Tag: 2016

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications in which (a) towns, (b) cities and (c) regions for Tier 2 (General) restricted Certificate of Sponsorship have been rejected on the grounds that the job is in an establishment which provides a take-away service in each of the last five years.

    James Brokenshire

    The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

    For the future, the Government intends that Tier 2 should be restricted to roles where there are genuine skills shortages or which require highly-specialised experts. We asked the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to advise on how to achieve this, but with sufficient flexibility to include high value roles and key public service workers. The MAC has now submitted its advice and the Government is considering the report carefully.

  • Lucy Allan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lucy Allan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Allan on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of sexual offences committed against children in Telford.

    Karen Bradley

    Tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a top priority for this Government and we are taking a wide range of actions to reduce sexual offences against children. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement, setting a clear expectation on police forces to collaborate across force boundaries, to safeguard children, to share intelligence and to share best practice.

    We have introduced new powers for the police to tackle offenders including new Sexual Risk Orders in the Serious Crime Act. The College of Policing and the National Policing Lead have set the requirement for all forces to train all new and existing police staff to respond to child sexual abuse. We have also made £1.5 million available to the National Policing Lead to fund National CSE Action Plan regional co-ordinators and analysts to drive improvements in the police response and better identify organised abuse.

    Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary published a report on its National Child Protection re-inspection of West Mercia Constabulary on 21 January this year. Although HMIC highlighted some areas that needed improvement, inspectors found that West Mercia Police had reviewed its public protection structures, systems and processes and had invested significant extra resources into child protection.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to increase the supply of wheelchair accessible homes in the social and affordable housing sector.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government provides direct funding for specialised housing for older and disabled people through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme, making available up to £800 million for specialised housing for older, disabled, and vulnerable people over the next five years, which will deliver over 15,000 specialised homes.

    The Government is also putting more money into the Disabled Facilities Grant to enable older and disabled people to live independently and safely in their own homes for longer. On top of the £1 billion the Government has invested in the grant since 2010, the grant will increase year on year for the next five years rising to over £500 million by 2020. In 2016-17 the Disabled Facilities Grant will grow to £394 million, a 79% increase on the current year.

  • Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burgon on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP surgeries have a capped patient list in Leeds East constituency.

    Alistair Burt

    This data is not collected centrally.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage car manufacturers to adopt green and hybrid technologies.

    Andrew Jones

    The UK offers one of the most comprehensive packages of support for ultra low emission vehicles in the world. This includes the plug-in car and van grants, support for infrastructure, investment in R&D, and the ground breaking government-industry communications campaign, ‘Go Ultra Low’.

    The government recently committed over £600m over the course of this parliament to support the take up and manufacture of ultra low emission vehicles, and has set itself the ambitious goal that by 2050 nearly all cars and vans should be zero emission.

    We are also active in the EU in pushing for ambitious regulation of the CO2 emissions of new cars, which will encourage the increasing deployment of new greener technologies.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to local authorities on the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

    Karen Bradley

    The Local Government Association (LGA) has worked in consultation with the Government to develop bespoke guidance for local authorities on the enforcement of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 and their new powers. This has been disseminated to local authorities across the country and is available at: http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/publications/-/journal_content/56/10180/7838372/PUBLICATION

    In February, we held joint operational workshops with the National Police Chief’s Council for enforcement partners across the UK, including trading standards officers, to raise operational awareness of the Act.

    We have also produced a forensic strategy for all enforcement partners on the new forensic requirements to support prosecutions under the Act.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will bring forward proposals to ensure mandatory assessment of sources of additional evidence supplied by claimants of personal independence payments.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Department always considers a range of evidence from a variety of sources when making a decision on an individual’s PIP claim and is robust in asking for further information if it feels this will be beneficial for the claimant. In addition, the department will always consider any additional evidence provided at the Mandatory Reconsideration or appeal stage.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many letters his Department received from the Mayor of London between May 2010 and April 2016; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Department is not able to confirm the total number of letters received by the Department from the Mayor of London since 2010 as this would incur disproportionate cost.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the five most common causes of deaths were in (a) England and Wales and (b) each London borough in (i) 2014, (ii) 2010, (iii) 2005 and (iv) 2000.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Margaret Ferrier – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ferrier on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice of 26 January 2016, Official Report, column 129, how many staff in his Department were given an end-of-year appraisal rating of outstanding in each year since 2010.

    Dominic Raab

    The new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) appraisal system incorporates a guided distribution which sets the parameters for the number of Outstanding, performance markings. MoJ adopted a staggered approach to implementing the new cross government performance management system. Launch dates were as follows:

    • MoJ HQ, agencies Arms Length Bodies (excluding National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and National Probation Service (NPS)) – April 2013
    • NOMS – April 2014
    • NPS – June 2014

    Please note that the term Outstanding was not used across all MoJ business groups prior to the introduction of the new system.

    2010-2011

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Top Performance Management Review Markings Total

    11587

    10892

    9100

    9252

    7580