The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many employees are employed at the Sheffield office of the (a) Skills Funding Agency and (b) the Insolvency Service.
Joseph Johnson
As at 31st January 2016, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills have a) 13 employees in the Skills Funding Agency and b) Nil employees in the Insolvency Service based in its office in Sheffield.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the rate of pay is for cleaners in his Department.
Mr Edward Vaizey
DCMS shares premises with other Government Departments – HMRC and DfE – that are responsible for the employment and payment of cleaning staff.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the enforcement of age discrimination legislation in respect of people seeking employment.
Caroline Dinenage
Age is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. Where differential treatment because of age cannot be objectively justified, this will constitute unlawful age discrimination both in employment and in the provision of goods and services. Enforcement of the Act’s employment provisions is undertaken by Employment Tribunals, to which a person must make a claim if they feel that they have been discriminated against because of age.
Prior to an Employment Tribunal claim, conciliation services are provided by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services (Acas). According to the Employment tribunal statistics, 1,087 age discrimination claims were made to Employment Tribunals in 2014/15. 70% (761) of these claims were either withdrawn or successfully conciliated by Acas without the need for a full hearing. The Acas process is intended to enable employers and employees to resolve disputes without the need for a full Employment Tribunal hearing.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s enforcement powers under the Equality Act 2006 apply to age discrimination as they do to other protected characteristics.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Owen Smith on 2016-04-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many ongoing legal disputes his Department is currently engaged in.
Justin Tomlinson
The Department does not hold any central register of on-going legal disputes.
To collate the information requested would take the costs of responding to the question over the disproportionate cost threshold.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that staff in his Department receive religious literacy training.
Mr Marcus Jones
Civil Service Learning, the main training portal for civil servants, has a broad range of diversity and inclusion learning, which is available to all civil servants. There is also a two day course covering both Abrahamic and Dharmic religions for officials who need a more in depth understanding to carry out their role.
DCLG officials have had discussions with the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life (CORAB) about their call for greater religious literacy in every section of society. The Government is aware of the recent evidence sessions on religious literacy held by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education and will carefully consider the findings of the Group’s report when it is published.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-09-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what maximum length of time is considered safe from when an emergency call is received in a coastguard control room to when the coastguard vehicle is ready to leave its station.
Mr John Hayes
Each incident involving a Coastguard Rescue Team is different in its context given geography, terrain, weather conditions, prevailing traffic conditions and the availability of individual volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers. For this reason the Maritime and Coastguard Agency does not collate or maintain data in the format you have requested either locally or nationally. However, it can provide specific response times for specific incidents.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-10-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what formal guidance the Government has issued to departments on equality impact assessments.
Caroline Dinenage
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in the Equality Act 2010 ensures that public bodies take account of equality and consider the potential impact of decisions on groups with protected characteristics. All bodies exercising public functions are subject to the PSED and need to understand the impact of their policies and services on people with different protected characteristics, and be able to provide evidence that this has been taken into account during the decision-making process. However, the legislation does not prescribe how this information needs to be recorded and it is not a statutory requirement in England to prepare or publish information in a particular form, such as an Equality Impact Assessment.
The Government Equalities Office has published a quick-start guide on the PSED and has circulated PSED guidance across Whitehall. It also provides advice to other departments on their legal obligations by delivering workshops and presentations to staff. A range of guidance on the PSED is also available from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the security situation in the Sinai and its impact on the military capability of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Penny Mordaunt
The Egyptians have been carrying out operations against violent extremists in the Sinai since late 2013. We understand that as part of those operations the Egyptian Armed Forces have destroyed the majority of the tunnels between Sinai and Gaza. This is likely to have reduced significantly the smuggling of weapons to Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of people in the Senior Civil Service are based in London.
Matthew Hancock
67% of the Senior Civil Service is based in London.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25153, what the 16 recommendations are of the Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review are; on which Type 45 Destroyers all those recommendations have been implemented in full; and when he expects the implementation of all those recommendations to be completed across the class.
Mr Philip Dunne
The recommendations include fourteen that are are technical in nature and two that are administrative. We are currently reviewing the Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review, to determine what redactions are necessary before a copy is placed in the Library of the House. As part of this process, we are considering what information about the sixteen recommendations can be released.
On the question of the adoption of those recommendations, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her to question 28036 on 1 March 2015.