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Tag: 2014

  • Lord Tebbit – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Tebbit – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tebbit on 2014-03-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the total yearly extra cost to schools of educating children whose first language is not English.

    Lord Nash

    We do not collect this data centrally. It is for individual schools to decide how much extra they choose to spend on educating pupils whose first language is not English.

    Through their local funding formulas, local authorities may allocate funding to schools on the basis of the number of pupils in the school who speak English as an additional language and entered the state school system in the past three years. Local authorities allocated £233 million in this way in 2013-14. The funding is not ring-fenced within a school’s budget so this figure may not be a reliable indicator of actual spending.

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations his Department has received on the effectiveness of the role of the Independent Person under the Localism Act 2011.

    Brandon Lewis

    [Holding Reply: Thursday 12 June 2014]

    As stated in the impact assessment on the abolition of the Standards Board regime (published in January 2011), a post implementation review will be carried out three to five years after implementation of the policy which was in July 2012.

    My Department routinely receives representations about standards arrangements in local government, and indeed, on a whole range of local government issues. We will have regard to representations and comments when we undertake our post implementation review.

    However, Ministers are clear that the new provisions are a significant improvement on the old, discredited regime. The Localism Act has clarified predetermination rules allowing elected councillors to campaign and speak up on local issues. We have reversed the petty culture of malicious and unfounded complaints that wasted time and energy and undermined the good reputation of local government. We have increased transparency on councillors’ interests, and put in place criminal sanctions for the very rare instances of corruption. This is complemented by the role of political parties in ensuring good conduct, the law of libel, and the ultimate sanction: the ballot box.

  • Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of air passengers showing passports to UK Border agents are from Schengen area countries.

    James Brokenshire

    This information is not available from Border Force systems.

    Additionally, it is not in the interests of border and national security to disclose either the specific information held on Home Office Systems, or details relating to the volumes of data.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ivan Lewis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he consulted his Northern Ireland counterpart on his Department’s publication Guidance to the Civil Aviation Authority on Environmental Objectives Relating to the Exercise of its Air Navigation Functions.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    There was no specific consultation with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on this publication.

  • 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 2014-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of eligible (a) male and (b) female offenders were recalled on a fixed term recall instead of a standard recall (i) in 2008, (ii) in 2009, (iii) in 2010, (iv) in 2011, (v) in 2012 and (vi) since 3 December 2012.

    Jeremy Wright

    It has not been possible to obtain this information. I will write to the Honourable member in due course.

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what additional costs and savings he expects from the introduction of the Single Fraud Investigation Service in each of the years from 2012 to 2018.

    Esther McVey

    The SFIS Business Case covers the period 2011/12 to 2021/22, and the current figures indicate that the cost of implementing SFIS is £73 million with a saving expected around £507million. As the project progresses the business case will be reviewed and where necessary updated.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-10.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authority databases may be consulted by local authority electoral registration officers for the purpose of data matching for the electoral register.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are entitled to access any records kept in any form by the local authority which appointed them, for the purpose of meeting their registration duties. These records may include, for example, council tax, social services and education records. Access to these records serves a dual purpose: to identify potential new electors and to check that registered electors continue to be eligible to be registered.

    As direct access to records is limited to records held by the appointing authority, in those parts of England where there are two tiers of local government, EROs are currently unable to directly access county council records (such as education records). The Commission understands that the Government is planning to legislate to enable records held by county councils to be shared with EROs for the purposes of maintaining and improving the accuracy and completeness of electoral registers.

  • Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made towards meeting the health goals in the Government’s No Second Night Out Strategy.

    Jane Ellison

    We have met the health goals set out in the No Second Night Out Strategy. Action has included setting up the Homeless Hospital Hospitals Discharge Fund to improve hospital discharge arrangements and provide new post-discharge respite care facilities for homeless people, and publishing guidance (Commissioning Inclusive Services) for local Health and Wellbeing Boards.

    Work continues on improving the physical and mental health outcomes of rough sleepers and we are investing £40 million in 2015-16 to refurbish existing hostels to support health improvement and reduce the demand on health services through a new Homelessness Change programme. This sits alongside Platform for Life, a new programme providing shared accommodation for young people at risk of homelessness, so they have a stable platform for work and study.

  • Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-03-07.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the number of children living in households in Wrexham constituency where one or both parents are (a) working-part-time because they are unable to find full-time work and (b) employed on a zero-hours contract.

    Nick Hurd

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Sudanese counterpart on the case of Meriam Ibrahim and the persecution of Christians in that country.

    Mr William Hague

    I am appalled at the death sentence given to Meriam Ibrahim, and her continued imprisonment. At my request, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Sudanese Embassy in London was summoned to the Foreign Office on 19 May. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, my hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), also raised our deep concerns with the Sudanese Foreign Minister when she met him on 20 May. Our Embassy in Khartoum continues to press the Sudanese authorities for Meriam Ibrahim’s release, and is in close contact with her legal team.

    Along with our international partners, we regularly raise the persecution of Christians and other minorities with the Sudanese government. We have called on it to respect the right to freedom of religion and international human rights laws as enshrined in its own constitution.