The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which official, with what job title, is responsible and accountable for departmental management information in the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Baroness Verma
Angie Ridgwell, Director General for Finance and Corporate Services, is the lead official responsible and accountable for management information within DECC.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish copies of any guidance that they provide to local authorities on local accreditation schemes for letting agents and landlords.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
Information on how many local authorities operate letting agent or landlord accreditation schemes is not centrally held. The decision on whether to establish letting agent or landlord accreditation schemes is best made by local authorities who can take account of local conditions and circumstances. The Department does not therefore produce any guidance on such schemes.
We are improving standards in the sector. Later this year, we will bring regulations into force that will require the remaining 3,000 letting and property management agents to join one of the 3 approved redress schemes, thereby improving protection for both tenants and landlords. In addition, we have made over £4 million available to 23 local authorities to help them tackle acute and complex problems with rogue landlords in their area. This builds on the £2.6 million we have given nine local authorities to support enforcement against “Beds in Sheds”.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Byford on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether persons whose National Health Service data has been compromised are informed of that fact; and, if so, what remedy or compensation is available to them.
Earl Howe
National Health Service organisations are individually responsible for managing incidents where patient data has been compromised. Guidance provided by the Health and Social Care Information Centre is that data subjects should be informed when personal data about them has been lost or inappropriately placed in the public domain, unless the cost of doing so would be prohibitive or the risk to those concerned is judged to be minimal. Where there is any risk of identity theft it is strongly recommended that this is done.
There are no central guidelines on remedies or compensation. Individuals whose data has been compromised may make a complaint through local NHS complaints procedures or if they believe that an incident resulted from a breach of data protection requirements they may report this to the Information Commissioner. In some circumstances individuals might seek redress through the Civil Courts.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he discussed liver disease with his Department’s Chief Medical Officer in the last 12 months; what the content of those discussions was; and if he will make a statement.
Jane Ellison
A wide variety of issues, including liver disease, are discussed at regular meetings between the Chief Medical Officer and my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State. As these meetings are not routinely minuted it is not possible to specify at which meetings liver disease was discussed, or the specific contents of individual meetings. There have been no meetings specifically focused on liver disease between the Chief Medical Officer and the Secretary of State within the last 12 months.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what information he holds on how much (a) central and (b) local government spent on advertising to promote voter registration in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
Greg Clark
This information is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 11 October 2011, Official Report, column 343W, on electoral register, what steps he has taken to ensure that aspects of good practice in Northern Ireland are adopted elsewhere in the UK.
Greg Clark
This Government has taken on board the lessons of the 2002 introduction of Individual Electoral Registration in Northern Ireland. A number of safeguards are in place for the transition that were not used in 2002. For example data matching will allow the vast majority of electors to automatically re-register and the transition is being phased over two years to allow those not yet individually registered to vote in the 2015 General Election.
Funding has been made available to all 363 local authorities and valuation joint boards in Great Britain. Electoral registration officers have been encouraged to use this funding to support the delivery of the Rock Enrol! learning resource.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authority had the biggest percentage (a) increase and (b) decrease in electoral registration in each year since 2010.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that there are no reliable yearly estimates of levels of registration at a local authority level.
The Office for National Statistics publishes total electorates for each local authority on an annual basis. This data can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/electoral-statistics-for-uk/2013/index.html
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Maynard on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which organisations have received how much funding from his Department aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families experiencing all types of disadvantage in each of the last five financial years.
Mrs Helen Grant
DCMS has not provided any funding to organisations aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families. However, DCMS and VisitEngland contributed to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Social Tourism. VisitEngland also works with the Family Holiday Association (FHA) to raise awareness of the issue of families excluded from taking holidays. I visited ‘Kent Life’ in March 2014 to promote Visit Kent’s social tourism pilot with the FHA.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders have been released from one life sentence before being given another life sentence in each of the last 30 years; and in each such case (a) how long the offender spent in prison for the earlier life sentence, (b) how long the offender had been ordered to serve as a minimum period for the latest life sentence, (c) on what dates each life sentence was given, (d) what the offences were for which the offender received each life sentence and (e) what all the offences committed by that offender prior to the latest life sentence were.
Jeremy Wright
A life sentence is mandatory for murder and discretionary life sentences are available for other very serious offences. This Government has introduced an automatic life sentence for a second very serious violent or sexual offence.
Under a life sentence, the court determines the minimum period to be served in prison for the purposes of punishment and deterrence. Once that period has been served it is for the Parole Board to determine if and when the offender may be released from prison on life licence and subject to recall for the rest of their life.
Table 1 shows the number of offenders who have been sentenced to life in the 12 months ending September 2013 who previously had one or more previous life sentence on a separate sentencing occasion within the last 30 years, in England and Wales. The table also shows details of their latest and previous offences for which they received a life sentence.
Reoffending rates for life sentenced prisoners are very low. A small number of life sentence prisoners commit offences in prison which result in a second life sentence. Some life sentence prisoners can also receive a second life sentence on conviction for offences committed prior to being imprisoned (e.g. a previous murder or rape).
The figures provided have been drawn from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) data held by the Department. The PNC holds details of all convictions and cautions given for recordable offences committed in England and Wales. In addition, as with any large scale recording system the PNC is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Detailed information on the length of time served by individual life sentence prisoners, and offence information is not readily available, so I will write to the Honourable Member.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the Environment Agency classifies as a watercourse; if he will ensure that insurance companies can differentiate between major watercourses and watercourses of no consequence; and if he will make a statement.
Dan Rogerson
The Environment Agency defines a “Watercourse” according to section 72(1) of the Land Drainage Act 1991. It includes all rivers and streams and all ditches, drains, cuts, culverts, dikes, sluices, sewers (other than public sewers within the meaning of the Water Industry Act 1991) and passages, through which water flows.
Insurance companies take into account a range of factors in setting policy premiums and excesses, and different insurers take different approaches to assessing flood risk. Certain insurance companies would use proximity to a watercourse to assess the risk of flooding to a property, whilst other companies may use postcodes to assess flood risk or their own flood risk models.