The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-07-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Written Statement of 14 January 2016, HCWS470, when she plans to publish the Immigration Enforcement’s Business Plan for 2016-17.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Immigration Enforcement planning for 2016-17 and beyond will be reviewed by the new Secretary of State and published in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which governmental departments make voluntary contributions to UN special political missions; and how much each such Department contributed in each of the last five years.
Alok Sharma
Government Departments, notably the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and Department for International Development have all made occasional targeted voluntary contributions to UN Special Political Missions (SPMs) over the last five years. Information about these discretionary payments is not held in a single consolidated form, and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. The Government identifies and monitors the value and impact of providing the voluntary funding on a case by case basis.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-10-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost of the signalling component of the Great Western Modernisation Programme at the most recent date for which figures are available.
Claire Perry
At present Network Rail’s Chair, Sir Peter Hendy, is reviewing the enhancements programme, including upgrades on the Great Western line. Due to interdependencies, renewals of signalling must be looked at in parallel with this, as part of Network Rail’s work to update its Delivery Plan. Therefore it is not possible to provide an up to date cost estimate until the conclusions of these reviews and plans are known.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times Minsters in his Department visited defence establishments in Northern Ireland in 2014.
Penny Mordaunt
There were five Ministerial visits during 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2015-12-16.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the contract between HM Revenue and Customs and Concentrix on compliance checks for tax credits includes payments by results.
Mr David Gauke
Reducing tax credits fraud and error is a top priority for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The contract with Concentrix offers additional capacity to help build on HMRC’s own work, which has reduced tax credits fraud and error to the lowest ever level. Using a private company provides a cost-effective way to reach additional claims that need checking.
The checks are to ensure that people are paid the correct amount of money to prevent them from getting into debt which they may find difficult to repay and protect losses to taxpayers.
Concentrix operate under the same powers and processes as HMRC. Concentrix select cases to be checked using information provided by HMRC. Concentrix decide how best to achieve the expected benefits, including the number and type of cases and number of staff employed. HMRC closely monitors their performance.
The contract uses a payment by results model, which means Concentrix is only paid based on the money it saves the Exchequer as a result of correcting claims that are incorrect. They will not be paid if the decisions they make about claimants’ awards are incorrect.
The contract was signed on 6 May 2014. The contract was awarded to Synnex-Concentrix UK Ltd in April 2014, following a procurement exercise advertised under the open procedure. Information about the contract value and contract award is already in the public domain.
https://www.deltaesourcing.com/delta/viewNotice.html?noticeId=97910033
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to ensure that clinical commissioning groups (a) improve access to, (b) provide training to health professionals on and (c) increase the number of healthcare professionals working in perinatal mental health.
Alistair Burt
This Government is committed to improving access to perinatal mental health services for women during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year. In January 2016 the Government set out that an additional £290 million will be made available over the next five years to 2020/21, over and above the money identified in the Spring Budget, to invest in perinatal mental health services. This is funded from within the Department’s overall Spending Review settlement and means that in total from 2015/16 to 2020/21 £365 million will be invested in perinatal mental health services.
We are aware that there is unacceptable variation in the levels of access to high quality, NICE-recommended specialist perinatal mental health care for women across England. A 2014 census identified that 40% of women in England have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services and that is why we have confirmed this additional investment. The funding should enable significant progress towards closing this gap and will help to enable women across the country to access evidence-based specialist support, in the community or through inpatient mother and baby services, closer to their home, when they need it. It is anticipated that, by 2020/21, around 30,000 more women should be able to access appropriate specialist support.
This new funding, together with the recommendations of the forthcoming report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, will enable NHS England to work with partners to design a longer-term transformation programme to build capacity and capability in specialist perinatal mental health services over the next five years. This will include setting detailed plans for how the additional investment will be targeted over the period to 2020/21 and setting clear outcome measures and metrics to monitor the impact of the funding on perinatal mental health provision.
In 2015/16 work is already underway to lay the foundations for this longer-term work programme through targeted funding of activities to build capacity in specialist services. This will include, for example, a £1 million investment in strengthening clinical networks across the country. It is also expected to include the provision of national and regional benchmarking data and analytical support to regions, and work to develop clinical leadership capacity. Work will also continue to support the development of specialist mother and baby units in the regions identified as most in need of new services.
To ensure the workforce are available and appropriately trained, NHS England is working closely with Health Education England and key stakeholders to better understand the future workforce commissioning requirements and how it is best to meet multi professional education and training needs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philippa Whitford on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support his Department provides to (a) claimants of universal credit while the benefit is assessed and dispatched and (b) people becoming unemployed from low-paid and temporary jobs who have no redundancy payments or other income.
Priti Patel
Advance payments of up to 50% of their Universal Credit award are available to all new Universal Credit claimants who are in financial need.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2016 to Question 28048, when the Equality Impact Assessment will be published.
Ben Gummer
We expect to publish the Equality Impact Assessment shortly after Easter.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, when she expects to sign the Investor Agreement for Hinkley Point C power station; and what conditions will have to be fulfilled by EDF before that signing.
Andrea Leadsom
My rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State is minded to proceed with the Contract for Difference and associated agreements for Hinkley Point C, including the Investor Agreement, subject to EDF taking a final investment decision. EDF and the French Government have said that EDF are working towards a Final Investment Decision ‘in the near future, with the full support of the French Government’.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-05-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with Govia Thameslink Railway on the closure of Govia Thameslink Railway ticket offices; and what the outcome of those discussions was.
Claire Perry
Officials regularly meet with Govia Thameslink Railway, and their Ticket Office proposals have been discussed. In relation to their Ticket Office proposals, as long as the operator is not breaching the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement with regard to opening hours, employee terms and conditions and the management of any changes in these are a matter for the relevant employer and their employee(s) and/or employee representatives.