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Tag: 2015

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations his Department has made to the Israeli government about the restrictions on construction in government-planned Bedouin towns.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Officials at our Embassy in Tel Aviv are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to demonstrate UK concern by regularly visiting Bedouin communities in the Negev. The Embassy has arranged for the Arab Centre for Alternative Planning to meet Israel’s Minister of Construction to discuss the issue of restrictions on construction in Negev Bedouin towns. The Ambassador plans to raise this issue with the Minister of Construction in January.

  • Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Angus Brendan MacNeil – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Brendan MacNeil on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the average time taken is for customers to switch their domestic energy supplier.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Ofgem published data on average switching time for domestic customers in Great Britain. It is available online at https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/chart/average-switching-time-domestic-customers-gb

    On 1 June 2015 (latest published data available) the average switching time for domestic electricity supplies was 15.7 days and 15.5 days for gas.

    “

  • Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2015 to Question 15443, for what reason the (a) Government Legal Department’s expenditure on temporary agency staff and (b) Crown Prosecution Service’s expenditure on (i) consultants and (ii) non-payroll staff increased between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

    Robert Buckland

    The Government Legal Department (GLD) provides legal services to government. It engages temporary and contract staff as a way of managing short term variations in demand. Where an increase in demand for legal services is expected to continue for the medium or long term, the department will use temporary staff to resource the work until permanent staff can be recruited. The increase in temporary staff from 2010-11 to 2014-15 reflects increased demand for legal services and the growth of GLD as a result of the Shared Legal Services programme that has brought into one organisation legal teams from across government. As a result overall staff numbers have increased by 69% between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

    As outlined in the previous answer the actual expenditure incurred by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on consultants and non-payroll staff between 2010-11 and 2014-15 was as follows.

    Year

    Consultants

    Non-payroll staff

    2010/11

    £684,314

    £392,968

    2011/12

    £13,347

    £23,355

    2012/13

    £9,793

    £2,861

    2013/14

    £960

    £273,935

    2014/15

    £0

    £1,350,317

    Between 2010-11 and 2014-15 the CPS has actually reduced its expenditure on consultants by £684,314.

    In 2014-15 the CPS set up a project to manage the transition from its existing main Information Technology service provider. The Project Manager and remaining team are non-CPS staff, and their costs of £1,350,317 were the only non-payroll staff costs incurred last year.

  • Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which of her Department’s projects have received funding under the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund 2007 to 2013; what the location is of each such project; and how much each such project received.

    George Eustice

    The European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) is known as Pillar 1 of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), composed of direct payments to farmers and market measures. In the UK, from 2007 to 2013, expenditure under the EAGF totalled €23 billion, which is around £17 billion in sterling at current exchange rates. These payments were made to eligible farmers all over the UK.

    Details of payments made since 2013 are available on the CAP payments website (http://cap-payments.defra.gov.uk/Default.aspx). This is managed by the UK Co-ordinating Body (UKCB) on behalf of the four agricultural paying agencies in the UK.

    “

  • Carolyn Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Carolyn Harris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carolyn Harris on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Exchequer received from the HM Land Registry trading fund in 2014-15.

    Anna Soubry

    Land Registry total revenue for 2014/15 was £297.1m. Land Registry paid a dividend of £19.1m to the Exchequer.

    As a Trading Fund, Land Registry is subject to government rules set out in Managing Public Money. This specifies that the charges it makes for its core statutory functions should cover its full costs, 3.5% to reflect the cost of capital used in providing services. As a Trading Fund, Land Registry is required to return the charge for cost of capital to the Consolidated Fund as a dividend. In 2014/15 this ordinary dividend was £19.1million.

    In 2014/15 Land Registry also paid a special dividend of £100million to the Exchequer. This reflected over-recovery from customers in previous years as a result of higher than forecast volume of transactions.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure consistent and comprehensive communications by travel insurance companies with UK nationals in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office encourages British nationals to take out comprehensive travel insurance before all foreign travel and to consider carefully the type of insurance they need for their trip. In doing so we work closely with key industry partners such as the Association of British Insurers, who supported ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign activity on travel insurance in May, July and August this year. We also provide information and advice about travel insurance on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/foreign-travel-insurance. During our response to recent events in Sharm el Sheikh we worked closely with the airlines and tour operators to ensure consistency of approach to the package offered for those delayed in-country and to minimise the impact on travellers.

  • Karin Smyth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Karin Smyth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Prime Minister, what NHS performance statistics were made available to him through the Number 10 Dashboard in December (a) 2015 and (b) 2014.

    Mr David Cameron

    NHS performance statistics are published monthly and are available on the NHS England website.

    In addition, as is normal practice during winter, a situation report based on returns from acute trusts is published weekly and is available on the NHS England website.

  • Helen Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Helen Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many one-stop shops of medical experts for the assessment of children with disabilities are in place; and where those one-stop shops are located.

    Jane Ellison

    We are not aware of any one-stop shops for the clinical assessment of children with disabilities. Every local authority will have a published local offer of services for children and young people with disabilities, but these are information hubs, rather than clinical services.

  • John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    John Mann – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on which local authorities have not implemented his Department’s guidelines on the staking of graves in cemeteries.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Ministry of Justice does not hold this information.

  • Christina Rees – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christina Rees – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what process her Department identified the areas of policy within its responsibility proposed for reservation in Annex B of the publication Powers for a Purpose: Towards a lasting devolution settlement for Wales, published on 27 February 2015.

    Karen Bradley

    Annex B to the Powers for a Purpose Command Paper provided an illustrative list of the main areas in which reservations would be needed in a reserved powers model. The list described the Government’s emerging thinking as the new reserved powers model was being developed. The Government published its full proposals in the draft Wales Bill on 20 October.