Tag: 2014

  • Ben Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Ben Bradshaw – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    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.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions she has had with her ministerial colleagues at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on how the UK’s overseas posts may be used more effectively to promote Northern Ireland trade and investment.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues, including in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on the importance of promoting Northern Ireland trade and investment.

    Our Embassies abroad regularly work with InvestNI and the Northern Ireland Executive to assist with trade missions led by Northern Ireland Ministers. I shall be discussing with the incoming UKTI Chief Executive shortly how best UKTI posts abroad can work even closer with their counterparts in InvestNI.

  • Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Paul Flynn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions his Department has had with the United States Department of Defense (USDoD) in respect of the installation by BT of a special communications system to link RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire with the USDoD headquarters in Washington DC and the US Africa headquarters for unmanned aircraft operations in Djibouti.

    Mr Mark Francois

    The installation of US communications systems at RAF Croughton is a matter for the United States Visiting Forces. No discussions have taken place in respect to the installation by BT of a special communications system to link RAF Croughton with the Department of Defence headquarters in the US, and US Forces in Djibouti.

  • Andy McDonald – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andy McDonald – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2014-06-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to ensure that the centralisation in Newcastle of national insurance services for the North East does not have a negative effect on service for users.

    Esther McVey

    Measures taken ensure that dedicated centralised teams are able to offer both earlier and increased numbers of appointments to individuals of the North East. Measures are also in place to ensure mobile visits to employer sites are completed when necessary.

  • Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ms Harriet Harman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Harriet Harman on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the three most popular instruments are for secondary school children in England who are learning an instrument in school.

    Elizabeth Truss

    The information requested is not held by the Department for Education. A recent report[1] published by Arts Council England shows that in the academic year 2012/13, 437,975 pupils in years 1-9 received free whole class ensemble teaching. This is 8.6% of the national cohort. 430,998 pupils were in years 1-6 (12.4% of the cohort) and 6,977 were in years 7-9 (0.4% of the cohort).

    Many other children learn instruments in and out of school, but these figures are not collected or held centrally.

    [1]http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-funding/funding-programmes/music-education-hubs/

    “

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the number of households with children in the private rented sector in England.

    Kris Hopkins

    [Holding Reply: Wednesday 18 June 2014]

    According to the English Housing Survey, in 2011-12, there were 3.9 million households in the owner occupied sector with dependent children, 1.3 million in the private rented sector and 1.2 million in the social rented sector.

  • Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Walley on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to meet representatives of Cuadrilla and other members of the shale gas industry.

    Dan Rogerson

    The Secretary of State has no such planned engagements at present but always welcomes meeting a broad range of organisations to understand their needs and concerns. The UK Government is committed to the development of the shale gas industry in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

  • David Amess – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Amess – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2014-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time and resources that clinicians spend on administering individual funding requests for treatments of Parkinson’s disease and other progressive conditions; and if he will make a statement.

    Norman Lamb

    We have made no such assessment.

    From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.

    NHS England has advised that it does not routinely fund Duodopa (co-careldopa) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and is currently considering its clinical policy.

    Clinicians can submit individual funding requests for this treatment on behalf of their patients as per NHS England’s individual funding requests standard operating procedure, which is at:

    www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cp-04.pdf

    This process is monitored against the standard operating procedure to ensure that referring clinicians are informed of outcomes in a timely manner.

    Once the commissioning position relating to this service area is agreed and service access criteria published, NHS England has advised that the number of individual funding requests from clinicians may reduce.

  • Lindsay Roy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Lindsay Roy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lindsay Roy on 2014-03-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what estimate he has made of the number of homeless (a) single people and (b) families in Scotland.

    David Mundell

    Homelessness statistics in Scotland are published by the Scottish Government who gather the information from local authorities.

    The last such publication was on 25 March 2014 and is available at:

    http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/RefTables/HomelessOcttoDec2013.

    “

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many agency workers have been employed as cover for uniform operational support staff in each month since January 2014.

    Andrew Selous

    Since April 2010 we have cut our overall spend on temporary staff by £35.5m. We only use temporary staff to fill business-critical posts and essential frontline services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house. We will continue to examine our use of contractors and look for further reductions.

    In responding to each question we have utilised data provided by our contracted supplier of temporary clerical staff and contracted supplier of temporary operational staff. As the data provided has been supplied by two different third parties there is a slight difference in the way that the answer to question 3 and 4 has been presented.

    Temporary operational staff relate to Operational Support Grades (OSGs) used within HM Prison Service. We have contracts in place to provide temporary OSGs to fill in gaps in requirements, for building projects or to fill vacancies short term. Temporary OSGs are a very small proportion of our staff complement.

    Uniform operational support staff are Operational Support Grades (OSGs).These are uniformed staff who undertake a wide range of duties in prisons, for example operating prison gates, working in security and managing stores areas. They also escort contractors and their vehicles.

    1) The following amounts (exclusive of VAT) have been spent on clerical agency staff across –

    January 2014 – £2,983,633.14 (5 week period)

    February 2014 – £2,613,023.10 (4 week period)

    March 2014 – £2,591,678.87 (4 week period)

    April 2014 – £2,900,742.70 (5 week period)

    May 2014 – £2,398,053.57 (4 week period)

    June 2014 – £658,700.28 (1 week period)

    2) The following amounts (exclusive of VAT) have been spent on uniform operational support staff –

    January 2014 – £1,082,247 (5 week period)

    February 2014 – £1,420,329 (4 week period)

    March 2014 – £1,137,834 (4 week period)

    April 2014 – £1,249,908 (4 week period)

    May 2014 – £2,282,468 (5 week period)

    The spend for May 2014 also includes the backdated annual pay rise for eligible workers from 1st April 2014.

    3) The following number of clerical agency staff have been utilised –

    January 2014 – 1571 (Average headcount)

    February 2014 – 1634 (Average headcount)

    March 2014 – 1624 (Average headcount)

    April 2014 – 1578 (Average headcount)

    May 2014 – 1644 (Average headcount)

    June 2014 – 1674 (Average headcount)

    4) The following number of uniform operational support staff have been utilised –

    January 2014 – 697 (Peak worker number)

    February 2014 – 845 (Peak worker number)

    March 2014 – 867 (Peak worker number)

    April 2014 – 853 (Peak worker number)

    May 2014 – 855 (Peak worker number)

    June 2014 – Peak worker number not available yet.