Category: Speeches

  • Mrs Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mrs Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Sharon Hodgson on 2014-02-24.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil servants in his Department who were promoted in each of the last five years were (a) male and (b) female.

    Mr Francis Maude

    Promotion in the Cabinet Office is based on merit and suitability for the post in question.

    The requested statistics on promotion are not readily available. However, we estimate that male staff constituted 51% of all those promoted since April 2011. This closely reflects the overall proportion currently working in my Department.

    Figures for ethnicity and disability are not available. Cabinet Office does not compel staff to declare against workforce diversity indicators, including ethnicity and disability.

  • Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr David Hanson on 2014-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to investigate the English language test results of students who completed English language tests organised by ETS in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office has suspended acceptance of all ETS tests taken and used in the
    UK whist the scope of the issue is ascertained and to determine the number of people who
    have taken a test and been involved in fraud. We have specialist teams in place
    to undertake this analysis.

    We are looking at all current and past applications. Anyone who is found to
    have used or is currently trying to use evidence that they obtained dishonestly
    can expect to have their leave curtailed and be removed from the UK or have any
    outstanding application refused and leave the UK. We will also seek criminal
    prosecution where appropriate and use all of the measures that we have
    available.

    Our reforms have curbed abuse by closing bogus colleges, making the application
    process more rigorous and imposing more rules on colleges to improve course
    quality. However, as the recent BBC Panorama programme highlighted, much more
    needs to be done.
    The Government will take all necessary steps, but our approach also requires
    the education sector, particularly private or further education colleges and
    those providing secure English language testing, to take on their
    responsibility to tackle abuse.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-01-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many citizens of other EU member states currently living in the UK receive child benefit.

    Nicky Morgan

    HMRC are not able to provide the information in the manner requested. HMRC do not record the nationality of the claimant receiving Child Benefit for children living in another member state.

    Published Child Benefit statistics provide annual estimates of the number of families and children claiming. The latest available (August 2012) show that there were 7.92 million families, responsible for 13.77 million children and qualifying young people receiving Child Benefit.

    The main purpose of Child Benefit is to support families in the UK. Consequently, the rules generally do not provide for them to be paid in respect of children who live abroad.

    Nevertheless, Child Benefit is a family benefit under EC Regulation 883/2004. This regulation protects the social security rights of nationals of all member states of the European economic area, including the UK, and Switzerland when they exercise their rights of free movement under EU law.

    HMRC holds information on the number of Child Benefit awards under EC Regulation 883/2004. As at 31 December 2013, there were 20,400 ongoing Child Benefit awards under the EC Regulation in respect of 34.268 children living in another member state.

    This is a fall of 3,682 (15.3%) awards in respect of 5,903 (14.7%) fewer children since 31 December 2012.

    The breakdown by member state is as follows:

    *We have withheld the number where it is fewer than 5, as there is risk that the information could be attributed to an identifiable person, which would prejudice their right to privacy and would therefore be a breach of Principle 1 of the Data Protection Act.

    Child Benefit

    Country of residence of children

    Number of awards

    Number of children

    Austria

    23

    37

    Belgium

    75

    140

    Bulgaria

    186

    245

    Croatia

    *5

    *5

    Cyprus

    39

    61

    Czech Republic

    124

    203

    Denmark

    13

    23

    Estonia

    45

    65

    Finland

    12

    23

    France

    789

    1429

    Germany

    283

    495

    Greece

    44

    69

    Hungary

    136

    196

    Iceland

    *5

    *5

    Italy

    156

    273

    Latvia

    797

    1091

    Liechtenstein

    0

    0

    Lithuania

    1215

    1712

    Luxembourg

    7

    14

    Malta

    15

    22

    Norway

    30

    61

    Poland

    13174

    22093

    Portugal

    202

    309

    Republic of Ireland

    1231

    2505

    Romania

    230

    392

    Slovakia

    692

    1232

    Slovenia

    11

    21

    Spain

    600

    1019

    Sweden

    49

    95

    Switzerland

    77

    150

    The Netherlands

    142

    288

    Totals

    20400

    34268

    As announced in the 2014 Budget, to prevent EEA migrants claiming benefits they are not entitled to, the Government will increase compliance checks to establish whether EEA migrants meet the entitlement conditions to receive Child Benefit

    Under domestic law, in order to claim Child Benefit EEA Migrants must be present in the UK, ordinarily resident and have a right to reside in the UK and their children must live in the UK.

    The recent changes to migrants’ access to benefits announced by the Government sends a strong message that the UK benefit system is not open to abuse, as well as deterring those who may seek residence in the UK primarily to claim benefits.

    Strengthening compliance checks will help prevent EEA migrants from claiming, and continuing to claim, benefits they are not entitled to. Checks will be applied to both new claims and existing awards.

  • Mr Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mr Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Clive Betts on 2013-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to consult on eligibility for free school meals ahead of the introduction of universal credit.

    Mr David Laws

    We are working very closely with other departments, including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions, to simplify free school meals criteria under universal credit, while ensuring that free lunches continue to be available to the families who need them most. These discussions, which include consideration of a phased implementation timetable, are in recognition of the significant number and complexity of passported benefits across Government, most of which have different eligibility criteria.

    We will allow good time to enable schools, local authorities and children’s charities to comment on our proposals before we introduce new entitlement criteria for free school meals under universal credit.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to increase enforcement rates for the national minimum wage.

    Nick Boles

    The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break the National Minimum Wage (NMW) law. In 2014/15, HMRC conducted 2,204 investigations into potential NMW non-compliance, totalling £3,291,529 of arrears for 26,318 workers.

    This is up from 1,455 investigations conducted in 2013/14, totalling £4,645,547

    of arrears for 22,610 workers.

    Building on our existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW. These include:

    • increasing penalties from 100% to 200% of the arrears employers owed.
    • the setting up of a dedicated team in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) focused on tackling the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance.
    • increasing the enforcement budget in preparation for the National Minimum and Living Wage from April 2016.
    • the creation of a statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation.
  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people from a working class background were recruited onto the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme in each year since its inception.

    Matthew Hancock

    To govern modern Britain, the Civil Service needs to look and sound likemodern Britain. We need access to the broadest possible pool of talent, drawing on peoplefrom all backgrounds and all parts of the country.

    The Civil Service is implementing a number of initiatives to recruit individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds onto the Fast Stream and Fast Track Apprenticeship schemes, including internship programmes, schools and colleges mentoring and discovery days, work experience programmes and engagement with universities with a high representation of lower socio-economic students.

    Information on the socio-economic status of recent appointees to the SCS was published in 2014,and the socio-economic status of Fast-Stream applicants has been published since 2011.

    In 2015 16.8% of new joiners to the Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme were from lower socio-economic backgrounds, up from 8.5% in 2013/14. From 2015 this data will be published as part of the Fast Stream applicants publication.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what forecast he has made of whether the total stock of local authority homes will increase or decrease in the next five years.

    Brandon Lewis

    Whilst we have made no forecast of what the stock of council homes will be over the next 5 years, I do note that more council houses have been built since 2010 than were built in the entire 13 years of a Labour Government.

  • Douglas Chapman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether all UK service personnel deployed to malarial areas since 2013 have been individually assessed for contraindications for mefloquine; and what the method of assessment was for those who were individually assessed.

    Mark Lancaster

    Since 2013, it has been Ministry of Defence policy that mefloquine should only be prescribed after an individual risk assessment. To verify that an individual assessment has been undertaken in every case since 2013 would require the examination of the medical records of all individuals who have deployed since 2013. This could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

    Templates exist to optimise consistency in the preparation of personnel requiring anti-malarials, including mefloquine. Defence Primary Healthcare has a malaria protocol to guide clinicians to use these templates. Work is currently in hand to develop it further, taking previous lessons into account, to ensure that all individuals are assessed in a consistent manner.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2015 to Question 7974, what research her Department has conducted into the ease of switching energy supplier.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has, as part of its investigation into the energy market, commissioned research into consumer experiences and views of the energy market including the ease of switching energy supplier.

    The CMA investigation is still ongoing but the report it commissioned has already been published can be found at:

    https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/54e75c53ed915d0cf700000d/CMA_customer_survey_-_energy_investigation_-_GfK_Report.pdf

    “

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what regulatory arrangements apply to potential measures to control and cull invasive non-native waterfowl.

    George Eustice

    Defra, in conjunction with the Great Britain Non-Native Species Secretariat, takes the problems and risks associated with non-native waterfowl very seriously. Since the 1990s Defra has commissioned and invested in a range of research projects, carried out by the Animal and Plant Health Agency, on invasive non-native waterfowl, including an assessment of the options for large-scale control and field trials of removal techniques for Egyptian geese. Additionally, best practice management guidelines have been published for Canada geese.

    Since 2005 Defra has also supported the UK Ruddy Duck Eradication Programme, and recently, established an Invasive Species Action Plan for the sacred ibis, and is developing an action plan for zoos to reduce the risk of escapes of all species, including waterfowl.

    Section 14(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it illegal to release or allow to escape into the wild, any animal or plant which is not ordinarily resident in Great Britain and is not a regular visitor to Great Britain in a wild state, or is listed in Schedule 9 to the Act. This applies to all animals including waterfowl. An amendment to the 1981 Act, introduced this year in the Infrastructure Act 2015, introduced the provision of Species Control Orders, which can be used to remove any non-native species where they cause significant threats to biodiversity, the water environment, human health or the economy, in cases where a voluntary approach with landowners has otherwise failed.