Tag: 2016

  • 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, what pay rise in percentage terms, in each salary band in his Department, staff have received in each financial year since 2010-11.

    Dominic Raab

    The Treasury sets public sector pay policy, which includes the 1% cap, in line with wider government priorities. This policy has been subject to agreement with the Prime Minister and consultation within the government at Ministerial level.

    In line with the pay freeze announced by the Government in the June Budget 2010, the pay of staff employed by the Ministry of Justice in 2011-12 and 2012-13 earning a full time equivalent of £21,000 or less received pay increases of up to £250. MoJ exited the pay freeze on 1 August 2013. Since then MOJ staff received pay awards averaging at 1% each year, in line with the Government policy.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many RAF airstrikes have taken place against Daesh targets in (a) Iraq and (b) Syria since 2 December 2015.

    Penny Mordaunt

    From 2 December 2015 till 23 February 2016 there have been a total of 362 strikes against Daesh targets. Of these 319 have taken place in Iraq and 43 in Syria.

  • Hannah Bardell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Hannah Bardell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hannah Bardell on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timetable is for the European Commission’s review of the Dublin Regulation.

    James Brokenshire

    Home Office Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website:

    http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office

    The Commission’s review of the Dublin Regulation started last autumn. The College of Commissioners set out its strategic vision of possible options to reform the Dublin Regulation on 6 April.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the role of the PrescQIPP Programme is in relation to clinical commissioning groups.

    Alistair Burt

    The PrescQIPP NHS Programme currently has no direct role within the Department as it is an independent social enterprise.

    Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) use its materials to improve the prescribing of medicines. These are mainly publicly available for CCGs and Health Boards, with some additional subscription-only content. Their governance and annual work programme is overseen by a strategic oversight group representing the users.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of staff in his Department were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

    Mike Penning

    The proportion of staff on (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff for each of the financial years requested is included in the table below. Due to changes in the structure of the department in each year, comparisons cannot be reliably drawn between years.

    2010/2011

    2011/2012

    2012/2013

    2013/2014

    2014/2015

    2015/2016

    Proportion of Payroll FTE

    98%

    98%

    98%

    97%

    95%

    95%

    Proportion of Non Payroll FTE

    2%

    2%

    2%

    3%

    5%

    5%

    The data in the table includes staff from MoJ Headquarters, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, National Offender Management Service, Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, Office of the Public Guardian and the Legal Aid Agency (who are included from the 2013/2014 financial year onwards). The Scotland Office and Wales Office are included in the 2010/2011 financial year and Supreme Court included 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 financial year.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to respond to the concluding observations and recommendations of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the UK’s sixth periodic report in relation to social security and unemployment; and if he will make a statement.

    Damian Hinds

    In paragraph 73 of the UN recommendations, the UN requested that the UK submits its next period report under the Covenant (inclusive of a response to all the recommendations from this year’s examination) by 30 June 2021; it would therefore not be appropriate for me to pre-empt this report by anticipating what we might say in 2021. In any event, the Government regularly assesses the impacts of its policies and will continue to do so.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) military and (b) civilian Government employees have been employed in the Gulf Strategy Unit in each of the last 15 years.

    Ben Gummer

    The Gulf Strategy Integrated Delivery Team was established in 2015.

    Its remit is to coordinate the Government’s strategic approach to UK engagement with the Gulf States as set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015.

    It employs three full-time and one part-time Government employees. One is military and three are civilian.

    Administration costs were £70,004 in the 2015-16 financial year and the budget for administration costs in the 2016-17 financial year is £423,000. The 2015-16 figure reflects the fact the unit was established later in the financial year.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to increase the amount of housing stock owned by councils; and if he will make a statement.

    Brandon Lewis

    Local housing authorities have a wide range of discretion in building and running their housing stock. The Housing Revenue Account self-financing settlement was a good deal for local authorities; it put them in charge of their own finances and allowed them to decide how they wanted to invest in both their existing stock and in new council homes.

    Local housing authorities have accumulated general housing revenue account reserves of almost £2.5 billion (in addition to over £1billion in the Major Repairs Reserve) and have borrowing headroom approaching £3.4 billion. In addition, almost £222 million of extra borrowing headroom has been allocated to 36 councils in England to specifically support around 3,000 new affordable homes in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

    More council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years. 2014 saw the highest number of council housing starts for 23 years.

  • Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Social Fund funerals were made in each year between 2010 and 2015; how many such applications were refused; and what the (a) budget and (b) lowest payment made was.

    Justin Tomlinson

    Table 1 shows the number of applications for Funeral Expenses Payments which were made and the number refused in the financial years 2010/11 to 2014/15.

    Table 1

    Applications (000)

    Initial Refusals (000)

    2010/11

    69

    34

    2011/12

    69

    36

    2012/13

    66

    34

    2013/14

    59

    27

    2014/15

    51

    24

    Data sourced from the DWP policy, Budget and Management Information System and is published in the Annual Report by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the Social Fund for the relevant year.

    The budget for the Social Fund, Funeral Expenses Payment (FEP) expenditure is demand-led. Legislation prescribes that payments are made to all eligible applicants. That is people responsible for arranging a funeral who meet the rules on relationships with the deceased and receive a qualifying benefit. Provision for FEPs is made by central Government through the supply estimate process, but these figures are not translated into an operational budget and do not impact eligibility or award amounts.

    In a minority of cases funeral expense payments are subsequently recovered from the deceased’s estate and in these cases the net amount can be very small. Given the small numbers involved it is not appropriate to release figures as there is a risk of identifying individuals.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25153, on which Type 45 Destroyers all 16 recommendations of the Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review have been implemented in full; when he expects the implementation of all 16 recommendations to be completed across the class; and if he will publish the recommendations made by the review.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Fourteen of the recommendations involved a modification to the Power and Propulsion system and all fourteen have been completed across all six ships in the class.

    The remaining two recommendations, involving changes to existing training procedures and documentation, have also been adopted. As these two recommendations are administrative in nature, they do not require physical modification of the ships.

    With regard to the request to publish the recommendations made by the Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review, dated March 2011, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) to question 25234 on 8 February 2016.