Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school pupils were suspended due to violence-related issues in the last two years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The National Statistics releases ‘Permanent and fixed-period exclusions in England’ includes information on the number of permanent and fixed period exclusions. The releases are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions.
In the National tables, table 4 gives exclusions by main reason. The guide to exclusion statistics gives descriptors for each reason category in section 4.4.2, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exclusions-statistics-guide.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prevent tooth decay in (a) children and (b) adults.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
In England, local authorities have the lead responsibility for improving the oral health of children and adults in their local area. Further information is available at the following link:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3094/pdfs/uksi_20123094_en.pdf
Improving the oral health of children is a priority for Public Health England (PHE). PHE has established a Child Oral Health Improvement Programme Board, which brings together key stakeholder organisations. The board has a shared ambition that every child grows up free of tooth decay as part of getting the best start in life.
PHE established an Adult Oral Health Oversight Group, which brings together a wide range of stakeholders that have policies or areas of interest to improve the oral health of adults.
The Department is testing a new prevention focussed National Health Service dental contract which includes preventive advice and treatment based on ‘Delivering better oral health’, an evidence-based toolkit for prevention. More information about the dental contract reform programme can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dental-contract-reform-prototypes
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many first-time passport applications his Department has received since 23 June 2016.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The number of applications for a first British passport received between 23 June 2016 and 31 March 2019 was 3,267,038.
Passport intake data is reported within Home Office transparency data. The information is therefore provided up to the most recent date published (31 March 2019).
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost of replacing diesel trains with hybrid and electric trains.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Department has not made an estimate of the cost of replacing diesel trains. The Government has set out its ambition to remove all diesel-only trains from the network by 2040, and the rail industry are producing a decarbonisation report which will set out how it can achieve this objective.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent domestic animals being harmed and exploited in circuses.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the 2018 regulations) came into force on 1 October 2018. The regulations require anyone in England who is in the business of keeping or training animals (regardless of whether they are domestic or wild kept animals) for exhibition, educational or entertainment purposes, including within a circus, to be licensed by the relevant local authority.
The regulations include powers for local authorities to inspect the premises where the animals are kept to ensure minimum welfare standards are being maintained. In addition, all kept animals including those in a circus are protected by the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. If anyone considers that an animal in a circus is suffering or its welfare is being compromised then they should report it to the local authority who have powers under the 2006 Act to investigate, or to the RSPCA who will also investigate such matters.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent people giving away dogs online to tackle the dog fighting industry.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government abhors the mistreatment of animals, including organised dog fighting. It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to be involved in or to promote animal fighting including dog fighting. The Government has announced it will increase the maximum custodial penalty for animal cruelty, including animal fighting, from six months to five years’ imprisonment and legislation will be introduced as soon as possible.
In relation to online advertising of pets and other animals, the Government has worked with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG - a group of animal welfare, veterinary and animal keeping interests) who promote the responsible advertising of pet animals. Five online animal adverting platforms have adopted PAAG’s minimum standards for advertising animals which are endorsed by the Government. The minimum standards include that the websites run automated checks for key words and terms such as banned dog breeds, and filter for misleading or inappropriate adverts which are then removed. The websites must exclude any advert where there is a reasonable concern for the health and welfare of the animal involved and provide a clearly visible function for purchasers to report illegal or inappropriate adverts. The Government will continue to work with PAAG to encourage more online advertising platforms to sign up to PAAG’s minimum standards.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs were microchipped in 2018.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government estimates, from figures provided by the relevant microchip databases, that around 8.1 million dogs in the UK were microchipped in 2018. This represents around 90% of all dogs in the UK.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to advise farmers on safety measures when spreading fertiliser.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has responsibility for the regulation of health and safety standards on Great Britain’s farms. Fertiliser is typically spread with machinery which is mounted or trailed behind tractors and powered by the tractor’s power take-off (PTO) drive shaft. HSE has published guidance on how to safely use machinery of this type, this includes safe use of tractors, safe use of work equipment, machinery maintenance and working on slopes, all of which is available from the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/index.htm .
HSE also works with the farming industry through the Farm Safety Partnerships to promote vehicle and machinery safety messages, including those relevant to fertiliser spreading.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the provision of public transport in rural areas.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government recognises the importance of public transport in rural areas.
All local authorities in England have powers to subsidise socially necessary bus services. The Department provides £43 million per year to local authorities to support this.
The Bus Services Act 2017 provides tools for local authorities to work more effectively with bus operators to improve bus services.
A number of projects from the £11.5 million Building Connections Fund will provide new community transport links to support people at most risk of isolation.
On rail, the Department’s Community Rail Development Strategy, published in Nov 2018, looks for ways to make it easier for the rail industry and local community rail partnerships to improve services and stations on local branch lines.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to introduce electric charging points for cars at petrol stations.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has had a number of discussions with petrol service station operators about the provision of electric vehicle charge points. We want to encourage and leverage private sector investment to build and operate a self-sustaining public network supported by the right policy framework. In many cases, the market is better-placed than government to identify the right locations for chargepoints and it is essential that viable commercial models are in place to ensure continued maintenance and improvements to the network. Already, the vast majority of chargepoints now being installed are funded with private money and we want to see this trend continue. The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act gives the Government new powers to mandate provision of chargepoints at Motorway Service Areas and large fuel retailers. The Government will continue to monitor the market and will bring forward regulation using these powers if the market fails to deliver the infrastructure required.