The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Kaufman on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he intends to answer the letter to him dated 14 December 2015 with regard to Ms A Sharif.
Justin Tomlinson
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, my right hon. Friend the member of Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr Duncan Smith), replied on 24 January 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how her Department is working with the Department for Energy and Climate Change to ensure that official development assistance funding provided for international climate projects is prioritised in policies aimed at reducing poverty.
Mr Nick Hurd
The UK’s International Climate Fund is jointly managed by DFID, DECC and Defra and has already directly supported 15 million people to cope with effects of climate change and given 2.6 million people improved access to clean energy.
The new UK Aid Strategy brings together the Government’s poverty reduction objectives with a commitment to tackle some of today’s biggest global challenges, including climate change. Tackling climate change and promoting sustainable development are two sides of the same coin – we cannot achieve one without the other.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-08.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the gender pay gap for women over 40.
Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to full gender equality in the workplace. We will be introducing gender pay gap reporting for companies with at least 250 employees and will provide £500,000 in support to help business calculate, understand and address their gender pay gaps. The Government expects employers to start publishing the required information from April 2017.
The Government’s ambition is to unlock the skills, talents and experience of older workers. Working with business, International Women’s Day 2016 saw the Women’s Business Council launching a toolkit to encourage older women to enter and stay on in the workplace. The Women’s Business Council has established a working group on older women workers to address how business can offer practical support to older workers.
This builds on action the Government has already taken to ensure an effective framework to help women return to and progress in work. These measures include introducing shared parental leave, extending the right to request flexible working to all employees and increasing support for childcare costs.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-04-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to ask that unrecognised entities such as Gaza, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Cantons of Northern Syria be invited, at least as observers, to the UN World Humanitarian Summit in May.
Baroness Verma
The World Humanitarian Summit has been convened by the UN Secretary-General. Whilst it is for him to decide on participants, he has been clear in his intention to make the Summit an open and participative process. Over 5,000 participants are expected in Istanbul, including leaders from crisis-affected communities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish data gathered from border exit checks.
James Brokenshire
Exit checks were introduced in April 2015. They will, over a period of time, provide us with a range of insights into the behaviours of migrants and how they comply with restrictions placed upon their length of stay in the UK.
Data collected from exit checks is a record of cross border movement. It may in the future help inform but will not in itself answer questions on emigration.
The Home Office has announced that it is considering the use of exit checks data for statistical reporting and intends to publish an initial evaluation of the use of exit checks for this purpose. The evaluation will be a technical assessment of the analysis carried out thus far and of the further analysis necessary to better understand short, medium, and long term opportunities.
The initial evaluation of the use of exit checks will be published on 25 August to coincide with the next quarterly immigration statistics release.
Publication of the initial evaluation on the use of exit checks will be on the GOV.UK website
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-07-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent discussions she has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on the Joint Agency Task Force; and if she will make a statement.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
I attended a Security Interface meeting on 4 July 2016 with Clare Sugden MLA, Minister of Justice for Northern Ireland, representatives of PSNI and senior representatives of the Department of Justice. We received an update on the work of the Joint Agency Task Force. The Task Force has presented its first report to the meeting of Justice Ministers in the framework of the Intergovernmental Agreement on co-operation on criminal justice matters, with an update on operational activity undertaken to date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government plans to continue to participate in the European Institute for Gender Equality after the UK leaves the EU.
Caroline Dinenage
The negotiations we are about to undertake will include our relationship with a wide range of EU organisations and institutions, the European Institute for Gender Equality being one of them. How we take these various relationships forward will be a matter for discussion with the EU institutions and our European partners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of households in temporary accommodation which will be affected by the introduction of the lower benefit cap; and if he will estimate the average proportion of the income of such households that will be subject to that cap.
Justin Tomlinson
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July. A link to the impact assessment is included.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/impact-assessments/IA15-006.pdf
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Coffey on 2016-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time between (a) offence commission and charge, (b) charge and first court appearance and (c) first court appearance to sentencing or acquittal was for all sexual offences cases completed in Greater Manchester in (i) 2013, (ii) 2014 and (iii) 2015.
Mike Penning
Our courts system is in need of urgent reform, which is why we have committed to building a justice system that is swifter and more certain.
We are investing £700 million over the next five years to create a more effective service. We will utilise modern technology to meet the needs of everyone who uses our services.
MOJ do not hold figures on dates of sentencing or acquittals and have instead provided the time from first listing to completion.
The age of a victim is only known where specified as part of the wording of an offence in statute. Figures for sexual offences cases where the victim was a minor are based on cases where the victim was known to be a minor, and figures where the victim was an adult include cases where the age of the victim was not known.
Data included in the attached tables.
Table 1 – the average duration from offence to charge, from charge to first listing, and from first listing to completion for sexual offences cases in Greater Manchester LCJB and in England and Wales, for cases completing in 2013, 2014 and January to September 2015.
Table 2 – the average duration (days) between offence to charge, charge to first listing, and first listing to completion for sexual offence cases completed in England and Wales where the victim was a minor or an adult, 2013 to Q1-Q3 2015.
Table 3 – the average durations for sexual offences cases in England and Wales. These are an update of Tables 5.1 and 5.2 in the ‘Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales’ publication. Figures are for the last 12 months available, from October 2014 to September 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-03-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what new proposals they have for tackling levels of congestion in towns and cities in the light of the reduction in police service numbers available for enforcement.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
I refer the Noble Lord to the answer I provided on 2 December 2015 (HL 3693) which clarified this Government has an ambitious strategy for tackling congestion in our cities and towns and improving performance on our roads.
Local highway authorities who are responsible for managing the local road network have a statutory duty under the Traffic Management Act to provide better conditions for all road users and to help tackle congestion in towns and cities. The size and make-up of the police workforce is a matter for Chief Constables to determine locally in conjunction with their democratically-elected Police and Crime Commissioners and working with other local stakeholders. It is, therefore, ultimately a decision for the Chief Constable to deploy resources according to the priorities agreed in its policing plan.