Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether she has held discussions with Palestinian officials on recent reports that the Palestinian Authority will reduce the salaries of its public sector workers but continue paying salaries for the families of martyrs, wounded or prisoners.
Answered by Alistair Burt
DFID officials are aware of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) plans to make partial salary payments to public sector officials earning 2,000 NIS (£425) or above a month. We are in the process of assessing the implications for PEGASE beneficiaries (who are vetted health and education public servants) including through discussions with the PA. The UK continues to support a stable PA which can act as an effective partner for peace with Israel, through financial assistance that exclusively supports the salaries of vetted public servants in the West Bank in the health and education sectors. This move does not affect the robust financial safeguards that ensure UK financial aid only reaches intended beneficiaries, meaning aid is not allocated to Prisoner or Martyr payments. The UK government continues to press the PA to reform the prisoner payments system to become more needs-based, transparent and affordable.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when his Department plans to publish the results of its 2014 public consultation on the review of Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The government will issue a response to the consultation on the review of Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in due course.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to the Answer of 4 January 2018 to Question 205241, what discussions he has had Bangor University on the proposed closure of its chemistry department; and if he will he make a statement.
Answered by Alun Cairns
I share your concern around the proposed closure of the Chemistry department at Bangor University and the impact this could have on Welsh language provision of undergraduate chemistry courses.
The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales Nigel Adams MP has spoken with the Dean of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Bangor University on this issue, and I am planning a number of trips to Welsh universities over the coming months. The University has provided assurances that students currently studying at the university will be unaffected and we will raise concerns of future provision with the Vice Chancellors and the Welsh Government’s Education Minister.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with representatives from Bangor University on the effect of that university's proposed closure of its chemistry department on the development of skills in North Wales as set out in the North Wales Growth Deal; and if will he make a statement.
Answered by Alun Cairns
We have regular discussions with Universities in North Wales regarding the North Wales Growth Deal, and the UK Government Minister for Wales recently visited Bangor University on 15 November 2018. However, growth deals are locally led and it is for the region to determine the impact of such developments on their proposals.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will assess the potential merits of increasing the police pension entitlement for widows from post-retirement marriages.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The current police pension scheme provides survivor benefits regardless of the timing of a member’s marriage. In keeping with other public service pension schemes, this was not the case before 1978, when different rules applied.
Successive governments have made a general presumption against making retrospective changes to public service pension schemes. Therefore there is no entitlement relating to service before 1978 and there are no plans to change this.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his Department's policy to accept data protection forms relating to queries arising from hon. Members' casework by email.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
DWP current email policy states “this policy does not change existing rules on communications with Members of Parliament (MPs) and when responding to customer complaints (handled by the Independent Case Examiner) where the MP or complainant has requested a response by email”.
A Member is the data controller for all personal data handled by their own office and must be registered with the Information Commissioners Office in accordance with the following guidance.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/advice-for-members-offices.pdf
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the effects of nivolumab on one year survival rates for lung cancer.
Answered by George Freeman
Nivolumab is currently marketed in the European Union under the brand name Opdivo.
The data available when Opdivo was licensed in 2015 indicated overall survival among patients given the product was around nine months, whereas among the patients given docetaxel, another cancer medicine, it was six months.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the effects of nivolumab on one year survival rates for lung cancer.
Answered by George Freeman
Nivolumab is currently marketed in the European Union under the brand name Opdivo.
The data available when Opdivo was licensed in 2015 indicated overall survival among patients given the product was around nine months, whereas among the patients given docetaxel, another cancer medicine, it was six months.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) murdered, (b) assaulted and (c) subject to a violent crime committed by people released from prison on licence in (i) England and (ii) Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Offenders on licence are subject to strict controls and may be recalled to custody if they breach their licence conditions. Offender managers regularly review the risk presented by offenders and may place additional controls where they are needed to protect the public.
The latest data on the number of offenders who were convicted of a Serious Further Offence of Murder are published in Annex B of Proven reoffending statistics January 2013 to December 2013, published at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-january-2013-to-december-2013. The published figures include all offenders under any form of probation supervision, rather than just those on licence.
The information requested is set out in the table below, based on data collected under the Probation Serious Further Offence (SFO) Review Procedures. The figure for the most recent year does not include cases where an offender has been charged with but not yet convicted of murder.
Date | 01/11/2010 – 31/10/2011 | 01/11/2011 – 31/10/2012 | 01/11/2012 – 31/10/2013 | 01/11/2013 – 31/10/2014 | 01/11/2014 – 31/10/2015 |
No of Murders | |||||
England | 23 | 20 | 25 | 21 | 6 |
Wales | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
The offences of violence against the person or violent crime in such general form do not fall in scope of the Probation SFO Review Procedures. Data on offenders released on a licence who have committed offences other than those in scope of the SFO Review Procedures are not held centrally in a readily accessible format for the last five years. To obtain these data would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Guto Bebb (Independent - Aberconwy)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received on the availability of comparative information on and screening for prostate cancer.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. In 2010, the UK NSC recommended against a screening programme for prostate cancer as there was no clear evidence that the benefit to screen for prostate cancer outweighed the harms. The UK NSC re-affirmed this decision in 2012 and is in the process of reviewing this policy currently.
The School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield performed an option appraisal for the UK NSC based on the latest trial evidence for screening for prostate cancer in 2013. A number of screening strategies were considered including annual screening in men aged 50 to 74 years. The overall survival benefit with all strategies was small and outweighed by the harms of over diagnosis and the adverse effects of over treatment.
Public Health England (PHE) ran a local pilot campaign for six weeks in 2014, specifically targeting prostate cancer within Black African-Caribbean men, because of their significantly increased risk of developing prostate cancer. The campaign ran in six London boroughs. In addition, PHE will be running a national campaign on “Blood in Pee” in early 2016. This is primarily aimed at bladder and kidney cancer but blood in the urine can also be a sign of prostate cancer.