The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of standard passport applications made in the last six months were processed within three weeks.
James Brokenshire
Between 1 May 2015 and 31 October 2015, 96% of UK standard applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office were done so within 3 weeks.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether hospitals will incur financial penalties if they breach performance standards as a result of the suspended industrial action on 1 December 2015.
Ben Gummer
In the normal course of events, a hospital which misses a key national standard (such as the 18-week referral to treatment waiting time standard or the six-week diagnostic wait standard) will incur a mandatory financial sanction applied by its commissioners, as set out in the NHS Standard Contract.
However, the Contract also includes a ‘Force Majeure’ clause (General Condition 28) which would, in principle, apply to planned industrial action. Under this clause, a provider is able to claim relief from its liabilities under the Contract, to the extent that an event outside of its reasonable control has directly caused it to fail to meet its contractual obligations.
Therefore, if a hospital were to breach an operational standard for the month, but could demonstrate to the commissioner that:
* this was solely and directly due to the action it had reasonably taken in anticipation of the industrial action proceeding; and
* it had done everything reasonable to mitigate the impact of its actions on achievement of the standard in that month
then the commissioner could set aside the sanction for that month.
If the breach of the standard was only partly due to the impact of the planned industrial action, only the relevant proportion of the sanction would be set aside.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to help establish an international agreement on surrogacy arrangements and harmonisation of the law and practice on surrogacy overseas.
Jane Ellison
The Hague Conference on Private International Law, of which the United Kingdom is a Member State, has set up an Experts’ Group to examine whether there is a realistic prospect of progress in this area. The Experts’ Group will report in March 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to lay before Parliament a report on the steps the Government proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates, pursuant to section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Karen Bradley
Section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act requires the Government to lay before Parliament a report setting out the steps it proposes to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates within nine months of Royal Assent of the Modern Slavery Act. The Government will publish this report by 16 December, whilst Parliament is sitting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nia Griffith on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, for what reasons the draft Wales Bill would seek to change the criteria on which the Assembly could legislate outside its normal competence, as set out in section 108(5) of the Government of Wales Act 2006.
Stephen Crabb
The purpose of the reserved powers model in the draft Wales Bill is to define clearly the legislative competence reserved to the UK Parliament. At the same time, it enables the Assembly to modify the law in areas that would otherwise be reserved to enforce, or otherwise give effect to, its legislation.
It is right that this freedom should be balanced by a test to be applied when the Assembly seeks to modify the law in areas that are not devolved. For that reason the draft Bill defines the circumstances in which it can do so and the test to be applied – the test of necessity. This gives the Assembly flexibility to modify the law in areas outside devolved competence in order to enforce its legislation effectively, whilst ensuring the effect on these areas goes no further than necessary.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, when he last met with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to discuss the rollout of universal credit across Scotland.
David Mundell
I and my officials have regular engagement with colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions on a range of important matters, including the rollout of universal credit and fulfilling our commitment to devolve employment support currently delivered by the Work Programme and Work Choice. In addition, I also discuss Welfare related issues in my regular meetings with Local Authorities across Scotland.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he will respond to the Review of Survivor Benefits in Occupational Pension Schemes, published in June 2014.
Justin Tomlinson
The Government is actively considering the findings of the review into survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes. The Review provided important information on the benefits, costs and other effects of eliminating or reducing differences in survivor benefit provision. It is important that the findings of the Review are considered thoroughly so that we arrive at the right conclusion. We will respond to the Review in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nadine Dorries on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains were cancelled on the Govia Thameslink rail line due to there being no trains available to operate services in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Claire Perry
In rail period 1608 (18 October – 14 November) there were 448 full and 403 part cancellations attributed to rolling stock fleet causes. These figures include cancellations made for service recovery reasons where the initial incident was caused by rolling stock failure.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what total amount has been spent by his Department to date on the (a) design and (b) implementation of universal credit.
Priti Patel
In ‘Universal Credit at Work’ published in October 2014, we stated that the total cost of implementation is £1.8bn, of which a third (c£0.6bn) has been spent.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Atos assessments are carried out effectively for personal independence payment applications.
Justin Tomlinson
The Department has a number of mechanisms available to monitor and challenge Atos performance in carrying out assessments for Personal Independence Payment. These include a range of Management Information to inform performance against contractual Service Level Agreements relating to, for example, time taken to process claims and the quality of the assessment reports produced.