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Tag: 2015

  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current backlog of applications for land registration at the Land Registry, and how long is the average delay in registration.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    There are approximately 234k applications awaiting completion at Land Registry, 93k of which cannot be processed as they are awaiting replies to queries sent to the originating conveyancer or solicitor, or notices sent to the registered proprietor(s) of the land or property. This leaves 141k applications available for Land Registry to process. Registration takes place after the transaction has been completed and the priority of all of these pending applications is protected upon receipt. Last year, Land Registry received 5.9m applications for registration.

    The average number of days taken to complete all applications for registration is 11 days, with applications to update an existing register taking an average of just under 7 days, and applications that result in the creation of new registered titles taking an average of 42 days to complete.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) number of electric charging points in air quality management areas, (b) number of such points needed to have an effect on air quality and (c) associated costs of upgrading the necessary grid infrastructure.

    Andrew Jones

    The Government wants almost every car and van to be a zero emission vehicle by 2050 and is investing £500m between 2015 and 2020 to help deliver this. The long-term transition to ultra low emission vehicles can help improve local air quality, and will also lower UK greenhouse gas emissions and provide high value jobs and growth, but our modelling suggests that even very rapid uptake can have only a marginal impact on today’s air quality problems because of the time taken to turn over the vehicle fleet.

    We are aware that a number of local authorities have been assessing electric car charging point requirements in air quality management areas.

    The Government is considering future grid and chargepoint requirements as part of its planning for this transition. The UK already has the largest network of rapid chargepoints across Europe and over 6000 publically accessible chargepoints have been part-funded by the Government. We will continue to collaborate with industry to ensure that the UK’s infrastructure network meets the needs of electric vehicle drivers.

  • Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Baroness Randerson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many officials within the Department for Transport are currently working as part of the team liaising with Network Rail.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    A large number of staff within the Department for Transport’s Rail Executive liaise with Network Rail on a wide range of policy, delivery and operational issues – it is not possible to state an exact number as these staff also have other responsibilities. A team of seven officials currently handles issues specifically arising from Network Rail’s reclassification to the public sector in September 2014. Future resourcing will remain responsive to business needs and is not pre-planned over these years.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2015 to Question 12657, if he will commission an independent review into the procedures followed by the Tobacco Control policy team within his Department when awarding section 64 grants to Action on Smoking and Health.

    Jane Ellison

    There is no requirement to commission an independent review as the award of Section 64 grants to Action on Smoking and Health has followed the appropriate policies and procedures applicable to all Section 64 grants.

    The assessment of the grant application for funding from Action on Smoking and Health is undertaken by members of the Tobacco Control policy team.

    The assessment process is the same for all grants awarded under Section 64 powers. The assessment process uses standard business case criteria and consists of a Strategic Case, Economic Case, Financial Case, Commercial Case and Project Governance.

    The assessment is reviewed by the Department’s Voluntary Sector Grants Hub to ensure that the grant proposal is affordable within Departmental budgets; relevant Efficiency Review Group Controls have been considered; the grant has been assessed as delivering value for money and the grant is considered to be appropriate for the Grant funding route rather than procurement.

  • The Earl of Sandwich – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The Earl of Sandwich – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Sandwich on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provision they, acting alongside the United Nations, and the governments of Norway and the United States of America, have made for health and education services in South Sudan in the event of the bankruptcy of the relevant government departments in that country; and what discussions they have had with the authorities in South Sudan on the use of oil revenues in this context.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK is playing a leading role in the humanitarian response to the current instability in South Sudan. Through the Common Humanitarian Fund, the UK is financing emergency health and education provision for internally displaced persons and returning refugees, together with UN, US and Norway. We continue to monitor the situation closely and alongside our humanitarian support, we are playing an active role in the ongoing peace negotiations.

    In terms of our non-humanitarian health and education development programmes, these continue to operate in both the stable and conflict affected states of South Sudan. DFID is providing essential drugs, health worker salaries, and support for girls to complete secondary education as well as a range of other development programmes including skills training for out of school youth, and cash for public works and agricultural production.

    Regular dialogue and provision of technical assistance by DFID and other partners has resulted in the South Sudan government providing operational transfers to counties and grants to primary schools and healthcare centres in their 2015/16 budget, largely financed through oil revenues. Through an IMF Trust Fund, the UK, EU and Norway are helping the government to strengthen oil sector transparency, while UK supports South Sudan Customs Department to collect non-oil revenues.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 12 October 2015 to Question 11315, whether local authorities (a) retain intellectual property rights over the postal addresses they have helped to create and (b) benefit financially from those rights from Royal Mail.

    Nick Boles

    Local Authorities have the responsibility for creating the official street naming and numbering under the Towns Improvement Clauses Act 1847 and Public Health Act 1925. Royal Mail has the responsibility under its Universal Service obligations to create the postal address for each home and business in the UK. In creating the postal address Royal Mail utilises the official street name and number where appropriate and adds a number of additional address elements, including the postcode, which forms the basis of the Royal Mail distribution network. Royal Mail also pays Local Authorities £1 per new address that it receives from local authorities. Royal Mail compiles the list of postal addresses in to the Postcode Address File (PAF).

    The intellectual property rights over the data contained in the PAF, which occurs once the data is in the PAF format, belongs to Royal Mail as owners and maintainers of the PAF.

    In 2015, the public sector licence agreement was introduced which gives Local Authorities, Central Government, Emergency Services and Health, free access to the PAF.

  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effects of turning off street lights in the early hours of the morning by some local authorities.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    Decisions about street lighting are primarily for elected local councillors, reflecting local circumstances and views. The Government has not made an assessment of the effects of turning off street lights in the early hours of the morning by some local authorities.

    However, a research study – The effect of reduced street lighting on road casualties and crime in England and Wales : controlled interrupted time series analysis – by R Steinbach et al, in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health published in July 2015 on the effects of street lighting on road safety and crime in England and Wales (attached) found little evidence of harmful effects of switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, or changes to white light/LEDs on road collisions or crime.

  • Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure schools in rural Suffolk receive an allocation of funding based on need.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    In the previous Parliament we allocated an extra £10.5 million to Suffolk for its schools, in the biggest step forward in fairer funding in a decade. We are protecting the schools budget in this Parliament, so that it rises with pupil numbers. We have already ensured that the extra funding for under-funded areas from 2015-16, including the £10.5 million for Suffolk, will be included in budgets for 2016-17. We are committed to going further in ensuring funding for schools in Suffolk is allocated according to need and will bring forward plans after the Spending Review.

  • Baroness Hamwee – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Hamwee – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hamwee on 2015-12-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish the report by James Ewins of his review of the overseas domestic workers visa, and their response to it, before the Immigration Bill 2015 receives its second reading in this House.

    Lord Bates

    Mr Ewins’s report has been submitted to the Home Office and will be published shortly. The Government will announce its response to the report in due course.

  • Natalie McGarry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Natalie McGarry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Natalie McGarry on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the cost of providing pension credit was to people in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) Glasgow and (d) Glasgow East constituency in the most recent period for which figures are available.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Due to the geographical level of information requested it has been assumed that the question refers to benefit expenditure.

    The information on requested is shown in the table below.

    Tables show expenditure for Great Britain, not the UK, as expenditure in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of Northern Ireland Executive.

    Pension Credit Expenditure £ million 2014/15
    Great Britain 6,576.1
    Scotland 587.4
    Glasgow (City) 108.6
    Glasgow East (constituency) 19.1

    Benefit expenditure information is published and can be found using the following URL:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2015

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