Paul Scully

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Government has committed to ensuring that services are accessible for all users, including people with disabilities. The Government Digital Service provides guidance to support departments, has created a cross government accessibility community to enable collaboration, and reviews the services it assesses against accessibility requirements.

Findings from a 2016 study of the economic benefits of learning maths and English in Further Education,[1] show that adults who achieve ESOL qualifications secure an average wage premium of 6%.

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/522300/bis-16-180-maths-english-learning.pdf

English language colleges are independent organisations that are responsible for their own staffing. My department does not hold any information on the numbers of people employed in such organisations in England.

As education is a devolved matter, any assessment of English language college’s staff numbers outside of England is a matter for the relevant devolved authorities.

The Government submitted a revised air quality plan to the European Commission on 17 December last year. There is no formal timetable under the Air Quality Directive for the Commission to assess the plan. We are working with the Commission to ensure compliance with the nitrogen dioxide limits in the Directive in the shortest possible time.

The Government is fully committed to delivering the infrastructure this country needs, including delivering runway capacity to the timetable set out by the Airports Commission.

The UK is pushing for accountability and longer-term support for the Rohingya. We are supporting the refugees in Bangladesh and pressing for improved conditions in Rakhine State. We have been one of the main donors to the international humanitarian response plan and we expect to remain a leading donor.

Since August 2018 UK officials have consulted the Burma office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, and the UNHCR office in Geneva for clarification on the needs assessment process for Chin refugees residing in other countries, and UNHCR's proposed process for ensuring their safe return to Burma.

The UK will continue to monitor this process in line with our objectives of ensuring the safety of all those displaced by violence in Burma and a safe return process for all groups forced to flee to other countries.

We are deeply concerned by continued reports of violence in Kachin and northern Shan States, which has led to a further 8,000 people being displaced since February 2018. DFID is providing humanitarian support to displaced populations. In the last financial year, DFID spent £6.1 million on humanitarian assistance for conflict affected people in Kachin and Northern Shan states. We continue to raise our concerns with both military and civilian Ministers in the Government of Burma.

The UK is proud to be a founding supporter of the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund since 2012 and has pledged up to £9million to support the grassroots response for inadequately served groups affected by HIV.

DFID assesses the outcomes achieved by the Robert Carr Civil Society Networks Fund annually, as we do for all our programmes, and the reviews are available on the DFID Development Tracker at https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/.

The World Health Organisation reports that there have been 592 malaria cases detected in Delhi so far this year. The municipal corporations in Delhi are responding. The WHO is closely monitoring the situation and providing advice through its Regional and Country Offices.

DFID provides significant support to malaria control in India and Asia through our leading contribution to the Global Fund. Since 2002 the Global Fund has invested $1.9 billion in India for malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB. This support has included the provision of 3.71 million insecticide treated bed nets to prevent the transmission of malaria. The Global Fund also supports many countries in Asia, including, for example, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. In addition DFID has specific malaria programming to improve the quality of care and address the problem of sub-standard medication in Burma; and programmes in the Greater Mekong sub-region to tackle drug resistant malaria. DFID also supports research into new malaria drugs, and broader support to countries’ health systems to enable better identification and treatment of people affected by malaria.

We are monitoring progress and working closely with Network Rail (NR) and South Western Railway (SWR) to see these recommendations implemented as soon as possible. SWR and NR have implemented several actions already, such as redefining SWR’s performance meeting structure and SWR and NR’s review of their contingency plans. There are also 10 actions ready for review for completion, and further actions to implement recommendations are now in the delivery phase. Sir Michael is due to return to SWR next month to review progress.

Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London, and it is for him to consider any impacts of cycle superhighways on London’s traffic congestion.

The Department for Transport has received fewer than 10 items of correspondence on this matter since 2015 from the general public.

Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London, and it is for him to consider what, if any, assessment is made of the effects of cycle superhighways on traffic congestion.

The Department for Transport has not made a specific assessment of the effect of cycle superhighways on London’s congestion. Transport for London publishes a number of statistics on journey times and travel trends in its annual report “Travel in London”.

Transport in London is devolved to the Mayor of London, and it is for him to consider what, if any, assessment is made of the effects of cycle superhighways on traffic congestion.

The Department for Transport does not routinely hold information on trends in the level of congestion in London, other than what is already publicly available information.

Ministers and officials at the Department for Transport hold regular meetings with the Mayor of London, officials in his office and Transport for London. A range of topics are discussed at these meetings. The Minister for London most recently met the Deputy Mayor for Transport in London in July.

The Secretary of State currently does not have any scheduled meetings with the Deputy Mayor for Transport. I have met with her predecessor and look forward to meeting with her in due course.

In December 2017, Government and the life sciences sector agreed a landmark sector deal that follows on from, and starts to implement, the sector-led Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.

An Implementation Board for this will convene in the coming weeks to discuss implementation of the Deal and wider Strategy, with working sub-groups to lead on specific aspects of the Deal.

Information is not collected centrally on the number of hospitals in England which are currently equipped to deliver thrombectomy for stroke.

In February this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published interventional procedure guidance on mechanical clot retrieval (thrombectomy) for treating acute ischaemic stroke. The guidance sets out that current evidence on the safety and efficacy of this procedure is adequate to support its use, provided that standard arrangements are in place for clinical governance, consent and audit. This guidance does not oblige commissioners to commission thrombectomy nor hospitals to provide it. The guidance is available at:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ipg548

NHS England is now undertaking work to inform a decision on whether this is a procedure that should be made more widely available.

Access to stroke specific psychological support is vital to diagnosing and managing many of the unseen effects of stroke. The Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme has recently conducted an audit of the provision of services to people with stroke once they have left hospital. The audit found that around 42% of Early Supported Discharge teams and 44% of longer term community rehabilitation teams had some access to psychologists. There are also physiotherapists, nurses and occupational therapists on these teams who often address psychological issues.

We know that there are improvements to be made in providing psychological support for stroke survivors. Clinical commissioning groups are encouraged to consider how the needs of these patients might be met when commissioning services.

NHS England is now working with stakeholders to develop guidance and the arrangements for deployment so that all community pharmacists in England have access to the Summary Care Record. As this continues to be rolled out, it will enable more pharmacies to provide increased clinical services, helping to reduce the burden on other health and social care providers.

The Government set out its response to the report in its reply to PQ HL6282. Since the report was published the UK has played a leading role in securing the resolution adopted at the 39^th session of the UN Human Rights Council in September that establishes a mechanism to collect and preserve evidence of atrocities in Burma, as called for by the Special Rapporteur. The current Foreign Secretary has stated that it is essential that the perpetrators of any atrocities are brought to justice through impartial and credible investigations.

We remain deeply concerned by reports of discrimination and violence against the Ahmadiyya Muslims in Pakistan. As I stated during the backbench business debate on Ahmadiyya rights on 24 May 2018, we wholeheartedly condemn attacks on the Ahmadiyya community. We regularly raise with the Government of Pakistan at senior levels the importance of religious tolerance and its duty to uphold the rights of all Pakistan's citizens regardless of religious identity.

During my visit to Pakistan in November 2017, I raised the treatment of religious minorities, including discrimination and violence against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, with the Ministry of Human Rights. My Ministerial colleague, the Minister of State for Commonwealth and the UN, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, discussed the issue of freedom of religion or belief, and the protection of religious minorities, with Pakistan's Interior Minister in February 2018. At the UN Periodic Review of Pakistan's human rights record in November 2017, the UK called on Pakistan to strengthen protection of minorities and establish an independent National Commission for Minorities.

We are aware of Hassan Nasrallah's recent calls for a Palestinian intifada. The UK deplores all forms of incitement, including any comments that could stir up hatred and prejudice. We continue to urge all sides to avoid engaging in, or encouraging, any type of action and language that makes it more difficult to achieve a culture of peaceful coexistence and a negotiated solution to the conflict.

​The UK is concerned about the apparent intensification of conflict in Kachin State, including credible reports of human rights abuses and violations. We raised our concerns at the UN Human Rights Council on 19 September 2017 but will do so again as soon as is appropriate. The British Ambassador in Rangoon visited Kachin State from 8 to 10 January to discuss the situation with local political and religious leaders as well as UN and NGO representatives, and to visit an Internally Displaced Persons camp.

​We are aware of reports that Hizballah continues to amass an arsenal of weapons in Lebanon. The UK remains concerned about the threat that this poses to regional stability and the direct contravention of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701. We will also continue to take action with the international community to encourage Iran to play a transparent and constructive role in regional affairs.

This Government has introduced a new offence of coercive and controlling behaviour, rolled out new tools like domestic violence protection orders and committed over £100m to support victims.

We are firmly committed to doing everything we can to tackle domestic abuse which is why we have also announced that we will bring forward a landmark Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill to protect and support victims and bring perpetrators to justice.

Published information on applications for short term study (previously referred to as 'student visitor') visas is published in table vi_01_q (Visa data tables volume 1) in 'Immigration Statistics, July-September 2016', available from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2016/list-of-tables

Local authorities must ensure appropriate standards to support safe and quality services for passengers. However, as part of exercising this duty, any licencing decisions should support open, competitive and functioning markets.

This Government has a target to release land with capacity for 160,000 homes by 2020 and is encouraging local authorities to do the same.

The Government has recently announced £1.7 billion of investment for an Accelerated Construction programme that will enable us to get started on up to 15,000 homes by the end of this Parliament.

Planning reforms, including Permission in Principle and Brownfield Registers, will deliver a more efficient planning system.

In order to control the housing benefit bill, the Government is reducing social housing rents by 1% per annum over the coming four years to 2019-20. The Government has constant and on-going dialogue with the sector and lenders. We will consider rent setting policy from 2020 at future fiscal events.

Under the terms of the historic voluntary agreement between the Government and the sector, the Government will compensate housing associations for the value of the Right to Buy discount. In return, housing associations will deliver at least one additional new home for each home sold nationally. They will have flexibility in relation to the tenure and location of the additional homes built. It is a mutual objective to ensure that additional homes would be delivered as quickly as possible. The aim is to deliver the new properties within two years. The historic grant portion of any receipt released by the property sale will go back into the Recycled Capital Grant Fund. Under the current rules for that Fund receipts must be spent within three years or returned to the Homes and Communities Agency.

Ministers have had discussions with many different organisations regarding the Government’s commitment to build 200,000 Starter Homes to help young, first time buyers into home ownership. The 20 per cent discount on a starter home is a minimum discount and any increase will be negotiated locally. Legislation is currently being taken forward through the Housing and Planning Bill to bring these commitments into effect.