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Tag: 2015

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the total cost to the public purse was of the disability students’ allowance in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

    Joseph Johnson

    Information on students awarded and paid Disabled Students’ Allowance is published annually by Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release ‘Student Support for Higher Education England’. The latest statistics are available at the following link: http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx

    Payments to full-time undergraduate students are presented in table 3b on page 21 and payments to part-time undergraduates and postgraduates in tables 5a and 5b on page 31.

    “

  • Stephen Hammond – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Hammond – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Hammond on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has assessed the implications of using a premature child’s due date, rather than his or her birth date, for the purpose of determining when that child should start school.

    Nick Gibb

    We have announced the intention to amend the School Admissions Code so that, subject to parliamentary approval, children born in summer can be admitted to the reception class at the age of five, where this is the wish of their parents. Work is currently underway to assess what other changes it might be appropriate to make to the Code. As part of this process, we will consider whether it would be appropriate to use a prematurely-born child’s expected birth date in the admissions process.

  • Mark Pritchard – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Mark Pritchard – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to introduce legislation to ban the sale of primates as pets.

    George Eustice

    Primates are wild animals with complex needs and it is already against the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to keep them in a domestic pet environment, particularly if kept alone rather than in a social group.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many people requiring consular assistance in Addis Ababa and Nairobi originated in Somalia in each of the last three years.

    James Duddridge

    British nationals are not required to state where they come from when they request assistance, and therefore we do not maintain records of this information. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides consular assistance as appropriate to the individual circumstances of each case.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nicholas Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what changes there were in the relative weighting of economic deprivation within the primary health care funding formula in each complete financial year since 2010.

    Alistair Burt

    It is not possible to estimate the relative weighting specifically for deprivation, as all the factors taken into account in the formula are interrelated.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Charlotte Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information the Care Quality Commission holds on the quality of care in care homes.

    Ben Gummer

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.

    As at 12 October 2015, the CQC has published 8,318 ratings for adult social care providers since it began inspecting this sector using its new inspection regime on 1 October 2014. Of these, 42 providers have been rated ‘outstanding’, 4,889 as ‘good’, 2,889 as ‘requires improvement’ and 558 as inadequate.

    The CQC’s State of Care Report 2014-15, published on 15 October 2015, describes what it has found in its care home inspection programme.

  • Bill Wiggin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Bill Wiggin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Wiggin on 2015-10-21.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many investigations into estate agents have taken place under money laundering regulations in the last five years.

    Harriett Baldwin

    In 2014-15 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued 677 penalties to the total value of £768,000 across all the sectors it regulates. HMRC considers that releasing the number of investigations and visits made to businesses in different sectors could enable opportunists to identify where resource is being focussed, allowing criminals to arrange their activities accordingly to escape challenge. HMRC must protect information which could be used by criminals in this way and therefore is not able to release numbers on how many investigations are conducted in the Estate Agency Businesses (EAB) sector. HMRC took on supervision of Estate Agency Businesses under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on 1 April 2014. Since becoming supervisor HMRC has used a range of interventions such as face to face visits, telephone interventions and webinars to reach hundreds of businesses in the EAB sector, and test and challenge their compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations. In addition to direct interventions, as supervisor, HMRC conducts risking work which involves using a range of sophisticated data exploitation tools – including their state-of-the-art Connect system – to identify cases which warrant further investigation. It is not possible to quantify how many businesses have been looked at in this way, as it is a routine aspect of supervision for HMRC. Where cases require criminal investigation, they are passed to HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service. HMRC is unable to disclose details of cases which are currently under criminal investigation for operational reasons.

    I can confirm that estate agents that do not hold client money fall within the scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007.

  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much of her Department’s budget is directed at the root causes of migration.

    Justine Greening

    The root causes of migration are diverse. They include conflict, lack of security and also lack of opportunity or jobs. That’s why we provide help and security for refugees affected by the Syria crisis. When we double our work on jobs and growth, it is not only good for the people and countries we are supporting, it is in our national interest too.

  • Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Matthew Offord – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress his Department has made on implementing plans for new IEP and Thameslink rolling stock.

    Claire Perry

    Implementation plans for both fleets are making good progress. Hitachi Rail’s Class 800/801 IEP train manufacturing facility was opened by the Prime Minister on 3 September, IEP depot construction continues as planned and testing of the three IEP test trains continues on the East Coast Main Line. In terms of Thameslink, Siemens has delivered the first two Class 700 trains and the Secretary of State opened the new Thameslink Programme Three Bridges traincare facility on 15 October. The first Class 700s trains are planned to enter passenger service, as planned, in Spring 2016.

  • Chris Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Chris Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Green on 2015-10-21.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support (a) people with savings and (b) home ownership.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government is committed to helping people to own their own home and supporting savers of all incomes and at all stages of life. We have introduced the Personal Savings Allowance, which will take 95% of individuals out of tax on their savings, and created the Help to Buy scheme. This has already helped over 100,000 people purchase a home – 240 in Bolton West – and for those saving for their first home, we have introduced the Help to Buy ISA which will be available from December.