The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lyn Brown on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to review the guidance provided in Approved Document B to the Building Regulations 2010.
James Wharton
My Department is considering a number of issues related to the Building Regulations and building control system matters. We will make an announcement about our plans in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the coastguard turned down any request from any other service for assistance during inland floods in the last five years.
Mr John Hayes
Her Majesty’s Coastguard does not specifically record occurrences when other Category 1 Responders or any other service requests assistance. Information may be held within the text narrative of an incident record but this would require a check of tens of thousands of records over the last two to five years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-10-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many equality impact assessments government departments carried out in each year between 2010 and 2016.
Caroline Dinenage
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in the Equality Act 2010 ensures that public bodies take account of equality and consider the potential impact of decisions on groups with protected characteristics. All bodies exercising public functions who are subject to the PSED need to understand the impact of their policies and services on people with different protected characteristics and be able to provide evidence that this has been taken into account during the decision-making process. However, the legislation does not prescribe how this information needs to be recorded and it is not a statutory requirement in England to prepare or publish information in a particular form, such as an Equality Impact Assessment.
The Government Equalities Office does not therefore keep records of how many equality impact assessments are carried out by Departments; in any case, this information would not give an indication of the extent to which equality issues have been considered under the PSED.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Manzoor on 2015-11-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) whether the proposed new, lower benefit cap has a gendered effect, and (2) whether any such effect would be mitigated by excluding certain child benefits from that cap.
Lord Freud
Her Majesty’s Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July, a copy of which is attached.
Like other welfare benefits, child related benefits are taken into account when applying the cap. Removing them from the cap would effectively mean that there would be no upper limit on the amount of benefit that out of work households could receive.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Chidgey on 2015-11-30.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the change in the size of the audience for BBC World Service programmes broadcast via the internet in African countries or regions from 1999 to 2014.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The BBC World Service has advised that:
The current weekly audience for the BBC on the Internet in sub Saharan Africa has grown from 520,000 in 2006 to 4.3 million (726 per cent increase).
The current weekly audience for the BBC on the Internet in the Middle East and North Africa grew from 530,000 in 2006 to 2.2 million (315 per cent increase).
The World Service use Global Audience Measurement (GAM) data to track performance by platform and by market. This data provides clear records from 2005 onwards.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Harry Harpham on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect on private sectors investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) of the Government’s decision to end the CCS fund.
Andrea Leadsom
The UK is widely seen to be one of the most stable markets due to its attractive risk and return profile, world class regulation, transparent policy development, strong financial markets and clear property rights for investors.
Our view remains that CCS has a potential role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK. We are engaging closely with the two bidders and wider CCS industry on both the implications for them of the decision to withdraw the CCS Competition’s ring-fenced capital budget, and the future of CCS in the UK. As part of this engagement, Government held a meeting of the joint industry/Government CCS Development Forum, co-chaired by Minister of State, in December 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-02-01.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions have arisen from investigations undertaken by HM Revenue and Customs Large Business Service in each of the last three years; and what the (a) category of taxes involved in and (b) result was of each such prosecution.
Mr David Gauke
Criminal investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is part of a number of compliance interventions. Criminal investigation and prosecution act as a deterrent and support wider and more cost effective compliance interventions.
HMRC takes cases to court when litigation is necessary. Since April 2013, HMRC has won 80%. Over £1.37 billion tax was protected by litigation against large business avoidance in that period.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many civil law suits have been brought against her Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.
Nick Gibb
The information requested is not available because separate data for cases based wholly or partially on the Human Rights Act 1998 are not recorded.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what contractual standards have been set for Maximus Health and Human Services Ltd for the number of completed work capability assessments.
Priti Patel
Centre for Health Disability Assessments, a MAXIMUS Company, has a target of 1,170,000 completed assessments in 2016/17.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if the Government will continue to pay for training to enable apprentices to achieve Level 2 or GCSEs in English and mathematics, as required, once the Apprenticeship Levy has been introduced.
Nick Boles
Apprentices have to meet a minimum standard in both English and maths up to Level 2. There are specific qualifications they must achieve. If an apprentice does not already have these, they may need to do an English or maths course. We will pay providers directly, for the Level 1 and 2 English and maths training they provide to apprentices.
Further information on the amount that will be paid for English and maths training for apprentices who require it, will be published provisionally in June 2016 and confirmed in October 2016.