The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what work is required to the docks at Portsmouth to accommodate the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.
Mr Philip Dunne
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 November 2013 (Official Report, column 400W) to the hon. Member for Portsmouth South (Mr Mike Hancock).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the merits of including alcohol awareness training in the driving test assessment; and if he will make a statement.
Stephen Hammond
The Highway Code advises drivers not to drink any alcohol before driving; this advice applies to all drivers, regardless of experience. The driving theory test includes questions about the effects of alcohol on a person’s ability to drive.
The Department for Transport believes a more effective route to public awareness of the negative effect of alcohol on drivers is through appropriate pre-test training. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency produces The National Standard for Driver Training that should form the basis of training that approved driving instructors give to their pupils; these include thorough guidance on the appropriate consumption of alcohol prior to driving.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2014, Official Report, column 821W, on immigration controls, what procedures are in place to ensure that immigration officers ensure the removal of any face coverings before authorising entry to the UK; how many incidents have been recorded where the correct procedures relating to the removal of face coverings have not been followed by immigration officers in each of the last three years; and what disciplinary action has been taken in such incidents in each of the last three years.
James Brokenshire
This information is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department takes to investigate whistleblowers’ allegations of impropriety relating to employment support contracts.
Esther McVey
The Department treats any allegation of fraud by contractors very seriously, regardless of where these emanate from. Any fraud is completely unacceptable. Where we identify, or are notified of, allegations of contractor fraud, these cases are investigated thoroughly by the Department’s professionally trained and experienced investigators to a standard required to support reference to the Police whenever evidence of criminal offences is discovered.
All contracted employment providers are required to have whistleblowing procedures that support their employees in reporting suspected wrongdoing at work and ‘making a disclosure in the public interest’. If they consider that they cannot raise suspicions of abuse of government funds with their employer, they should contact the Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office (NAO). This route is used to escalate whistleblower concerns and DWP Internal Investigations work with the NAO to investigate these matters and take appropriate action where issues are identified. This is an important channel in ensuring that employees can raise concerns and that they can be protected legally when doing so.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2014-03-31.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what Directly Operated Railways’ total staffing budget was in each of the years since 2010-11; and what its planned staffing budget is for 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Stephen Hammond
The total budgeted staff costs for the years in question are as follows.
|
£000’s |
Salaries |
Other Staff Costs |
Consultants |
Total |
|
2010/11 |
539 |
77 |
412 |
1028 |
|
2011/12 |
476 |
52 |
386 |
914 |
|
2012/13 |
194 |
32 |
853 |
1079 |
|
2013/14 |
378 |
10 |
455 |
843 |
|
2014/15 |
1245 |
61 |
187 |
1493 |
|
2015/16 |
No Budget |
As with all other costs associated with Directly Operated Railways (DOR), these are recovered through a combination of a management charge to their subsidiary (East Coast Main Line Company Ltd), charges to the performance bond which was secured from National Express following the early termination of their franchise in 2009 and fees charged to the Department for Transport for services in connection with the Rail Franchising (Direct Awards) programme.
The total headcount in DOR for the years in question are set out in the table below.
|
Year ending March |
Core DOR |
Direct Award |
|
2010 |
7 |
|
|
2011 |
7 |
|
|
2012 |
7 |
|
|
2013 |
8 |
|
|
2014 |
7 |
6* |
*Prior to the year ending March 2014, DOR’s work in respect of the Direct Award programme was staffed by a combination of the core DOR team and consultants.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of adverse sanction decisions taken against jobseeker’s allowance claimants in 2013 were repeat decisions.
Esther McVey
We have interpreted the question to be for the number of sanction decision reconsiderations and appeals upheld therefore resulting in a sanction still being applied following a request for a review or a formal appeal from the JSA claimant.
This information is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance for users is available at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm
The proportion of adverse sanction decisions can be calculated using these figures.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-03-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons his Department has not published data on the effects of the under-occupancy penalty on the number of social housing tenants who have moved home or fallen into rent arrears.
Esther McVey
It is still too early in the policy’s lifetime to draw any firm conclusions as to its effect, including the number of tenants who have moved home. Rent arrears can have multiple causes and levels tend to fluctuate over time. A longer timeframe than one year is required in order to see whether and, if so, to what extent the removal of the spare room subsidy has impacted on rent arrears levels.
A consortium led by Ipsos-MORI and which includes the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research has been commissioned to carry out a two year monitoring of the effects of the removal of the spare room subsidy measure across Great Britain.
The Homes and Communities Agency reported in February that the median level of arrears among the larger housing associations had fallen from 4.1% in the second quarter of 2013-14 to 3.9% in the third quarter of 2013-14.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Wright on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Written Statement of 11 June 2014, Official Report, column 47WS, on UK Green Investment Bank, what estimate he has made of the staff resource the additional responsibilities on the Green Investment Bank will require.
Michael Fallon
The Green Investment Bank (GIB) expects that the business planning work will require two people and has taken on two individuals with experience in investment in developing economies to complement GIB’s in-house expertise in green investment. The costs of these extra staff will be met by the Department for Energy and Climate Change.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2014-03-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information (a) his Department and (b) HM Tribunals Service hold on the age of people (i) prosecuted and convicted for television licence evasion and (ii) imprisoned for non-payment of a fine for television licence evasion.
Jeremy Wright
No published information is available. The information in the table is taken from a live case management system. As such, it is subject to change and is not checked to the level of Official Statistics. No information is available in respect of socio-economic status of those prosecuted or convicted or imprisoned for non-payment of a fine in respect of television licence evasion. The Government has said that it will examine whether television licence evasion should be decriminalised.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anas Sarwar on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish details of alternative proposals for fire fighter pensions which have been considered by his Department.
Brandon Lewis
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 June, Official Report, Column 152W.