Category: Speeches

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the savings to his Department arising from application of the under-occupancy penalty in each of the last three financial years.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The estimated savings from the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy policy in each of the last three financial years is as follows:

    • £490 million in 2013/14;
    • £525 million in 2014/15; and
    • £560 million in 2015/16.
  • Karin Smyth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Karin Smyth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many families in (a) Bristol South constituency and (b) England have re-applied for child benefit for a young person following that person’s dropping out of an apprenticeship.

    Damian Hinds

    The information is not available.

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who were affected by the recent server issue affecting the universal credit portal; and if he will make a statement.

    Damian Hinds

    Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.

    The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.

    We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many single parent households there are in the UK.

    Chris Skidmore

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Gavin Newlands – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gavin Newlands – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the length of time was that each person who successfully appealed against their deportation under the deport first, appeal later measures spent outside the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    Pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2015 to Question 11080, that there had been 13 successful appeals, the additional data requested is not available. Such data is not aggregated in national reporting systems, which would mean these questions could only be answered through a disproportionately expensive manual case search to collate the data.

  • Teresa Pearce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Teresa Pearce – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Teresa Pearce on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when the ministerial working group on preventing and tackling homelessness will next meet; and what the membership of that group is.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Ministerial Working Group on Homelessness will meet in the New Year. The group consists of Ministers from ten Departments – Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions, Cabinet Office, Ministry of Defence, Home Office, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Government Equalities Office, and Department for Communities and Local Government.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to introduce a pilot scheme to evaluate the potential use of social impact bonds for the provision of advice services.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    As part of the spending review we committed £80m to a new social outcomes fund to support the creation of locally developed social impact bonds focused upon tackling a range of social problems. We will set out the issues that this fund will focus upon when it is launched later this year.

  • Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-01-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what independent research is being carried out on the availability and affordability of flood insurance for small businesses in flood affected areas.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    We have recently published a report, carried out on our behalf by Ipsos MORI that considers the availability of flood insurance for small businesses in areas of high flood risk.

    The study found that uptake of insurance in small and medium sized businesses is high, with 95% of businesses having commercial insurance cover and only 2.5% reporting any difficulties in accessing insurance.

    The report is available on-line on the science and research section of Defra’s website, under the heading “Affordability and Availability of Flood Insurance – FD2688”.

    We continue to keep this important issue under review.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help dairy farmers better manage market volatility.

    George Eustice

    I recognise that many farmers are struggling with the prolonged period of low prices.

    The £26.2 million aid package we secured for the UK from the European Commission – and paid out in November and December – provided some immediate relief to hard-pressed farmers. From 1 April, farmers will be able to average their tax over five years instead of two, helping them deal with volatility between years. We are also looking at the development of a dairy futures market in the UK to allow farmers to fix their prices for longer periods.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure mental health service user groups are consulted in advance about arrangements for mental health conferences organised by his Department or NHS England.

    Alistair Burt

    The second mental health Crisis Care Concordat national summit was held on 24 November 2015, hosted jointly by the Department and Mind.

    The event concentrated on progress with improving crisis care since the launch of the Concordat in February 2014. The Summit was full, with 250 delegates and speakers. All delegates were Concordat activists – either involved in their local Crisis Concordat groups or representatives from national signatory and supporter organisations. People with lived experience and carers attended, as well as members of the National Survivor User Network. Some attendees will have been present representing their organisations but also will have had lived experience, and it is therefore not possible to calculate the number of those attendees who were mental health service users.

    All Departmental conferences involve stakeholders and service users as part of the preparation process.