Category: Speeches

  • Gordon Henderson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gordon Henderson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Henderson on 2014-03-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans the Government has to improve the rail infrastructure on the North Kent rail line.

    Stephen Hammond

    The Government is working with Network Rail, train operators and Kent County Council to progress the case for journey time reductions between Ashford and Ramsgate by 2019 through infrastructure improvements. Funding is available for this, subject to a satisfactory business case.

  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-05-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to increase the number of Apache helicopter pilots for deployment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

    Mr Mark Francois

    The final deployment of Apache helicopters to Helmand has sufficient pilots and crews to undertake the required tasks.

    Sufficient personnel will continue to be trained to ensure future tasks can be met.

  • Mr Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mr Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Gareth Thomas on 2014-03-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of disability living allowance claims took longer than 40 days to process in each of the last three years for which data is available.

    Mike Penning

    Please see the table below showing the percentage of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) new claims, for Normal Rules (NR), that took longer than 40 days to process. Claims not yet processed within 40 days, include cases where we are awaiting additional information from the claimant and/or medical evidence.

    2012/13

    Volume of Claims Cleared

    402,861

    Volume of claims cleared after 40 working days

    89,678

    % of DLA New Claims (NR)
    cleared after 40 working days

    22.3%

    Prior to 2012/13 the measure reported against was an Actual Average Clearance Time (AACT). This is the cumulative clearance days divided by the number of cleared events within the reporting period.

    Please see the table below for 2010/11 and 2011/12:

    2010/11

    2011/12

    Volume of Claims Cleared

    431,572

    412,556

    AACT (Level 37.7 days)

    30.3

    27.2

    Notes:

    The reported figure only relates to DLA (NR) new claims. NR claims are those where the claimant is not terminally ill and the normal rules of entitlement therefore apply.

    The figures above cover the period from 1st April to 31st March and shows the national position including working age and child claimants.

    The AACT level (37.7 days) shown in the above table is a measure based on a prior year’s performance.

    We have not provided data for 2013/14 due to not having a full financial year available at this time.

    Source:

    Source: Department for Work and Pensions – RDA 80123 report – DLA Management Information Statistics

  • Robert Buckland – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Robert Buckland – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Buckland on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many complaints were received by each ombudsman service in England in each of the last five years.

    Mr Francis Maude

    The Government is considering recent reports of the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) into how complaints about public services are handled. As part of this, the Cabinet Office is working to investigate further how public services can make best use of complaints and also to take a wider look at the role and powers of the Public Sector Ombudsmen. The Government will respond to the PASC in due course. I am happy to discuss this matter further with my Hon. Friend.

    The annual reports and accounts of the public service ombudsmen in the UK provide details of their performance over the past 12 months including information about complaints received.

  • Sir Edward Leigh – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Sir Edward Leigh – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sir Edward Leigh on 2014-03-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to reform faith-based admissions to free schools.

    Michael Gove

    Faith designated free schools can use faith as a criterion for admitting up to 50% of their pupils, when oversubscribed. I have no plans to change this rule.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of export of refuse-derived fuel and solid recovered fuel for use in energy from waste plants overseas on the availability of such fuel for similar plants in the UK; and if he will make a statement.

    Dan Rogerson

    We published a call for evidence on the refuse-derived fuel market in England on 12 March. This included a request for evidence on the effect that exports of refuse-derived fuel had on its availability on the domestic market. The call for evidence closed on 9 May. We are currently analysing the evidence submitted, which will aid our understanding of the situation, help us to determine whether there is a need for some form of intervention and, if so, help us to develop policy options.

  • Clive Efford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Clive Efford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Efford on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academy trusts account returns remain outstanding.

    Edward Timpson

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Coventry South, Mr Jim Cunningham, on 18 March, Official Report Column 555W.

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of revenue accruing to the Exchequer from air passenger duty in respect of (a) domestic and (b) international flights from each airport in Scotland in 2013-14.

    Nicky Morgan

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not collect information on the contribution to air passenger duty (APD) revenues made from flights to or from specific airports or countries.

    HMRC has published a set of statistics presenting estimates of the disaggregation of tax receipts between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disaggregation-of-hmrc-tax-receipts

    The estimate for the total amount of APD revenues attributable to Scotland in 2012/13 was £227 million. This estimate is not broken down by revenues from domestic and international flights.

    Information on APD revenues and passenger numbers by band is available at:

    https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Pages/TaxAndDutyBulletins.aspx

    Information on the number of passengers flying to and from UK airports is available at:

    http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=80&pagetype=88&pageid=3&sglid=3#Data

    “

  • Mr Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mr Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Tom Watson on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2014, Official Report, column 325W, on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, how many NCA employees who work in Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command have arrest powers.

    Damian Green

    [holding answer 20 March 2014]

    I refer the Honourable Member to my reply of 13 March 2014, Official Report, column 326W.

    The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command is fully integrated within the National Crime Agency (NCA). As part of the NCA, the CEOP Command is able to draw on the whole of the NCA’s resources. The NCA works as a flexible organisation and as such there will be NCA officers whose work covers a range of serious and organised crime threats.

    In total the NCA has 1,900 officers who currently hold arrest powers who can be called upon to tackle child exploitation. This number is for NCA permanent officers and does not include secondees or those attached to the NCA.

  • Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Cathy Jamieson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for passports have been made by residents in Kilmarnock and Loudoun in each of the last 12 months.

    James Brokenshire

    Expected service standards for passport applications are given at
    www.gov.uk.

    Information in respect of the Member’s constituency is not available and the
    cost of collating it would be disproportionate.

    The table below shows the proportions of UK passport applications in each of
    the last 12 months which have been processed within the published service
    standards.

    2013

    % straightforward applications processed within the published timescales

    % non-straightforward applications processed within the published timescales

    June

    100%

    97.8%

    July

    100%

    96.9%

    August

    100%

    96.4%

    September

    100%

    96.0%

    October

    100%

    95.9%

    November

    99.99%

    96.5%

    December

    99.99%

    96.3%

    2014

    January

    99.99%

    96.8%

    February

    99.98%

    98.1%

    March

    99.95%

    96.8%

    April

    98.59%

    99.6%

    May

    92.26%

    93.9%