The below Parliamentary question was asked by Katy Clark on 2014-03-12.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that all statistics identified as high impact outputs with less widespread support by the Office for National Statistics in its consultation on statistical products 2013 will continue to be funded for 2014-15.
Nick Hurd
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 17 March 2014 (Official Report) Column Ref: 470W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ashcroft on 2014-06-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Warsi on 25 April 2013 (WA 447– 48), with regard to the use of Diego Garcia for rendition flights, what is the latest situation in relation to such flights.
Baroness Warsi
Aside from the two cases of rendition through Diego Garcia (British Indian Ocean Territory) in 2002, there have been no other instances in which US intelligence flights landed in the UK, our overseas Territories, or the Crown Dependencies, with a detainee on board since 11 September 2001.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dame Anne Begg on 2014-03-12.
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 (a) Aberdeen City Council and (b) Aberdeenshire County Council.
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 Aberdeen City Council were as follows:
|
Ward |
Green matches |
Amber matches |
Red matches |
|
Airyhall/Broomhill/Garthdee |
78.4% |
2.0% |
19.6% |
|
Bridge Of Don |
84.4% |
1.5% |
14.1% |
|
Dyce/Bucksburn/Danestone |
79.4% |
3.4% |
17.2% |
|
George St/Harbour |
46.2% |
8.1% |
45.8% |
|
Hazlehead/Ashley/Queens Cross |
76.0% |
3.0% |
21.0% |
|
Hilton/Woodside/Stockethill |
77.2% |
1.9% |
21.0% |
|
Kincorth/Nigg/Cove |
82.9% |
1.7% |
15.4% |
|
Kingswells/Sheddocksley/Summerhill |
83.0% |
1.3% |
15.7% |
|
Lower Deeside |
77.6% |
5.4% |
17.0% |
|
Midstocket/Rosemount |
62.9% |
5.2% |
31.9% |
|
Northfield/Mastrick North |
85.0% |
1.4% |
13.7% |
|
Tillydrone/Seaton/Old Aberdeen |
55.1% |
3.9% |
41.1% |
|
Torry/Ferryhill |
67.2% |
5.1% |
27.7% |
The ward results for Aberdeenshire County Council were as follows:
|
Ward |
Green matches |
Amber matches |
Red matches |
|
Aboyne Upper Deeside And Donside |
72.7% |
9.4% |
17.9% |
|
Banchory And Mid Deeside |
79.3% |
5.4% |
15.4% |
|
Banff And District |
78.0% |
6.9% |
15.1% |
|
Central Buchan |
74.5% |
9.7% |
15.9% |
|
East Garioch |
79.0% |
4.5% |
16.5% |
|
Ellon And District |
78.8% |
5.1% |
16.1% |
|
Fraserburgh And District |
82.2% |
3.1% |
14.7% |
|
Huntly Strathbogie And Howe Of Alford |
74.5% |
9.4% |
16.1% |
|
Inverurie And District |
80.3% |
3.3% |
16.4% |
|
Mearns |
73.7% |
9.1% |
17.1% |
|
Mid Formartine |
74.9% |
7.9% |
17.2% |
|
North Kincardine |
78.5% |
4.8% |
16.7% |
|
Peterhead North And Rattray |
78.6% |
4.5% |
16.9% |
|
Peterhead South And Cruden |
81.5% |
3.8% |
14.7% |
|
Stonehaven And Lower Deeside |
80.2% |
4.3% |
15.4% |
|
Troup |
76.8% |
8.2% |
15.0% |
|
Turriff And District |
73.7% |
9.4% |
16.9% |
|
West Garioch |
74.4% |
8.7% |
16.9% |
|
Westhill And District |
79.5% |
4.4% |
16.1% |
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Meacher on 2014-06-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they support the recommendations of the Munro Review of Child Protection; and how the Review’s recommendations will be reflected in their plans.
Lord Nash
The Government is committed to promoting the welfare of children and protecting them from harm. The Government published its response to the Munro Review of Child Protection in July 2011, shortly after the publication of Professor Munro’s final report. That response accepted Professor Munro’s argument that the child protection system has lost its focus on the things that matter most: the views and experiences of children themselves. It also set out the Government’s plans for implementation.
Of the fifteen recommendations made by Professor Munro, eleven have been implemented in full, including:
Substantial progress is being made on implementing the other key recommendations, including supporting local areas in the redesign of their social work practice. In respect of Professor Munro’s recommendation on introducing a duty to secure provision of early help services, the Government has concluded there is sufficient legislation in place to deliver early help services to children and families. We are continuing to work with sector partners to reinforce existing legislation and understand how early help offers in local areas can be improved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Stewart Jackson on 2014-03-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce long term unemployment in Peterborough constituency; and if he will make a statement.
Esther McVey
The government are committed to helping people off benefits and into work, so it is encouraging that we have seen record numbers of people in work nationally, with unemployment falling.
The Government’s Work Programme revolutionises the help available to people who were in danger of becoming long-term unemployed. Private providers offer tailored help to people who may have been out of work for many years – moving them closer to getting a job. According to Industry figures released this month (March), half a million people have found work through the Work Programme.
We are determined to do everything we can to support those people who are hardest to help into work, and that is what the Work Programme is designed to do, whilst also being a good deal for the tax payer.
Work Coaches in local Jobcentres now have the flexibility to offer all claimants a comprehensive menu of help which includes skills provision, job search support and the Flexible Support Fund.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Morrow on 2014-06-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made any assessment of the compliance of Atos Healthcare with the Human Rights Act 1998, particularly section 6, and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, particularly Article 3; if so, what is that assessment; and whether all staff of that organisation are fully briefed and supplied with copies of the Act and Convention.
Lord Freud
The Department for Work and Pensions does not routinely assess Atos Healthcare’s compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 or the European Convention for Human Rights under its contracts with the Department. However, our contracts with Atos and all of our suppliers include obligations to comply with all legal requirements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) men and (b) women convicted of benefit fraud in each of the last five years received a prison sentence; and what the average prison sentence was for those of each gender so convicted.
Jeremy Wright
The Department for Work and Pensions operates a tough series of specific penalties for benefit fraud that run alongside the criminal justice system. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 toughened penalties for those who commit, or attempt to commit benefit fraud. We have introduced a financial administrative penalty as an alternative to prosecution which, for the first time, can be applied to attempted fraud.
The Government has also introduced a tougher loss of benefit penalty to restrict benefits to people convicted of benefit fraud or who have accepted an administrative penalty. Benefits can be reduced for periods of 13 weeks, 26 weeks or 3 years, dependent on the number of benefit fraud offences committed within a specified period, where the latest offence results in a conviction.
Judges make their decisions independently of Government based on the facts of each case. The maximum penalty for fraud is 10 years in prison.
The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ court found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences relating to benefit fraud, with sentencing outcomes and the average custodial sentence length by gender, in England and Wales, from 2008 to 2012 (latest data available) can be viewed in the table.
Please note that court proceedings statistics for the year 2013 are planned to be published by the Ministry of Justice in May 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gale on 2014-06-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that clinicians making Individual Funding Requestsfor the prescription of Duodopa to people with Parkinson’s are informed of the outcome within 40 days.
Earl Howe
From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson’s disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.
NHS England has advised that it does not routinely fund Duodopa (co-careldopa) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Clinicians can submit individual funding requests for this treatment on behalf of their patients as per NHS England’s individual funding requests standard operating procedure, which is at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cp-04.pdf
NHS England has advised that its individual funding request process is monitored against the standard operating procedure to ensure that referring clinicians are informed of outcomes in a timely manner.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Gregory Campbell on 2014-03-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the pension entitlement is of people of pensionable age who served long sentences in prison.
Steve Webb
A persons entitlement to the contributory state pension is dependent on the National Insurance contributions they have paid or had credited to them over their working life (from the age of 16 upto the year before they reach State Pension age) which builds up Qualifying Years. This will also be the case for the new single tier pension, but with a requirement to have a minimum number of qualifying years.
A person who has served a long prison sentence during their working life is likely to have a below average entitlement to contributory state pension. However, Pension Credit is available where the person’s (and partner’s) income from all sources is inadequate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which schemes have provided support for small and medium-sized from central government funds in each of the last 10 years; what the total amount of funding so provided was in each such year; and how much such funding was spent in each local authority are in each such year.
Matthew Hancock
Support for small and medium-sized businesses is an important objective for a number of Government Departments and schemes can take various forms which can include direct and indirect support, advice and information. Over the last 10 years the range of support measures has been very wide and a full answer to this question cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate costs. Additionally, the Department does not record how much spending or funding is given by local authority area so would not be able to provide this information.
However, since May 2010 the Department has routinely published details of all expenditure including funding provided through Departmental schemes and programmes. Additionally, the Department’s annual report and accounts also provide summary information on a range of programmes that include direct and indirect support to all businesses – including some that directly support SMEs. The most recent annual report can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bis-annual-report-and-accounts-2012-to-2013
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