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Tag: 2015

  • Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Barry Sheerman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will set road casualty reduction targets.

    Andrew Jones

    The Government has not set road safety targets for local authorities or the police, and is not considering reinstating them. We do not believe that further persuasion is needed on the importance of road safety through “Whitehall knows best” diktats. However, local authorities and the police are free to set their own targets if they find this useful.

    The Conservative Manifesto 2015 had a commitment to reduce the number of cyclists and other road users killed or injured on our roads every year. We are working closely with road safety groups to consider what more can be done and we believe that every death is a tragedy and is one too many.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Warm Home Discount Scheme; and what plans she has to extend that scheme to Belfast.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Warm Home Discount Scheme helps over 2 million low income and vulnerable households each year and has provided a total of £1.1 billion of direct assistance since the scheme began. The Government announced in the Spending Review on 25 November 2015 that the Warm Home Discount scheme would be extended to 2020/21 at current levels of £320m per year, rising with inflation, to help households who are at risk of fuel poverty with their energy bills.

    The issue of fuel poverty is devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive, which decides its own fuel poverty objectives and policies.

  • Jo Stevens – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jo Stevens – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on (a) IT systems and (b) cyber-security in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12, (iii) 2012-13, (iv) 2013-14, (v) 2014-15 and (vi) 2015-16 to date.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The available information is set out below:

    (a) IT costs which can be found in the published DWP Annual Report and Accounts, are summarised as follows:

    £ (to nearest 1,000)

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    2015-16 to September

    Total IT

    960,572,000

    926,912,000

    1,111,308,000

    802,134,000

    732,352,000

    327,006,000*

    *Please note that the figure for 2015/16 to September has not yet been audited for accounts.

    (b) DWP has tracked all core aspects of expenditure on cyber security, apart from in specific IT systems, since April 2015. The current estimate up to September 15/16 is £5.6m, with further significant investment planned for the second half of the year.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the effectiveness of Government’s response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

    James Duddridge

    The UK intervention in Sierra Leone was instrumental in containing the Ebola epidemic and preventing the dire predictions from global health bodies materialising. Now that Sierra Leone has been declared Ebola transmission-free, our focus is to help the Government to develop a new approach to the delivery of services that will improve resilience and enable the country to handle future crises independently, whether they be health-related or caused by other factors.

  • 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 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of government IT spending was spent with small and medium sized (SME) enterprises in 2014-15; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of that spending that will be with SMEs in 2015-16.

    Matthew Hancock

    We are finalising the data for government spend with small business during 2014-15 and will publish this information before the end of the year.

    Data for 2015-16 will be published in due course.

  • Jess Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jess Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) surgical operations, (b) diagnostic tests and (c) endoscopy procedures which could be used to treat NHS patients and are available from independent sector healthcare providers in winter 2015-16.

    Jane Ellison

    Decisions about whether to use independent sector capacity are made at local level according to local need, as part of the operational management of capacity and demand.

  • Tom Elliott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tom Elliott – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Elliott on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what tax revenue was lost as a result of tobacco smuggling in Northern Ireland in each of the last three years.

    Damian Hinds

    Estimates of revenue losses associated with the tobacco illicit market are published in ‘Tobacco Tax Gap estimates: 2014-15’. The combined figures for Cigarettes and Hand Rolling Tobacco are available in table 1.1

    These estimates cannot be disaggregated by country within the UK.

    The methodology for producing the estimates are provided in the ‘Methodological Annex for Measuring Tax Gaps 2015’.

    Both documents can be accessed via the following page on the HMRC website:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/measuring-tax-gaps

    “

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many homophobic assaults were recorded in (a) male and (b) female prisons in the last 12 months.

    Andrew Selous

    Centrally held records do not record data identifying homophobic assaults. This information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

  • Julian Knight – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Julian Knight – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will change planning procedures for local authorities to speed up the construction of new affordable homes to buy.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government has committed, through the Productivity Plan, to introduce a dispute resolution mechanism to speed up section 106 negotiations to enable housing and other development to be built more quickly. We intend to do this through the Housing and Planning Bill.

  • Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Dodds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions the Government has had with the Irish government on the control of foreign nationals entering the Irish Republic who seek to enter the UK from that country.

    James Brokenshire

    Home Office Ministers and Officials have regular contact with their Irish counterparts; there is excellent government and operational level co-operation. In particular, we are working together to further align our respective border and visa policy processes in order to strengthen the external CTA border.

    Immigration Enforcement and Border Force conduct intelligence-led operations to identify and take action against individuals who are seeking to or have entered the UK from the Republic of Ireland without the necessary leave.