Category: Speeches

  • Roberta Blackman-Woods – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Roberta Blackman-Woods – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roberta Blackman-Woods on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his oral contribution of 20 July 2016, Official Report, column 849, when his Department will make an announcement on the exemption of specialist supported housing from changes to housing benefit.

    Caroline Nokes

    The Secretary of State has confirmed that the Government expects to make an announcement on the way forward for supported housing in early autumn.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received on allowing local authorities to balance their budgets over a period longer than 12 months since 1 October 2015; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Government receives representations on a range of local government finance issues. The annual balanced budget requirement is a key element of the local authority financial control framework. It means that the council is content that underlying income will cover ongoing costs and future commitments in a sustainable and manageable way.

    In addition to preparing annual balanced budgets local authorities should prepare multi-year Medium Term Financial Plans. In order to support effective multi-year financial planning the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government published an historic four year local government finance settlement on 8 February 2016. Councils across England applied for the four year offer on the 14 October and the government will respond as soon as practicable.

  • 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 the cost of providing carer’s allowance was to people in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) Glasgow and (d) Glasgow East constituency in the most recent period for which figures are available.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Due to the geographical level of information requested it has been assumed that the question refers to benefit expenditure.

    The information on requested is 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.

    Carers Allowance Expenditure £ million 2014/15
    Great Britain 2,319.2
    Scotland 202.7
    Glasgow (City) 34.5
    Glasgow East (constituency) 6.5

    Benefit expenditure information is published and can be found using the following URL:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2015

    “

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals for a statutory duty for fire and rescue services to respond to flooding.

    Mike Penning

    The Hon. Member will be aware that the Prime Minister announced on 5 January 2016 that responsibility for fire policy was being transferred to the Home Secretary with immediate effect. I am, therefore, answering the Hon Member’s question as Fire Minister. As fire is a devolved matter in Wales, my response applies only to England.

    Fire and Rescue Authorities are required to put in place integrated risk management plans, coordinated with the community risk registers produced by Local Resilience Forums. These documents should identify the full range of risks to which fire and rescue services should be able to respond. The effective response of fire and rescue services to the recent flooding demonstrates that the system is working.

    I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those at the frontline involved in that response. The commitment and dedication they showed throughout the Christmas and New Year period in helping communities affected to deal with the largescale flooding and to rebuild their lives afterwards is a demonstration of public service at its very best.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many appeals were made by civil society organisations to the Education Funding Agency and Local Government Ombudsman in relation to admissions decisions made by (a) academies, (b) academies which were previously maintained schools and (c) free schools in each year since 2009-10.

    Edward Timpson

    Parents have the right to complain to an admission authority regarding its decision to refuse admission of a child. The admission authority must establish an independent appeals panel to hear the complaint. On behalf of the Secretary of State, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) will investigate complaints about the appeals process operated by independent appeal panels for academies and free schools.

    The table below provides information on admission appeals complaints assessed as being in scope for investigation by EFA since April 2012, when it was established. EFA has no record of admission appeal complaints in the last four financial years from any Civil Society Organisations.

    The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) handles the appeals process operated in respect of maintained schools. The Department does not hold information on the number of admission appeals complaints heard by the LGO. The LGO should hold this information.

    Financial year 2012-13

    Financial year 2013-14

    Financial year 2014-15

    2015-16 Current financial year to date

    PQ25402 (A) Total number of admission appeal complaints about academies investigated by EFA

    127

    163

    144

    203

    PQ25402 (B) Total number of admission appeal complaints about academies which were previously maintained schools investigated by EFA

    115

    150

    130

    193

    PQ25402 (C) Total number of admission appeal complaints about free schools investigated by EFA

    Not recorded centrally for this financial year

    4

    8

    4

    Total number of admission appeal complaints fully upheld by EFA

    15

    13

    26

    15

    Name of schools where EFA has investigated an admission appeal complaint subject to appeals

    See attachment

    See attachment

    See attachment

    See attachment

    Total appeals complaints investigated, as a proportion of open academies and free schools

    5% (of 2,796)

    4% (of 3,874)

    3% (of 4,881)

    4% (of 5,447)
  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK nationals work at administrator grade staff level in the General Secretariat of the European Council; and what proportion of the total number of General Secretariat employees they represent.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    The General Secretariat of the Council does not publish statistics on numbers of permanent staff by nationality. As of April 2015, our records show there were 53 British citizens working at administrator grade level in the General Secretariat of the Council, representing 1.5% of approximately 3500 total staff employed by the General Secretariat in 2015.

  • Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost is of the (a) DESMOND and (b) Empower structured education programmes in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England advises that information about the average cost of the DESMOND and Empower structured diabetes education programmes in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is not collected centrally.

    NHS England also advises that the evaluation panel for the new contract for the type 2 diabetes education programme comprised a range of clinicians and commissioning officers, including a patient representative, an equality lead, a specialist general practitioner and a nurse. The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups’ Governing Bodies considered the breadth of experience and skills of the panel was acceptable. A 12-week consultation with patients, which ended on 12 June 2015, informed the development of the contract specification.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-04-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, other than voluntarily registering for self-assessment, what tools are available to ensure that tax is paid by locally employed staff working in foreign embassies.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    Letters are issued annually on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to Diplomatic Missions in the UK (Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates) requesting staff lists providing details of all locally engaged staff and private servants.

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a specialist team (the Embassy team) in place to deal with enquiries from locally engaged staff employed at Diplomatic Missions and International Organisations in the UK as detailed in ‘The London Diplomatic List’. In December 2015 HMRC wrote to all these bodies to ensure they held full and up-to-date contact information for the team.

    Locally engaged employees and private servants are expected to contact the Embassy team to notify their employment as soon as they are engaged.

    The Embassy team determines the employee’s liability to Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions. The team also carries out risk assessment activity and where it identifies individuals who have not notified their employment to HMRC, it takes action to ensure they pay the tax that is due.

  • Kevin Hollinrake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Kevin Hollinrake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Hollinrake on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing clear national planning guidelines for the (a) maximum density of shale gas well sites per square mile and (b) minimum distances of such sites from towns and villages.

    James Wharton

    The planning system currently requires shale well site density and distance to settlements to be considered where relevant in plan making and decisions on planning proposals, taking into account local context. Were limits to be set in national planning guidance, they may not provide appropriate protections in some contexts, or rule out otherwise acceptable development in others.

    For minerals such as shale gas, local authority mineral plans should set out environmental criteria for the assessment of applications and take into account cumulative effect of multiple impacts from individual sites and/ or from a number of sites in a locality. Planning law requires that decisions must be taken in accordance with the development plan for the local authority, including any relevant mineral plan policies, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

    In all cases, national planning policy must also be taken into account when applications are determined. This is clear that when a planning permission is granted for mineral development, including shale gas, there should be no unacceptable adverse impacts on the natural and historic environment, or on human health. It also ensures relevant cumulative effects are considered.

  • Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential for job creation in renewable energy sectors in the next five years.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The latest figures from the ONS suggest that, in 2014, 238,500 full-time equivalent employees were working directly in the Low Carbon and Renewable Energy sectors in the UK. This figure does not include additional jobs that have been created in the wider renewable energy supply chain.

    The Low Carbon and Renewable Energy sectors will be at the heart of this Governments Industrial Strategy to support jobs and growth.