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Tag: 2015

  • 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 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2015 to Question 11456, whether any additional blockbuster funding has been requested by the Serious Fraud Office for 2015-16; and what assessment he has made of the likelihood of that office making further requests for additional blockbuster funding in the remainder of this financial year.

    Robert Buckland

    As I explained in my answer on 15 October, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) receives additional funding as part of the Main and Supplementary Estimates processes. The SFO received £10m of additional funding through the 2015-16 Main Estimates process.

    The Supplementary Estimates process for 2015-16 has not concluded. The SFO does expect to request additional funding as part of this process and details will be published at the appropriate time.

  • Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the latest Bank of England figures showing elevated levels of personal indebtedness, what assessment they have made of what is an acceptable and safe level of such borrowing.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    Household debt as a proportion of income has fallen to 144 per cent in Q2 2015, from a peak of 168 per cent in Q1 2008. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past we have created the independent Financial Policy Committee (FPC) within the Bank of England, to ensure emerging risks and vulnerabilities across the financial system as a whole are identified, monitored and effectively addressed.

  • Helen Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Helen Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of posts for teaching (a) English and (b) mathematics in further education colleges that are (i) unfilled and (ii) filled by teachers without a qualification in those subjects.

    Nick Boles

    The Department for Education does not hold this information. The Further Education sector is independent of government and we do not collect information about the numbers of English and Mathematics posts in further education colleges that are unfilled, or filled by teachers without a qualification in those subjects.

    Both the Department for Education and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have had ongoing discussions with FE stakeholder organisations about our continued support for an increase in the numbers of well qualified and skilled teachers of English and Mathematics in the sector, as we set out in our FE Workforce Strategy.

  • Lord MacKenzie of Culkein – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord MacKenzie of Culkein – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord MacKenzie of Culkein on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what reasons nursing and midwifery students have given for discontinuing their courses in each year since 2010, including financial reasons.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    This data is not collected centrally.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if his Department will assess the potential merits of arms-length funding to support community journalism and independent news start-ups to promote informed citizenship.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    This Government believes local media has a vital role to play in local communities and in local democracy.There are no current plans for a Government investigation into the merits of arms-length funding for community journalism, but we would welcome evidence from the sector to support this.

  • Baroness Rebuck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Rebuck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Rebuck on 2015-12-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reintroduce automatic post-study work visas, in particular for postgraduate international students working at recognised higher education institutions in the UK.

    Lord Bates

    We have an excellent post-study offer for international graduates seeking to undertake skilled work in the UK after their studies. There is no limit on the number who can remain, if they secure a graduate job paying an appropriate salary.

    The Government has no plans to reintroduce the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) visa, which saw large numbers of fraudulent applications and graduates who remained unemployed or in low-skilled work. We closed this visa category in 2012 and have replaced it with a more selective system.

  • Rehman Chishti – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rehman Chishti – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rehman Chishti on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much each clinical commissioning group spent on mental health services in England in each year from 2013-14 to 2015-16.

    Alistair Burt

    In total, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure in excess of their increase in allocation for the year. NHS England is tracking actual expenditure against those plans and it will report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year on whether those plans have been met.

    Departmental Ministers meet the Chief Executives of NHS England and Monitor regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including funding for mental health services.

    NHS England was formally established on 1 April 2013.Expenditure by NHS England on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2013/14 was £1.780 billion and £1.795 billion in 2014/15. NHS England’s planned expenditure on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2015/16 is £1.859 billion.

    NHS England has published CCG level expenditure on mental health for 2013/14, which was estimated to be £8.1 billion. CCGs are currently in the process of preparing estimates of expenditure for mental health services in 2014/15. Estimates for 2015/16 are not available.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2015 to Question 17505, when he will publish the September half-yearly update on the job titles and pay grades of senior civil servants within his Department.

    Matthew Hancock

    The government publishes information on the job titles and pay grades of senior civil servants along with the numbers of staff they manage on a twice yearly basis.

    The Cabinet Office expects to publish an updated organogram at https://data.gov.uk/organogram/cabinet-officein due course.

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  • Deidre Brock – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Deidre Brock – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2015-11-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is proposed for welfare payments made by the Scottish Government, provided for under any Act arising from the Scotland Bill, to count as income for the purposes of calculating tax credits.

    Damian Hinds

    The Smith Commission agreement, agreed by all the main parties in Scotland, set out those benefits where power should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Tax credits were not amongst those benefits.

    However, under the current Scotland Bill clauses, the Scottish Government will have the power to top-up tax credits, as long as it does so through using its own resources. The Smith Commission agreement said that any new benefits or discretionary payments introduced by the Scottish Parliament must provide additional income for a recipient and not result in an automatic offsetting reduction in their entitlement to other benefits. Once the Scottish Government have been clear about how they want to use their new powers, we will work with them to understand the interactions between the reserved and devolved benefit systems.

  • Mark Menzies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mark Menzies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons he has decided to recover the planning appeals by Caudrilla Resources to build shale gas wells at Roseacre and Preston New Road.

    James Wharton

    The reasons for the Secretary of State’s decision are set out in his letter to parties. This makes clear that the drilling appeals involve proposals for exploring and developing shale gas which amount to proposals for development of major importance having more than local significance and proposals which raise important or novel issues of development control, and/ or legal difficulties.