The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of per capita GDP in each of the nations of the UK in each of the last five years.
Mr Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure a reduction in the use of paper in departments.
Matthew Hancock
Individual Departments are responsible for making their own reductions to their use of paper, including as part of the Greening Government Commitments. The Cabinet Office’s own use of paper in 2015/16 to date has reduced by around 60% against the 2009/10 baseline. This reduction has been achieved including through the use of more flexible laptop-based IT and electronic records systems which means that printing requirements have reduced considerably.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of people removed from the electoral register since December 2015 are (a) men and (b) women.
John Penrose
The electoral registers used for the 2015 General Election contained over 400,000 more entries than the last registers published prior to the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER). As such, suggestions that IER would lead to a decline in registration levels were simply incorrect.
While data is not available on the number of non-IER registered electors who voted at the 2015 General Election, the Electoral Commission found 96% of the entries on the electoral register in May 2015 were already registered under IER.
The Electoral Commission is planning to publish a report in February/March 2016 on the state of the December 2015 registers. This is expected to include data on the number of register entries and on the number of remaining non-IER registered entries removed in December.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people who voted in the 2015 General Election are not on the latest electoral register.
John Penrose
The electoral registers used for the 2015 General Election contained over 400,000 more entries than the last registers published prior to the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER). As such, suggestions that IER would lead to a decline in registration levels were simply incorrect.
While data is not available on the number of non-IER registered electors who voted at the 2015 General Election, the Electoral Commission found 96% of the entries on the electoral register in May 2015 were already registered under IER.
The Electoral Commission is planning to publish a report in February/March 2016 on the state of the December 2015 registers. This is expected to include data on the number of register entries and on the number of remaining non-IER registered entries removed in December.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost is of the transfer to Individual Electoral Registration; and what proportion of such costs have been borne by local government.
John Penrose
In financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15 the Government has spent £72 million in the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER).
Of this, over £49 million was shared between all EROs in Great Britain, ensuring the transition to IER was fully funded. This included over £10 million that was allocated to local authorities specifically to boost levels of voter registration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of ministerial letters have been signed on behalf of Ministers in their absence in the last 12 months.
Matthew Hancock
This information is not held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
In line with the guidance on handling Ministerial correspondence, the Cabinet Office ensures that all correspondence, wherever possible, is personally hand-signed by the appropriate responsible Minister.
Guidance to Departments on handling correspondence is available on Gov.uk – https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441892/Cabinet_Office_Guidance_on_correspondence.pdf
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will commission an assessment of the potential economic impact on Oldham of the reduction in Oldham’s public estate.
Matthew Hancock
The Government Property Unit is working closely with Oldham Council and others across Greater Manchester on future plans across the public sector estate. Oldham Council is part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Partnership on the One Public Estate Programme. The programme, delivered by Cabinet Office and the Local Government Association, aims to maximise local economic growth from better use of public assets. 108 councils have recently joined a third phase of the programme. Together, they expect to generate £172 million capital receipts, reduce running costs by £65 million, and create 30,000 new homes and 43,000 new jobs over the next 5 years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will ensure that charity commissions across the UK collaborate to ensure that extremist groups are unable to obtain charitable status.
Mr Rob Wilson
There are three bodies that regulate charities in the UK; the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. In all three jurisdictions organisations must be established for exclusively charitable purposes to be recognised and registered as charities. All applications to register an organisation as a charity are determined by whether or not an organisation meets the legal test for registration. All three bodies have robust processes for assessing any application for registration as a charity. The three regulators regularly meet to discuss areas of common concern and have provisions in their respective legislation which facilitates the exchange of information to assist and enable another to discharge their statutory functions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effect of civil service redundancies in the last 12 months on the effectiveness of departments’ work.
Matthew Hancock
To remain the best in the world, the Civil Service needs to respond to both the challenges and opportunities of our times.The Civil Service continues to require new and different skills to respond to the fiscal environment, global competition and changes in technology, whilst at the same time delivering better services more efficiently: in short, doing more for less.
The size of the Civil Service has already reduced by 20% since March 2010 and has helped save taxpayers £2.8bn over the last Parliament. Despite this reduction in numbers, employee engagement rates were higher in 2015 than in 2010 and departments have successfully maintained delivery of our public services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-19.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to provide assistance to people who have purchased homes under the Help to Buy scheme in the event that interest rates subsequently rise.
Harriett Baldwin
The Government does not have any plans to provide additional assistance to those who have purchased a home under the Help to Buy scheme, in the event of a rise in interest rates.
Since April 2014, lenders have had to conduct an affordability assessment which includes a robust income and expenditure analysis. In addition, lenders must consider the impact of future interest rate increases on affordability.
This ensures that mortgages are only advanced where there is a reasonable expectation that the customer can repay.