The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2014-03-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the armed forces will tender for the successor to the SA80 L86A2.
Mr Philip Dunne
There are currently no plans to replace the SA80 L86A2.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Ruffley on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) new national insurance numbers registered and (b) new workers in (i) Bury St Edmunds constituency, (ii) Suffolk and (iii) England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.
Esther McVey
Information on the number of National Insurance Numbers registered to individuals including new workers, via constituency, county and country, can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Stat-Xplore_User_Guide.htm
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2014-03-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what dates the National Panel on Serious Case Reviews has met; and if he will publish the minutes of that Panel’s meetings.
Mr Edward Timpson
The national panel of independent experts on Serious Case Reviews has met on the following dates:
1. 25 July 2013
2. 9 September 2013
3. 11 November 2013
4. 13 January 2014
5. 10 February 2014
6. 10 March 2014
The key output of the panel meetings is letters from the panel to Local Safeguarding Children Boards making recommendations on the cases put to them, about the application of the SCR criteria, the appointment of reviewers and the publication of SCR reports. The letters refer to sensitive material not in the public domain and would not therefore be routinely publishable.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which charitable projects in Scotland have received funding from the Armed Forces Covenant (LIBOR) Fund to date.
Anna Soubry
The allocation of some £35 million in LIBOR fines to the Ministry Of Defence to support the Armed Forces community is just one example of the importance this Government places on the Armed Forces covenant.
We have provided £5.5 million of funding for 12 Scottish projects. In addition, the Armed Forces community in Scotland will benefit from a number of UK-wide projects which have been allocated over £16 million of LIBOR funding.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-03-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many fines have been levied under The Immigration (Employment of Adults Subject to Immigration Conrol) (Maximum Penalty) Order 2008 of a value of (a) up to £1000, (b) between £1000 and £2000, (c) between £2000 and £5000 and (d) between £5000 and £10000 to date.
James Brokenshire
Enforcement operations against illegal working have increased significantly,
with a 47% increase in 2013 compared to 2012. The administration of the penalty
scheme and administrative debt recovery processes have been reviewed, including
with Cabinet Office input and are being streamlined and further improved.
The information on the number of civil penalties levied is provided in the
following table. Data has been provided from £2,500 upwards as this is the
minimum penalty value that is levied in line with the published penalty
calculation framework. The table includes values of £10,000 upwards to account
for multiple workers per penalty.
Please note the figures are for penalties levied at the initial decision stage
which may be reduced, cancelled, increased or reissued at the objection or
appeal stage.
| Value of Penalty | £2,500-£5,000 | £5,000-£10,000 | £10,000 plus |
| Total Penalties levied | 5701 | 2774 | 1954 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nadine Dorries on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of all UK visa applications processed by TPContact in (a) Israel, (b) Russia, (c) South Africa and (d) Ukraine have been subject to delays outside the stated service standards.
James Brokenshire
Any failure against the contractual critical service levels may result in
deductions against their submitted invoices. In the event of continuous and
unacceptable failures the Department has the ability to terminate the contract.
The performance of Teleperformance as with all of our contracts is subject to
close Home Office scrutiny. The governance processes include regular meetings
at all levels, from local operational teams up to senior official levels, to
allow in-depth reviews of performance against the service standards set out in
the contract, and to provide an escalation route to resolve any issues that may
arise. We also expect suppliers to provide continuous improvement in delivery
of customer services over the course of the contract, which is also monitored
through these processes.
The Department withheld payment of the contractual transitional payment until
transition was complete in each country where Teleperformance operates. This
has now been has now been approved for payment in countries where visa
application centres (VACs) are operational but withheld in locations still to
be transitioned. Ongoing contractual payments will be subject to the service
credit process outlined above.
The data required to judge performance against contractual service standards is
not yet available. We are not aware of any withdrawn applications linked to
delays in processing at the identified visa application centres since they took
over this service. The Home Office is currently collating data on complaints
for the period since Teleperformance commenced operations and it is not
available for publication.
UK Visas & Immigration has worked closely with Teleperformance from the point
at which contracts were awarded to prepare for live operations, including the
summer peak. Annual and monthly application volumes and forecast figures for
2014 were provided to Teleperformance as part of the tender process and local
discussions have taken place to determine the number of appointment slots
available. Opening hours have been extended and appointment availability has
been increased in a number of locations to prepare for the summer period. Where
VACs are open every day, the availability of appointment slots is continually
monitored, with further measures being taken if appointments are consistently
fully booked.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2014-03-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department has had with Transport for London on the South East Flexible Ticketing scheme.
Stephen Hammond
As a key delivery partner for the South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme, Transport for London are a signatory to the SEFT Memorandum of Understanding and have membership of the SEFT Programme Board. This is intended to ensure that their extensive experience of developing smart ticketing in London is fully utilised in delivering the SEFT programme.
TfL has therefore been fully involved in all significant discussions on the strategic direction, design and delivery of SEFT. Significant work has also been carried out with them to ensure that the scheme will interoperate properly with their existing infrastructure in central London, including system testing.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has spent on agency workers to cover clerical 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.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-03-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department’s agreement in principle for three offshore patrol vessels with BAE Systems.
Mr Philip Dunne
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 November 2013 (Official Report, column 401W).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what scope there is for amending an individual’s claimant commitment after it has first been drawn up.
Esther McVey
Once in place, both the claimant and Jobcentre Plus work coach can ask for the Claimant Commitment to be changed at any time.