Tag: 2016

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2016 to Question 42169, what his Department’s timetable is for the closure of remaining arrears-only Child Support Agency cases after the current three year programme for closing cases with an ongoing liability is completed.

    Caroline Nokes

    We are currently reviewing the timetable for the closure of Child Support Agency arrears only cases.

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a further review of the tunnel boring machine advance rates for the High Speed 2 Chiltern tunnel has yet taken place.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    HS2 Ltd have carried out an extensive reviews of tunnel boring rates for comparable forms of tunnel (looking at the size of tunnel and type of tunnel boring machine used) as part of the work for the hybrid Bill development, including tunnels both in this country and overseas. Particular attention has been made to ascertaining the ‘hard average rate’ achieved on these tunnels, which is much more appropriate in calculating the overall time to complete a particular tunnel drive for its entire length from "machine in to machine out". HS2 Ltd have provided evidence from these applicable tunnel projects in front of the Select Committee and explained on several occasions how the tunnel drive rates from these other projects support the current assumed drive rate for the HS2 Chiltern Tunnel. No further review is considered to be required as there is no further appropriate evidence available.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many calls were made to (a) the Pay and Work Rights Helpline and (b) ACAS reporting non-payment of the National Minimum Wage by sector in each of the last five years.

    Nick Boles

    Final approved answer for 2016/02785

    No assessment has been made on the impact of confidentiality agreements on the identification of National Minimum Wage (NMW) non-compliance.

    Confidentiality is an important protection for workers who wish to make a NMW complaint. If any worker is concerned they have not received what they are entitled to they should contact the ACAS helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free and confidential advice. HMRC follow up every complaint referred to them by Acas and compliance officers can investigate without knowledge of the complainant’s identity. In addition to complaint-led work HMRC investigate employers using third-party intelligence and risk-based targeted enforcement in sectors and areas where there is a higher risk of workers being paid below the NMW.

    The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break NMW law. Between April 2015 and November 2015 HMRC took action against over 500 businesses, identifying over £8 million for 46,000 workers. This is already the largest amount of arrears identified in any single year since the introduction of the NMW.

    Building on existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW including higher penalties, a dedicated HMRC team to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance and additional funding for HMRC from April 2016. We have also increased communications so that working people can access support to make complaints in confidence if needed

    Table 1: NMW enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline by trade sector, 2009/10 to 2014/15.

    Trade Sector

    2009/103

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    Activities of households as employers

    20

    20

    40

    20

    20

    10

    Admin/Office work

    2,530

    4,410

    3,910

    2,950

    3,310

    2,390

    Agriculture and related activities

    140

    100

    120

    100

    110

    100

    Cleaning services

    440

    400

    350

    320

    420

    320

    Construction and related trades

    1,350

    1,290

    1,050

    760

    1,010

    810

    Education and teaching

    270

    370

    350

    300

    540

    450

    Food processing and packaging

    90

    40

    50

    20

    30

    30

    Hairdressing

    1,670

    1,520

    1,360

    930

    1,040

    730

    Health, social work and child care

    1,590

    1,750

    1,590

    1,430

    2,090

    1,930

    Hospitality

    1,880

    1,580

    1,560

    1,400

    1,780

    1,340

    Information technology and communication

    150

    170

    180

    120

    240

    150

    Modelling, entertainment, recreation

    90

    90

    110

    80

    160

    50

    Other manufacturing

    240

    200

    150

    140

    140

    120

    Security services

    240

    170

    140

    120

    150

    110

    Shellfish gathering

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    Taxi/minicab services

    60

    40

    30

    30

    30

    20

    Textiles

    30

    10

    20

    20

    80

    30

    Training Provider

    –

    –

    –

    –

    70

    70

    Transport (other than Taxi/mini-cab)

    350

    380

    280

    270

    440

    260

    Warehousing, storage and distribution

    490

    440

    420

    340

    360

    310

    Wholesale and retail trade

    1,580

    1,560

    1,550

    1,150

    1,470

    930

    Other

    4,980

    3,880

    2,590

    1,980

    2,780

    2,210

    Not Known

    3,580

    2,190

    5,020

    5,350

    5,210

    7,180

    Total

    21,700

    20,600

    20,900

    17,800

    21,500

    19,500

    Source: Pay and Workers Rights Helpline and the Acas Helpline

    Notes:

    1. Calls to the helpline are in part driven by NMW policy announcements and communications activity.
    2. Sector level figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals are rounded to the nearest 100.
    3. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2009/10 as the Helpline opened in May 2009.

    Since the 1st April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.

    Provisional in-year data for 2015/16 show there have been 9,800 queries relating to NMW legislation to the Acas Helpline and 3,700 queries relating to non-payment/deductions from NMW. Information on the number of NMW enquiries by trade sector is not collected on a comparable basis as Acas do not ask callers to disclose information about the sector worked in. Therefore, Acas only record this information when a caller chooses to provide it.

    Table 1: The number of NMW related calls received by Acas, 2011/12 to 2015/16.

    Query topic

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/164

    NMW

    4,400

    3,800

    3,800

    4,400

    9,800

    Non-Payment/Deductions from NMW

    2,000

    2,500

    2,900

    3,100

    3,700

    Source: Acas

    Notes

    1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
    2. One call may be counted as both a ‘NMW’ and ‘Non-payment/Deductions from NMW’ issue. A caller may enquire about the NMW rates and then raise a NMW underpayment issue therefore these categories should not be added together as it will involve double counting.
    3. For years earlier than 2015/16, a proportion of calls would have been referred to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.
    4. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2015/16 which covers April 2015 to January 2016, the latest period for which information is available.
  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.

    Mike Penning

    Cleaning services within the Ministry of Justice are typically undertaken by outsourced providers. Cleaners working within Ministry of Justice sites are therefore employed directly by these outsourced providers or their subcontractors and/or agencies.

    Rates of pay for cleaners are determined by their respective employers and not held by the Ministry of Justice. All employers are obligated to pay at least the National Minimum Wage and the new National Living Wage from April 2016.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that every patient with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is recorded on (a) a local searchable database and (b) the UK registry for IBD patients.

    Jane Ellison

    The IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) Registry provides a United Kingdom-wide repository of anonymised IBD adult and paediatric patient data for prospective audit and research purposes. Patients must consent for their data to be added to the registry. The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) has allocated transitional funding this year to incorporate IBD audit data collection into the IBD Registry, providing an enhanced system for data capture and quality improvement that will be available to every hospital in the UK. This will allow the entry of data locally and support service improvement. Initially the focus will be for IBD patients receiving biologic treatments, but the system will address other key aspects of IBD care in the future.

    The second step of data collection will be to focus on new patients with IBD to begin to understand the incidence of IBD in the UK. This picture will build up over a number of years and be dependent on the engagement of clinicians.

    No specific assessment of the potential effects on healthcare due to the introduction of a registry of patients with IBD in England has been made. However, the data provided through the register can support National Health Service services in areas such as the assessment of local IBD populations as well as in measuring incidence and outcomes with services in other parts of the UK.

    Although there is no direct Department funding, HQIP have given £290,000 for a year’s transition funding to join the audit data with the registry.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends faecal calprotectin testing as an option to help doctors distinguish between inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and non-inflammatory bowel diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome.

    The NICE IBD Quality Standard states that general practitioners (GP) and GP practices should ensure that testing is offered and clinical commissioning groups should ensure the diagnostic services are in place to support this.

  • Clive Efford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Clive Efford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Efford on 2016-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what enforcement action is being taken by (a) the police and (b) Trading Standards against secondary ticketing operators offering tickets for the UEFA European Football Championships for sale through their websites to customers based in the UK; and under what legislation such action is being taken.

    David Evennett

    The Police are responsible for enforcing the football ticketing provisions of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 that apply to England and Wales. Trading Standards Services are responsible for enforcing the secondary ticketing provisions of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other relevant consumer protection legislation. Suspected or actual breaches of such legislation should first be reported via the Citizens Advice consumer helpline, following which Citizens Advice may refer cases to Trading Standards Services for appropriate action. The Government does not hold information centrally on the use of these enforcement powers or the number of penalties issued.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which services have been sold for profit by (a) her Department and (b) the College of Policing to the Saudi criminal justice system in the last five years.

    Mike Penning

    We are rightly proud of the British model of policing by consent and of the high level of skill and expertise across policing in this country. The College of Policing, which is independent of Government, ensures that respect for human rights and dignity is integral to each programme it delivers.

    Course developers and trainers are required to include a bespoke human rights and ethical decision-making element in each course. Before undertaking any international work, the College refers to the International Policing Assistance Board (IPAB), which assesses all requests against British values and interests. IPAB comprises policing representatives and those from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development and devolved administrations.

    The College always acts in accordance with HM Treasury’s guidelines on ‘Managing Public Money’, which includes guidance on commercial charging rates. The Home Office do not keep records on the travel of College of Policing officials.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of relapsed blood cancer patients who will no longer be able to access second stem cell transplants as a result of the NHS England decision published on 11 July 2016 to no longer routinely fund second stem cell transplants for those patients.

    David Mowat

    The Clinical Priorities Advisory Group which makes recommendations to the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group uses a defined process to prioritise treatments based on a combination of cost and patient benefit. The process includes an impact assessment that estimated that up to 22 patients per year by 2021 might be affected by this decision.

  • Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to ensure that all health and safety regulations will be (a) protected in the long-term and (b) retained in legislation after the UK leaves the EU.

    Penny Mordaunt

    As a Government, we have been clear that we will do nothing to undermine workers’ rights. The United Kingdom has one of the best records on occupational safety and health in Europe and the wider world and the Government intends to keep it that way. Health and safety regulations are secondary legislation under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Government has no plans to change this.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 21337, for those claimants who will see a change, what the average weekly change will be for those claimants who will see a change in their universal credit.

    Priti Patel

    It is not possible to accurately estimate this information as many people’s earnings vary from month to month. This means we do not have a viable data set on which to answer the question.