Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals by claimants against decisions on non-entitlement to employment and support allowance in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire, (f) Norfolk and (g) England there were in each year since 2010; what the average length of time taken to determine such appeals was in each such year; and what the cost of such appeals was in each such year.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support), administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decisions on a range of benefits, including Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, and Incapacity Benefit.
(1) Appeals against decisions for ESA can be made for various reasons, not just about entitlement. HMCTS is unable to differentiate between appeals relating to matters of entitlement and those relating to other issues about claims for ESA, and therefore does not hold the information requested.
(2) HMCTS does not record data specifically relating to appeals where a medical assessment has been conducted by the DWP and therefore does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many allegations of rape were reported to the police by (a) women and (b) men in each area of (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 2005; how many such allegations resulted in prosecutions; and how many such prosecutions were successful.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Home Office does not hold data on allegations of rape reported to the police. The Home Office holds data on the number of rapes recorded by the police. The information is published on a financial year basis and is given in Table A for the requested areas.
The Ministry of Justice holds information on the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts of rape. These figures are on a calendar year basis and data are not directly comparable with the figures recorded by the police. This is because cases tried at court may have occurred in a different time period to those recorded by the police and could relate to crimes recorded in previous years. Furthermore, Ministry of Justice figures are based on the number of defendants proceeded against, while police data are based upon the number of victims.
Information on the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts of rape can be found in Table B.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals (a) have been reassessed by Atos for personal independence payments (PIPs) in place of disability living allowance, (b) are now in receipt of PIP and (c) did not qualify for PIP in each area of (i) Suffolk, (ii) England and (iii) Wales since 2010.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
Decisions on claims to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are made by Departmental Decision Makers and are based on all the evidence presented by the claimant, evidence from health care professionals and advice received by the independent Assessment Providers following an assessment.
The available information on registrations, clearances and awards for claims to PIP by claimants in receipt of Disability Living Allowance, at parliamentary constituency, local authority and regional level, have been published in the data tables accompanying the latest, quarterly statistical release: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-october-2014.
Information on the number of claimants currently in receipt of PIP, by a range of regional breakdowns, has been published and can be found at: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk. Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the amounts not paid by his Department for each benefit as a result of detection of benefit fraud in each area of (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 2005.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) charges, (b) prosecutions, (c) fines and (d) cautions there have been for breaches of the Hunting Act 2004 in each police force area in England and Wales since 2010.
Answered by Mike Penning
The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences under the Hunting Act 2004, in England and Wales from 2010 to 2013 can be viewed in Table 1.
The number of offenders cautioned for offences under the Hunting Act 2004, in England and Wales from 2010 to 2013 can be viewed in Table 2.
Centrally held information cannot separately analyse the number of charges for offences under the Hunting Act 2004.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will direct his Department to collect information on (a) how many agency staff were employed and (b) what proportion of the total medical staff employed consisted of agency staff in NHS hospitals, by county, in each year since 2005.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Ministers will not direct the Department to collect this information centrally.
However, we expect National Health Service organisations to have a firm grip on their workforce planning and management including their use of medical and non-medical agency staff. Trusts have access to a wide range of advice, guidance and best practice to help them with this.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were admitted to hospital for alcohol-related conditions through A&E in NHS hospitals in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 2005.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format or for the period requested.
Information on the sum of alcohol attributable fractions of finished admission episodes for hospital providers in the east of England with an admission through accident and emergency departments from 2005-06 to 2012-13 is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many non-emergency admissions to hospital via A&E departments were made in each NHS hospital in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 2005.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information requested is not collected centrally. The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Hospital Episode Statistics database classes all admissions through accident and emergency as emergency admissions.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions her Department has used police cells to hold immigrants in each police force area in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 2004.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is not routinely collected and could be provided only by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate cost.
Asked by: David Ruffley (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many firearms were confiscated in each police force area in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk during the most recent firearms amnesty in November 2014.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The data from November’s firearms surrender is being collated and analysed by the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS). In the listed police force areas, the following numbers of firearms were surrendered: (a) Suffolk:
381, (b) Bedfordshire: 61, (c) Cambridgeshire: 123, (d) Essex: 126, (e) Hertfordshire: 223, (f) Norfolk: 577.