Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the survival rates for people with breast cancer have been in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the survival rate is for people with brain tumours; and what the comparative rate is for people with all forms of cancer.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the Electoral Commmission's recommendation for electors that reside in multiple properties choosing a single address to cast a vote in UK Parliamentary general elections.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Voting more than once at a General Election or at other national polls such as a referendum is a crime which carries a financial penalty.
We take this matter very seriously. I have raised this issue as a priority with the Electoral Commission, and will consider carefully the findings of their report on electoral registration at the 2017 General Election, as well as their upcoming report on the administration of that poll.
It is possible to determine whether an individual has voted twice at a General Election by checking the marked register of those who have voted. If anyone has evidence of someone voting twice, then they should report this to their local returning officer and to the police.
I have also written to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) to reiterate the Government's support for the police to make every effort to investigate reports of criminal behaviour in relation to elections.
The Government will continue to consider if further steps should be taken to ensure the integrity of the electoral system and where opportunities could exist to reiterate that voting more than once at the General Election or other national polls is illegal.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of harmonising the electoral register that is compiled and maintained by Electoral Registration Officers around the UK.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The electoral register is already harmonised in terms of how it is compiled, who is eligible to be registered and the information which must be included. The Government has no plans to legislate to further harmonise the electoral register. For citizens, accessing the electoral register has been made considerably quicker and easier by online registration. For individuals and organisations with a legitimate interest in accessing the information included in the registers, a number of provisions already exist that allow them to do so.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government has taken to implement the recommendations of Sir Eric Pickles' review of electoral fraud entitled Securing the ballot.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government’s view is that electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level. Sir Eric Pickles’ review made a number of recommendations for strengthening the integrity of the electoral process, including requiring voters to provide a form of identification at polling stations before voting. In line with the manifesto commitment, the Government plans to run pilot schemes in a number of local authority areas in 2018 that will test the requirement for voters to present ID before voting. Pilots will help to identify the best way of administering this new requirement.
The Government is considering the way forward on the other recommendations made by Sir Eric Pickles, and will continue to consider how to improve the integrity of electoral processes more generally.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many new voters were added to the electoral register after the General Election 2017 was announced; and whether the change in the number of people registered to vote will affect the work of the Electoral Commission in its review of parliamentary constituencies.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Electoral Commission intends to publish data on the number of new electors added to the register at the election in due course.
The Government's manifesto re-affirms the commitment to deliver equal and updated boundaries and reduce the size of the House of Commons.
Following laws already passed by Parliament, which provided that the current Boundary Review should be based on the electoral registers from 2015, the independent and impartial Boundary Commissions are consulting on their proposals to deliver the boundary changes, and they will submit their final proposals to Parliament in autumn 2018. These reforms will ensure fair and equal representation for the voting public across the United Kingdom.
Equalising the size of constituencies in the Boundary Review will ensure everyone’s vote will carry equal weight. Without such boundary reforms, MPs could end up representing constituencies based on data that is over 20 years’ old, disregarding significant changes in demographics, house building and migration.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of votes cast in the General Election 2017 were cast by absentee ballots.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Electoral Commission will be publishing, in due course, a report on the General Election held on 8 June 2017 which we expect will include data on the number of postal votes cast at the General Election and information on rejected postal votes.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of postal votes were defined as spoiled ballots in the General Election 2017.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Electoral Commission will be publishing, in due course, a report on the General Election held on 8 June 2017 which we expect will include data on the number of postal votes cast at the General Election and information on rejected postal votes.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much financial support Southampton has received from publicly funded projects and infrastructure investment over the last seven years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans the Government has to introduce a texting service for the public to contact or respond to helpline services to government departments and agencies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Government develops services based on research into user needs. Services do not go public unless they can demonstrate during Service Assessment that they have met user needs in line with the Digital Service Standard, including methods for user support and contact. Where Government has a shared need, the Government Digital Service can develop products that can be reused across departments and agencies. For example, GOV.UK Notify was developed to make it easier and more efficient to keep people updated, by helping service teams across government to send text messages, emails or letters to their users. We do not currently have plans to develop a texting service for users to contact or respond to helpline services.