The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-11-05.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his Answer of 23 October 2015 to Question 12551, if he will invite the hon. Member for Preston to visit the tax credit office in that constituency.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs is happy to facilitate visits to their offices from MPs. In the first instance they would ask for the MP’s office to send a formal request to communications.corporate@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what systems and controls are in place for the recording, monitoring and oversight of the use of force and restraint on children and adolescents receiving psychiatric in-patient care.
Alistair Burt
From 1 January 2016 mental health providers will be required to record all incidents of restraint involving children and young people in their returns to the Health and Social Care Information Centre. As with other health and care services, the Care Quality Commission is responsible for monitoring practice in inpatient children and adolescent psychiatric services.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many television licenses were purchased in each region and constituent part of the UK in each of the last five years.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The estimated number of television licences in force over last five years is contained in the table below (answers given in millions).
|
(Million) |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
|
England |
20.90 |
21.01 |
21.09 |
21.26 |
21.26 |
|
Northern Ireland |
0.66 |
0.67 |
0.67 |
0.67 |
0.68 |
|
Scotland |
2.20 |
2.20 |
2.21 |
2.22 |
2.21 |
|
Wales |
1.25 |
1.26 |
1.26 |
1.27 |
1.27 |
|
Channel Islands & Isle of Man |
0.09 |
0.09 |
0.09 |
0.09 |
0.09 |
|
25.10 |
25.23 |
25.34 |
25.42 |
25.51 |
Please note that:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to assist poorer students with the repayment of their student loans.
Joseph Johnson
Student loan repayments are income contingent and deductions are taken at 9% of income over the applicable repayment threshold.
The repayment threshold affords protection to lower earning borrowers. Borrowers make no repayment if their income remains or falls below the threshold.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to chart 4.2 of the Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics Report 2015, published by her Department on 28 May 2015, what proportion of the (a) local authority, (b) owner-occupied, (c) private rented and (d) housing association households are in fuel poverty.
Andrea Leadsom
The number and proportion of fuel poor households in England by tenure are shown below:
|
Tenure |
Local Authority |
Owner occupied |
Private Rented |
Housing Association |
|
2003 – Number of fuel poor households (000s) |
496 |
1,220 |
483 |
215 |
|
2003 – Proportion of households (%) |
21 |
8 |
25 |
14 |
|
2013 – Number of fuel poor households (000s) |
193 |
1,104 |
816 |
234 |
|
2013 – Proportion of households (%) |
12 |
8 |
19 |
10 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2015-12-03.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the local economy of the potential closure of HM Revenue and Customs offices in West Yorkshire.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced its plans to create a new regional centre in West Yorkshire, investing in up to 4,400 full time posts in the region. HMRC will be offering career opportunities to those from across the county in a range of the Department’s professions and intends to partner with local colleges and universities to provide a pipeline of staff to work in its new centre. The Department’s proposed changes will also save money for the taxpayers of West Yorkshire as HMRC’s national estates costs will reduce by around £100 million a year by 2025.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received about the threatened demolition of the village of Khan Al Ahmer in the West Bank and the effects of Israeli settlement activity in the vicinity.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
An official from our Consulate-General in Jerusalem visited the village of Khan Al Ahmer on 9 September and held discussions with community leaders. I also visited the village last year. We remain deeply concerned by Israeli proposals to relocate Bedouin population from the E1 area. Officials at our Consulate-General in Jerusalem are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to demonstrate our concern by regularly visiting the Bedouin communities.
The UK’s position on settlements is clear. They are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace and take us further away from a two state solution. We will continue to raise our objections to settlements with the Israeli Government. On 10 September, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the UK, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary raised with him our concerns about Israel’s approach to a number of issues, including settlement building and the need for a two state solution.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of whether the must offer provision of the Communications Act 2003 is sufficient to ensure access to public service broadcast channels on non-discriminatory terms for all TV platforms.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Government’s consultation ‘the balance of payments between television platforms and public service broadcasters’ examined how the public service broadcasters’ business models for the distribution for television content work. The focus of this consultation was on the commercial arrangements between broadcasters and PSB platforms – not subscription-free DTT platforms.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government is providing to the Women’s League of Burma.
Mr Philip Hammond
Officials at the British Embassy in Rangoon regularly meet representatives of the Women’s League of Burma and its member groups of civil society organisations. The UK has also provided occasional funding support to the Women’s League of Burma, including towards the publication of some of their research. Representatives from the Women’s League of Burma attended the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June 2014 at our invitation, and the UK assisted with the cost of that visit.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Powell on 2015-12-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her most recent estimate is of the average annual cost to a (a) school and (b) local authority of employing a (i) teacher and (ii) classroom assistant; and what forecast she has made of the likely equivalent cost in each year from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Nick Gibb
The latest statistics on the average salaries of teachers employed by schools and local authorities in England are in Tables 8 and 9 of the ‘School Workforce in England: November 2014’ statistical release which was published in July 2015: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-workforce-in-england-november-2014
The latest available statistics on the average salaries of teaching assistants employed by schools and local authorities in England were published in PQ856 in June 2015 in Hansard at the following link:
The Department for Education’s pay reforms have given schools greater flexibility to decide how much to pay their teachers and how quickly their pay progresses over time.
Future average salaries of teachers will be informed by the annual recommendations of the School Teachers Pay Review Body; the pay of teaching assistants and school support staff are set by schools themselves. The department does not produce forecasts of future average pay for these staff.
“