Tag: 2014

  • Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2014-03-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect on the ability of older and disabled workers to find work as a result of the abolition of the Percentage Threshold Scheme for recovering statutory sick pay.

    Mike Penning

    The Statutory Sick Pay Percentage Threshold Scheme is not linked to finding work, rather it compensates employers with high levels of sickness absence. An independent review of sickness absence[1] found that this scheme does nothing to tackle the causes of absence. As a result, the Government accepted a recommendation in the review to abolish the Percentage Threshold Scheme. The Government also accepted a recommendation to establish a Service (now known as the Health and Work Service) to offer specialist occupational health assessment and advice to employers, employees and GPs. The Service is designed to reduce the costs of sickness absence for employers by addressing the issues preventing a return to work, and supporting employees back to work as quickly as appropriate.

    We consider that the creation of the Health and Work Service, funded by the abolition of the Percentage Threshold Scheme, will enable sickness absence to be better managed and improve the employment prospects of all employees, including older and disabled workers.

    [1] Black, C. and Frost, D (2011) Health at work – and independent review of sickness absen

  • Andy McDonald – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andy McDonald – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2014-06-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations he has received on the number of children with autism informally excluded from school.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    The Secretary of State has received several recent parliamentary questions about the informal exclusion of children with autism. Officials from the department have also met with Ambitious about Autism in March 2014, to discuss its concerns about this issue, raised in the report, Ruled Out.

    The government’s view remains clear. No child should be unlawfully excluded. Ofsted and the department would take seriously evidence that a school had acted unlawfully in excluding a pupil. In addition, most children on the autism spectrum would be considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010. Where disabled children are discriminated against through unlawful exclusion their parents can make a claim to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). The Tribunal has wide ranging powers, including the power to require the reinstatement of a pupil.

    Awareness of autism and appropriate skills are essential to meeting the needs of autistic children. The reforms we are introducing through the Children and Families Act will provide for earlier and better assessment of children and young people’s needs. We’re also investing more than £3 million of funding over two years to raise awareness of autism and help schools and colleges deliver the support these children and young people need. This includes £1.5 million for the Autism Education Trust to provide tiered training to early years, school and further education college staff, as well as £440,000 to the National Autistic Society, part of which is being used to provide advice to professionals and parents on exclusion.

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-03-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the empty property business rates for the vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS database owned by (a) his Department and (b) any executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies of his Department in the current financial year.

    Elizabeth Truss

    Since May 2010 the Department for Education has reduced the size of its estate from 30 properties, at a cost of circa £51 million per annum, to 11 properties costing circa £34 million per annum. This is a saving of circa £17 million per annum. The Department is planning to further reduce the size of the estate to 6 properties. This will achieve further annual savings to the Department of circa £2.5 million. The Department also plans to vacate Sanctuary Buildings at lease expiry in 2017.

    The Department for Education, including the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), has the following vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS property database.

    Number of properties

    Business Rates 13-14

    Department for Education

    3

    £79,010.25

    Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

    1

    £9,222.00

    The Department for Education properties are legacy Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) properties which became the Department’s responsibility following the closure of the TEC in the early 2000s. The Department had successfully sub-let a number of facilities, although over the last three years some of the sub-tenants have operated lease break options and the properties are again vacant.

    These properties are advertised on the Government Property Unit’s e-PIMS property database for use by other Government Departments and we are also marketing these facilities to the private sector, via letting agents, to secure new sub-tenants in order to mitigate costs, including business rates. The Department has offered all vacant properties listed above to the Government business incubator initiative and for free schools.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Sudan regarding the arrest of the National Umma Party leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Minister for Africa, my Hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mr Simmonds), wrote to Professor Ibrahim Ghandour, adviser to the Sudanese President, urging al-Sadiq al-Mahdi’s release. The Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development, my Hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), also raised this issue with the Foreign Minister of Sudan on 20 May. Following the arrest, the British Embassy in Khartoum issued a statement expressing our concerns and highlighting that such actions undermine the President of Sudan’s initiative for a National Dialogue. We have made clear that the process for National Dialogue needs to be inclusive and this can only be achieved if senior political and community figures are able to speak freely.

  • Ms Karen Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Ms Karen Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Karen Buck on 2014-03-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many households have been placed in temporary accommodation in each London local authority by councils other than their own since March 2010.

    Kris Hopkins

    [Holding Reply: Monday 17 March 2014]

    I refer the hon. Member to my answer to her of 19 December 2013, Official Report, Column 713W.

  • Lord Stevens of Ludgate – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Stevens of Ludgate – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stevens of Ludgate on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the European Union’s balance of trade with the United Kingdom of any United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union.

    Lord Deighton

    The Government has made no assessment of the impact on the European Union’s balance of trade with the United Kingdom of any withdrawal from the European Union.

    The EU represents a market of over 500 million people with a combined GDP of around £10.5 trillion. It is the largest single market in the world.

    The EU is the UK’s most important trading partner; 45% of our exports are destined for the EU and seven of the UK’s top ten individual trading partners are EU member states.

  • Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-03-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance he has issued on the requirement to have £16,000 or less in savings for eligibility for income-based jobseeker’s allowance.

    Esther McVey

    For Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), guidance on the requirement to have £16000 or less in capital and savings is in the JSA procedural guidance. Corresponding guidance for Decision Makers is in the Decision Makers Guide, chapter 29.

    Public facing communications are available via the:

    · Government website www.gov.uk;

    · information leaflet INF4: changes you must tell us about; and

    · Jobseeker’s Allowance: help while you look for work leaflet.

    There has always been a level above which income-based JSA was not payable if savings were held since 1996.

    “

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what rules currently govern the disclosure of European Union information; and whether any past or present rule, or any proposed rule, bans disclosure of information disadvantageous to the European Union.

    Lord Faulks

    Access to documents held by the European Union (EU) is governed by Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (the Regulation), which provides a public right of access to documents held by these three institutions. The Regulation has also been extended to further EU institutions through other instruments. Information relating to the EU may also be requested from UK public authorities under domestic information rights legislation, including the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

    Neither the Regulation nor domestic legislation contain provisions which prohibit the disclosure of information simply because its release would be disadvantageous to the EU, and there are no plans to introduce such a measure. However, both the Regulation and domestic legislation provide a range of exemptions, often subject to a public interest test, which permit bodies subject to them to withhold genuinely sensitive information from disclosure where release would undermine legitimate interests specified in that legislation. These include, for example, exemptions which may be relied upon to protect international relations, commercial interests or the decision-making processes for making EU legislation.

  • 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 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department collects on the number of (a) men and (b) women in prison who had alcohol-related issues prior to conviction.

    Jeremy Wright

    Prisoners are assessed on entry to prison for addiction problems and there is a package of support available to them. The MoJ’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme will provide individual support to all released prisoners. This will include identifying risks and needs for individual ex-prisoners, and providing services to address them.

    The Ministry of Justice does not collect these data centrally on a regular basis. However, a survey of 1,435 adult prisoners sentenced to between one month and four years in 2005 and 2006 (Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction – SPCR) provides self-reported estimates for each question.

    The full reports can be accessed on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/surveying-prisoner-crime-reduction-spcr

    “

  • Lord Colwyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Colwyn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in preventing a shortfall of dental foundation training places from occurring in 2014 and in ensuring that positions will be found for final year students who have yet to be allocated a place.

    Earl Howe

    Health Education England (HEE) are funding more training places than the number of students forecast to graduate from dental schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 2014 recruitment. London Shared Services is leading the recruitment process on behalf of HEE for the Dental Foundation Training programme and they are currently half way through this process.

    HEE have said that more places will become available as a result of students who have accepted posts and are now deferring or have failed their final examinations.