The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-06.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to maintain current levels of funding for the National Illegal Money Lending Team.
Harriett Baldwin
The Government is looking at a range of ways to ensure that the England and Wales Illegal Money Lending Teams have the funding they need to ensure that consumers continue to be protected from illegal loan sharks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kinnock on 2016-02-01.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what applications for support have been submitted to the EU Globalisation Adjustment Fund since its inception; whether they intend to submit an application for support in order to support workers made redundant from the steel industry in the last year; and if not, why not.
Lord Freud
The European Globalisation Fund (EGF) provides a financial contribution for active labour market measures, aimed at reintegrating those made or at risk of being made redundant in the labour market.
Member States are responsible in the first instance for tackling trade adjustment redundancies – the fund is therefore designed to add to national, regional and local assistance.
The UK already offers a broad range of personalised support to workers made redundant through its Rapid Response Service and Jobcentre Plus, which could not be duplicated or substituted by EGF.
The Rapid Response Service and the Jobcentre Plus Core Offer are effective reintegration tools which represent good value for money and are our primary and most helpful means of response to large redundancies.
For this reason, the UK Government has never applied to the EGF.
In addition to the aforementioned support, in the case of the steel industry, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has also announced packages of support worth up to £80 million for SSI in Redcar and up to £9 million for TATA Steel in Scunthorpe.
Only if more support is necessary other suitable sources of support will be considered.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.
Joseph Johnson
The table below provides a breakdown of overtime paid and the number of claimants for each month in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) HQ, in the last 24 months from February 2014 to January 2016.
The relevant budget holder must give approval before overtime can be worked or overtime pay claimed. Overtime pay is non-pensionable and can only be paid to staff below the Senior Civil Service. Approximately 0.3% of the annual BIS paybill is paid in overtime.
|
Month |
Overtime Payments – BIS HQ |
Number of BIS HQ Staff Making Claims |
|
February 2014 |
£55,032.15 |
98 |
|
March 2014 |
£73,754.92 |
102 |
|
April 2014 |
£61,699.33 |
97 |
|
May 2014 |
£38,664.16 |
75 |
|
June 2014 |
£64,135.44 |
91 |
|
July 2014 |
£79,053.18 |
106 |
|
August 2014 |
£45,977.38 |
75 |
|
September 2014 |
£38,306.55 |
69 |
|
October 2014 |
£33,276.09 |
85 |
|
November 2014 |
£44,786.28 |
68 |
|
December 2014 |
£47,025.85 |
80 |
|
January 2015 |
£45,380.49 |
64 |
|
February 2015 |
£58,541.14 |
95 |
|
March 2015 |
£68,139.08 |
99 |
|
April 2015 |
£52,546.46 |
98 |
|
May 2015 |
£34,257.16 |
69 |
|
June 2015 |
£44,667.14 |
87 |
|
July 2015 |
£55,187.86 |
81 |
|
August 2015 |
£47,242.28 |
71 |
|
September 2015 |
£27,737.41 |
61 |
|
October 2015 |
£44,006.48 |
72 |
|
November 2015 |
£52,376.22 |
74 |
|
December 2015 |
£48,453.85 |
71 |
|
January 2016 |
£52,221.58 |
69 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of its spending on reducing homelessness in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Marcus Jones
Since 2010 we have invested over £500 million to enable local authorities and the voluntary sector to support those vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness. We have protected the homelessness prevention funding local authorities receive, totalling £315 million by 2019-20. This builds on our Spending Review commitment to increase central government funding to £139 million over the course of this Parliament. We will work with homelessness organisations to consider other options, including legislation, to ensure those at risk of homelessness get earlier and more effective support.
We also announced at Budget £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Northover on 2016-04-26.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government in which countries the Department for International Development (DfID) has awarded contracts for the drilling of water wells; and how many of those contracts were awarded centrally by DfID, and how many were awarded locally.
Baroness Verma
DFID delivers a range of water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities, through partners in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia all of which use proven approaches that deliver affordable and sustainable services.
These interventions are not restricted to the drilling of water wells. As such, DFID do not disaggregate individual activities separately and are therefore not able to report specific numbers of drilling contracts.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to enable environmental health officers to assess excessive noise in a neighbourhood on a daily basis.
Rory Stewart
Local authorities have a range of powers available to them to assess excessive noise from residential and commercial properties. These are set out in various pieces of legislation, including the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Noise Act 1996.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds data on the (a) use and (b) prevalence of setting and streaming in schools in England.
Nick Gibb
In-school organisation, such as streaming or setting, is a matter for individual schools, and data is not collected or held by the Department on this matter.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the NHS plans to publish Sustainability and Transformation Plans in full or summary form.
David Mowat
It is for each Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) area to fully update their local communities. We expect that areas will publish a version of their STPs between late October and the end of the year. We would also expect that most areas will undertake public engagement during this period.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will request information from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on the measures it has taken to meet the recommendations of the UN Universal Periodic Review.
Mr Hugo Swire
We consistently raise concerns over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) appalling human rights record. In late October, a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official met the DPRK Ambassador to the United Kindom and pressed for the DPRK to make tangible progress in addressing these concerns. We believe that implementation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations presents an opportunity for progress to be made on human rights in DPRK. Earlier in October, a senior FCO official met the International Organisations Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea, responsible for DPRK engagement on human rights at the UN, and requested details of their implementation plans for the UPR’s recommendations. We were informed the accepted recommendations were being discussed by the relevant domestic DPRK institutions. We will continue to raise the need for implementation plans to be shared.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-12-01.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the 26 new Enterprise Zones are which were announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.
Greg Hands
The full list of successful Enterprise Zones, which is available to view online at the link below, was published by DCLG following the Spending Review announcement:
www.gov.uk/government/news/the-new-enterprise-zones