Tag: 2014

Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps her Department has taken to ensure further opportunities for Northern Ireland’s film industry are secured.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

The hon Member will appreciate that this is a devolved matter. However I take every opportunity to promote the Northern Ireland film industry which has been significantly boosted by the high end television tax credit introduced by my Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I have met the senior team at Home Box Office on two occasions. Last month I wrote to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to coincide with the publication of the UK Creative Industries International Strategy in China, in order to promote some 250 media production companies based in Northern Ireland that are already delivering on a global stage and offering world-class talent across the sector.

November 1, 2022
Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-03-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people returning to Jobcentre Plus after two years on the Work Programme are aged under 25 years.

Esther McVey

Statistics on the number of claimants who have returned to Jobcentre Plus after 104 weeks on the Work Programme by age group can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dwp-statistics-tabulation-tool

Guidance for users is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance

“

November 1, 2022
Mike Weir – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Weir on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what estimate he has made of the charges made by external (a) public affairs consultants, (b) creative agencies and (c) printing, logistics and delivery companies for work relating to the production of the booklet, What staying in the United Kingdom means for Scotland.

Greg Clark

The total cost to-date of What Staying in the United Kingdom Means for Scotland is £723,501 (plus VAT).

Each booklet cost around 30p to design, produce, print and deliver to every household in Scotland. As is standard practice, detail and spending data will published in the Cabinet Office transparency returns.

November 1, 2022
Vernon Coaker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vernon Coaker on 2014-03-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the 60 questions relating to the future Strategic Defence and Security Review to which the Permanent Under-Secretary of his Department referred during his oral evidence to the Defence Select Committee on 25 March 2014.

Mr Philip Hammond

The cross-Government lead on the next NSS and SDSR sits with Cabinet Office. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is engaged with them and other interested Departments. MOD is in the very early stages of identifying those areas which may require further work or which we may wish to look at in 2015 as part of the Cabinet Office-led process. This evolving work supports the development of Government policy and I am therefore not able to provide this internal policy work.

November 1, 2022
Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve support for people over 50 provided through the Work Programme.

Esther McVey

The Work Programme is continuing to offer tailored support to those people over 50 at risk of becoming long-term unemployed and providers are continuing to design support based on their individual need.

Last year, the Government launched the Work Programme ‘Building Best Practice Group’, which is considering the best ways of addressing the particular needs of claimants, including older workers. The group will report back to Ministers later in 2014.

November 1, 2022
Andrew Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2014-03-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of long-term trends in the number of hours of literacy teaching which primary school children receive and how this affects reading and writing attainment.

Elizabeth Truss

We do not collect data on the number of hours of literacy teaching primary school children receive.

We are committed to raising standards of literacy in schools and making sure that every child masters the basics of reading and writing at a young age. The new primary national curriculum for English is explicitly designed to make sure that all children leave primary school fully literate and ready to progress at secondary school.

The new national curriculum sets out very clearly what should be taught to pupils. However, it gives school the flexibility to decide how to teach it, including how much time to spend on teaching literacy, because schools are best placed to determine the needs and abilities of their pupils and how to meet them.

November 1, 2022
Caroline Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2014-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the number of community energy schemes that have not gone ahead due to the cost of securing a connection to the local grid; if he will make it his policy to (a) introduce standardised affordable grid connection charges for community energy schemes and (b) exempt community energy schemes from wider network upgrade costs; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon

In January 2014, the Department of Energy and Climate Change launched the UK’s first Community Energy Strategy. As part of this, my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State established a Community Energy Grid Connection Working Group to consider barriers to community energy project grid connections, including issues such as the cost of securing a connection and the impact this has on deployment. The Working Group is due to report to the Secretary of State in summer 2014 outlining its recommendations.

November 1, 2022
Steve McCabe – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2014-03-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will review the current requirements for seizing property or cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to bring those requirements into line with the new powers of HM Revenue and Customs to seize money from an individual’s bank account without a warrant.

Karen Bradley

The Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy clearly sets out our
plans to attack criminal finances by making it harder to move, hide and use the
proceeds of crime. These include measures to enable assets to be frozen more
quickly and earlier in investigations, reduce the time that courts give
offenders to pay confiscation orders, and make it easier for magistrates to
confiscate cash held in bank accounts.

November 1, 2022
Nadine Dorries – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nadine Dorries on 2014-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK visa applications processed by TPContact in (a) Israel, (b) Russia, (c) South Africa and (d) Ukraine have been withdrawn by the applicant after the service standard for processing time has been missed in the last five years.

James Brokenshire

Any failure against the contractual critical service levels may result in
deductions against their submitted invoices. In the event of continuous and
unacceptable failures the Department has the ability to terminate the contract.

The performance of Teleperformance as with all of our contracts is subject to
close Home Office scrutiny. The governance processes include regular meetings
at all levels, from local operational teams up to senior official levels, to
allow in-depth reviews of performance against the service standards set out in
the contract, and to provide an escalation route to resolve any issues that may
arise. We also expect suppliers to provide continuous improvement in delivery
of customer services over the course of the contract, which is also monitored
through these processes.

The Department withheld payment of the contractual transitional payment until
transition was complete in each country where Teleperformance operates. This
has now been has now been approved for payment in countries where visa
application centres (VACs) are operational but withheld in locations still to
be transitioned. Ongoing contractual payments will be subject to the service
credit process outlined above.

The data required to judge performance against contractual service standards is
not yet available. We are not aware of any withdrawn applications linked to
delays in processing at the identified visa application centres since they took
over this service. The Home Office is currently collating data on complaints
for the period since Teleperformance commenced operations and it is not
available for publication.

UK Visas & Immigration has worked closely with Teleperformance from the point
at which contracts were awarded to prepare for live operations, including the
summer peak. Annual and monthly application volumes and forecast figures for
2014 were provided to Teleperformance as part of the tender process and local
discussions have taken place to determine the number of appointment slots
available. Opening hours have been extended and appointment availability has
been increased in a number of locations to prepare for the summer period. Where
VACs are open every day, the availability of appointment slots is continually
monitored, with further measures being taken if appointments are consistently
fully booked.

November 1, 2022

Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-03-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many outstanding cases of social fund loan repayments his Department is curretnly pursuing; in what year each such loan was issued; what estimate he has made of the total value of such outstanding repayments; and how much his Department is paying a debt management service to pursue such repayments.

Steve Webb

At March 2013, there were 10,118,298 loans outstanding relating to 2,940,087 customers. The table below indicates the age of loans and their volumes and values.

Age of loan	Loans	Value £000

Five years and over	1,837,896	218,840
Between one and five years	5,898,911	595,737
Less than one year	2,381,491	373,729
Total	10,118,298	1,188,306

The Department pursues all debts available for recovery. Where we have difficulty with locating a customer and obtaining payment from them we will employ a private sector company to do this for us; for year ending March 2013 we paid £880,000 and recovered £6.1m.

Data has been included for the financial year 2012-13, the latest year for which the audited Social Fund White Paper Account is available. The 2013-14 Account will be publicly available from July 2014.

November 1, 2022