Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of this effect of any changes to the short-term study visa system arising from the UK's decision to leave the EU, on the number of foreign nationals seeking to study English.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We are working across Government to identify and develop options to shape our future immigration system.
Parliament will have an important role to play in this and we will ensure businesses and communities have the opportunity to contribute their views.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the merits of short-term study visas for EU citizens wishing to study in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We are working across Government to identify and develop options to shape our future immigration system.
Parliament will have an important role to play in this and we will ensure businesses and communities have the opportunity to contribute their views.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of staff on the payroll of her Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.
Answered by Sarah Newton
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of her Department.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Home Office does not employ cleaning staff. The cleaning of the Home Office estate is outsourced. The contract requires that all contracted staff have undergone the necessary pre-employment checks and have the right to work in the UK.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many murders have been committed by people in receipt of psychiatric treatment or deemed by a court at the time of trial to require psychiatric treatment for a clinical illness in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The available information for England and Wales from the Home Office Homicide Index is shown in the attached table and shows the numbers of homicide offences where the court decides that, acting on medical evidence, the suspect should be the subject of a hospital order.
The data does not specifically identify those suspects requiring psychiatric treatment for a clinical illness.
Data is based on the number of offenders whose court proceedings have been completed. Due to the time it can take for cases to pass through the criminal justice system, there is likely to be an increase in the number of people convicted of homicide and given a hospital order for recent years when updated figures are published in 2017.
In addition, the National Confidential Inquiry, based at Manchester University, publishes an annual report on suicide and homicide of people with mental illness, using information from the Homicide Index and Hospital Trust records. The most recent report is available at:
http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/cmhs/research/centreforsuicideprevention/nci/reports/
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the Government Actuaries Department relating to firefighters' pensions in its report dated 28 August 2015.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Government has determined that the principles of the Ombudsman’s decision in the Milne v Government Actuary’s Department case should be applied to other affected individuals, including retired firefighters and police officers in England.
Redress will be paid to affected individuals via their relevant pension scheme, and we will be providing fire and rescue authorities and police forces with necessary grant to cover the cost of these payments.
Pension administrators will have now completed the majority of calculations and the majority of payments to individuals will be made by April 2016. This does not preclude payments being made earlier in many cases. I trust that authorities will make payments as soon as is practical and understand that some have already done so.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what safeguards are in place to ensure no shortfalls occur in future in the pensions of firefighters and police officers.
Answered by Mike Penning
On 1 April 2015, in line with wider public service pension reform, new career average pension arrangements were introduced for police officers and firefighters. These changes have put pension arrangements on a sustainable footing for the future, setting a fair balance of costs between public servants and other taxpayers, while continuing to provide good pensions for police officers and firefighters which reflect their roles.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the number of police in different forces who are suspended or not on active duty as a result of investigations or complaint procedures.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of police within different forces who are suspended or are not on active duty as a result of investigation or complaint procedure.
From 2015/16, forces will be asked to provide returns that will include data on officer misconduct and whistle-blowing. This collection will include the number of recorded allegations of misconduct and gross misconduct; outcomes of disciplinary proceedings arising from those allegations; and the number of criminal investigations against those serving with the police. The Home Office intends to publish these data in due course once they are available.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the reasons for the recent reduction in the number of prosecutions for mobile telephone use while driving.
Answered by Mike Penning
No assessment has been made of the reasons for the recent reduction in the number of prosecutions for mobile telephone use while driving. Enforcement of this offence is an operational matter for the police. However, there may be a number of reasons, including drivers being more aware of the law, police deciding to prosecute drivers under more serious offences and officers choosing alternative methods of law enforcement, such as fixed penalties.