Category: Speeches

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of children who receive mental health assessments on entering care; and what assessment he has made of recent trends in such figures.

    Alistair Burt

    Data is not collected nationally on the number of children entering care who receive a mental health assessment.

    Local authorities are responsible for making sure that a health assessment is carried out for every child they look after when they start to be looked after. The care planning regulations specify that this should include an assessment of the child’s emotional and mental wellbeing. The Department for Education annually collects data from local authorities on the numbers of children continuously looked after for at least 12 months at 31 March who received their statutory annual health assessment during the year. At 31 March 2014, 88.4% of these looked-after children did so.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 21375 on flooding control: per capita costs, what official data sets were used for her calculations in that Answer.

    Rory Stewart

    The Grant in Aid figures used in the calculations are based on the published six year capital programme. They can be found on the GOV.UK website at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/programme-of-flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-schemes.

    Population figures are sourced from the Office of National Statistics data from the 2011 Census for England and Wales.

  • Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many commercial organisations have reached a negotiated settlement with HM Revenue and Customs on the amount of tax owed to the public purse since 2010.

    Mr David Gauke

    Disputes with taxpayers of all types as to the right amount of tax that is due are a normal part of tax administration. There is huge variation in the nature of tax disputes depending on the complexity of the taxpayer’s behaviour, the amount and type of tax at stake and the transactions undertaken. Under its statutory powers, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) resolves most civil tax disputes by agreement and without resorting to litigation where the settlement secures the tax that HMRC believes is due under the law. If the right amount can’t be agreed, the dispute goes to litigation at the Tribunal. For any dispute, HMRC’s decision on how it should be resolved is taken by the final appropriate decision maker with appropriate management oversight. For the majority of cases this will constitute authorisation by a case worker’s line manager. However, the most significant and sensitive cases are considered by three Commissioners.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much her Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.

    Nick Gibb

    The cost of Employment Tribunals can be found within the HMCTS annual accounts published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/433948/hmcts-annual-report-accounts-2014-15.pdf

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  • Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Ian Murray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) average and (b) maximum time taken for contractors to return assessments to his Department was for Scottish claimants of (i) employment and support allowance and (ii) personal independence payments in each of the last four quarters for which information is available.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information you have requested on the average and maximum time taken for the contractor in Scotland to return ESA assessments to the Department is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

    PIP average actual clearance times for Scotland, measured from the point of referral to the assessment providers to a decision being made on the claim by the DWP, is available in published data at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-january-2016. Information on maximum time is not available in the published statistics and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

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  • Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many (a) applicants and (b) accepted offers of places there were for nursing degrees at each institution in 2014-15 from (i) A-levels and (ii) Access students.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publishes data on applications and acceptances for full-time undergraduate courses.

    In 2015 the number of applications to nursing courses was 186,260 and the number of acceptances was 21,450. Each person can make up to five applications.

    UCAS does not publish data on applicants or acceptances for nursing degrees broken down by either institution or entry qualification.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many of his Department’s civil servants were based in Coventry in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Mark Francois

    My Department has not had any civil servants based in Coventry in the last five years, or in fact since the department was created under the last Labour government.

    My Department has 16 offices across England, with staff working to drive up housing supply, increase the number of home owners, boost local growth and support strong communities with excellent public services. We have 69 employees in the West Midlands in our Birmingham office.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average length of time is from joining for an employee to qualify as a (a) senior watch manager, (b) watch manager, (c) watch officer and (d) watch assistant.

    Mr John Hayes

    The length of time taken to train Coastguard Officers is entirely dependent on their level of experience and competence when they join Her Majesty’s Coastguard and the level of experience of competence they gain prior to any internal promotion. Therefore an average for these would be misleading.

    On entry to HM Coastguard as a Maritime Operations Officer it will take between six and 12 months to become trained, depending on previous maritime experience and competence.

    HM Coastguard do not recruit direct entry Senior Maritime Operations Officers, they are internally recruited from the cadre of fully trained Maritime Operations Officers who will then undertake a further six months of training for this post.

    As roles that can be directly recruited from outside HM Coastguard the training for both Maritime Operations Controllers and Maritime Operations Commanders is entirely dependent on their prevailing maritime experience and is in effect bespoke for the individual concerned.

    It should be noted that the roles senior watch manager, watch manager, watch officer and watch assistant no longer exist within HM Coastguard.

  • Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what role they are proposing to give Parliament in scrutinising the outcome of the negotiations relating to the UK leaving the EU, prior to the final conclusion of those negotiations.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    The Government will comply with all the constitutional and legal obligations that apply to the deal that we will negotiate with the EU.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what work his Department has undertaken with the devolved administrations on communicating to the public changes to the new state pension.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Northern Ireland is the only devolved administration for pensions. We have worked closely with officials from the Northern Ireland Social Security Agency and have shared our new State Pension advertising materials for customised use in Northern Ireland.