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  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people in (a) Ashfield constituency and (b) England that will be affected by reductions in employment and support allowance.

    Priti Patel

    The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the welfare policies in the Bill on 20th July last year. However forecasts for Employment and Support Allowance are made only for Great Britain and are not broken down to the level requested. As such, the information requested is not available.

  • Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with mental health charities on the effect of the Work Programme on its participants.

    Priti Patel

    Officials met with the Disability Charities Consortium on 15 January to discuss input into the new Work and Health Programme, which included discussion of the lessons learned from the Work Programme. Officials will also be attending a round table on future employment support, hosted by Mind, on 24 March.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Prime Minister’s Oral Statement of 22 February 2016, Official Report, column 35, on the European Council, whether his Department is undertaking planning in the eventuality of a majority leave vote in the EU referendum.

    Priti Patel

    On 19 February, the Prime Minister set out the Government’s view on remaining in the European Union.

  • Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much child maintenance debt his Department has written off for (a) 1993 and (b) 2003 scheme cases since April 2015.

    Priti Patel

    £17.3m of Child Maintenance debt was written off between 1 April 2015 and 31 January 2016 following confirmation from the Parent With Care that they did not want the arrears to be collected.

    £2.7m was written off where either the Non-Resident Parent or the Parent with Care had died.

    A further £0.6m was written off for a variety of reasons including: amount being less than £65 due to the Secretary of State or situations where legislation does not permit recovery.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, with reference to the Prime Minister’s Oral Statement of 22 February 2016, Official Report, column 35, on the European Council, whether his Department is undertaking planning in the eventuality of a majority leave vote in the EU referendum.

    Stephen Crabb

    At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who were charged to appeal against a parking ticket in each of the last three years.

    Andrew Jones

    Parking is a devolved matter and policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the respective Government.

    Information on parking penalties in England is not held centrally. Records of the number of penalty charge notices issued are contained in annual reports from the traffic adjudicators – London Tribunals covers London Councils and the Traffic Penalty Tribunal reports on authorities outside London.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse in 2016 of (a) raising regulated national rail fares by the retail price index and (b) removing train operators’ flexibility to vary regulated fare levels within the basket of fares in 2016.

    Claire Perry

    We know that passengers are concerned about the cost of fares. That is why we have capped regulated fares at the level of the Retail Price Index (RPI) for three years running, and will continue to do so for the life of this parliament. We have also removed the flex which allowed train operators’ flexibility to vary regulated fare levels within the basket. The estimated cost to the Department in 2016 is, £30.4 million (in nominal prices) for capping regulated rail fares at RPI+0%, and £6 million (in nominal prices) for removing the flex.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) consultants and (b) permanent staff are employed by Network Rail’s Infrastructure Projects division; and how much Network Rail has spent on consultants who work in its Infrastructure Projects division in (i) 2014-15 and (ii) 2015-16.

    Claire Perry

    I have requested this information from Network Rail and can confirm that the number of permanent staff in Infrastructure Projects in 2014-15 was 3641 and in 2015-2016 is 4309. During this period Network Rail insourced the High Output Team from Amey which increased permanent staff figures.

    Network Rail Infrastructure Projects’ expenditure on companies that class themselves as providing consultancy in 2014-15 was £178,401k, and in 2015-2016 is £154,430k. The majority of expenditure on consultants occurs via Network Rail’s Principal Contractors and therefore is not included above.

    We are not able to provide details of the number of consultants because the contract specification for each piece of work is based on the deliverable and not on the number of consultants working on it.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people are employed as special advisers by his Department; and how many people were employed as special advisers by his Department on 1 January 2016.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The number of special advisers employed by the Department for Transport is published on a regular basis, the most recent information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486829/List_of_Special_Advisers_in_post_at_17_December_2015.pdf .

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  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with the new owners of London City Airport; what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the sale of that airport on airport capacity in the South East; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    There have been no discussions with the new owners of London City Airport.

    The purchase of London City Airport is a commercial matter between the relevant parties.