Category: Speeches

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-02-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to better inform all landlords of the new rules that oblige them to check new tenants’ immigration status.

    Lord Bates

    The Home Office has undertaken a proactive engagement and communications campaign to raise awareness about the roll out of the scheme. This has involved private rented sector engagement, media engagement and the distribution of communications materials across a range of Government and partner channels. We are continuing direct engagement with the private rented sector through a consultative panel, chaired by the Immigration Minister and Lord Best, which includes housing experts and homelessness charities. The Home Office has also undertaken a programme of engagement including training events for all local authorities and presentations at sector conferences.

    The panel has helped to shape the communications strategy for the scheme and has collaborated on communications tactics and methods. The Home Office has collaborated with the panel to produce various communications materials which have been shared with the sector and published on GOV.UK. Since October 2015, there has been an increase in web traffic to Right to Rent guidance on GOV.UK with over 80,000 unique views of key pages.

    The Home Office will continue proactive engagement and communications activity in the months ahead to ensure landlords and tenants are aware of the materials and guidance available.

  • Catherine McKinnell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Catherine McKinnell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2016-02-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.61 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what estimate he has made of the number of families that will sign up for tax-free childcare in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

    Damian Hinds

    The Government confirmed that Tax-Free Childcare will be launched from early 2017. To roll out the scheme in a safe and managed way, we will be gradually opening up the scheme to all eligible parents within 12 months.

    We will provide further details of the exact plans for this rollout in due course, in good time for parents and childcare providers to prepare for the introduction of Tax-Free Childcare.

    Once the scheme is fully open, we estimate that around 2 million families will be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare. And we estimate that up to 1 million families may take up the scheme in ‘steady state’.

    The Tax-Free Childcare system will be extensively tested with users before the scheme is launched.

  • Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work capability assessments have been (a) completed and (b) cancelled by Maximus Health and Human Services Ltd in (i) total and (ii) each local authority area.

    Priti Patel

    Work capability assessments are delivered by Centre for Health Disability Assessments (CHDA is a MAXIMUS company).

    Nationally, in the quarter from January 2016 to March 2016, the number of completed assessments was 417,143 and the number of cancellations was 10,143.

    Information is not available by local authority area.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the Government’s plan to make every school an academy on nursery school education.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The government has confirmed that the expectation that all schools will become academies by 2020 does not include the early years.

    We know that close working between primary schools – whether they are academies or maintained schools – and nursery schools is essential to improving pupils’ transition to Reception. We would expect those excellent local relationships that already exist to continue, regardless of whether the school is an academy or not.

  • Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2016-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what fitness testing is carried out for Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers on active service; how many officers were tested in each of the last two years; and what the results of those tests were.

    Andrea Leadsom

    All operationally deployed Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers are required to meet the fitness standards of their role profile and those required by the College of Policing.

    Between 15 June 2014 and 14 June 2015, 608 officers were tested and 99% achieved the required level. Between 15 June 2015 and 14 June 2016, 827 officers were tested and 98% achieved the required level.

  • Richard Bacon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Bacon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Bacon on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS has paid BT for the licensing, deployment and support of acute IT systems in the south of England.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Information regarding payments made by National Health Service trusts to BT is not held centrally.

    The Department, to the end of financial year 2015-16, paid BT £0.5 billion in respect of services it delivered to acute and community and mental health trusts in the south of England under the BT Local Service Provider contract. This contract has now closed.

  • Lord Teverson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Teverson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Teverson on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of Home Office research indicating that only one per cent of foreign students fail to leave the country once they have completed their course, whether they intend to encourage more such students to study in the UK.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    There remains no limit on the number of genuine international students who can come to study in the UK and visa applications from international students to study at British universities are up by 14% since 2010.

  • Natalie McGarry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Natalie McGarry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Natalie McGarry on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of Government expenditure on the carer addition element of pension credit in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) Glasgow and (d) Glasgow East constituency in the 2015-16 financial year.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Forecasts of expenditure as a result of the carer addition element of Pension Credit for 2015/16 are not available. However, estimates of the outturn expenditure (as a result of the carer addition element of Pension Credit) in 2014/15 are shown in the table below.

    Tables show expenditure for Great Britain, not the UK, as expenditure in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of Northern Ireland Executive.

    Pension Credit expenditure as a result of the carer addition, 2014/15

    £, million

    …as a percentage of total pension credit expenditure in that area

    Great Britain

    £364.7

    5.5%

    Scotland

    £39.6

    6.7%

    Glasgow (City)

    £6.4

    5.9%

    Glasgow East (constituency)

    £1.8

    9.4%

  • Ian Mearns – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ian Mearns – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Mearns on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what each of the flag registers of vessels owned by company groups that qualified for inclusion in the tonnage scheme in 2014-15 was; and how many vessels in that scheme were registered under each of those flags.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The ships which company groups anticipated would be included in the tonnage tax at the beginning of the 2014-15 training commitment year were under the following flags: United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Marshall Islands, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Singapore. The identity of tonnage tax groups is tax confidential, and that confidentiality could be compromised by giving a detailed breakdown by flag of the numbers of vessels entered in tonnage tax. I am therefore unable to disclose the numbers of vessels registered under each flag.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many defibrillators are provided in each building her Department manages.

    Karen Bradley

    We do not hold records centrally on the number of defibrillators across the HO estate.