Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 264398 on Disclosure and Barring Service and with reference to page 1 of the letter from the Cabinet Secretary of 10 April 2019 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Disclosure and Barring Service: progress review, if he will place in the Library copies of the independence assurance reviews of the programme conducted in February 2014 and June 2014.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
3677:
A copy of the requested documents have been provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and will be placed in the Library.
3678
The information you requested is being withheld as the data is commercially sensitive. To disclose would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).
3679:
The 2012 FBC set a funding envelope of £537.7m to cover the ICT investment and the running costs of DBS for a five-year period to 2017/18. The changes made in 2014 led to a revised funding envelope of £786m for the whole life cost of the programme that would run the entire DBS programme until the financial year 2018/19. Subject to finalisation of DBS’s 2018/19 financial accounts, we anticipate the final whole of life cost being £873 million, with the largest component of this relating to operating costs to deliver a higher volume of products and services than originally forecast in either of the business cases.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 1 of the letter from the Cabinet Secretary of 10 April 2019 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Disclosure and Barring Service: progress review, if he will place in the Library, copies of the independence assurance reviews of the programme conducted in February 2014 and June 2014.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 1 of the letter from the Cabinet Secretary of 10 April 2019 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Disclosure and Barring Service: progress review, if he will place in the Library, copies of the analysis provided by his Department's officials.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 2 of the letter from the Cabinet Secretary of 10 April 2019 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Disclosure and Barring Service: progress review, what estimate he has made of the increased cost to deliver modernisation as a result of the revision of the Full Business Case.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to improve the visa application system in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page one of the letter from the Cabinet Secretary of 10 April 2019 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Disclosure and Barring Service: progress review, what agreed changes the revised Full Business Case was subject to before approval by the Home Office Portfolio and Investment Committee.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Disclosure and Barring Service Full Business Case was revised in 2014 with the following agreed changes: an increase of 12 months to the business case to reflect the delays in the transitioning of services; a revised demand assumption for the update service due to uptake being less than previously envisaged; and reassessed costs, benefits and fee income.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the implications are for his forthcoming alcohol strategy of Public Health England’s support for minimum unit pricing for alcohol.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is developing a new cross-government alcohol strategy which will set out targeted action to prevent and reduce harmful drinking, support vulnerable people affected by others’ alcohol misuse, improve the pathway into treatment for people with alcohol dependency and professionalise the licensing system.
The new strategy will not include a commitment to introduce minimum unit pricing in England at this time, but Public Health England is being commissioned to carry out a scientific review into the impact of minimum unit pricing following its recent introduction in Scotland.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, If she will investigate reports by the Road Haulage Association that French authorities are turning off heartbeat monitors at the French border; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Last year, Border Force successfully disrupted over 56,000 illegal attempts to enter the UK which shows our approach to securing the UK's border is working. "Despite our successes in preventing attempts to enter the UK illegally, we are not complacent. We will continue to work closely with our French counterparts to maintain border security and keep legitimate passengers and trade moving.”
All freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed controls are screened for people being smuggled using some of the most advanced detection technology around to find and stop migrants attempting to reach the UK illegally. This includes imaging equipment, carbon dioxide detectors and motion sensors as well as sniffer dogs to detect clandestine on board lorries.
Border Force regularly engages with French law enforcement partners and port operators to review its operational response to changing threats and pressures. We have invested tens of millions of pounds in new infrastructure to enhance border security.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to use Border Force Specials to carry out aviation and maritime duties on the east coast of the UK; and if she will make statement.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Border Force uses mobile resources in the East of England and elsewhere to dynamically respond to new operational demands and carry out a range of border security work in the aviation and maritime sectors.
Such work is resourced through permanently employed Border Force Officers.
However, Border Force is considering the use of ‘special’ volunteers to supplement the work of permanently employed staff in mobile teams and at ports
To that end Border Force is seeking to learn from various police forces’ use of Special Constables.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many members of staff in her Department were (a) disciplined and (b) dismissed for breaching the IT acceptable use policy between May 2010 and July 2014.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office only holds central disciplinary records dating back to April 2013, obtaining the information before this date could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
The number of members of staff who were (a) disciplined and (b) dismissed for breaching the IT acceptable use policy are in the attached table.