Tag: 2015

  • Chuka Umunna – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Chuka Umunna – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many scientists and engineers have been refused a Tier 2 (General) Certificate of Sponsorship because the annual cap had been reached since May 2010; which Standard Occupational Classification codes have been affected by that cap; and how many applications have been refused for each such code to date.

    James Brokenshire

    There were no Certificates of Sponsorship applications refused because of the annual cap between May 2010 and May 2015.

    For the period from June to October 2015, 55 applications for a CoS for an engineer role have been refused. No applications for a CoS for scientist roles have been refused.

    A full breakdown of the number of CoS refusals because of the annual cap, for each Standard Occupational Classification code has been produced as a separate document. I will place a copy of this document in the Library of the House of Commons.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2015 to Question 12818, on health services: weather, what data will be (a) collected and (b) published by NHS England.

    Jane Ellison

    Public Health England publishes a ‘winter health watch’ webpage each week throughout the winter. This includes a summary of the findings of our routine surveillance suitable for a non-technical audience, as well as links through to specific surveillance bulletins including surveillance for all- cause mortality, seasonal influenza, and norovirus.

    Details of the data that will be collected and published by NHS England can be found here:

    http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/winter-daily-sitreps/

  • Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugee families she expects to be relocated to Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency; where such families will be housed; and what steps the Government is taking to ensure that such families have access to education for their children.

    James Brokenshire

    With regard to the resettlement of 20,000 Syrians that the Prime Minister announced on 7 September, this is a voluntary scheme whereby local authorities sign up to accept refugees on a voluntary basis and there is no expectation on any particular local authority.

    We are working closely with those local authorities that have indicated they wish to be involved as well as with the Local Government Association and with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. We do not disclose the details of where refugees are resettled upon their arrival in the UK under the Government resettlement schemes as this may undermine the privacy and recovery of this vulnerable group of people.

    The Home Office alongside other departments and the Local Government Association and the Convention of Scottish Authorities will work with individual local authorities who are volunteering to take Syrian refugees to secure appropriate accommodation.

    The Government has committed to investing £7 billion on new school places over the next six years, and in the last Parliament funding for school places doubled to £5 billion to create 445,000 additional places. Local Authorities are allocated funding for school places based on their own local data on school capacity and pupil forecasts, in which they take account of factors including rising birth rates, housing development, trends in internal migration and migration to England from elsewhere in the United Kingdom and from overseas. We continue to work with Local Authorities to make sure that every child has a school place.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the cost of Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

    Karen Bradley

    The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is funded through fees charged for disclosure certificates and from subscriptions to the DBS disclosure update service. DBS operates on a full cost recovery basis. There has not been a fee increase in four years and volunteers receive free checks.

    The table below sets out the average time taken to process all three types of checks.

    Timeframe

    Standard Disclosures

    Enhanced Disclosures

    Enhanced Disclosures with List Checks

    01st Nov 2010 to 31st Oct 2011

    5.21

    16.84

    16.81

    01st Nov 2011 to 31st Oct 2012

    5.34

    11.24

    11.25

    01st Nov 2012 to 31st Oct 2013

    4.57

    10.60

    10.63

    01st Nov 2013 to 31st Oct 2014

    6.37

    14.12

    14.17

    01st Nov 2014 to 31st Oct 2015

    5.97

    14.92

    14.94

    The fluctuations in processing times over the years relate to a number of factors, including changes in demand and demand forecasting, changes to IT systems and the performance of police forces for enhanced disclosures.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much compensation the Government is liable for in its contract with Agility Trains in the event that the new IEP fleet cannot be introduced according to its planned timescales due to delays to either (a) the Great Western Mainline electrification programme or (b) East Coat Mainline IEP enabling works.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    During the period 2009-10 to date, the following numbers of ministers have been entitled to use Government cars:

    2009-10

    4

    2010-11

    4

    2011-12

    4

    2012-13

    4

    2013-14

    4

    2014-15

    5

    2015-16

    5

    As a result of a series of changes, including closure of the Government mail service, overall operating costs have fallen from £20.956m in 2010/11 to £6.325m in 2014/15. During the same period the number of vehicles in the GCS for use by ministers have fallen from 227 to 78.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps her Department has taken to promote use of the UK Guarantees Scheme in Northern Ireland.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    In the Northern Ireland economic pact, Building a Prosperous and United Community, the Government committed to applying its Infrastructure Guarantee Scheme flexibly to ensure that locally or regionally significant projects in Northern Ireland will be eligible.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of households in receipt of universal credit qualify for (a) free school meals and (b) free NHS prescriptions; and how many such qualifying households are in receipt of those benefits.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not available.

  • Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the number of Vauxhall Zafiras which have caught fire in the last six months; and what discussions his Department has had with Vauxhall on the number of other such cars catching fire in a similar way.

    Andrew Jones

    The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) currently holds 45 reports, since January 2015, of fires on Vauxhall Zafira on its database.It holds 10 reports where owners of Vauxhall Zafiras have raised concerns regarding the issue but have not actually suffered a vehicle fire. DVSA is working with the manufacturer to investigate this serious safety issue and is aware that they hold additional reports of fires on the Zafira model; however, DVSA is not aware of how many. DVSA is not currently aware of any defect trends regarding vehicle fires on any other model of Vauxhall’s or any other make of vehicle.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average number of hours of childcare was for which claimants in receipt of the childcare element of universal credit made a claim for reimbursement of their costs in the most recent month for which figures are available.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not available.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Margaret Ferrier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what steps his Department has taken to promote use of the UK Guarantees Scheme in Wales.

    Stephen Crabb

    When I meet with members of the business community in Wales, it is clear to me the importance of the UK Guarantees Scheme in providing investors with the vital financial certainty to initiate critical new infrastructure projects in Wales and throughout the UK. HM Government has a memorandum of understanding with Hitachi and Horizon Nuclear Power to support investment for the proposed nuclear development at Wylfa Newydd; discussions around the provision of a Government Guarantee form a key part of this. The Project will create up to 1,000 permanent jobs and provide excellent opportunities for Welsh businesses to be a part of the supply chain.