Stephen Pound

The asbestos-related personal injury claims for which the Department is responsible are mainly historical liabilities that were assumed by the Department from various bodies, including former nationalised industries, whose liabilities transferred to the Department (as previously constituted) when those bodies ceased to exist.

Based on available data, the number of claims for the years in question are listed by category, and are as follows:

The footnotes below provide further information on these numbers.

[1]British Shipbuilders was a separate legal entity, with BIS, as formerly constituted, as its sponsor department. British Shipbuilders was wound up in March 2013. Since then responsibility for these claims has passed to BIS.

[2]BIS is responsible for compensation claims made against former British Shipbuilders' companies that were sold with their liabilities during privatisation, and which subsequently became insolvent, as did their insurer, Chester Street Insurance Holdings Ltd. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not compensate former employees in respect of periods of employment with nationalised industries (such as British Shipbuilders) and the Department (the then DTI) assumed liability for this compensation by way of a Minute to Parliament in 2003.

[3] BIS does not hold complete figures for asbestos claims for British Coal for calendar years 2003, 2005 and 2006. British Coal liabilities transferred to the Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) on its creation in October 2008, so no figures have been included after that date.

[4]The claims listed in the column headed “Others” are claims for which the Department is responsible as the successor to partner organisations and executive agencies which no longer exist.

[5]The figure of 115 NDLB claims for 2008 is the complete number for the years 2006 – 2008 as the figures for these years have been aggregated.

Voter ID is part of a body of work this Government is delivering to strengthen the integrity of our electoral system and give the public confidence our elections are secure and fit for the 21st century.

In line with the 2018 pilot evaluation, validated figures will be published as part of both the Cabinet Office and the independent Electoral Commission's evaluations of the 2019 voter ID pilots in the summer. We will be looking carefully at the evaluations to help inform our next steps and shape how the final policy will look when it is introduced.

Schools play a vital role in promoting integration and promoting an understanding of different faiths and communities. We will continue to work closely with Church and faith schools to promote and support integration and will set out further details of our approach in this area and in relation to the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools in due course.

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) managed Youth Contract for 16 and 17 year olds which ended on 31 March 2016, was introduced as a time-bound programme to help reduce the proportion of young people Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). It offered targeted extra support to help young people re-engage in education and training.

In addition to the duty on local authorities to support young people, pathfinders to test Jobcentre Plus support for young people in schools have started and will be rolled out across England by March 2017. Improvements to careers education and guidance are underway with £90m to be invested over this Parliament – including £20m to increase the number of mentors to support those young people who need it most. Youth Engagement Fund and Fair Chance Fund projects are underway to help improve the prospects of 9,600 young people and an additional £105m was announced in the spending review to scale up Social Impact Bonds over the Parliament, to help deal with issues including youth unemployment.

Local authorities continue to work with the Voluntary and Community Sector and local businesses to support young people and other support is available via European Social Fund provision and support for vulnerable groups such as care leavers. As part of the Government’s forthcoming life chances strategy, the Troubled Families Programme and National Citizenship Scheme will be expanded, both of which include support for young people.

Legislation relating to the display of registration numbers and number plates already exists and enforcement is an operational matter for the police. Successful prosecution depends on the police sighting the vehicle on the public highway and establishing that an offence has been committed. Number plate offences are also included in the Home Office’s fixed penalty system. This provides the police with a practical and effective means of enforcement. The police can also remove any vehicle that is causing an obstruction, is likely to cause danger or is broken down or abandoned without lawful authority.

Local authorities have legislative powers to fine garages for leaving two or more vehicles advertised for sale on the road.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is responsible for enforcement against unlicensed vehicles and has legislative powers to clamp or remove such vehicles from public roads.

The Department does not hold information on how many people had Motability vehicles on DLA. Therefore, we are unable to collect accurate information on the number of people who have returned a Motability vehicle.

The details of the number of people returning Motability vehicles for the requested dates and the reasons behind this are Motability’s Management Information, and the Department has no right to access this as it is an independent organisation.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the lead regulator for work related ill health, which is one of the key themes in the health and safety system strategy Helping Great Britain Work Well’. HSE consulted and liaised with Local Authorities (LAs) in the development of the strategy. LAs have dual roles as regulators of workplace health issues within specified work sectors and as major employers in their own right.

HSE works with LAs, gathering information and developing delivery models so it can direct LA focus on health and safety regulatory activities via the National Local Authority Enforcement Code. HSE provides LAs with targeting advice and technical support to enable LAs to pursue the inspection and where necessary enforcement of nationally and locally identified significant workplace health issues.

LAs have a duty to protect their workers from work-related illness and many LAs have proactive workforce programmes to encourage good health. HSE has identified stress as one of the key areas where there is a need to pursue improvements and is consulting stakeholders, including LAs, to develop and refine this part of the work related ill health strategy.

The Government and its agencies have brought a renewed focus to the health and safety system by working to: maintain the gains made in safety at work, while giving health the same priority; keep people in work through good health and safety management; and help people return to work through the right support and advice. This approach looks to build on the considerable strengths of the health and safety system whilst addressing its continuing challenges: the ever-changing nature of work and the needs of an increasingly ageing population.

The approach is under pinned by three key strategies: the Government’s Green Paper, Work, Health and Disability: Improving Lives, which sets out the Government’s proposals for improving work and health outcomes for people with long-term health conditions; HSE’s Health and Work Strategy, which addresses the occupational health problems which most commonly afflict the working population; and the strategy for Great Britain’s wider occupational health and safety system, Helping Great Britain work well.

This combined approach seeks active participation of business and the wider community in delivering lasting health and safety benefits as these issues cannot be addressed by the Government, and its agencies, acting in isolation.

The requirement placed on the providers delivering Personal Independence Payment assessments is that claimants cannot usually be expected to travel more than 90 minutes by public transport to attend assessments. We expect them to minimise travel times wherever possible but, in scheduling appointments, they need to balance both keeping journey times down and ensuring claimants are assessed in a reasonable time period. The providers have been opening new assessment centres across the country to increase capacity and reduce journey times. Atos opened sites in Harrow on 23 March 2015; Wandsworth on 15 April 2015; and Vauxhall on 29 April 2015. A centre in Twickenham is due to open in July 2015. This will mean less travel for Ealing residents requiring face-to-face assessments.

The Government currently has no plans to allow a pharmacy to open without a registered pharmacist being present, or for pharmacy technicians to replace registered pharmacists in community pharmacies.

The four United Kingdom health departments consulted from June to September 2018 on proposals to strengthen and clarify the organisational governance requirements of registered pharmacies, particularly around the roles and responsibilities of Responsible Pharmacists and Superintendent Pharmacists. The proposals do not amend the existing law requiring a pharmacist to be present at all times that a pharmacy is open for the provision of pharmaceutical services. The Government is considering consultation responses.

The Government currently has no plans to allow a pharmacy to open without a registered pharmacist being present, or for pharmacy technicians to replace registered pharmacists in community pharmacies.

The four United Kingdom health departments consulted from June to September 2018 on proposals to strengthen and clarify the organisational governance requirements of registered pharmacies, particularly around the roles and responsibilities of Responsible Pharmacists and Superintendent Pharmacists. The proposals do not amend the existing law requiring a pharmacist to be present at all times that a pharmacy is open for the provision of pharmaceutical services. The Government is considering consultation responses.

NHS England and the screening centres have completed an assessment of screening endoscopy capacity, taking into account a number of factors including workforce. This will inform the implementation plan for rolling out the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) into the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. Health Education England is working with Public Health England and NHS England to continue detailed workforce planning to deliver national screening programmes such as FIT and ensure alignment with the national Workforce Strategy.

Health Education England (HEE) published its first ever Cancer Workforce Plan in December 2017, which commits to the expansion of capacity and skills including an ambition to increase improved working practices, attracting qualified people back to the National Health Service through domestic and international recruitment. This included 94 full time equivalent additional histopathologists to support an increase in the capacity for earlier diagnosis. Following the commitment to lower the bowel screening age to 50 and roll out the Faecal Immunology Test, HEE has been engaging with stakeholders to ensure that the cancer workforce, including histopathologists, is sufficient for future cancer services.

To address the increasing demand for endoscopy services, Health Education England (HEE) has worked with the Joint Advisory Committee on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy to develop a clinical endoscopist training programme.

HEE is providing an employer support package of £15,000 per National Health Service trainee to trusts for the programme. This has been provided to cohorts starting in September and December 2018 and for April and October 2019.

An initial evaluation shows trainees are helping to meet clinical demand, reduce waiting lists and contributing to a good patient experience.

​I refer the Hon Member to my answer to written question 110939 of 6 November.

Throughout the election period, our Embassy in Washington engaged both campaigns across the breadth of our policy interests, including NATO.

I condemned the appalling attacks on the Afghan Parliamant. Such attacks are planned and perpetrated by a brutal minority with the aim of undermining efforts, supported by the majority of Afghan citizens, to rebuild their country, repair the damage done by so many years of violent conflict, and ensure a democratic and peaceful future for all Afghans.

Working for a stable and secure Afghanistan able to stand firm against terrorism remains a key UK objective. The UK played a leading role in the International Security Assistance Force mission. With NATO support, the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces now number around 330,000, the strongest in Afghan history. In January 2015 Afghan forces assumed independent responsibility for the country’s security, a significant achievement and a tangible demonstration of the progress achieved to date. The UK is the lead nation for the Afghan National Army Officer Academy.

The UK has committed to maintain development support to Afghanistan at its current level - £178 million per year – until at least 2017. This includes a specific programme to support Afghanistan’s political institutions and processes, including Parliament.

Since Her Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) starting collecting this data in February 2014, 62 cases of passports wrongly delivered or packages damaged on delivery have been reported and investigated by HMPO and this has resulted in passports being cancelled. Subject to the outcome of the investigation, a new passport is issued to the passport holder. This is 0.0017% of the total passports issued for this period.

New passports are sent to customers by secure courier in the UK and overseas, any expired passports submitted with applications are returned to customers in the UK using second class post and overseas by secure courier which the customer pays for. In the 2013-14 financial year securely delivering new passports in the UK cost £17 million, overseas the cost was £6.25 million.
It is not possible to identify separately the cost of returning expired passports to customers in the UK.

In 2013-14, Her Majesty's Passport Office paid £27.04 in compensation as a result of passports being sent to the incorrect address.

UKVI is continually reviewing the customer contact arrangements to deliver best value and improved customer service. We use a combination of dispatch methods to send documents to our customers; the option selected in each case is determined by a number of factors including cost, the required speed of receipt, the monetary value, the need for evidence of delivery and the size of the package.

In the UK Biometric Residence Permits are generally returned by courier and documents deemed to be lower value of sensitivity by second class post.

A project is in train to enable overseas customers to collect Biometric Residence Permits from a number of regional locations on their return to the
UK. We will be reviewing the success of this project carefully to inform future decisions on methods of returning documents to our UK customers. A
decision on establishing arrangements for customers to collect documents from UK would need to take into account many factors including the cost of providing reception facilities and the logistics of how to arrange the collections for people who are not located close to the decision making office.

The exceptional demand for passports this year did result in some delays in returning supporting documents, including passports, to applicants.
Steps have been taken to ensure that customers receive their documents in a timely manner, these include increasing resources within the teams that are responsible for preparing the documents for return and improvements to overseas processes.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 November 2015 to Question 17417 to the hon. Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell). The Report of the Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 which contains the requested information is published annually. The next report will be published in January 2016.

We strongly condemn Monday's attack on Afghan democracy.

The Afghan security forces responded positively to the incident and secured the Parliamentary site. They have held lead responsibility for security across Afghanistan since July 2013.

Alongside partners , the UK continues to make an important contribution to advising Afghanistan on security development through NATO's mission. The UK's focus is on institutional capacity building, including supporting the training of the next generation of Afghan Army officers.

The fees charged at RAF Northolt are in excess of the amount required by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to cover its costs in the provision of commercial services and are calculated to be at market rate. The MOD is therefore obtaining market value for the commercial services that it provides and so it does not constitute state aid.

The cost to the public purse for attendance and related marketing material was around £5,500.

I refer the hon.member to the answer given on 31 January to PQ 61208.

My most recent discussion with the Secretary of State for Justice took place on 1 December. The Government was elected with a mandate to implement its manifesto commitment to replace Labour’s flawed Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights. The Government believes this can be done in a way that is consistent with the provisions of the Belfast Agreement.

The Prime Minister believes that the UK’s best future lies within a reformed European Union. He is focused on addressing the concerns of the people of the United Kingdom and is confident that the right agreement can be reached.

The Prime Minister believes that the UK’s best future lies within a reformed European Union. He is focused on addressing the concerns of the people of the United Kingdom and is confident that the right agreement can be reached.

Northern Ireland Office Ministers meet regularly with Irish Government Ministers to discuss a range of issues and will continue to do so.