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Tag: 2015

  • Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-10-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to expenditure on (a) DWP Administration, (b) the Government Equalities Office, (c) the Health and Safety Executive, (d) the Work Welfare and Equalities Group and (e) the Working Age Client Group in the schedule of comparable programme objects in HM Treasury’s publication, Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly: Statement of Funding Policy, published in October 2010, (i) how much of that expenditure in which locations was on (A) property and (B) personnel and (ii) how many people in which locations were employed through such expenditure between 2010 and 2015.

    Priti Patel

    The level of disaggregation is not readily available. DWP Expenditure for the years 2010-11 to 2014-15 is shown in the table below.

    DWP, Departmental Expenditure Limit Resource Outturn, £million

    2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15
    DWP 9,152 7,624 7,497 7,615 7,152
    Of which:
    Health and Safety Executive (net) 203 175 162 155 139
    Operational Delivery 1,294 2,487 2,865 2,866 2,191
    Employment Programmes 1,814 876 802 1,037 950

    More information is available in the Department’s report and accounts which are available at gov.uk. A link to the latest report is provided below:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2014-to-2015

    “

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges on potential links between drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco and Alzheimer’s disease.

    Jane Ellison

    Improving the treatment and care of people with dementia, reducing the incidence of dementia and improving dementia research, is a key priority for the Government.

    My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has regular meetings with various stakeholders, including Royal Colleges, in which a wide range of topics are discussed. There have been no meetings to discuss the potential links between alcohol, tobacco and Alzheimer’s disease specifically.

    Studies investigating whether alcohol consumption is linked to dementia risk have had mixed results and research is ongoing. However, very heavy drinking is known to cause alcohol-related dementia, also known as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.

    Public Health England (PHE) has made dementia risk reduction one of their seven public health priorities for the next five years. In May 2014 PHE and the UK Health Forum published the Blackfriars Consensus, a statement calling for action on dementia risk reduction which was signed by 60 organisations and individuals working on dementia and other non-communicable diseases, as well as by the Secretary of State and the Health Ministers from the devolved administrations.

    PHE is now working closely with the Alzheimer’s Society and a range of others partners to deliver concerted action to reduce people’s risk of dementia by supporting them to live healthier lives and manage pre-existing conditions that increase their risk of dementia. Their programme includes work to further develop the evidence base and improve modelling of incidence and prevalence, to embed dementia risk reduction messages into health improvement and secondary prevention activity, and to raise public and professional awareness and understanding of what can be done to reduce dementia risk.

    On the latter PHE is engaging with the Royal College of General Practitioners as well as others such as Health Education England and the relevant sector skills councils.

  • Ann Coffey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ann Coffey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Coffey on 2015-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children (a) under 16 and (b) under 18 were reported (i) missing and (ii) absent in each police force area for each year since 2012.

    Karen Bradley

    The most recent missing persons data report, covering the year 2012-2013, was published by the National Crime Agency in November 2014 and is available on the UK Missing Persons Bureau website. This report provides the number of children who were reported missing (in the age ranges 12 – 14 and 15 -17). The National Crime Agency intends to publish the annual reports covering 2013/14 and 2014/15 in spring 2016.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made on ensuring police record instances of Islamophobic hate crime.

    Karen Bradley

    Hate crime has no place in Britain and this government is determined to make further progress to tackle this crime. We have asked police forces in England and Wales to record anti-Muslim hate crime as a specific category in the recorded crime statistics from April 2016. This will help forces to build community trust, target their resources and enable the public to hold them to account. Addressing the harm that Islamophobia causes is a key part of our new Counter-Extremism Strategy which will be published later this month.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many claims were made by bus operators for Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) funding for school services that were not entitled to receive BSOG support in 2014-15; and how many operators made such claims.

    Andrew Jones

    Operators of bus services serving educational establishments are entitled to claim BSOG for these services as long as they are also available for members of the general public to catch. However, “closed” bus services – used only by students and staff of educational establishments, and from which the wider public are excluded – are not eligible for BSOG. When it came to our attention recently that some operators may have submitted claims for closed bus services the Department wrote to all operators claiming BSOG in England reminding them of which educational services are eligible for the grant. We will take strong measures where operators claim for such ineligible services in future. Accurate figures for how many operators or routes may have claimed for closed services during 2014/15 are not readily available.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2015 to Question 7643, what estimate he has made of the number of single earner married couples where the earner is a basic rate taxpayer in each parliamentary constituency.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not available.

  • Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a policy of requiring cash retentions from the construction industry to be placed in a trust in the event of insolvency.

    Nick Boles

    The Government acknowledges that some people are unhappy with the system of retentions as it stands, but it is an embedded feature of the construction industry. Therefore, our general approach is to work with the industry through the Construction Leadership Council and its supply chain payment charter; endorsing its commitment to zero retentions by 2025.

    That will involve quite far-reaching changes to the way the sector works. With regard to shorter-term measure to require retentions to be held in trust, we must act on the basis of evidence. That is why the Government is commissioning an analysis of the cost and benefit of retention payments to inform future action.

  • Jeff Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jeff Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the factors which explain why academics and researchers emigrate.

    Joseph Johnson

    Academic research is increasingly international and collaborative. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills commissioned Elsevier to examine how the UK research base compares internationally, and what trends may influence the UK’s future standing.

    The report, ‘International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base – 2013‘[1], highlighted UK as a focal point for global research collaboration and researcher mobility. It acknowledged international collaboration and researcher mobility as being core to the maintenance and further development of the UK’s world-class research base, and found that over 70% of active UK researchers were internationally mobile between 1996 and 2012.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/263729/bis-13-1297-international-comparative-performance-of-the-UK-research-base-2013.pdf

    “

  • Rosie Cooper – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rosie Cooper – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential for conflict of interest between Capita’s role in carrying out Access to Work assessments while providing interpreting support for British Sign Language users undergoing those assessments.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The terms of the Access to Work Assessment Contracts include a specific clause to address the issue of actual or potential conflicts of interest during and after the contract period. The Department ensures that all terms and obligations of its contracts are complied with through an on-going process of commercial and performance management.

  • Graham Allen – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Graham Allen – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Allen on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of lessons learned from the successful Schools Initiative in Northern Ireland established to increase voter registration among attainers and young voters.

    John Penrose

    The most recent report by the Electoral Commission (November 2012) on completeness and accuracy of the register in Northern Ireland showed that 51% of 18 – 19 year olds were registered to vote compared to 76% in Great Britain. The Government has no current plans to extend the Northern Ireland Schools Initiative to the rest of the United Kingdom.