The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what procedures his Department follows when a jobcentre client requests a food bank voucher for the fourth time in any given year.
Priti Patel
The Department for Work and Pensions does not issue food bank vouchers.
Jobcentre Plus holds details of local organisations to which its staff can signpost claimants experiencing financial difficulty.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by FALSE on 2015-12-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 16 December (HL4327) that we are not submitting any evidence of possible genocide against Yezidis and Christians to international courts
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The Government believes that recognition of genocides should be a matter for international courts. It should be a legal, rather than political determination, decided by international judges after consideration of all the evidence available in the context of a credible international judicial process.
However, we are funding a project that is documenting sexual violence in Iraq, in a victim sensitive way. This database of cases will then be used to help survivors access justice and ensure that perpetrators are held to account. We also co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council Resolution mandating the UN to investigate and report on Daesh abuses.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in China on the recent disappearance of five people who work for a Hong Kong publishing company and bookseller.
Mr Hugo Swire
Her Majesty’s Government remains deeply concerned about British citizen Mr Lee Po who went missing from Hong Kong in December and his four colleagues associated with the Causeway Bay Books bookstore. I raised the issue with the Chinese Ambassador to the UK on 22 January and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the case with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on 5 January. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials are in regular contact with the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to make clear our serious concerns about this matter. As the Foreign Secretary told the House on 12 January, if allegations of Chinese security agents taking a British Citizen out of Hong Kong are correct, then this would be a serious breach of the Joint Declaration (Official Record 12 Jan 2016 : Column 693).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was levied in respect of service credits in each key performance indicator designated met in respect of each Compass region in each year from 2012-13 to 2015-16 to date.
James Brokenshire
The Home Office has a rigorous contract compliance regime in place to ensure that the required performance standards expected of all providers, as defined in the contracts, are met. This includes monthly contract management and quarterly strategic review meetings, as well as regular daily discussions with COMPASS providers’ operational delivery managers about day to day issues. The Home Office investigates complaints it receives from service users and third parties and works with contractors to ensure that any issues raised are addressed promptly.
Performance against each key performance indicator (KPI) is measured and may, dependent upon the level of non-conformance, lead to the application of a KPI score. The overall/total score across all KPIs is then used to determine the value of Service Credit (rebate) which should be deducted from the monthly invoice. If an individual KPI is met, no score is accrued and no service credit applies. The following table indicates the amount of service credits recovered following KPI non-conformance for each of the COMPASS contracts from the start of the contracts.
|
2013-2014 |
2014-2015 |
2015-2016 (YTD) |
TOTAL |
|
|
Serco SNI |
£773, 792 |
£156,156 |
£443, 545 |
£1,373,493 |
|
Serco NW |
£3,137, 017 |
£1,974 |
0 |
£3,138,991 |
|
G4S MEE |
£1,349, 475 |
0 |
0 |
£1,349, 475 |
|
G4S NEYH |
£368, 107 |
0 |
0 |
£368, 107 |
|
CRH WSW |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
CRH LSE |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
TOTAL |
£5,628, 391 |
£158,130 |
£443, 545 |
£6,230,066 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what (a) support and (b) subsidy her Department makes available for new nuclear power production.
Andrea Leadsom
Our electricity market reforms have set the right conditions for necessary investment in our energy market, and support low-carbon generation in nuclear as well as in other generating sectors through Contracts for Difference.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provision is made for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems in the system for testing applicants for UK citizenship.
James Brokenshire
The Secretary of State may waive the Knowledge of Language and Life in the UK requirement for British citizenship on the basis of a person’s age, physical or mental condition.
A person will normally be exempted from this requirement if they provide evidence from an appropriate medical practitioner that their condition is so severe that it prevents them from being able to learn English or prepare for or sit an English test or the Life in the UK test. Each application is considered on its own merits.
Information cannot be obtained from UKVI data systems to show how many exemption requests were made and granted. This information could only be obtained from looking at individual records at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-05-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many claims for asylum from people from Yemen have been refused in 2016 to date.
James Brokenshire
There were 111 asylum applications from Yemeni nationals in 2015, and 15 in Quarter 1 (January to March) 2016.
There were 12 refusals of asylum or an alternative form of protection, at initial decision, to Yemeni nationals in Quarter 1 (January to March) 2016.
The Home Office publishes figures on asylum applications and initial decisions by nationality in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release. A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics, January to March 2016, is available from:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2016/asylum
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-07-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the timing of the announcement on the rate for NHS-funded nursing care for residents of care homes in 2016-17 on the management of those care homes.
David Mowat
The Department appreciates the importance of timely communication of the rate of National Health Service-funded Nursing Care for care homes.
The new rate will be paid on an interim basis whilst further work is done to review the element of the rate for agency nursing staff (which could lead to a reduction to the rate from 1 January 2017) and to consult on introducing regional variation from April 2017.
The rate for 2017/18 will be published following completion of work which is being done by the Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-10-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to assist the government of Malawi with minimising the risk of corruption in the distribution of aid funds.
James Wharton
The UK does not provide any direct financial aid to the Government of Malawi. DFID has a zero tolerance approach to corruption and rigorous checks are in place to protect taxpayers’ money.
DFID has an active programme of work in Malawi designed to tackle the root causes of corruption and protect the poorest from its effects. Through support provided to the Malawian law enforcement agencies since 2013, the UK has helped to convict those guilty of corruption-related offences to a total of 125 years in prison. DFID is also working with the Government of Malawi to strengthen its public financial management systems and increase the accountability of public officials.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-18.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hypothecate revenue generated from Vehicle Excise Duty to local roads maintenance from 2017.
Greg Hands
All revenue generated through English VED from 2020-21 onwards will be used to fund the English strategic road network. This will ensure the Government can issue a second Roads investment Strategy for the period 2020-25, to follow the first strategy published at Autumn Statement 2014. Investment in our local road network will be set out as part of the Spending Review.
In the period before 2020-21, VED revenues will continue to go to the Consolidated Fund which support general expenditure on public services including spending on local roads.