Category: Speeches

Bob Ainsworth – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bob Ainsworth on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to tackle domestic violence and sexual abuse since 2010.

Norman Baker

Domestic and sexual violence are devastating crimes and are not acceptable
within our society. The Coalition Government’s continued approach to tackling
such violence and abuse is set out in our Violence against Women and Girls
Action Plan, updated in March 2014.

Supporting victims is at the heart of this approach, which includes giving
victims more confidence to report, and it is encouraging that police recorded
crime figures show more victims are having the confidence to come forward.

The Government has ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding from 2010
up to 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services,
rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and stalking
helpline.

Over the spending review period the Home Office funding of £28 million provides
for:
144 Independent Domestic Violence Advisers, 87 dedicated Independent
Sexual Violence Advisers, 54 Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference
Co-ordinators, and funding to Coordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse
to provide support and advice to MARACs, as well as running a programme
of quality assurance and £1.2 million for three years from 2012 to improve
services for young people suffering sexual violence in major urban areas.
£900,000 a year is used towards the running costs of national helplines for
victims of domestic violence and stalking.

In 2013, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary to undertake a comprehensive review on how the police deal with
domestic violence and abuse. HMIC’s report exposed significant failings. In
response to the Review, the Home Secretary has established a National
Oversight Group, which she is chairing, and on which I sit, to ensure HMIC’s
recommendations are acted upon. The Group met for the first time on 10 June.

The Home Secretary has also written to chief constables making it clear that
every police force must have an action plan in place by September 2014, to
improve their response to domestic violence and abuse.

01/11/2022
Hywel Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hywel Williams on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what criteria he is distributing the additional £5 million discretionary housing payment for the least densely-populated areas announced on 30 July 2013.

Steve Webb

The £5million rural Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) fund for 2013/14 was allocated to those local authorities (LA) with the smallest population per square metre. The fund was then proportionally distributed using LAs share of the original DHP allocation, i.e. if an LA had an 8% share of the total DHP allocation of the least populated LAs, then they received 8% of the rural fund.

The £5m funding provided in 2014/15 is intended to avoid a disproportionate impact on those affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy in remote and isolated communities. The Government has assessed that the geography in some areas means that potential remedies such as finding work or alternative accommodation, are less readily available, and as a result transitions may take more time.

01/11/2022
Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) arrests and (b) convictions for domestic violence offences in Dartford constituency in each of the last five years.

Norman Baker

The information requested is not available.

Data on arrests are reported to the Home Office on the basis of aggregated
offence categories only, for example violence against the person, sexual
offences and robbery. From these centrally reported categories it is not
possible to separately identify arrests that involve domestic violence.

01/11/2022
Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-04-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the use of children in armed conflict in the Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; which parties in those countries they consider to be using child soldiers; and what action they are taking to co-ordinate international action to secure the demobilisation of child soldiers.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

The British Government recognises that parties to conflict who commit grave violations against children, including recruitment and use, are named in the annexes of the annual reports of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict. This applies to the Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Of the five countries in question, the Governments of Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are currently listed for the recruitment and use of children. The latter two have signed action plans with the UN to end this practice. There are also non-state armed groups listed for recruitment and use of children in all the countries in question, except South Sudan. The UK actively participates in the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict to hold perpetrators to account as well as working with the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and non-governmental organisations to urge those Governments who have not already done so, to enter into time-bound action plans with the UN. The Minister for Africa, my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mr Simmonds), is leading a campaign to raise awareness and help prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and children from becoming victims of sexual violence. He continues to raise the issue with a number of counterparts in countries where there are reports of children being recruited into armed groups and forces, including in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

01/11/2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation trust employees who left their jobs received higher than contractual payments since 1 January 2014.

Jeremy Wright

Prior to 1 June, probation staff in England & Wales were employed by the 35 probation trusts. Employment data of the kind requested were held by the individual probations trusts. They were not collected centrally and it would not be possible to obtain the information without incurring disproportionate cost.

01/11/2022
Baroness Morgan of Huyton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Morgan of Huyton on 2014-04-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Ministry of Justice’s March 2013 report showing a link between employment and reduced re-offending, what plans they have to improve literacy education for prisoners.

Lord Newby

We are taking a number of steps to enhance and build upon the current learning and skills offer to prisoners. We firmly believe that giving offenders the skills and training they need to get and keep jobs on release reduces their likelihood of re-offending.

Officials from the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) are working with the Skills Funding Agency and providers of the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) to continually improve the quality of the teaching and learning experienced by prisoners through the development and dissemination of good practice. New approaches to literacy in particular include an increase in the use of peer mentors, embedded learning as part of other regime activities, and the introduction of aNational Reading Network in association with the Shannon Trust.

Later this year we will be introducing mandatory education assessment by the OLASS providers for all newly-received prisoners. This will ensure that all prisoners, not just those who go on to learning, receive a learning assessment (focused around literacy and numeracy but also covering learning difficulties and disabilities). NOMS and its partners are also working towards implementing better data-sharing arrangements between prisons and OLASS providers, so that more is known about prisoners’ previous assessments, progress, and achievements, as well as their current educational needs.

Intensive literacy and numeracy courses, based on the Army’s model, have also been piloted in prisons, particularly to address the needs of prisoners serving short sentences. Prison Governors and OLASS providers are working together to deliver such courses where appropriate.

Prison Governors do not have targets regarding the improvement of prisoners’ literacy skills. As noted previously, we are taking considerable steps both to further identify literacy learning needs and then to address them.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration rates were in Northern Ireland in each of the last 15 years.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold data on the electoral registration rate for each of the last 15 years.

However, the Commission has periodically carried out specific research on levels of registration in Northern Ireland. This found that the local government register for Northern Ireland was 83.4% complete in December 2007 and 73% complete in April 2012.

Following the publication of findings for the April 2012 register, a household canvass was conducted in Northern Ireland in autumn 2013. After the canvass, the Commission reviewed the results and concluded that it had been well run and significantly improved the completeness of the register. The Commission’s report can be found here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/166999/Report-on-the-Northern-Ireland-electoral-registration-canvass-2013.pdf

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01/11/2022

Chris Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2014-04-07.

To ask the Attorney General, which 10 consultancy firms were paid the most by the Law Officers’ Departments in the last financial year; and how much each of those firms was paid.

Oliver Heald

In 2013-14 Professor Shute was paid £2,286.30 and Dr Tapley was paid £1,735.70 for consultancy services to HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI). There has been no other consultancy spend within that financial year by HMCPSI, the Treasury Solicitor’s Department or the Attorney General’s Office.

The two companies listed below are the only organisations to have been paid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for consultancy work during the last financial year.

SCC £32,316

CIO Partnership Ltd £2,100

Inaddition, two individuals carried out consultancy work for the SFO. The total amount paid for this work was £13,812

The table below details payments made by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consultancy firms during the last financial year.

Evolve Business Consultancy	£74,319
Saville Consulting UK Ltd Surrey	£22,008
Triad Group Plc Surrey	£19,260
Deloitte LLP Milton Keynes	£9,661
Hay Group Management Limited	£7,200
LA International Computer Consultants Ltd	£6,398
ASE Consulting Ltd Lancashire	£4,995
Enquin Enviromental Ltd Cardiff	£4,110
HR Lounge Ltd London Total	£3,180
Long and Partners Commissioning Consultancy Ltd	£2,010

This information has been produced from the CPS accounting system, analysing spend against account codes for consultancy and professional services. Expenditure may include some payments for services not covered by the Crown Commercial Service Consultancy Value Programme definition of consultancy but provided by companies categorised as a consultancy firm. Excluded are payments for professional services supplied by third parties not classified as a consultancy firm such as employment agencies, training providers, solicitors, ICT managed service suppliers and freelance consultants engaged directly by the department.

01/11/2022

Justin Tomlinson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Ministers for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions the Government Equalities Office has had with the Home Office about ending domestic abuse and violence against women.

Nicky Morgan

I have regular meetings and discussions with my colleagues on this and other matters affecting women and equality including attending the Violence Against Women and Girls Inter-Ministerial Group, working with ministerial colleagues to coordinate policy on tackling this abhorrent crime. Also, officials from the Government Equalities Office work closely with Home Office colleagues on this policy area and recently co-hosted an event working with employers to recognise and support employees who are victims of domestic violence

01/11/2022
Chris Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2014-04-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which 10 consultancy firms were paid the most by his Department in the last financial year; and how much each of those firms was paid.

Jenny Willott

Under this Government’s transparency programme, details of spend are published on GOV.UK which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-business-innovation-skills.

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01/11/2022