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Tag: 2014

  • Elfyn Llwyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Elfyn Llwyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Elfyn Llwyd on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Attorney General, in respect of how many alleged offences under section (a) 2A and (b) 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 proceedings are active in magistrates’ and crown courts in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

    Oliver Heald

    The Crown Prosecution Service does not maintain a central record of the number of particular offences that are currently active in either magistrates’ or crown courts in England and Wales.

    The CPS case management system does however record the number of finalised cases which reached a first hearing in the magistrates’ court as follows:

    2012-2013

    2013-2014

    Protection from Harassment Act 1997 { 4A(1)(a)(b)(i) and (5) }

    Stalking involving fear of violence

    9

    65

    Protection from Harassment Act 1997 { 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and (5) }

    Stalking involving serious alarm / distress

    10

    149

    Protection from Harassment Act 1997 { 2A(1) and (4) }

    Stalking

    72

    529

    There is no indication of final outcome or if the offence charged was the offence at finalisation.

  • Mike Crockart – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mike Crockart – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Crockart on 2014-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what consultation his Department has had with groups representing separated parents on steps to ensure universal credit makes shared parenting a financially viable option for parents who do not have family-based financial arrangements in place.

    Esther McVey

    Currently the child element will be awarded to the parent with whom the child or qualifying young person normally lives. Where separated parents both share the care of a child or qualifying young person they are expected to jointly nominate which of them has the main responsibility.

    Where parents are unable to come to an agreement themselves, a determination will be made. This will take account of where the child normally lives and who has the main day to day responsibility.

    The proposed approach to Universal Credit was set out in a White Paper "Universal Credit: Welfare that Works" and in draft Regulations upon which a wide range of organisations responded to in the consultation exercise carried out by the Social Security Advisory Committee.

  • Kelvin Hopkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Kelvin Hopkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what level of revenue support Govia will be entitled to in each accounting period of the direct award of the London Midland rail passenger franchise agreement to June.

    Stephen Hammond

    Although preliminary negotiations have taken place with regard to a Direct Award to run services from April 2016, formal negotiations are yet to take place.

    However, we do not anticipate that the operator will be entitled to any revenue support throughout the period of the Direct Award.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2014-04-03.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the proposed role for National Savings and Investment (NS&I) offering pensioner savings bonds with NS&I’s objective of reducing the cost to the taxpayer of Government borrowing.

    Nicky Morgan

    NS&I’s purpose is to provide cost effective financing for the Government that balances the interest of savers, taxpayers and the wider markets.

    Given that the NS&I fixed-rate savings bond for people aged 65 or over are a Budget measure designed to offer targeted support to a particular group of savers, the costs of raising funding through these bonds, rather than gilts, was represented in Table 2.1 of the Budget 2014 document.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    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 Answer of 18 March 2014, Official Report, column 572W, on mental health services: children, when he expects NHS England’s review of Tier 4 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to be published.

    Norman Lamb

    I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) on 9 June 2014, Official Report, column 57W.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2014-03-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what they are doing to ensure that children from less privileged backgrounds are not disadvantaged at school.

    Lord Nash

    Raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils is a top priority for this Government. That is why we have invested in the pupil premium for schools, which has risen from £625 million in 2011-12 to £2.5 billion in 2014-15, giving schools the additional resources they need to raise disadvantaged pupils’ attainment, and give them a better start in life.

    We have extended eligibility for funding over the last three years, as well as raising the per-pupil funding rate. When the pupil premium was introduced in April 2011, schools received £488 for each pupil who was registered for free school meals or looked after by the local authority for six months or more. From April 2014, the funding will be £1,300 per primary aged pupil, £935 per secondary aged pupil and £1,900 for each pupil who is looked after for one day or more; or who left care through adoption or a Special Guardianship Order on or after 30 December 2005, or via a Residence Order.

    Headteachers are held accountable for the impact of this additional funding in three different ways. Firstly, the performance tables set out the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils and the gap between them and their peers. Secondly, Ofsted inspects the achievement of all pupils in a school. Where disadvantaged pupils are making insufficient progress, inspectors are likely to grade a school as requiring improvement and will recommend that the school undertakes a pupil premium review. Thirdly, schools are required to publish online how much pupil premium funding they receive, how they have used this funding and an evaluation of the impact that it has had.

    Our EBacc is driving up the number of pupils leaving school with the subjects most prized by employers and universities. Already, our introduction of the EBacc has seen the number of children studying at least 5 of the essential subjects rise.

    The free schools programme is another powerful way to ensure greater opportunity for more disadvantaged children. 174 free schools are open, 45% of which were set up in the 30% most deprived areas of the country; communities often poorly served for generations.

    Some of our most disadvantaged schools are seeing the improvements brought about by successful academy sponsors. 26.3% of pupils in secondary sponsored academies are eligible for free school meals, well above the national average for secondary schools of 15.1%, yet results in sponsored academies continue to improve faster than in local authority schools.

  • Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the annual cost of maintaining existing pension provisions for firefighters (a) who have achieved 20 years of service and are within 10 years of normal retirement age and (b) who have achieved 20 years of service.

    Brandon Lewis

    No assessment has been made of the annual cost of maintaining existing pension provisions for firefighters who have achieved 20 years of service. However, the Government Actuary’s Department have previously approximated that, ignoring the effects of any tapered protection, to alter the transitional protections to only apply to firefighters who, as at 1 April 2012, were aged at least 40 and had 20 or more years pensionable service would increase the capital cost of the 1992 scheme protections by around £50 million.

    Any firefighter who is within 10 years of their current Normal Pension Age, as at 1 April 2012, will remain in their existing pension scheme irrespective of length of service. A greater proportion of firefighters are protected than for any other large public service workforce.

  • Mr Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mr Jim Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Jim Cunningham on 2014-03-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of initial teacher trainees were service leavers in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10, (c) 2010-11, (d) 2011-12, (e) 2012-13 and (f) the current academic year to date.

    David Laws

    The Department for Education does not hold this information prior to March 2011. Between 2010 and 2012/13, 0.12% of initial teacher training (ITT) trainees declared themselves as having an armed forces background. ITT census information and performance profiles can be found online at:

    http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/careers/traininganddevelopment/initial/b00204146/itt-data-and-surveys/trainee-census

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-performance-profiles-2013-for-the-academic-year-2011-to-2012

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-trainee-number-census

    “

  • Baroness Corston – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Baroness Corston – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Corston on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the implementation of the Prison Service Instruction 30/2013, which prohibits prisoners from receiving parcels from relatives, whether any prisons have introduced measures to help women who no longer have access to sufficient underwear.

    Lord Faulks

    In order to ensure that women have access to sufficient underwear, there is now no restriction on the number of pairs of underwear women in prison can have in their cells (subject to standard overarching volumetric limits on property held in possession).

  • Simon Hart – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Simon Hart – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Hart on 2014-04-03.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government has taken to extend the tax warehousing system to inland road fuel terminals throughout the UK.

    Nicky Morgan

    This information is held on a HMRC database and includes excise identification and approval numbers unique to the traders listed. For taxpayer confidentiality reasons this information is not publically available, and there is no intention to publish it.

    Eligibility criteria for a duty deferment guarantee waiver under the Excise Payment Security System do not apply to or exclude particular sectors. These criteria are published by HMRC, and apply to all applicants.

    HMRC is considering the future of the vapour recovery scheme as part of the wider work programme to determine the appropriate course of action in respect of all their extra-statutory concessions.

    The Government’s policy is not to allow duty suspended movements within the UK, this is both for administrative simplicity and to reduce the opportunities for criminal activity and fraud.