The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Prime Minister, how many members of staff of his Office worked on the review by the Cabinet Secretary of the release of correspondence between Ministers relating to prevention of extremism.
Mr David Cameron
The Cabinet Secretary will respond to the hon. Member on this matter shortly. I will place a copy of the letter in the Library of the House.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport examining officers were employed by HM Passport Office in each year since 2010.
James Brokenshire
The table below shows the number of Her Majesty’s Passport Office full-time
equivalents working within the passport operational Directorates.
The formal record for workforce data is made on the last day of each calendar
month. We have therefore provided the data as of 31 March of each year.
(a) 2011- 2,586
(b) 2012- 2,216
(c) 2013- 2,389
(d) 2014-2,593
Due to the limitations of the HR management system used prior to Dec 2010, it
is not possible to provide reliable management information below top level for
any periods prior to that date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to improve the habitat and increase the number of (a) hedgehogs and (b) owls.
George Eustice
Agri-environment schemes, such as Environmental Stewardship, are the principal means of improving habitats and the wider environment on farmland in England. Farmers receive funding to manage the cropped environment and provide additional habitats on their farms for birds and other wildlife. Under work to develop the implementation plan for Biodiversity 2020 (the Government’s strategy for England’s wildlife and ecosystem services) Natural England has commissioned work to review all Section 41 species. This is to identify priorities for action and to determine what those actions should be. The hedgehog is being considered within this context by the Mammal Taxon Group, which comprises specialist organisations, led by Natural England.
Activities of benefit to owls, currently funded by Environmental Stewardship, include the establishment of grassy margins and buffer strips, and the management of field corners. These can provide additional habitat for prey species such as small mammals. The restoration of traditional farm buildings can also provide both shelter and nesting sites along with the provision of nest boxes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 8 April 2014, Official Report, column 178W, from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, on air pollution, for what reasons an assessment has not been made of the deaths caused by short-term exposures to elevated levels of air pollutants in the years since 2010.
Jane Ellison
Estimates of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution in United Kingdom local authorities in 2010 were published by Public Health England in April 2014. The mortality burden for the UK was estimated as an effect equivalent to nearly 29,000 deaths.
Public Health England does not routinely estimate the deaths associated with short-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollutants, as these effects are thought to overlap with the mortality effects of long-term exposure to air pollution. Long-term exposure to air pollution is understood to be a contributory factor to deaths from respiratory and, particularly, cardiovascular disease, for example, unlikely to be the sole cause of deaths of individuals. This means that it is likely that air pollution contributes a smaller amount to the deaths of a larger number of exposed individuals rather than being solely responsible for a number of deaths equivalent to the calculated figure of ‘attributable deaths’.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Attorney General, how many homicide prosecutions the Crown Prosecution Service undertook in 2013 where there were (a) three defendants, (b) four defendants, (c) five defendants and (d) six or more defendants.
Oliver Heald
The Crown Prosecution Service does not maintain a central record of the number of defendants in its prosecutions. This information could only be obtained by examining all homicide files, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dame Tessa Jowell on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the revenue that would be generated from additional council tax bands on higher value homes, broken down by (a) the total revenue generated UK wide, (b) the total generated in the Greater London region and (c) a breakdown for each threshold and band value (i) UK wide and (ii) in the Greater London region.
Brandon Lewis
No assessment has been made as we have no intention of introducing higher council tax bands.
Council tax re-banding would require a wholesale council tax revaluation, hitting ordinary home owners with higher taxes, especially those who have undertaken home improvements. Fundamentally, council tax is not a wealth tax; it is a local charge for the use of local services. The current banded system is intentionally designed to avoid the flaws and inequities of both the poll tax and of domestic rates, the former which taxed multiple-adult homes too much, and the latter which taxed both family homes and pensioner households too much.
I would note that the last Labour Government and Welsh Assembly Government jointly undertook a council tax revaluation and re-banding exercise in Wales in 2005. Four times as many homes moved up one or more bands than moved down. Two-thirds of the net rises were amongst homes (originally) in Bands A to C, meaning that those on more modest incomes were hardest hit.
Labour Ministers originally claimed that revaluation was revenue-neutral, but this was not the case. In the first year of the revaluation, council tax income rose by 10 per cent, of which 4 per cent was due to that year’s increase in Band D rates, and 6 per cent due to more properties in higher bands due to the revaluation (Welsh Assembly Government, Submission to the Lyons Inquiry into Local Government, Annex B: Council Tax Revaluation and Rebanding 2005 Chronology and Facts, March 2006). To place that in context, a 6 per cent rise in council tax receipts in England would today represent a sustained tax increase on hard-working people of £1.4 billion a year, every year.
As the then Chairman of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Phyllis Starkey (then the hon. Member for Milton Keynes South West), observed: “The Welsh Assembly – I believe it was my party, but I am not making an excuse for it – took advantage of the revaluation hugely to increase the total [tax] take” (3 February 2010, Official Report, Column 383).
Instead of finding new ways to tax people, this Government has given extra funding to town halls to help freeze council tax. We cancelled any plans for a council tax revaluation. We have handed local residents new rights to veto big local tax hikes, so local people have the final say on the amount they pay. Council tax in England more than doubled under the Labour Government; under this Government, bills have fallen by 11 per cent in real terms, giving families financial security and helping hard-working people with the cost of living.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects negotiations to begin with Govia over the direct award extension from September 2015 to June 2017 of the London Midland passenger rail franchise.
Stephen Hammond
On 9 June we signed the 7-period extension to the London Midland contract as permitted in the franchise agreement. This extends the current franchise until April 2016. Although preliminary negotiations have taken place with regard to a Direct Award to run services from April 2016, no timetable for formal negotiations is yet in place. As announced by the Secretary of State, the new franchising programme will provide a more sustainable schedule for rail franchising and the planned competition for the West Midland franchise should see the successful operator providing services from June 2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the statement on the What About Youth? website that approval has been received to use young people’s contact details from NHS registration data and the National Pupil Database, when that data was supplied; and on what register the decision to disclose that data was recorded.
Dr Daniel Poulter
On behalf of the Department, the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has commissioned the “What about Youth?” trial survey to test the processes and methodology. It was carried out by Ipsos Mori and ran from November 2013 to February 2014. The trial survey was posted to just under 7,000 younger people using information obtained from the Medical Research Information Service Integrated Database and Administration System, approval for which was obtained on 15 August 2013 via the HSCIC Data Linkage and Extract Services application process:
http://www.hscic.gov.uk/dlesaac
The decision to approve the request for provision of an extract will be included in the next Data Release Register due in early July.
The National Pupil Database (NPD) is a Department for Education resource. HSCIC gained approval to use NPD data by applying via the formal process:
https://www.gov.uk/national-pupil-database-apply-for-a-data-extract#approval-process
and received approval to use NPD for the trial survey on 18 March 2014; however, this was too late for the trial and the data were not used. Ipsos Mori was granted access to the extract on 10 April. The decision to approve the request for provision of an extract is shown on row 139 of the “National pupil database: requests received” at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-pupil-database-requests-received
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will assess the potential effect on gateline staffing levels at (a) Birmingham New Street, (b) Coventry and (c) all stations on the London Midland line of London Midland’s proposals to reduce the number of revenue protection staff.
Stephen Hammond
Staffing levels and to which role staff are allocated are matters for the train operator, as long as they continue to deliver the services that meet the requirements of the Franchise Agreement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 2014-06-10.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are making any representations concerning the choice of Qatar as the host of the World Cup in 2022 in the light of recent allegations of corruption.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
There is an investigation taking place into the bidding process and we should wait and see what this reports rather than prejudge it. We expect FIFA, and all other major sports organisations, to practise good governance and operate in a transparent manner.