Category: Speeches

Diana Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff in the Hull Official Receiver’s office have been offered voluntary redundancy terms.

Jenny Willott

All 43 employees in Hull have been offered work in the Insolvency Service’s Leeds office as well as assistance with travel. Voluntary redundancy terms have also been offered to all 43 employees in case they do not wish to or are unable to make the move. Employees who choose not to relocate will be eligible for assistance from the Insolvency Service’s outplacement support programme, and will be given priority access to vacancies across the wider Civil Service.

01/11/2022

Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much the NHS spent on hearing aids in each of the last five years.

Norman Lamb

Information on National Health Service expenditure on hearing aids is not collected centrally. However, reference costs, which are the unit costs to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients, provide some information which is shown in the following table.

Estimated cost to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts of hearing aid provision, 2008-09 to 2012-13, £ million

Year	Hearing aid costs	Associated hearing aid costs	Cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aids
2008-09	60.7	89.0	18.7
2009-10	57.7	96.0	17.7
2010-11	55.8	103.2	19.2
2011-12	62.1	118.5	26.6
2012-13	62.7	127.6	25.8

Source: Reference Costs, Department of Health

Notes:

1. Hearing aid costs are the actual costs of the hearing aids excluding other associated costs.

2. Associated hearing aid costs include assessment, fitting, follow-up and aftercare.

3. Reference costs are submitted on a fully absorbed basis, which means that all the costs of running the organisation are included in the return except where their exclusion is permitted.

4. Some relevant costs may be excluded. For example, maintenance and reprogramming costs for cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aid costs were excluded from reference costs for these years.

5. The supply and fitting of hearing aids is also commissioned from the independent sector, and this expenditure is not reflected in the table.

6. 2012-13 is the latest year for which reference costs data are available.

01/11/2022

Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen O’Brien on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, in what circumstances he uses a calculation of the (a) value of preventing a fatality, (b) willingness to pay and (c) cost-per-quality adjusted life year approach to quantify the value of a policy intervention; what other tools he uses to quantify the benefit of a policy intervention; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Nick Hurd

These things are not easy to quantify. Approaches to quantifying benefits of a policy intervention are used in accordance with principles outlined in HM Treasury’s guidance on conducting appraisal and evaluation in central government (known as the “Green Book”). The Green Book recognises that using these approaches to quantify the benefits of an intervention is challenging, and that the approaches should be used appropriately.

01/11/2022
Julian Huppert – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Huppert on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department takes to ensure that accommodation provided by the COMPASS contracts meets the Decent Homes Standards.

Karen Bradley

It is a statutory requirement that social housing meets the Decent Homes
Standard as defined in the Housing Act 2004.

All COMPASS contracts incorporate the requirements of the Decent Home Standards
for social housing as part of the contractual performance management
arrangements and are robustly monitored through three key performance
indicators which relate specifically to property standards.

Providers are required to inspect all properties on a monthly basis or at the
point when a service user first occupies the property. In addition, the Home
Office has a team of 17 contract compliance officers who also closely monitor
property standards as part of their contract compliance and assurance role.

Any failure of the critical service levels may result in financial penalties.

01/11/2022
John Redwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what levels of stock his Department holds of (a) stationery, (b) printer cartridges, (c) treasury tags and other fasteners and (d) other office consumables.

Brandon Lewis

My Department does not routinely record this information in the format requested. However, this Administration has cut spending significantly on office supplies, cutting expenditure from £480,180 (inc VAT) in 2009-10 to £73,738 in 2013-14.

In 2010, we conducted an internal review of the Department’s spend on office supplies which highlighted several opportunities to achieve savings. A rationalised list of stationery items was created which:

· reduced the available catalogue of items from around 3,500 to approximately 220;

· replaced higher value branded items, with non-branded equivalents; and

· adopted recycled printer toners and copier paper.

Significant savings were also achieved by aggregating the spend of all Departments and awarding a single Cabinet Office contract for stationery items and one for electronic office supplies (printer toners and other consumables). These contracts were awarded in September 2011 and DCLG were among the first departments to adopt them in November 2011.

As part of our planned move of office accommodation this summer (to share with the Home Office to save taxpayers’ money), stationery across the department will be surrendered and pooled, with the potential to save money by not ordering items locally and preventing a build-up of surplus stationery stock.

I hope this illustrates how every bit of the public sector has the potential to deliver sensible savings on back office costs.

01/11/2022
Dominic Raab – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dominic Raab on 2014-06-17.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions have been brought for tax offences in each year since 2008-09.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is not a prosecuting authority. Where cases do proceed to the criminal courts the prosecution is carried out by the relevant independent prosecuting authority. This is the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in Scotland, and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPSNI).

Please note that figures for tax evasion exclude those cases prosecuted for money laundering, other prohibitions and restrictions and other non-fiscal offences.

We can provide the following information in respect of totals of tax evasion prosecutions

Year

Total number of persons prosecuted for tax evasion

2010-11

372

2011-12

501

2012-13

739

2013-14

880

HMRC is not able to supply a time series of full year prosecution decisions and convictions resulting from their criminal investigations for years up to 2009–10. Complete, comparable data is only available from 2010–11 onwards.

01/11/2022
Helen Goodman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ratify the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government, along with the British Red Cross, has pledged to facilitate the UK’s ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and believes ratification of the Convention and its two Protocols will strengthen our commitment to the protection of our own heritage, and highlight our respect for the cultural property of other nations. However, as yet it has not been possible to secure the parliamentary time needed to pass the relevant legislation.

01/11/2022

Yasmin Qureshi – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many child victims and witnesses have given evidence from insside a court building in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Green

We must do everything we can to support child witnesses and help them give their best possible evidence to bring offenders to justice.

The department does not hold data on the number of child victim and witnesses that use video links to give evidence (either a court building, or from a remote site).

The list below sets out the number of courthouses in each of the seven HMCTS Regions in England & Wales; criminal justice is a devolved matter for Scotland and Northern Ireland. These facilities enable any victim or witness to appear by video link from a different court location to that of the trial court; it is also possible for third party users to access the court system through a secure bridge.

HMCTS Region	Number of courthouses enabled for remote video link.
Wales	22
London	32
South East	52
South West	35
Midlands	40
North West	31
North East	37
Total	249

01/11/2022

Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the merits of requiring all schools in the UK to fly the Union flag.

Mr David Laws

The Department for Education has made no such assessment.

01/11/2022

David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claims have been submitted for personal independence payment in each month since its introduction.

Mike Penning

Further to the figures published on 5th June 2014. The table below shows how many claims have been submitted for Personal Independence Payment:

	New claims not made under Special Rules for Terminally Ill People	New claims made under Special Rules for Terminally Ill People	All PIP New Claims
Apr-13	3000	200	3100
May-13	4800	200	5000
Jun-13	23000	900	23800
Jul-13	34200	1500	35700
Aug-13	30600	1300	31900
Sep-13	33800	1300	35100
Oct-13	35600	1500	37100
Nov-13	33300	1400	34700
Dec-13	22000	1200	23200
Jan-14	38000	1600	39500
Feb-14	39000	1400	40400
Mar-14	37900	1500	39500
Apr-13 – Mar 14	335100	13900	349000

· Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100, therefore totals may not sum due to rounding.

· Whether a claim is a ‘New claim made under Special Rules for Terminally Ill People’ has been determined at the point of registration.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-official-statistics-june-2014

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01/11/2022

Year	Total number of persons prosecuted for tax evasion
2010-11	372
2011-12	501
2012-13	739
2013-14	880