The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change was in the number of firefighter posts in the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.
Greg Clark
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 6 November 2015, PQ 13946.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which local authorities affected by the recent flooding have applied to his Department for funding under the Bellwin scheme.
Mr Marcus Jones
As at 16 December, the 11 local authorities listed below had registered for financial support from the Bellwin scheme for the December 2015 severe weather events. More local authorities are expected to register for the scheme in the coming days and weeks.
Allerdale Borough Council
Barrow-in-Furness Borough Council
Carlisle City Council
Copeland District Council
Cumbria County Council
Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner
Eden District Council
Lancaster City Council
Northumberland County Council
South Lakedale District Council
Wyre Borough Council
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress has been made on integrating the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft with (a) Storm Shadow missiles, (b) Meteor missiles, (c) the DASS radar system and (d) other avionics.
Mr Philip Dunne
The UK is committed to a series of phased enhancement programmes for Typhoon to increase its overall capability. Under current plans, the in-service dates on Typhoon will be August 2018, for Storm Shadow, and June 2018 for Meteor. Integration trials on both weapons are continuing. The Defensive Aids Sub System (DASS) is an existing part of the UK Typhoon fleet and is subject to continued review and enhancement. Separate development of an Active Electronic Scanned Array radar for Typhoon also continues.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential effect on police workloads of planned reductions in local authority funding on (a) emergency planning, (b) vulnerability strategies, (c) youth offending services, (d) anti-social behaviour strategies and (e) community safety strategies.
Karen Bradley
Funding for local authorities in England is a matter for the Department for Communities and Local Government. Funding for local authorities in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Government.
It is for local authorities to decide how they spend their budgets on these and other issues. Many local authorities already understand the value of working closely with Police and Crime Commissioners and are best placed to make the right decisions for their communities locally.
PCCs have a duty under the provisions of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act to work with local authorities in their respective police force areas.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent discussions she has had with the Scottish Government on the resilience and security of the energy supply in Scotland.
Andrea Leadsom
The Department of Energy and Climate Change Energy regularly meets with the Scottish Government to discuss resilience issues in the energy sector.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.