Category: Speeches

David Ward – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Ward on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of how many claim management companies operated in each region since 2008.

Mr Shailesh Vara

With rigorous new measures being brought in across the board, we are taking strong action to rein in the rogue firms operating in this sector.

Continued action to remove licenses from companies with poor practices alongside forthcoming Claims Management Regulation reforms, proves just how much work is going on to get tough on companies that defy the rules and bombard the public with unwelcome calls and misleading information.

We are changing the law to further toughen the regime, including introducing fines, and ensuring firms cannot buy in any contact details which have been gathered unlawfully.

The number of claims management companies (CMCs) operating in each region between April 2008 and April 2014 were as follows:

Regional Analysis	Apr-08	Apr-09	Apr-10	Apr-11	Apr-12	Apr-13	Apr-14
East	107	134	165	173	146	138	114
East Midlands	56	97	131	139	152	137	120
London	253	378	545	531	524	444	340
Northern Ireland	0	0	5	3	3	6	4
North East	30	71	95	98	76	68	49
North West	514	685	784	803	775	706	576
Overseas	6	11	9	6	3	16	13
Scotland	21	26	30	32	28	29	33
South East	193	294	358	370	361	326	267
South West	62	81	100	113	113	100	93
Wales	61	73	95	81	101	88	66
West Midlands	206	321	408	404	358	292	208
Yorkshire & Humbers	230	316	366	387	329	245	176

01/11/2022

Kevin Brennan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2014-03-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which contractors will be responsible for the professional skills test for initial teacher training entrants for the 2014-15 academic year.

David Laws

No contract has been agreed with any contractor as yet. The Department for Education is in the process of negotiating a contract through a framework agreement. Once a contract has been signed we will make public the identity of the contractor.

01/11/2022
Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many mortgage possession claims were approved by the courts in each (a) region of England and (b) London borough in (i) 2011-12, (ii) 2012-13 and (iii) 2013-14; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Ministry of Justice collects data on mortgage possession claims and these are published at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics

The tables provided give figures on the number of mortgage claims in the County Courts from 2011-12 to 2013-14.

“

01/11/2022

Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr David Hanson on 2014-03-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent officials in her Department of each grade have worked on the e-borders programme in each year since 2010.

James Brokenshire

The activities of the e-Borders programme have been absorbed into the Border
Systems Programme. The estimated cost to close the e-Borders programme and
define the Border Systems Programme was £340,000. These costs are attributable
to civil servants already in post and there has been no additional expenditure
or procurement in order to move the work from e-Borders to Border Systems.

The procurement approach to replacing the primary border security elements of
the Border Systems Programme will reflect broader Government ICT and Commercial
strategy, and there will be no single, large supplier. The Home Office will
lead development, with services procured from a range of providers, potentially
including small and medium enterprises; no tenders have been received at this
time.

By March 2015 the Border Systems Programme aims to:

• Complete resilience of all current business critical systems;
• Develop replacement primary border security systems;
• Provide the capability to support commitments on exit checks;
• Establish a programme for the next generation of Radiological and Nuclear
detection (Cyclamen);
• Continue the implementation of second generation e-Gates across the estate;
• Develop and implement new freight targeting capability for Sea Containers;
• Establish contracts to purchase new detection equipment;
• Continue to assure live operations of existing systems.

The breakdown of FTE Civil Servants engaged by the e-Borders and subsequently
the Border Systems Programme in each year since 2010, is:

	Dec-10	Dec-11	Dec-12	Dec-13
SCS PB 2	1	1	1	0
SCS PB 1	2	1	2	2
G6	7.8	7.8	7.8	9.8
G7	11.8	9.8	10.8	17.8
SEO/HMI	33.5	34.7	48.8	49.7
HEO/CIO	26	25.4	22.5	30.9
EO/IO	22	19.3	25	20.8
AO/PS	7	5	5	3

01/11/2022

Graham Stringer – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Stringer on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 8 May 2014, Official Report, column 272W, on biofuels: air pollution, for what reasons estimated social costs of biomass emissions of fine particles contained in his Department’s Answer of 26 March 2009, Official Report, column 697W, on air pollution, were not reflected in that Answer; and for what reasons his Department no longer estimates the social costs of fine particles emitted by biomass combustion.

Dan Rogerson

The social (health) costs included in the answer of 26 March 2009 were calculated by Defra to evaluate specific scenarios of uptake of biomass heat in 2020. These costs were calculated for policy development purposes in accordance with Treasury Green Book guidance and methodologies developed with the support of the Interdepartmental Group on Costs and Benefits.

Estimates of emissions by source (including biomass emissions) are updated annually and reported in the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, but social (health) costs by emissions source are not routinely calculated.

Estimates of the health burden due to total anthropogenic fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) in the UK are calculated as part of the Public Health Outcomes Framework indicator. This is based on modelled annual population weighted mean total anthropogenic PM_2.5levels in the UK.

01/11/2022
Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if he will list each local authority database used by electoral registration offices in the dry run for individual electoral registration (IER) for the 10 local authorities with the (a) best and (b) worst registration rates during the IER dry run.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that this information was provided to the Hon. Member in the answer to Question 191356.

01/11/2022

Michael McCann – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael McCann on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases against the Ministry of Defence were funded by legal aid in each of the last 10 years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) cannot separately identify legal aid cases against the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office. Opponents are not systematically recorded against Legal Aid cases.

The net payments to Public Interest Lawyers over the past ten tears were:

Financial Year	Net Payments
FY2003-2004	£139,620.72
FY2004-2005	£158,282.52
FY2005-2006	£251,844.27
FY2006-2007	£299,667.99
FY2007-2008	£577,263.60
FY2008-2009	£628,527.75
FY2009-2010	£267,433.88
FY2010-2011	£439,268.02
FY2011-2012	£331,238.85
FY2012-2013	£50,633.27

These payments cover all work undertaken by the firm under legal aid. The payments made will be offset by recoupment on successful cases where the opponent has paid the costs.

01/11/2022

Jonathan Edwards – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2014-03-12.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what assessment he has made of the suitability of the chief executives of Carmarthenshire County Council and Pembrokeshire County Council acting as returning officers in future elections.

Greg Clark

It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to appoint an officer of the council to be the returning officer for local government elections in their area. Electoral law provides that returning officers for local government elections shall also be local returning officers for European Parliamentary elections. It therefore does not fall to the Government to assess the suitability of individuals carrying out these roles.

01/11/2022
Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England on the potential for exercise to reduce the need for patients to have back surgery.

Norman Lamb

There is evidence that physical activity can alleviate lower back pain and can benefit musculoskeletal health. However, there have been no specific discussions between Department of Health Ministers and NHS England on the potential for exercise to reduce the need for patients to have back surgery.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that a structured exercise programme, tailored to the person, be offered as a treatment option for early management of persistent, non-specific back pain.

Public Health England is working with partners, including the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, Arthritis Research UK and the business sector to encourage better prevention and management of back pain, particularly through the promotion of physical activity.

01/11/2022
Steve Rotheram – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2014-03-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many individuals convicted of (a) murder or (b) attempted murder in each of the last 10 years have been released with exclusion zones forming a part of their licence arrangements.

Jeremy Wright

Unfortunately, it is not possible to answer these questions without carrying out a manual search through all relevant individual offender files, at disproportionate cost.

Conditions such as an exclusion zone may be applied to an offender’s licence where it is necessary to manage the risk that the individual offender poses following release into the community – and where it is proportionate to that risk. Where qualifying victims have exercised their statutory right to make representations about the offender’s licence conditions, the exclusion zone set will take into account those representations. In each case, the supervising officer proposes conditions as appropriate and requests these from the appropriate authority, which applies it to the licence on behalf of the Secretary of State. In the case of determinate sentence prisoners, the authority is the prison governor; in the case of indeterminate sentence prisoners, or others whose release is on the direction of the Parole Board, the authority is the Parole Board.

These conditions must be kept under review, and are intended to be flexible to the possible resettlement needs of an offender in the community and any new risks that arise.

An exclusion zone will rarely be absolute, as it is recognised that there may be exceptional reasons why the offender needs to enter the exclusion zone. Thus, where an exclusion zone is included in the offender’s licence, it will usually be open to the supervising officer to grant the offender permission to enter the exclusion zone, for a temporary period and for a specific purpose.

As this is a purely localised decision, there is no national record of the number of occasions such permission has been given. It is, therefore, not possible to answer the questions regarding how many times an offender has been granted permission to enter the exclusion zone applied to his licence.

Data from the last 10 years is not available in the required electronic format to answer the question relating to numbers of offenders with exclusion zones included in their licence. To provide such information would again require a manual interrogation of offenders’ records and this would incur disproportionate cost.

01/11/2022