The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the Repair and Renew Grant for flooded businesses or households has been (a) allocated to local authorities and (b) received by households or businesses to date.
Dan Rogerson
Local authorities make payments to households and businesses and invoice Defra quarterly for these amounts. We are expecting the first invoices in July.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2014-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she intends to answer Named Day written question 185520 tabled on 28 January 2014 for answer on 3 February 2014; and what the reasons are for the delay in answering this question.
James Brokenshire
I replied to the hon. Member on 13 March 2014, Official Report, column 533W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many high-temperature concrete vertical landing pads will be constructed to accommodate the Joint Strike Fighter; where they will be located; and what estimate he has made of their cost.
Mr Philip Dunne
On current plans there will be three high-temperature concrete vertical landing pads constructed to accommodate the Joint Strike Fighter. These landing pads will be located at RAF Marham and the estimated cost is in the region of £7.5 million. This figure will be refined once planning for this matter progresses.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Gregory Campbell on 2014-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the pension entitlement is of people of pensionable age who served long sentences in prison.
Steve Webb
A persons entitlement to the contributory state pension is dependent on the National Insurance contributions they have paid or had credited to them over their working life (from the age of 16 upto the year before they reach State Pension age) which builds up Qualifying Years. This will also be the case for the new single tier pension, but with a requirement to have a minimum number of qualifying years.
A person who has served a long prison sentence during their working life is likely to have a below average entitlement to contributory state pension. However, Pension Credit is available where the person’s (and partner’s) income from all sources is inadequate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when HMS Montrose will take over the Fleet Ready Escort task; and what ship it will replace in that role.
Mr Mark Francois
HMS Montrose was previously deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean. She returned to the UK for a period of planned maintenance and post-deployment leave before conducting a short port visit in London and then participating in a NATO Exercise.
Royal Navy ships are programmed in accordance with our operational requirements, but for security reasons we do not discuss specific future operational tasking.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-03-11.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many migrants from EU countries living in the UK receive child benefit.
Nicky Morgan
HMRC are not able to provide the information in the manner requested. HMRC do not record the nationality of the claimant receiving Child Benefit for children living in another member state.
Published Child Benefit statistics provide annual estimates of the number of families and children claiming. The latest available (August 2012) show that there were 7.92 million families, responsible for 13.77 million children and qualifying young people receiving Child Benefit.
The main purpose of Child Benefit is to support families in the UK. Consequently, the rules generally do not provide for them to be paid in respect of children who live abroad.
Nevertheless, Child Benefit is a family benefit under EC Regulation 883/2004. This regulation protects the social security rights of nationals of all member states of the European economic area, including the UK, and Switzerland when they exercise their rights of free movement under EU law.
HMRC holds information on the number of Child Benefit awards under EC Regulation 883/2004. As at 31 December 2013, there were 20,400 ongoing Child Benefit awards under the EC Regulation in respect of 34.268 children living in another member state.
This is a fall of 3,682 (15.3%) awards in respect of 5,903 (14.7%) fewer children since 31 December 2012.
The breakdown by member state is as follows:
*We have withheld the number where it is fewer than 5, as there is risk that the information could be attributed to an identifiable person, which would prejudice their right to privacy and would therefore be a breach of Principle 1 of the Data Protection Act.
Child Benefit
|
Country of residence of children |
Number of awards |
Number of children |
|
Austria |
23 |
37 |
|
Belgium |
75 |
140 |
|
Bulgaria |
186 |
245 |
|
Croatia |
*5 |
*5 |
|
Cyprus |
39 |
61 |
|
Czech Republic |
124 |
203 |
|
Denmark |
13 |
23 |
|
Estonia |
45 |
65 |
|
Finland |
12 |
23 |
|
France |
789 |
1429 |
|
Germany |
283 |
495 |
|
Greece |
44 |
69 |
|
Hungary |
136 |
196 |
|
Iceland |
*5 |
*5 |
|
Italy |
156 |
273 |
|
Latvia |
797 |
1091 |
|
Liechtenstein |
0 |
0 |
|
Lithuania |
1215 |
1712 |
|
Luxembourg |
7 |
14 |
|
Malta |
15 |
22 |
|
Norway |
30 |
61 |
|
Poland |
13174 |
22093 |
|
Portugal |
202 |
309 |
|
Republic of Ireland |
1231 |
2505 |
|
Romania |
230 |
392 |
|
Slovakia |
692 |
1232 |
|
Slovenia |
11 |
21 |
|
Spain |
600 |
1019 |
|
Sweden |
49 |
95 |
|
Switzerland |
77 |
150 |
|
The Netherlands |
142 |
288 |
|
Totals |
20400 |
34268 |
As announced in the 2014 Budget, to prevent EEA migrants claiming benefits they are not entitled to, the Government will increase compliance checks to establish whether EEA migrants meet the entitlement conditions to receive Child Benefit
Under domestic law, in order to claim Child Benefit EEA Migrants must be present in the UK, ordinarily resident and have a right to reside in the UK and their children must live in the UK.
The recent changes to migrants’ access to benefits announced by the Government sends a strong message that the UK benefit system is not open to abuse, as well as deterring those who may seek residence in the UK primarily to claim benefits.
Strengthening compliance checks will help prevent EEA migrants from claiming, and continuing to claim, benefits they are not entitled to. Checks will be applied to both new claims and existing awards.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions on (a) collective action to promote human rights and (b) accountability for violations of the Commonwealth Charter were held at the Commonwealth Law Ministers’ Meeting in May 2014.
Mr Hugo Swire
The Commonwealth Law Ministers discussed a wide range of issues relating to human rights, rule of law and preventing violence against women, as well as the Commonwealth’s activities in these areas, during their meeting in May 2014. We welcomed their acknowledgement that a number of challenges and gaps remain in the Commonwealth, particularly in members’ ratification of the nine core international human rights treaties, their engagement with the United Nations Universal Periodical Review (UPR) mechanism and in their establishment of national human rights institutions compliant with the Paris Principles.
The UK underlined the need for the Commonwealth and its members to adhere to the values and principles in the Commonwealth Charter at all times and secured improved wording in the final communiqué – not least agreement that the fundamental values of the Commonwealth Charter must be taken into account in the context of work to tackle violence against women and a commitment to review implementation of the Latimer House Principles.
We continue to encourage the Commonwealth Secretariat and member states to uphold the commitments in the Commonwealth Charter. We also continue to urge the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, as the custodian of Commonwealth values, to take action where infringments of the charter occur.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2014-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to tackle delays faced by people waiting for a medical assessment following their application for personal independence payment.
Mike Penning
We are committed to ensuring Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants receive high quality, objective, fair and accurate assessments. Since the introduction of PIP new claims in April, we have been closely monitoring all aspects of the process.
Our latest analysis is telling us that the end-to-end claimant journey is taking longer than expected. We are working closely with the assessment providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary steps to improve performance, speed up the process and ensure claimants receive a satisfactory experience. We are also seeking to ensure that all the steps in the process run as smoothly as possible and that there are no barriers in our processes and systems that contribute to claims taking longer than necessary to progress.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to reply to the letters to him of 2 April and 9 May 2014 from the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse.
Mr Mark Francois
I replied to the hon. Member on 25 September 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2014-03-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what sanctions have been applied in the last 12 months for poor quality performance on the Birmingham Cross City line by London Midland.
Baroness Kramer
We have applied no sanctions against London Midland in regard to performance on the Birmingham Cross City line; we do not disaggregate performance by the train operators to that level. In the autumn of 2012 London Midland experienced a high number of cancellations, largely due to issues with availability of train crew. As a result, they breached the terms of their Franchise Agreement, and a remedial plan and package of benefits was agreed with the Department. As the Secretary of State for Transport announced to the House on 20 December 2012, this package included passenger benefits of: 500,000 discounted tickets, free travel for season ticket holders (worth up to c.£5.4m), capital investment, and additional driver training investment worth a combined £6.25m