children: Day Care, whether support costs will be included as part
of the £6bn spend on childcare in 2020.
Elizabeth Truss:
By 2019-20 we will be spending a record £6 billion on childcare support. The IT and
call centre costs referred to in my answer to question 137634 are not included within
this figure.
Tracy Brabin: [142907]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 27 April 2018 to
Question 137634, on 137634, what was the total amount his Department planned to
spend on support costs for policies related to childcare and early education in the
financial year 2017-18.
Elizabeth Truss:
The Childcare Service is an integrated digital service through which parents can
apply for Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours free childcare in a single application. As
the costs of one application can be associated with both policies, there is not a clear
distinction between the operating costs of each. In 2017-18, HMRC met just under
£29 million of the total costs, and DfE £8 million.
Financial Services
Hywel Williams: [141707]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what opportunities his Department has identified
for the financial services sector after the UK leaves the EU.
John Glen:
The UK will have the opportunity to set its own trade policy in financial services when
it leaves the European Union. For the first time in 40 years, we will be able to
negotiate, ratify and sign trade deals with old friends and new allies. The government
is working with stakeholders to identify the opportunities that this presents, and is
committed to strengthening the UK’s already world leading positions in the markets of
the future, such as in FinTech, green finance and rupee or renminbi products. The
government is engaged with industry on this through the Financial Services Trade
and Investment Board, which works to boost the competitive position of UK financial
services.
Hywel Williams: [141712]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of
the structures that the Government will need to put in place to prepare for new rules
affecting UK financial services during the transition period of exiting the EU.
John Glen:
The UK and EU negotiating teams have agreed the terms of a time-limited
Implementation Period. While the UK will no longer be a member state of the
European Union, market access will continue on its current terms during the
Implementation Period. To give businesses and citizens certainty, common rules will
remain in place until the end of the period. This means businesses will be able to
trade on the same terms as now up until the end of 2020.
Once the UK becomes a third country, we will withdraw from the institutions of the
EU. As a non-member state, we have been clear that the UK will no longer have the
same role in the decision-making of the EU. However, it is clearly in the interests of
both sides that the UK continues to work closely together on matters that concern the
UK, as set out in the agreement.
Hywel Williams: [141714]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of
the effect on the confidence of the UK financial services sector in (a) London, (b) the rest
of England and (c) Wales of no agreement being reached between the UK and the EU on
the UK leaving the EU.
John Glen:
Financial services firms across the UK can have confidence that the government is
committed to leaving the EU in a way that underpins prosperity and avoids
unnecessary disruption and dangerous cliff edges for businesses across the UK.
We are making significant progress and this has been well-received by industry.
Since December, we have reached agreement with the EU on an implementation
period, we have agreed a technical dialogue on cliff edge risks to be led by the Bank
of England and the European Central Bank and the Chancellor has set out a clear
vision for our future relationship with the EU on financial services.
These measures have been well-received by industry in the UK. We continue to work
closely with businesses located throughout the United Kingdom to ensure that they
are prepared for a smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU.
Financial Services: EU Countries
Hywel Williams: [141708]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many UK financial services institutions have
a presence in other EU countries.
John Glen:
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) maintain a Financial Services Register, a
record of firms, individuals and other bodies that are, or have been, regulated by the
UK’s financial services regulators, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and/or
FCA. The register can be accessed at the following address:
https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register
Furthermore, the European Central Bank (ECB) maintains a list of financial services
institutions operating in the EU at the following address:
http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/financial_corporations/list_of_financial_institutions/ht
ml/index.en.html
Instalment Credit
Alex Cunningham: [141783]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to bring forward legislative
proposals to extend the protections under the payday loan cap to the (a) rent-to-own and
(b) home credit markets.
Alex Cunningham: [141784]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help
ensure customers are protected from being pushed into problem debt by (a) rent-to-own
and (b) home credit products.
John Glen:
The Government is committed to protecting consumers from unfair lending practises.
To this end, the Government has given the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) strong
powers, including the power to cap the cost of credit, and it will do so if it thinks it is
necessary to protect consumers.
The FCA is conducting a review of the high-cost credit market, including rent-to-own
and doorstep lending, and will publish an update later this month. The Government
will continue to work closely with the FCA to ensure that all customers are treated
fairly.
As well as supporting consumers through better regulation, the Government is also
supporting consumers to make effective financial decisions, through the creation of a
Single Financial Guidance Body (SFGB). The SFGB will have a statutory duty to
improve the public’s financial capability.
Royal Bank of Scotland: Fees and Charges
Bill Wiggin: [R] [141717]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to prevent Royal Bank of
Scotland from charging additional fees to companies employing politically exposed
persons.
John Glen:
Decisions on fees and charges are a commercial matter for firms. However, the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires firms to treat their customers fairly, and
has broad and robust powers to enforce breaches of its rules.
The latest Money Laundering Regulations are clear that firms must apply a risk-
sensitive approach to identifying politically exposed persons (PEPs) and then
applying enhanced due diligence (EDD) measures appropriately. This extends to
assessing the circumstances in which the beneficial owner of a company is a PEP.
The FCA has published guidance on how firms should identify and apply EDD
measures to PEPs. This makes clear that UK PEPs should be treated as a low risk of
money laundering, unless an FCA-regulated firm assesses that other risk factors not
linked to their position as a PEP mean they pose a higher risk.
Royal Bank of Scotland: Small Businesses
Bill Esterson: [142837]
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution of the
Economic Secretary to the Treasury of 10 March 2018, Official Report, column 978, what
compensation he proposes be provided to the small business customers of Royal Bank of
Scotland who were subject to inappropriate behaviour by that company.
John Glen:
In November 2016 the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) established a complaints
process for small and medium-sized enterprises in their Global Restructuring Group
(GRG) between 2008-2013, overseen by an independent third party, and took the
decision to automatically refund complex fees paid by relevant customers to GRG
during that period. RBS have set aside £400m for this scheme.
Following a meeting with the Chief Executive of RBS I received a letter on 9 May
stating that RBS have also committed to setting up an independent appeal process
for consequential loss claims under the redress scheme.
WALES
Wales Office: Apprentices
Jack Lopresti: [142407]
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what levels of apprenticeships are offered by his
Department; and how many apprenticeship starts there were at each level in each of the
last three years.
Stuart Andrew:
The Office of the Secretary of State for Wales is committed to providing
apprenticeship opportunities in a variety of posts within the Department. We offer
both level 3 and level 4 apprenticeships, and the number of starts for each level for
the last three years is set out below:
YEAR STARTS AT LEVEL 3 STARTS AT LEVEL 4
2015 3 1
2016 1 1
2017 2 2
Wales Office: Incentives
Deidre Brock: [141819]
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil
servants working at his Department and its agencies in each of the last six years; and
what the total cost of those bonuses was.
Stuart Andrew:
As part of the Government’s transparency agenda, departments publish annual
information on the number of awards and spend on end-year and in-year Non-
Consolidated Performance Related Pay. This information can be found on the Office
of the Secretary for Wales’s website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=office-of-the-
secretary-of-state-for-wales&publication_type=corporate-reports
Information for future years will be published in the usual way.
Wales Office: Official Cars
Philip Davies: [141747]
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what the job titles are of civil servants in his
Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver; and how
many civil servants are so provided for.
Stuart Andrew:
No Wales Office civil servants have been provided with an official car.
Wales Office: Training
Hywel Williams: [141337]
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what training his Department has provided to (a)
general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil servants on
understanding the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament; how many such
courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such training
courses in each of the last five years.
Alun Cairns:
All civil servants have access to central learning provided through Civil Service
Learning which covers Parliament’s scrutiny and legislative roles. In addition, the
Cabinet Office Parliamentary Business and Legislation Team, and Government Legal
Department also provide training on Parliamentary bills.
My Department supports this by providing training and guidance to civil servants on
how the scrutiny and legislative roles of the UK Parliament interact with the Welsh
devolution settlement.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Bereavement Allowance: Cohabitation
Lisa Nandy: [141776]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to extend
Bereavement Support Payment to people who were cohabiting but were not married or in
a civil partnership; and if she will make a statement.
Kit Malthouse:
Bereavement Benefits are contributory benefits and it is a founding principle of the
contributory benefits system that rights derived from another person’s contributions
should be based on the concept of legal marriage or civil partnership.
Carers
Alex Cunningham: [141782]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the
number of carers; what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of
increasing the level of carer’s allowance to the existing level of contributions-based
jobseeker’s allowance for people aged 25 and over; and what estimate she has made of
the cost to the public purse of increasing the carer premium by the current difference
between carer’s allowance and contributions-based jobseeker’s allowance for people
aged 25 and over.
Sarah Newton:
The level of Carer’s Allowance (CA) is protected by uprating it annually in line with
the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Since 2010 the rate of CA has increased from
£53.90 to £64.60 a week, meaning an additional £550 a year for carers. In 2022/23
the Government is forecast to spend £3.7 billion on CA, a 36% real terms increase in
expenditure on 2016/17.
Additionally, carers have access to the full range of social security benefits according
to their circumstances. There are carer “premiums” in income-related benefits, such
as Income Support, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit. These amounts recognise
the additional contribution and responsibilities associated with caring and mean that
lower-income carers can receive more than others who receive these benefits. For
example, in 2017, 6 out of ten households on Universal Credit with a Carer
Entitlement recorded received a Monthly Award Amount of over £400: this is in
addition to any CA they may receive.
According to the Family Resources Survey (2016/17), there were an estimated 5.4
million informal carers in the United Kingdom in 2016/17. Only some of these receive
Carer’s Allowance.
DWP can provide a broad illustrative gross cost of paying an extra £8.50 a week (the
current difference between the rate of CA and the Jobseeker’s Allowance over 25
rate) to 810,000 CA recipients (rounded down CA in-payment cases in Great Britain,
August 2017). This would have cost in the region of £360m in 2018/19. (Around 9%
of this expenditure covers carers living in Scotland where CA will shortly be devolved
to the Scottish Government.) Actual costs will also be affected by possible
behavioural impacts, such as whether the higher rates of benefit will encourage more
people to claim CA and, therefore, may be higher than the indicative forecast costs.
The information requested on premiums is not available.
Children: Maintenance
Antoinette Sandbach: [141371]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the
number of parents who did not report income increases of 25 per cent or more to Child
Maintenance Services in (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015, (d) 2016 and (e) 2017.
Kit Malthouse:
The Department has not made any estimate of the number of parents who do not
report increases of 25% or more to their income to Child Maintenance Services. Such
changes, where not reported, will be picked up from income data obtained by HMRC
at annual review. Where a parent is required to report a change in income but does
not, then this change can be backdated to when it occurred.
Antoinette Sandbach: [141372]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents have been
prosecuted for failing to report increases in their income to the Child Maintenance Service
or Child Support Agency in each of the last three years.
Kit Malthouse:
There have been no prosecutions undertaken in the last three years due solely to
parents failing to report “increases in their income”. Prosecutions would be
undertaken by CMG for under-declaration of income under the Fraud Act or 14(A)2 of
the Child Support Act. These prosecutions focus on wilful non-disclosure of income
streams and rarely relate to a single failure to disclose in-year increases.
We will have prosecuted people with an element of non-disclosures (of increases to
income) but these non-disclosures will only represent a small part of the overall
prosecution on each case. Therefore we cannot separate increases to income as a
single prosecution type.
We complete Annual reviews using HMRC data and where we identify backdated
increases to income, we will reassess the historical assessment and raise any
arrears, taking steps to collect. If the paying parent then fails to pay these arrears we
can register the liability in court and take enforcement action to secure the debt,
including – in some cases – enforcement including imprisonment. These actions
however, relate to the debt (and failure to pay), and not the “increase in income”.
Karin Smyth: [141842]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many cases the Financial
Investigation Unit (FIU) has dealt with in the last twelve months for which data are
available; in what proportion of those cases has a member of staff in the FIU been tasked
with identifying assets and income of those alleged to be hiding such income or assets
from the Child Maintenance Service; and how many such cases are outstanding as of 1
May 2018.
Kit Malthouse:
The Child Maintenance Service can confirm for the period of April 2017 to March
2018 the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) received 5746 referrals; during the same
period FIU staff have undertaken 3802 investigations relating to total Income/Assets
investigations. Our current Work on Hand figure as of 1 May 2018 is 2872 many of
which will relate to total Income/Asset Investigations.
Employment and Support Allowance: Appeals
Gill Furniss: [142904]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether claimants of employment
support allowance (ESA) judged by a tribunal to be eligible to be in the support group
after the expiry of their 365 days of contribution-based ESA, become eligible for indefinite
contributions-based ESA.
Sarah Newton:
People in the Support Group who are claiming Contributions based Employment and
Support Allowance (ESA) will not have their benefit time limited.
Anyone who meets the criteria for Contributions based ESA, who appeals the
outcome of their Work Capability Assessment, and is subsequently placed in the
Support Group, will not be subject to a 365 day restriction. The decision of the
tribunal applies back to the date of our original decision, hence any payments they
are found to be entitled to will be awarded from that date.
Personal Independence Payment
Laura Pidcock: [141900]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress she has made on
implementing the changes to the 2017 Personal Independence Payment Regulations
advised by the High Court in December 2017.
Sarah Newton:
On the 19th January, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced that
she would not appeal the High Court judgment regarding part of the 2017 amending
regulations relating to eligibility to the Mobility Component of Personal Independence
Payment. The Secretary of State also confirmed that the Department will implement
the law on the mobility component, as set out in the MH Upper Tribunal judgment.
The Department is now working at pace to make the necessary guidance changes, in
order to implement the MH judgment safely and effectively.
For information on the indicative timescales for this, I refer the Hon. Member to a
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that the Secretary of State has laid in
the House Library (Deposit reference: DEP2018-0345).
Personal Independence Payment: Appeals
Justin Madders: [141830]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time is
that PIP appeals take to reach a hearing.
Sarah Newton:
The specific information requested for the average length of time for PIP appeals to
reach a hearing is not collated centrally.
Statistics on the lengths of time for the combination of Personal Independence
Payment, Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance appeals to be
cleared are provided in Table T.3 of the quarterly bulletin “Tribunals and gender
recognition certificate statistics quarterly – October to December 2017”.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-
statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2017
Justin Madders: [141831]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average amount of back
payments was made for successful PIP appeals for each of the last twelve months for
which figures are available.
Sarah Newton:
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur
disproportionate cost.
Social Security Benefits: Appeals
Gordon Henderson: [141771]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether letters of support from
Members of Parliament (a) are considered for and (b) have an effect on decisions on a
claimant's (i) mandatory reconsideration and (ii) tribunal appeal for (A) employment
support allowance and (B) personal independence payment.
Sarah Newton:
At mandatory reconsideration all evidence that had been considered at the initial
decision stage is reviewed and, crucially, the claimant is prompted to provide any
further evidence that the initial decision maker had not considered. If a claimant
remains dissatisfied with the decision on their claim following mandatory
reconsideration and proceeds to appeal, all previously submitted evidence will be
reviewed, as will any evidence that is subsequently submitted and passed on to the
Department.
It is important to note that decisions on benefit entitlement are made in accordance
with the relevant legislative provisions and the decision maker’s consideration of the
available evidence. A letter of support from a Member of Parliament would be
considered on its own merits alongside any other available evidence.
State Retirement Pensions: Females
Lesley Laird: [141381]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the
time taken by the Independent Case Examiners Office to (a) allocate a case manager, (b)
investigate a case for women affected by changes to the state pension age.
Kit Malthouse:
To date it has taken the Independent Case Examiner's Office an average (a) of 39
weeks to allocate complaints concerning changes to State Pension age to an
investigation case manager; and (b) 9 weeks to complete investigations in to this
group of complaints (against a target of 20 weeks).
State Retirement Pensions: Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath
Lesley Laird: [141380]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many women in Kirkcaldy and
Cowdenbeath constituency who have been affected by the changes in state pension age
have (a) lodged a complaint with and (b) had that complaint reviewed by the Independent
Case Examiner’s office.
Kit Malthouse:
As of 8 May, the Independent Case Examiner's Office had (a) received 13 complaints
from women in Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency concerning change to the
State Pension age: (b) and is yet to review any of the complaints that had been
accepted for examination from this group of complainants.
Lesley Laird: [141895]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an
assessment of the economic effect of changes to the state pension age for women born
in the 1950s in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
Guy Opperman:
Successive governments have not done a constituency specific assessment of the
economic effect of changes to the State Pension age for women born in any
individual constituency. Therefore this process is not proposed for the Kirkcaldy and
Cowdenbeath constituency.
Universal Credit
Frank Field: [141315]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the
number of universal credit claimants in employment who have restarted their claim having
been paid twice during a single assessment period.
Alok Sharma:
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at
disproportionate cost.
However, over the last year around 21,000 UC Full Service claims have been closed
because the household’s earnings exceeded the threshold. Of these, around 12%
have made a re-claim within a month. We do not know how many of these will have
had two paydays in one assessment period.
Frank Field: [141317]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has
made of the compatibility of the operation of universal credit with the earning patterns of
claimants who are not paid once a month.
Frank Field: [141318]
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will introduce greater
flexibility to the monthly assessment period for universal credit to allow people not paid a
regular wage each month a more stable income.
Alok Sharma:
Our internal evidence suggests that around 70% of people in employment on low
incomes are paid monthly or 4 weekly. The monthly assessment period is therefore
crucial to creating and maintaining the strong work incentives at the heart of
Universal Credit by mirroring the world of work.
An assessment period of less than a month would not work for those paid monthly. In
contrast, an assessment period of a month means the system can adjust to weekly,
fortnightly, or four-weekly payments.
However, we are aware that some claimants paid four-weekly, fortnightly, weekly or
on a fixed day every month, may receive two or more sets of earnings during one
Universal Credit assessment period. This may reduce, or in some cases, nil the
Universal Credit award the claimant receives that month. We have produced
guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware of this and
the guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-different-earning-
patterns-and-your-payments/universal-credit-different-earning-patterns-and-your-
payments-payment-cycles.
Furthermore the Government is working with employers to ensure that they use the
most appropriate payment practices and comply with Real Time Information
guidelines in order to minimise these instances.
MINISTERIAL CORRECTIONS
EDUCATION
Young People: Employment
Priti Patel: [905264]
What steps his Department is taking to support more pathways from education into
employment for young people.
An error has been identified in the written answer given on 14 May 2018. The
correct answer should have been:
Anne Milton:
We are developing 15 prestigious technical routes that will set a clear pathway
through apprenticeships and new flagship T level programmes to skilled
employment for young people.
High quality apprenticeships offer an excellent means of progression for many
young people leaving education, giving them the skills valued by employers.
T levels are classroom based, level 3 study programmes and will provide a
distinctive and rigorous technical alternative to A levels. A substantial, high-
quality industry placement will be an essential part of each T level giving
students the chance to put into practice the technical skills they have learned
in the classroom.
Training and qualifications within the technical education routes are being
designed and developed by employers - so that students can be confident they
are getting the skills that employers need.
The reformed technical routes will ensure we unlock all the talents of young
people across the country, no matter where they come from, and support them
into strong, rewarding jobs and careers.
We are developing 15 prestigious technical routes to set a clear pathway through
apprenticeships and new flagship T levels to skilled employment for young people.
We are working with employers to design the content for T levels, which will provide
in future a distinctive and rigorous technical alternative to A levels.
But apprenticeships must be of high quality. I am pleased that the move from the old
frameworks to the new standards has seen the proportion of these apprenticeships in
the number of all starts grow from 3% to 36% since last year.
Traineeships for those most distant from the labour market are yielding good results.
With two thirds progessing to positive destinations and reporting high levels of
satifaction (82%). With 84% saying it helped them gain the skills they need.
WRITTEN STATEMENTS
BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Consumer Policy Update
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and
Corporate Responsibility (Andrew Griffiths): [HCWS684]
I am today publishing the department’s investigation into the safety of the Hotpoint fridge
freezer model FF175B which police identified as being involved in the tragic fire at
Grenfell Tower on 14 June last year.
The safety of consumers is a key priority for this Government, which is why my rt. hon.
Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) ordered
an immediate examination of the appliance by independent technical experts. Within days
the Department had undertaken a preliminary assessment and issued advice following a
meeting convened by the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser including public health
advisers. The advice to owners of the model concerned – Hotpoint FF175B – was that
they could continue to use their fridge freezer as the public health risk of advising not to
use the appliance was judged to be of greater risk. Owners were advised to contact the
manufacturer to register their appliance so they could be contacted directly should any
further action be necessary.
At the same time the Department began a thorough and comprehensive product safety
investigation into the model to identify whether there was any wider safety risk to the
public. BEIS experts conducted a product safety investigation, examining the Grenfell
Tower appliance, commissioning independent examination and testing of example
FF175B appliances, undertaking analysis of data and documents and risk assessment.
Whirlpool has co-operated with the investigation and has undertaken its own investigation
in line with its legal obligations as the manufacturer of the product.
The full investigation has now concluded. It confirmed the advice that was given to
consumers in June, that there is no need for a product recall or for any other corrective
action for this model, and that consumers can continue using the product as normal. The
investigation concluded that the product met legal safety requirements and that the risk
associated with the model is assessed as low. The findings have been confirmed by
separate and independent tests, under the supervision of the BEIS Chief Scientific
Advisor, carried out by scientific and technical experts including the Health and Safety
Executive and Intertek.
We have shared the results of our investigation with the Metropolitan Police, the Grenfell
Inquiry, and, of course, with the Grenfell residents through appropriate channels.
The Government continues to place huge importance on consumer safety. This is why,
on January 21, 2018, we accepted all the recommendations made by the Working Group
on Product Recall and Safety to upgrade the UK system of product safety, and we
established the Office for Product Safety and Standards.
A copy of the risk statement and technical reports relating to the investigation have been
published and copies of the documents have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
EXITING THE EUROPEAN UNION
Publication of the Framework for the UK-EU Security Partnership, 09/05/2018
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Mr David Davis):
[HCWS683]
On Wednesday 9 May, we published the Framework for the discussions with the EU on
the UK and EU’s future security partnership. These slides have been produced by the UK
negotiating team for discussion with the EU, in order to inform the development of the
future framework. This framework will set our the terms of our future relationship and will
be concluded alongside the Withdrawal Agreement later this year.
The United Kingdom wants to build a new, deep and special partnership with the
European Union, enabling us to protect our shared interests and ensure we act together
for our mutual benefit. The threats we face do not recognise the borders of individual
nations. The Security Partnership we are seeking with the EU builds on the breadth and
depth of our shared interests and values, and goes beyond any existing third country
arrangements.
Copies of these slides will be deposited in the libraries of both Houses.
TREASURY
Operation of the UK’s Counter-Terrorist Asset Freezing Regime: 1 July 2017 to 30
September 2017 and 1 October 2017 to 31 December 2017
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen): [HCWS685]
Under the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act 2010 (TAFA 2010), the Treasury is required
to prepare a quarterly report regarding its exercise of the powers conferred on it by Part 1
of TAFA 2010. This written statement satisfies that requirement for the periods of 1 July
2017 to 30 September 2017 and 1 October 2017 to 31 December 2017.
This report also covers the UK’s implementation of the UN’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida
asset freezing regime (ISIL-AQ), and the operation of the EU’s asset freezing regime
under EU Regulation (EC) 2580/2001 concerning external terrorist threats to the EU.
(also referred to as the CP 931 regime).
Under the ISIL-AQ asset freezing regime, the UN has responsibility for designations and
the Treasury, through its Office of Financial Sanctions implementation (OFSI), has
responsibility for licensing and compliance with the regime in the UK under the ISIL
(Da’esh) and Al-Qaida (Asset-Freezing) Regulations 2011.
Under EU Regulation 2580/2001, the EU has responsibility for designations and OFSI
has responsibility for licensing and compliance with the regime in the UK under Part 1 of
TAFA 2010.
A new EU asset freezing regime under EU Regulation (2016/1686) was implemented on
22 September 2016. This permits the EU to make autonomous Al-Qaida and ISIL
(Da’esh) listings. Once a designation is made under this regime it will appear in the table
below.
The annexed tables set out the key asset-freezing activity in the UK during each quarter.
The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill currently before Parliament will help
ensure that UK counterterrorist sanctions powers remain a useful tool for law
enforcement and intelligence agencies to consider utilising, while also meeting the UK’s
international obligations.
Under the Bill, a designation could be made where there are reasonable grounds to
suspect that the person or group is or has been involved in a defined terrorist activity and
that designation is appropriate. This approach is in line with the UK’s current approach
under UN and EU sanctions and would be balanced by procedural protections such as
the ability of designated persons to challenge the Government in court.
Attachments:
1. Asset-freezing activity: Jul-Sep [Annex 1 - WMS Q3 2017.pdf]
2. Asset-freezing activity: Oct-Dec [Annex 2 - WMS Q4 2017.pdf]
top related