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  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average duration has been of the assessment period for each claim for personal independence payment from a person diagnosed with a terminal illness in each of the three months to June 2014.

    Mike Penning

    I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the Written Answer I gave him on 18 June, Official Report, column 629W. Information on clearance times is not currently available. Statistics on clearance times are intended for future publication.

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent assisting people with the costs of (a) travel to interview and (b) clothing for interviews or to commence work in each year since 2005.

    Esther McVey

    The information requested is only available from 2007. (a) The costs of assisting people travel to job interviews for each year from 2007 are:

    (b) Expenditure for equipment to assist people taking up work, including clothing, for each year from 2007 is in the table below. This expenditure also includes assistance with other equipment e.g. health and safety related workwear, work tools and equipment, bicycles and accessories, laptops and mobile phones.

    Expenditure totals are not available solely for clothing and would incur disproportionate cost to identify separately.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if the Health and Safety Executive will create a register of qualified professionals to ensure that clinical research is carried out safely.

    Norman Lamb

    The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for the enforcement of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and ensuring that “risks to people’s health and safety from work activities are properly controlled”.

    The Health Research Authority (HRA) ensures that ethically-approved clinical research is carried out by suitably qualified professionals through its arrangements for research ethics committee review. Research ethics committee review includes scrutiny of researchers’ suitability to conduct the research they are proposing. This review is required by Departmental guidance, which applies to all health and adult social care research, and by legislation, for instance, in the case of clinical trials, by Schedule 1 part 2(2) of the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/1031).

    The HRA publishes a register of research summaries, including a contact name (usually that of the chief investigator) and the research ethics committee’s opinion. The register is publicly available on line at:

    www.nres.nhs.uk/researchsummaries

    From September 2013, registration of clinical trials in a publicly accessible database is a condition of the favourable ethical opinion given by a research ethics committee.

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether jobseekers must declare casual income earned during a sanction period once their jobseeker’s allowance claim is resumed; and whether that amount is then deducted from subsequent benefit payments.

    Esther McVey

    When a Jobseeker’s Allowance Claimant is subject to a sanction, the award continues even if no actual payments are being made. As such the claimant should continue to notify changes of circumstances, including casual work. The normal JSA rules apply, whereby if the hours worked exceed 16 hours or the earnings are higher than the rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance, the award will end.

  • Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) staff in his Department and (b) members of the public who use his Department’s on-site nurseries.

    Mike Penning

    The number of DWP families who use the on site nurseries was provided in PQ195198:

    10 Apr 2014, Column 320W, Nurseries: House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 10 Apr 2014 (pt 0001)

    37 members of the public use the Department’s on site nurseries.

    “

  • Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Ian Austin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2014-06-18.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance his Department issues to employers on helping employees with the cost of childcare.

    Nicky Morgan

    HM Revenue & Customs has published extensive guidance to help employers run successful childcare schemes, including the Employer Helpbook E18 ‘How you can help your employees with childcare’.

  • John McDonnell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John McDonnell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff in his Department have been asked to assist G4S in the delivery of the new Child Maintenance Options scheme to date; how many more staff G4S estimates will be needed to administer this contract when peak levels of applications are reached; and how much in staffing costs his Department is liable to pay as a result.

    Steve Webb

    The Child Maintenance Options service is not a new service and was introduced in 2008. It offers information and support to help separating and separated parents make an informed choice about their child maintenance arrangement. It is not a child maintenance scheme.

    The Department has in place planned and agreed business continuity arrangements with its supplier. This includes utilising the Department’s staff to take some calls where volumes exceed contracted levels. Over the past nine months the Department has used anything from 5 to 20 people for periods ranging from minutes to hours.

    The child maintenance reform programme includes ending liabilities on Child Support Agency cases in the 1993 and 2003 schemes over the next three years and it is too early to accurately predict when peak call volumes into Child Maintenance Options will be reached. Child Maintenance Options calculates resource requirements based on forecast volumes provided by the Department on a rolling three month basis. The number of staff Child Maintenance Options employs will increase in line with these forecasts over the next three years before returning to more normal levels when the reforms have completed. The associated costs are reflected in the contract.

  • John McDonnell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John McDonnell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons the G4S contract to provide the Child Maintenance Options programme was underestimated; for what reasons staff in his Department were assisting G4S with its work on this programme; and if he will consider transferring G4S staff under TUPE regulations to his Department.

    Steve Webb

    Call forecasting volumes used as part of a re-tendering exercise for delivery of the Child Maintenance Options service were based on historic call volume data. From November 2013, Child Maintenance Options became the mandatory gateway for all new applicants to the statutory scheme, which led to an incremental increase in demand.

    This, among other recent changes, added an increased level of uncertainty into forecasting call volumes, in anticipation of which the Department has in place planned and agreed business continuity arrangements with the supplier. This includes the use of colleagues from the Department in order to take some calls where volumes exceed contracted levels.

    This service was introduced in 2008 and has never been delivered in-house, and there are no plans to do so. Therefore, the transferring of staff under TUPE regulations is not applicable.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of recent trends in employment in the private sector.

    Esther McVey

    There are more people in private sector jobs than ever before, up over 2 million since 2010.

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 June 2014, Official Report, column 176W, on work capability assessment, if he will make it his policy to set a target timescale for employment and support allowance and incapacity benefit reassessment work capability assessments in order to monitor and reduce the waiting times for those assessments.

    Mike Penning

    We are committed to completing Work Capability Assessments as quickly as possible so that eligible claimants receive the appropriate rate of benefit.

    However it is important to get assessments right rather than setting an artificial timescale for completion. We are working with the existing supplier to improve processing times and reduce waiting times. In addition, we are seeking a replacement supplier to undertake Work Capability Assessments.

    In the meantime we continue to rigorously monitor and manage the existing contract to ensure that both quality and performance are maintained as part of our drive to improve the quality of decision making and process claims more quickly.