Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints about Yarl's Wood Detention Centre her Department has received regarding (a) access to healthcare and (b) mental health provision in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Information on complaints relating to access to healthcare and mental health provision can fall under two categories, non-clinical and clinical.
A total of 4 non-clinical complaints regarding access to healthcare or mental health provision have been received in the last twelve months.
In addition the Home Office has been notified of 96 clinical complaints, routed via the centre’s healthcare provider. These complaints relate to clinical competence or treatment but may also include reference to access to healthcare or mental health provision. Due to medical confidentiality the Home Office is unable to access clinical complaints to differentiate the individual elements.
The information provided is management information and has not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. The figures are provisional and are subject to change.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many female officers were employed by Serco at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre in each year from 2010 to 2014 to date.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office does not publish numbers of staff employed by itsservice providers at immigration removal centres as this could compromise the security of their facilities.
The percentage of female detainee custody officers (DCOs) employed at Yarl’s Wood IRC by Serco for the years 2010 to 2014 is in the table below.
Year Percentage of female DCOs
2010 46%
2011 36%
2012 46%
2013 42%
The information provided in the tables below is based on management information only and has not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. These figures are provisional and are subject to change.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire of 2 September 2014 regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Answered by Matt Hancock
My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills responded to the letter from my Rt hon Friend of 2 September 2014, received in his Department 22 October, on 18 November 2014.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what route options have been considered for the new railway between Bedford and Cambridge.
Answered by Claire Perry
Twenty route corridors have been identified, each of which could potentially provide a route between the existing Oxford - Bedford railway and Cambridge. The East West Rail Consortium of local authorities and Network Rail have evaluated these against agreed criteria and reduced them to seven corridors for further evaluation.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women have been detained at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre for (a) 0 to six months, (b) six to 12 months, (c) over one year and (d) two years or more.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The requested information is not available. A subset of the latest published figures show that as at 30 June 2014 there were 294 female people detained in Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre who had been held in the immigration estate for less than 6 months, 9 for between 6 and 12 months and none for longer.
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within Immigration Statistics: April – June 2014, from the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he expects superfast broadband to reach the coverage target of 95 per cent in North East Bedfordshire.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
This Government is committed to national access to superfast broadband and anticipates that at least 95% premises in the Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes project will be able to access superfast broadband by December 2017.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many different companies tendered for the 47 contracts to deliver superfast broadband under phases one and two of the Superfast Broadband programme.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In Phase 1 of the Superfast Broadband Programme there are 44 contracts between Local Bodies and providers. 33 of these used the Broadband Delivery Framework. Nine suppliers started the competitive dialogue tender process for the Framework and three submitted final tenders. Two of these tenders were accepted. Of these, only one supplier has submitted bids for individual projects.
For the remaining 11 local projects an OJEU procurement was used by the Local Bodies. Across the 11 projects a total of 19 different suppliers were invited to submit bids. Four different suppliers submitted ITT responses at the end of the procurement processes.
All three contracts so far signed for Phase 2 of the programme have used the Broadband Delivery Framework that was established as part of Phase 1.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will increase compensation payments to Equitable Life policyholders.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Equitable Life Payment Scheme is focussed on making the remaining payments to eligible policyholders. The Government has sought to achieve fairness between Equitable Life policyholders and the taxpayers who must bear the cost at a time when the nation's finances are in a difficult position. We have no plans to re-open the design of the Scheme.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what funding he expects to provide to (a) Bedford Borough Council and (b) Central Bedfordshire Council for local welfare assistance schemes in 2015-16.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
On 10 October, the Government published a consultation paper which sets out the Government's proposed options on how local welfare provision could be funded in 2015/16. The Government has committed to analysing the responses alongside the findings of the review that the Department for Work and Pensions has recently undertaken into the existing provision, the findings of which were published in a report on 5 November. The findings from both the review and consultation will help to inform future funding levels.
Asked by: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Caxton Foundation about the level of winter fuel payment in 2014.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department has not had any discussions with the Caxton Foundation in relation to winter payments in 2014-15, nor has it received any requests for increased funding in 2014-15 to cover the costs of winter payments.