Category: Speeches

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the value of backlog maintenance of central Government-owned assets.

    Danny Alexander

    This data is not available as backlog maintenance is for individual departments to manage and consequently the Treasury does not ask for the information. The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) does include current valuations for assets across government, which takes into account the condition of the assets.

  • Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pamela Nash on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people in his Department have been employed on zero-hour contracts in each of the last two years.

    Brandon Lewis

    [Holding Reply: Thursday 1 May 2014]

    My Department has employed the following numbers of staff on zero-hour contracts in each of the last two years:

    2012-13 – 2

    2013-14 – 2

    In all cases, these were short-term arrangements for individuals to complete specific pieces of work which required particular expertise or professional skills.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library copies of his Department’s force structure cost model.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    I am withholding the information requested as its disclosure would be commercially sensitive and would prejudice the economic interests of the United Kingdom as well as the capability, effectiveness and security of the Armed Forces.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if he will write to Sussex county councils setting out detailed reasons why the bid to the Green Deal Communities Fund from Sussex Energy Saving Partnership was turned down and how the organisations involved could have strengthened their bid; whether there is a process for unsuccessful bids to be reviewed; if he will publish (a) copies of all bids received and (b) the reasons for each decision on such bids; whether there are funds remaining in the Fund; whether there will be further opportunities for projects to bid; and when further bids will be entertained.

    Gregory Barker

    All Green Deal Communities bids were assessed against the criteria set out in the published application pack using a consistent process, treating each bid equally. For your information I attach a list of the lead LAs for the 24 successful bids. These utilised all the available Green Deal Communities’ funds.

    LIST OF SUCCESSFUL LEAD LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND AMOUNTS AWARDED

    Authorities to which grant is to be paid

    Total funding

    East Hampshire

    £2,944,668

    Dartford

    £4,026,855

    Leeds

    £4,943,200

    Bristol

    £7,292,200

    Nottingham

    £5,473,300

    Hillingdon

    £2,975,900

    Telford

    £4,859,900

    Worcestershire

    £3,630,100

    Lewisham

    £1,656,222

    Broadland

    £1,444,300

    Woking

    £2,550,491

    Plymouth

    £3,068,800

    South Bucks

    £2,574,991

    Oldham (Greater Manchester)

    £6,119,700

    Ashfield

    £1,097,098

    Suffolk

    £5,712,600

    Cambridgeshire

    £7,857,400

    Peterborough

    £3,945,100

    Haringey

    £6,560,012

    Bracknell Forest

    £1,820,714

    Eastleigh

    £3,336,900

    Nuneaton

    £2,084,502

    Harrow

    £1,457,100

    Bath

    £929,300

    Total

    £88,361,353
  • Kerry McCarthy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Kerry McCarthy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government’s policy is on developing international frameworks and forums to provide refugees from climate-induced displacement with legal protection, including legally-worded definitions for such cases.

    Mark Simmonds

    The Government supports work to establish how existing international institutions and frameworks can be used to address climate change induced migration. Refugee status under existing international and EU legislation is based on the risk of persecution, and it is government policy to avoid developing separate frameworks that could duplicate or contradict this. The Government is also committed to securing an ambitious and legally-binding climate agreement next year at Paris COP 21 to limit the damage caused by anthropogenic climate change.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current membership is of the Overseas Domestic Workers Steering Group.

    Karen Bradley

    The Overseas Domestic Worker Steering Group no longer meets, therefore there is
    no current membership. The last meeting was on 19 November 2010.

    The Home Office is carefully considering all the recommendations of the
    Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Committee’s report on the Modern Slavery Bill.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted for sending illicit or unauthorised items through the post to prisoners in establishments in England and Wales in each of the last four years.

    Jeremy Wright

    Prisons employ a range of measures to detect, disrupt and deter the trafficking of illicit items into prisons. Any contraband detected coming into the prison will be recorded on a central incident reporting system. However, to identify the manner in which the contraband entered the prison and any subsequent referral to the police would require a manual interrogation of incident reports. This could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

    Information on prosecutions and convictions for these offences is not held centrally and could only be obtained by asking each prison to source information locally. This, again, could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.

  • Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-04-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people applied for the personal independence payment in (a) Edinburgh East constituency and (b) Scotland since June 2013; how many have been awarded the payment in each case; how many have requested that a refusal of the payment be reconsidered; how many have been awarded the payment following a request for reconsideration; how many have appealed against a refusal of the payment; and how many have been awarded the payment following an appeal.

    Mike Penning

    I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to the hon Member for Liverpool, West Derby and the hon Member for Airdrie and Shotts, official report, 5 March, column 850W.

  • Graeme Morrice – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Graeme Morrice – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graeme Morrice on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Attorney General, whether the Law Officers’ Departments have any plans to end the employee trade union membership dues check-off system.

    Oliver Heald

    These arrangements are kept under review.

  • Katy Clark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Katy Clark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Katy Clark on 2014-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Government spent on full-time university education for undergraduates in 2013-14.

    Mr David Willetts

    Full-time undergraduate student support expenditure by the Student Loans Company for the 2013-14 financial year included £8.9bn of cash outlay on maintenance and fee loans and £1.9bn of grant expenditure (on maintenance grants and other allowances). These totals include expenditure on English-domiciled students in the UK and EU students in England.

    For the financial year 2013-14, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) estimate that £2.1bn of the expenditure set out in the 2014 grant letter refers to teaching grant for full-time undergraduate study. It is not possible to calculate a full-time undergraduate share of every element of recurrent teaching grant such as Senior Professional pay, teaching strategy funding, institution-specific initiatives or additional funding for Equivalent Level Qualifications and vulnerable science subjects.

    The figures do not include expenditure by other Governments departments.