The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Foulkes of Cumnock on 2016-10-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to appoint a new Minister of State for the Department for International Development in the House of Lords as a replacement for the current Minister; and if so, when they intend to make that appointment.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Rt Hon Lord Bates has been appointed as Minister of State at the Department for International Development (DfID).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-11-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their latest assessment of the progress being made in achieving their target of establishing superfast broadband coverage to 90 per cent of the UK by 2016.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government’s Superfast Broadband Programme, which has £1.7 billion of funding from central government, local authorities, devolved administrations and European funding sources, has contributed to well over 3 million homes and businesses in the UK having access to superfast broadband. Our programme remains on track to deliver superfast broadband coverage to 90% of the UK by early 2016 and to 95% of the UK by December 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the incidence of food poisoning in chickens.
Nicola Blackwood
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is working with industry to tackle Campylobacter, the most common source of foodborne illness, through the Acting on Campylobacter Together campaign. The FSA has agreed a joint industry target of achieving no more than 10% of birds contaminated at over 1,000 Campylobacter colony forming units per gram (viable cells) at the end of the slaughterhouse line. Using this target, together with the ongoing publication of surveillance results of Campylobacter contamination in fresh whole chickens at retail, the FSA is encouraging industry to implement interventions to reduce contamination levels. This has resulted in a downwards trend of the Campylobacter levels on chickens sold at retail. Additionally, the FSA continues to provide guidance for consumers on the measures that they can take to reduce their risk of spreading and contracting Campylobacter poisoning from raw poultry in the home.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the outturn cost was of the Reading Station Area Redevelopment project.
Claire Perry
I have been informed by Network Rail that the total cost of the scheme is £895m, including renewals over a wider area and a new train maintenance depot. This is approximately £100m under budget and the station upgrade was also completed a year ahead of schedule.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-01-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the annual budget of Sellafield was in each year since 2010.
Andrea Leadsom
The actual expenditure at Sellafield in each year since 2010 in £m is as follows:
|
Year |
£m |
|
2009-10 |
1,440 |
|
2010-11 |
1,572 |
|
2011-12 |
1,605 |
|
2012-13 |
1,686 |
|
2013-14 |
1,739 |
|
2014-15 |
1,822 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many businesses have signed agreements with the Business Growth Service in each local authority area in the UK.
Anna Soubry
The attached table shows the number of businesses that have signed agreements with the Business Growth Service in each local authority area in the UK since the service launched in December 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the contribution of the UK’s membership of the EU to the protection of the UK’s critical national information infrastructure from cyber-attack.
Matthew Hancock
Cyber threats transcend borders and so international cooperation is crucial to keep the UK safe. Whilst protection of the UK’s critical national infrastructure is a national security issue, and therefore outside the authority of the European Commission, we work closely with the EU to promote the UK’s vision of a free, open, peaceful and secure cyber space internationally. Our partnership with EU countries help improve our ability to manage cyber security risks, through initiatives likes CERT-CERT cooperation and the work of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security, which promotes best practice and knowledge on cyber security. As a result, we are safer, stronger, and a better off as a member of the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Manzoor on 2016-04-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, how many times official errors have resulted in (1) underpayment, or (2) non-payment, of (a) Jobseekers’ Allowance, (b) Employment and Support Allowance, (c) Universal Credit, (d) Housing Benefit, and (e) Income Support, in each local authority in the UK.
Lord Freud
DWP is unable to provide a breakdown of the number of official errors at the Local Authority level. This is because the estimation of the rate and monetary value of official errors in a particular benefit is based on a sample of cases rather than the entire caseload for that benefit, and this sample is not large enough to split at the Local Authority level.
DWP does not gather information on the number of children in a household when evaluating the rate of fraud and error in any particular benefit.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Wragg on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the National pupil projections statistics release, published on 22 July 2015, if she will publish updated pupil projection data prior to 23 June 2016.
Nick Gibb
The national pupil projections are only produced for the whole of England and do not break down projected pupil numbers by local education authority or region. They are derived from the 2012-based national population projections for England produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS)[1] who used assumptions which were considered to best reflect demographic patterns at that time.
The ONS uses assumptions on the levels of future fertility, net migration and life expectancy in the production of their population projections. They use central assumptions for the principal projections and alternative high and low assumptions to produce variant projections.
New national pupil projections, based on the ONS’s mid-2014 national population projections[2], are scheduled to be published on 14 July 2016. The timing and content of National Statistics releases are a matter for the Head of Profession for statistics. The month of publication was pre-announced in 2015 and the specific date of publication was pre-announced on 26 February 2016.
[1] Mid-2012 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2013-11-06
[2] Mid-2014 ONS national population projections available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/nationalpopulationprojections/2015-10-29
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when she plans to respond to the concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the UK’s sixth periodic report in relation to legal aid and access to justice; and if she will make a statement.
Sir Oliver Heald
The UN requested that the UK submits its next periodic report under the Covenant (inclusive of a response to all the recommendations from this year’s examination) by 30 June 2021; it would therefore not be appropriate for me to pre-empt this report by anticipating what we, or indeed a future UK Government in 2021, might say.
We regularly monitor the operation of the legal aid scheme on an ongoing basis. The Legal Aid Agency routinely collects data on the age, sex, disability status and ethnicity of recipients of legal aid and publishes statistics on this topic annually. We have committed to carrying out a Post Implementation Review, which will consider the impact of the legal aid provisions in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 on access to justice. The UK Government is also currently undertaking a review of the introduction of fees into the Employment Tribunals and will publish its findings in due course.