Tag: 2014

  • Lord Temple-Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Temple-Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Temple-Morris on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken over the last year to move their accounts from foreign-owned to state-owned banks .

    Lord Deighton

    The policy is to hold exchequer funds safe and secure at the Bank of England and minimise balances held with commercial banks. This policy has not changed and HM Treasury has been working with departments to minimise balances held in commercial accounts in recent years.

    Government Departments and most public bodies bank with the Government Banking Service. The Government Banking Service is a directorate within HM Revenue & Customs. It is a shared service which manages contracts and supports banking services to Government departments using cost efficient and modern commercial banking platforms. The balances held by the Government Banking Service are utilised to reduce the Government’s daily borrowing requirement and in turn its financing costs.

    The Government Banking Service undertook an EU Procurement exercise for government transactional banking services in March 2008 following the decision by the Bank of England to exit from retail services. This resulted in the award of contracts to the two most economically advantageous tenders, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBSG) and Citigroup (Citi).

    A procurement exercise is currently under way to replace these contracts at expiry and again will comply fully with relevant EU regulation. Contract notices in this respect were issued on 9th June 2014 and Invitations to Tender will be made in early October with expectation of contract award in early 2015.

    In the rare circumstance where banking is required outside of the contract then the Department concerned must seek Treasury approval to open separate commercial accounts. This will normally be where third party funds are being managed or the banking service required is complex. The Treasury provides an annual update to the Public Accounts Committee on monies held outside the Exchequer/Government Banking Service. The most recent update published in 13 January 2014 and a link to the publication is

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/treasury-minutes-january-2013

    “

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

    Results for all wards are available on the Commission’s website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

    The ward results for Wandsworth were as follows:

    Ward

    Green matches

    Amber matches

    Red matches

    Balham

    57.8%

    9.2%

    33.1%

    Bedford

    53.0%

    13.1%

    33.9%

    Earlsfield

    59.3%

    6.6%

    34.1%

    East Putney

    57.9%

    6.2%

    35.9%

    Fairfield

    54.2%

    9.6%

    36.2%

    Furzedown

    68.2%

    6.7%

    25.1%

    Graveney

    60.9%

    7.2%

    31.9%

    Latchmere

    65.6%

    4.2%

    30.1%

    Nightingale

    57.7%

    10.0%

    32.3%

    Northcote

    54.1%

    13.3%

    32.7%

    Queenstown

    58.0%

    6.2%

    35.8%

    Roehampton & Putney Heath

    63.5%

    3.2%

    33.3%

    Shaftesbury

    54.1%

    12.3%

    33.7%

    Southfields

    64.4%

    5.7%

    29.8%

    St Mary’s Park

    58.5%

    5.7%

    35.8%

    Thamesfield

    58.8%

    9.2%

    31.9%

    Tooting

    59.0%

    8.8%

    32.2%

    Wandsworth Common

    64.3%

    7.6%

    28.1%

    West Hill

    67.7%

    3.1%

    29.3%

    West Putney

    69.4%

    3.1%

    27.5%

    “

  • Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, columns 113-4W, on taxation, how much is owed in penalties and interest for failure to meet the deadline set for self assessment returns in the year ending 31 March 2014.

    Mr David Gauke

    This information is only available at a disproportionate cost.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rachel Reeves – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the effect on the time taken to receive universal credit of a claimant (a) moving to live in an area where universal credit is not being piloted, (b) forming a new relationship and being re-classified as part of a couple and (c) having a child.

    Esther McVey

    No estimate of this has been made. Providing the claimant reports all details of the change promptly, payment of Universal Credit would continue without any delay.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in open prisons were returned to closed prisons in each of the last three years by (a) reason for their return and (b) type of offence originally committed.

    Jeremy Wright

    We do not centrally hold data on the individual reasons for determinate sentence prisoner transfers, including transfers following re-categorisation and when prisoners have been returned to closed conditions from open prisons. Where this is available, the information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual trawl through the records of every prisoner to identify if they have ever been held in open conditions and subsequently returned to closed conditions.

    However, the information, in part, is centrally available in respect of indeterminate sentence prisoners.

    Table 1 provides the number of indeterminate sentence prisoners who have been returned from open conditions to closed conditions and where the transfer occurred between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2014, grouped by year and by reason for transfer. The data has been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

    We are unable to provide a breakdown of this information by index offence as this information is not held centrally; to obtain it would require a manual trawl through every case and this would incur disproportionate cost.

    REASON FOR RETURN TO CLOSED PRISON

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    Grand Total

    Abscond

    117

    161

    170

    448

    Antisocial Behaviour

    48

    96

    74

    218

    Breach of Licence Conditions

    30

    33

    56

    120

    Drink/Drugs

    139

    171

    256

    568

    FNP

    3

    3

    Healthcare issues

    5

    5

    New charges/offences

    2

    2

    Non compliance

    1

    28

    29

    Other

    135

    235

    298

    668

    Prisoner request

    2

    2

    Psychology concerns/issues

    6

    6

    Serious breach of prison rules

    1

    21

    22

    Grand Total

    469

    698

    921

    2,087

    The main purpose of open conditions is to test prisoners in conditions more similar to those that they will face in the community. Time spent in open prisons affords prisoners the opportunity to find work, re-establish family ties, reintegrate into the community and ensure housing needs are met. For many prisoners who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody; these can assist in their successful reintegration in the community and protecting the public.

    We make no apologies for taking a firm approach in returning prisoners to closed conditions wherever we need to do so.

    The number of temporary release failures remains very low; less that one failure in every 1,000 releases and about five in every 100,000 releases involving alleged offending, but we take each and every incident seriously. The Government has already ordered immediate changes to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. With immediate effect, prisoners will no longer be transferred to open conditions if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or reoffended whilst released on temporary licence.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rachel Reeves – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost of processing a change in a claimant’s circumstances when he or she (a) moves to live in an area where universal credit is not being piloted, (b) forms a new relationship and are re-classified as part of a couple and (c) has a child.

    Esther McVey

    No estimate of this has been made (In the examples quoted the changes would be processed in the same way as any other reported change of circumstances).

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) computers, (b) job-search stations and (c) telephones were available for jobseekers to use in Jobcentre Plus offices in the United Kingdom in each financial year since 2008-09; and whether these will be available in every Jobcentre Plus in 2015-16.

    Esther McVey

    We are changing the way we provide our service, moving from a telephone and Jobpoint based service to one which is making use of the latest technologies.From now until the end of October, we will be installing WIFI and new Web Access Devices across the Jobcentre network. This will enable claimants to access Universal Jobmatch and other job sites, as well as allowing them to apply directly for vacancies that they find.

    Equipment Available for Jobseekers to use in Jobcentres in Great Britain* from 2008 to 2016

    a) Computers

    b) Jobsearch stations (Jobpoints)

    c) telephones (Customer Access Phones)

    2008-09

    0

    6860

    3790

    2009-10

    0

    6967

    3790

    2010-11

    0

    6933

    3790

    2011-12

    0

    6647

    3790

    2012-13

    2176

    6079

    3730

    2013-14

    2411

    6079

    2384

    2014-15

    8307

    0

    0**

    2015-16***

    8307

    0

    0**

    All figures are as of financial year end

    *Figures for Northern Ireland not available.

    **Assisted service available to vulnerable claimants who are unable to access DWP services without our help. The Assisted Service is face-to-face and includes use of a telephone for claimants who need support to resolve their enquiry. Support is tailored to the individual’s needs.

    ***Estimated figures

    The figures for 2013-14 were provided by Operations to the Digital Jobcentre Project as part of an audit undertaken at the start of the Project and have not been properly checked and verified.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-03-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 10 February (WA 95), whether, in calculating the Local Government Finance Settlement, they have made any assumptions of the likely expenditure on electoral registration.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    Funding for electoral registration is included within the local government finance settlement, and it is for the Local Authority to manage the non-ring fenced funding it provides to deliver statutory obligations, including electoral registration.

    The Government is funding the net additional costs to local authorities of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration in financial years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 via grants to local authorities in England and Wales and on invoice for the Valuation Joint Boards in Scotland.

  • Tom Greatrex – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Greatrex – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the conclusions of the Orion Innovations report entitled Merits of UK Coal State Aid Application, submitted to his Department on 9 May 2014.

    Michael Fallon

    I asked officials to review the report and discuss it with the author. This included a discussion on the background to the report and an explanation from Orion of the methodology and conclusions made in the report. Furthermore, they questioned the detail of the analysis, the robustness of the assumptions and areas for further development. Their conclusions are that the report is a high level analysis of the key issues and that it would require significant further work, diligence and validation of assumptions and contingency. It also requires enhancements to methodology, for example, to model the phasing of cash flows and include time value of money considerations and appropriate returns to capital. Orion has noted that the work was completed on a short timeframe and that they would be open to carrying out further work if a mandate could be agreed. On this basis, it is not possible to draw conclusions sufficient to inform any investment decision.

  • Andrew Percy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Andrew Percy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Government contracts have been awarded to companies based in Brigg and Goole constituency since May 2010; and what the value of such awards was.

    Nick Hurd

    I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave the Hon. Member for Livingston on 16 December 2013 (Official Report) Column Ref: 453W.