Category: Speeches

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2016 to Question 30738 on employment: telephone services, what the equivalent data is for each of the last five years.

    Nick Boles

    The attached table shows the total number of enquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) by trade sector and whether the call relates to Employment Agency Standards, the Agricultural National Minimum Wage (NMW), Gangmasters Licensing Authority, Health and Safety Executive or NMW issues, where call topic information is collected, between 2009/10 and 2014/15.

  • Lord Moonie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Moonie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moonie on 2016-04-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many male and female enlistments in the armed forces there were in the past year.

    Earl Howe

    In the 12 months to 30 September 2015, 12,250 males and 1,330 females joined the UK Regular Armed Forces. In the same period, 380 males and 30 females aged under 18 years left the UK Regular Armed Forces.

    A full breakdown of these figures can be found in, respectively, tables six and 11 of our Biannual Diversity Statistics publication (the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet) at the following address:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-2015

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to engage with the European Aviation Safety Authority task force assessing the risk of collision between drones and aircraft.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority have regular interaction with the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) on the development of drone safety regulations. This includes engagement on the EASA task force studying the risk of collision between drones and aircrafts, which we expect will be consulting more formally across Member States this summer.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the press release of 11 August 2016 entitled Largest ever list of National Minimum Wage offenders published, what checks HM Revenue and Customs conducted at those social care employers where workers were found to be owed arrears to ensure that all workers at those employers were not paid below the national living and minimum wage.

    Margot James

    HM Revenue and Customs respond to 100% of worker complaints, and where applicable open an investigation to ensure that the National Minimum Wage has been paid. The aim of enforcement is to ensure all arrears owed to workers are paid back.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many university technical colleges have fewer pupils on roll than they have capacity for.

    Edward Timpson

    46 of 48 UTCs have opened since 2013 and understandably it will take a number of years for these UTCs to reach full capacity. To date only the JCB Academy, which opened in 2010, has reached full capacity.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent assessment she has made of the performance of the Warm Homes Discount Scheme.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Warm Home Discount Scheme helps over 2 million low income and vulnerable households each year and has provided a total of £1.1bn of direct assistance since the scheme began. A detailed review of the Warm Home Discount scheme is due to be completed later this year. The report of this review will be published the New Year.

  • Lord Moonie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Moonie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moonie on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many manned and unmanned sorties have been flown by the RAF this year in support of operations in the Middle East.

    Earl Howe

    The RAF has flown 1,490 manned and 828 unmanned sorties in support of operations in the Middle East from 1 January 2015 to 30 November 2015. These sorties were carried out by ISR aircraft, C-130 transport aircraft, Tornado GR4s and Reaper Remotely Piloted Air Systems.

    These numbers do not include the routine air-bridge that operates twice weekly from the UK to the Middle East to support deployment of personnel and equipment.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time taken is by (a) Concentrix and (b) HM Revenue and Customs to process each tax credit claim adjustment; and what guidance there is in Concentrix’s contract on how long it should take to process each tax credit claim adjustment.

    Mr David Gauke

    The average time taken by Concentrix to carry out a tax credit intervention – from writing to the claimant, receiving and investigating any response, through to closing the case and making any adjustment to the award – is 91 days. The average time taken by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is 64 days, but the figures are not comparable because the profiles of cases worked by Concentrix and by HMRC are different.

    Concentrix are required under their contract with HMRC to complete 80% of High Risk Change of Circumstances interventions (these are a subset of Concentrix’s caseload consisting of the highest risk cases) within 75 days and 100% of such cases within 90 days. So far in 2015/16 they have closed 95.5% of these interventions within 75 days.

  • Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kinnock on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Freud on 30 December 2015 (HL4654), what (1) in-work, and (2) out-of-work, benefits were paid to recent EU migrants in households supported by the benefits system as at March 2013.

    Lord Freud

    I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Minister for Employment (Ms. Esther McVey) in the House of Commons on 20 November 2014 to Question number 211618 as below:

    While the Government checks the immigration status of benefit claimants to ensure the benefit is paid properly and to prevent fraud, traditionally that information has not been collected as part of the payment administrative systems.

    However, the Government is looking at ways to reform the current administrative system under Universal Credit so that it will systematically record nationality and immigration status of migrants who make a claim.

    The Government has made a radical series of changes over the last year to restrict the access by non-UK citizens from the European Economic Area to UK benefits and tax credits. This is in order to protect the UK’s benefit system and discourage people who have no established connection with the UK from moving here, unless they have a job or a genuine prospect of work, or have savings to support themselves until they do.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the exemption of academy school staff from the one per cent public sector pay rise limit.

    Edward Timpson

    The reformed national pay and terms and conditions arrangements allow all schools considerable flexibility over the pay of their teachers.

    Staff at academies are employees of academy trusts, companies limited by guarantee with charitable status. Whilst academy trusts are classified as public sector bodies, their staff are not employees of the Crown. Academies have more control over their budgets so that they can meet their school’s needs more effectively and have the flexibility to reward the best teachers and excellent performance. These are the reasons they are not included within the statutory national pay and terms and conditions arrangements, which includes the current one per cent cap on pay increases.

    Many academies have pay systems that mirror the provisions of the statutory national arrangements and many converter academy staff have ‘Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations’ rights that preserve their entitlement to the national pay and terms and conditions arrangements.