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Tag: 2014

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made towards meeting the health goals in the Government’s No Second Night Out Strategy.

    Jane Ellison

    We have met the health goals set out in the No Second Night Out Strategy. Action has included setting up the Homeless Hospital Hospitals Discharge Fund to improve hospital discharge arrangements and provide new post-discharge respite care facilities for homeless people, and publishing guidance (Commissioning Inclusive Services) for local Health and Wellbeing Boards.

    Work continues on improving the physical and mental health outcomes of rough sleepers and we are investing £40 million in 2015-16 to refurbish existing hostels to support health improvement and reduce the demand on health services through a new Homelessness Change programme. This sits alongside Platform for Life, a new programme providing shared accommodation for young people at risk of homelessness, so they have a stable platform for work and study.

  • Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-03-07.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the number of children living in households in Wrexham constituency where one or both parents are (a) working-part-time because they are unable to find full-time work and (b) employed on a zero-hours contract.

    Nick Hurd

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Sudanese counterpart on the case of Meriam Ibrahim and the persecution of Christians in that country.

    Mr William Hague

    I am appalled at the death sentence given to Meriam Ibrahim, and her continued imprisonment. At my request, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Sudanese Embassy in London was summoned to the Foreign Office on 19 May. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), also raised our deep concerns with the Sudanese Foreign Minister when she met him on 20 May. Our Embassy in Khartoum continues to press the Sudanese authorities for Meriam Ibrahim’s release, and is in close contact with her legal team.

    Along with our international partners, we regularly raise the persecution of Christians and other minorities with the Sudanese government. We have called on it to respect the right to freedom of religion and international human rights laws as enshrined in its own constitution.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-03-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the value of the financial settlement paid to the Department for Work and Pensions by Atos upon their withdrawal from the Work Capability Assessment Scheme.

    Lord Freud

    Information regarding the financial settlement between the Department and Atos Healthcare for early exit from the contract to deliver Work Capability Assessments is commercial in confidence.

  • Nic Dakin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Nic Dakin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many recruits enlisting in the armed forces under the age of 18 years had previously (a) been convicted of a criminal offence, (b) received a caution from the police, (c) received an anti-social behaviour order and (d) been permanently excluded from school in the most recent year for which figures are available.

    Anna Soubry

    This information is not held in the format requested.

  • Lord Boateng – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Boateng – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Boateng on 2014-03-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Lord Chancellor or any Minister in his Department last met the chief executive officer of the Legal Aid Agency; and whether they discussed (1) the issue of publicly funded representation at inquests for the families of deceased victims, and (2) the provision for publicly funded representation at the inquest of the family of Cherry Groce.

    Lord Faulks

    The Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Agency has regular meetings with ministers at the Ministry of Justice.

    Following a review of its decision in the Groce family’s case, the Legal Aid Agency made a funding request to Ministers. Ministers have considered the request and have granted funding.
  • Fiona Bruce – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Fiona Bruce – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to implement the recommendations on supporting the broadcasting of accessible information in to the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea in paragraph 1224 of the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in that country.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    We have taken note of the UN Commission of Inquiry recommendation that civil society be supported to broadcast accessible information. We have helped to facilitate contact between BBC Worldwide and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) broadcasting authorities, to explore the possibility of the BBC supplying a range of programmes to the DPRK.

    Through our Embassy in Pyongyang, the UK is also one of the few countries which is able to engage directly with the DPRK. This complements the efforts of others who are already broadcasting into North Korea. The recent report of the UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights in North Korea recognised the importance of both approaches.

  • Mr Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mr Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Gareth Thomas on 2014-03-26.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to encourage the Government Procurement Service to adopt (a) UN Global Compact and (b) ILO standards; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    This Government’s procurement policy is to award contracts on the basis of value for money, which means the optimum combination of cost and quality over the lifetime of the project.

    The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires commissioners to consider the economic, environmental and social benefits of their approaches to procurement before the process starts, at the pre-procurement stage.

    Wider socio-economic criteria can be taken into account at tender evaluation stage if they relate directly to the subject matter of a contract from the point of view of the contracting authority.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Andrew Stephenson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to improve the reliability of tracking methodologies for foreign (a) registered and (b) unregistered vehicles in the UK.

    Stephen Hammond

    The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) receives information on foreign registered vehicles from the police and other enforcement agencies, as well as from members of the public. Other ways of obtaining this information are currently being explored.

    The DVLA has been working with the police to pilot a new enforcement process. This involves the DVLA providing the police forces with registration numbers of foreign registered vehicles which may have overstayed the six- month exemption period and where the keepers have not complied with UK requirements. This information enables the four police forces involved to seize and impound vehicles that have overstayed, where appropriate. If the pilot is successful, the DVLA will explore the potential for extending it to more police forces.

    The DVLA is also working with other government agencies to establish what other data might be used to track and identify over staying foreign registered vehicles.

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-04-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what average time is taken to re-imburse a jobseeker’s allowance claimant who has been wrongly sanctioned.

    Esther McVey

    We do not hold any information that just captures the average time it takes to reimburse a Jobseeker’s Allowance Claimant who has been wrongly sanctioned.

    Once a decision is made that a sanction is no longer appropriate the decision maker notifies our JSA claims maintenance teams. They identify these decisions as priority work and endeavour to input the revised decision into our system and pay any benefit due as soon as possible. For JSA our aim is to clear 90% of changes in 6 days. Based on Year to Date information, up to February 2014, we are achieving 94.9% on JSA.