The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Alison Seabeck on Work and Pensions.
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Esther McVey
The Department provided substantive answers to all parliamentary questions in the 2013-14 parliamentary Session.
Tag: 2014
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John McDonnell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the payment by results pilot in HMP Doncaster has been terminated.
Jeremy Wright
The HMP Doncaster Payment by Results (PbR) pilot was established to test the introduction of PbR to reduce reoffending, in response to commitments made in the Coalition Agreement. The pilot has been running since October 2011, with offenders released from Doncaster prison given additional rehabilitation support to help turn their lives around.
The pilot predates the Transforming Rehabilitation programme and while it has provided important learning to inform our plans, the delivery model at HMP Doncaster is not fully aligned with these reforms. As a result, we have decided to bring the pilot to a close, to help ensure the effective transition to the new model for rehabilitation services and offender management in the South Yorkshire Contract Package Area. No further participants will enter the pilot beyond the end of 2014.
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Biography information for Nicholas Brown – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Nicholas Brown on Health.
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Norman Lamb
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produces evidence-based guidance and advice for health, public health and social care practitioners on both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. All work undertaken by NICE is subject to the same high level of scrutiny consideration.
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John Redwood – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many staff Network Rail employed (a) in the last year for which figures are available and (b) in 2010-11.
Stephen Hammond
Network Rail is currently a private sector company limited by guarantee, and its annual total staff complement is a matter for the company. Network Rail advises that in 2012-13, the last year for which figures are available, the average number of its employees was 35,190. The figure for 2010-11 was 35,606.
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Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when each of the 10 Help and Support for Separated Families Innovation Fund projects announced by his Department in December 2013 will start.
Steve Webb
The round two projects delivered by the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, Mediation Now, Family Matters Mediate, Family Lives, Children 1st, Sills and Betteridge, Headland Future and National Family Mediation have all started. Projects being run by NACCC and Pinnacle People have started to recruit parents to the project and will start seeing them before the end of April.
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Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department made of Capita’s ability to handle large numbers of personal independence payment (PIP) claims before award of the PIP contract.
Mike Penning
The assessment of Capita’s ability to manage PIP claimant volumes was undertaken as part of the PIP Assessment Procurement exercise, conducted in line with Cabinet Office Guidelines.
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Hywel Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hywel Williams on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what criteria he is distributing the additional £5 million discretionary housing payment for the least densely-populated areas announced on 30 July 2013.
Steve Webb
The £5million rural Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) fund for 2013/14 was allocated to those local authorities (LA) with the smallest population per square metre. The fund was then proportionally distributed using LAs share of the original DHP allocation, i.e. if an LA had an 8% share of the total DHP allocation of the least populated LAs, then they received 8% of the rural fund.
The £5m funding provided in 2014/15 is intended to avoid a disproportionate impact on those affected by the removal of the spare room subsidy in remote and isolated communities. The Government has assessed that the geography in some areas means that potential remedies such as finding work or alternative accommodation, are less readily available, and as a result transitions may take more time.
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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 2014-04-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the use of children in armed conflict in the Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; which parties in those countries they consider to be using child soldiers; and what action they are taking to co-ordinate international action to secure the demobilisation of child soldiers.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
The British Government recognises that parties to conflict who commit grave violations against children, including recruitment and use, are named in the annexes of the annual reports of the UN Secretary-General on children and armed conflict. This applies to the Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Of the five countries in question, the Governments of Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo are currently listed for the recruitment and use of children. The latter two have signed action plans with the UN to end this practice. There are also non-state armed groups listed for recruitment and use of children in all the countries in question, except South Sudan. The UK actively participates in the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict to hold perpetrators to account as well as working with the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and non-governmental organisations to urge those Governments who have not already done so, to enter into time-bound action plans with the UN. The Minister for Africa, my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mr Simmonds), is leading a campaign to raise awareness and help prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and children from becoming victims of sexual violence. He continues to raise the issue with a number of counterparts in countries where there are reports of children being recruited into armed groups and forces, including in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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Baroness Morgan of Huyton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Morgan of Huyton on 2014-04-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the Ministry of Justice’s March 2013 report showing a link between employment and reduced re-offending, what plans they have to improve literacy education for prisoners.
Lord Newby
We are taking a number of steps to enhance and build upon the current learning and skills offer to prisoners. We firmly believe that giving offenders the skills and training they need to get and keep jobs on release reduces their likelihood of re-offending.
Officials from the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) are working with the Skills Funding Agency and providers of the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) to continually improve the quality of the teaching and learning experienced by prisoners through the development and dissemination of good practice. New approaches to literacy in particular include an increase in the use of peer mentors, embedded learning as part of other regime activities, and the introduction of aNational Reading Network in association with the Shannon Trust.
Later this year we will be introducing mandatory education assessment by the OLASS providers for all newly-received prisoners. This will ensure that all prisoners, not just those who go on to learning, receive a learning assessment (focused around literacy and numeracy but also covering learning difficulties and disabilities). NOMS and its partners are also working towards implementing better data-sharing arrangements between prisons and OLASS providers, so that more is known about prisoners’ previous assessments, progress, and achievements, as well as their current educational needs.
Intensive literacy and numeracy courses, based on the Army’s model, have also been piloted in prisons, particularly to address the needs of prisoners serving short sentences. Prison Governors and OLASS providers are working together to deliver such courses where appropriate.
Prison Governors do not have targets regarding the improvement of prisoners’ literacy skills. As noted previously, we are taking considerable steps both to further identify literacy learning needs and then to address them.
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Chris Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2014-04-07.
To ask the Attorney General, which 10 consultancy firms were paid the most by the Law Officers’ Departments in the last financial year; and how much each of those firms was paid.
Oliver Heald
In 2013-14 Professor Shute was paid £2,286.30 and Dr Tapley was paid £1,735.70 for consultancy services to HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI). There has been no other consultancy spend within that financial year by HMCPSI, the Treasury Solicitor’s Department or the Attorney General’s Office.
The two companies listed below are the only organisations to have been paid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for consultancy work during the last financial year.
SCC £32,316
CIO Partnership Ltd £2,100
Inaddition, two individuals carried out consultancy work for the SFO. The total amount paid for this work was £13,812
The table below details payments made by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consultancy firms during the last financial year.
Evolve Business Consultancy
£74,319
Saville Consulting UK Ltd Surrey
£22,008
Triad Group Plc Surrey
£19,260
Deloitte LLP Milton Keynes
£9,661
Hay Group Management Limited
£7,200
LA International Computer Consultants Ltd
£6,398
ASE Consulting Ltd Lancashire
£4,995
Enquin Enviromental Ltd Cardiff
£4,110
HR Lounge Ltd London Total
£3,180
Long and Partners Commissioning Consultancy Ltd
£2,010
This information has been produced from the CPS accounting system, analysing spend against account codes for consultancy and professional services. Expenditure may include some payments for services not covered by the Crown Commercial Service Consultancy Value Programme definition of consultancy but provided by companies categorised as a consultancy firm. Excluded are payments for professional services supplied by third parties not classified as a consultancy firm such as employment agencies, training providers, solicitors, ICT managed service suppliers and freelance consultants engaged directly by the department.