The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-01-07.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much correspondence the child tax credits enquiry department receives by fax each day.
Damian Hinds
We do not hold information on the number of faxes received on child tax credits within HMRC.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to introduce lifetime awards for people assessed as requiring the upper personal independence payment allowance mobility component who have been diagnosed with muscle degenerative diseases or conditions.
Justin Tomlinson
Personal Independence Payment is specifically designed to ensure that the benefit is awarded to those with the greatest need and the award review process is integral to ensuring this happens. Under Disability Living Allowance over 70% of all claims had no review built-in, meaning that claimants could have been receiving too much or too little in benefit.
We take a personalised approach to setting the length of awards, varying the frequency and format of awards and reviews depending on the individual’s needs and the likelihood of their health condition or impairment changing.
Where the claimant has high levels of functional impairment which are only likely to increase or not improve, it is likely that the claimant will receive an enhanced rate of benefit and a longer term award.
We recognise that it is important to ensure that the review process is applied sensitively and appropriately. As such, it is likely that the awards of such claimants would also go through a less intensive review process which may not, if all the necessary information is held, include a face-to-face assessment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32963, how many people who have personal independence payments with enhanced mobility payments have initial awards of (a) three years or less and (b) greater than three years before further re-assessment is required.
Justin Tomlinson
The review date is set at 12 months before the end of the award so there are no changes to the benefit paid before the re-assessment takes place.
As at 31st January 2016, there were 218,270 claims in payment with enhanced mobility payments, of which;
(a) 112,340 had an initial award that had a review date of three years or less
(b) 105,960 had an initial award that had a review date of greater than three years.
This is unpublished data and, as such, it does not meet the quality standard required for official statistics publication. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.
Notes;
1) The source of the data is the PIP computer system.
2) Figures are correct as at 31st January 2016 and have been rounded to the nearest 10.
3) Figures include both new claims and reassessment claims, and normal rules and special rules for the terminally ill claims.
4) Figures are for Great Britain.
5) We have provided data based on when the initial award’s review date was set to be, as this is the point at which the claimant would be invited to undertake an award review (i.e. further reassessment of their claim). The award review date occurs exactly 12 months before the initial claim end date.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-06-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent progress has been made on her Department’s market stabilisation Contract for Difference policy; and if she will make a statement.
Andrea Leadsom
A number of stakeholders have suggested the concept of a market stabilising Contracts for Difference (CFD) for Pot 1 technologies. We have not yet decided whether to pursue any of the proposed options at this time.
Our focus has been on delivering the next CFD Allocation Round by the end of 2016 which we announced at the Budget, with £290m for less established technologies. We will be making announcements in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-10-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent discussions he has had with stakeholders in the UK on devolution of control over immigration to the Scottish Parliament once the UK leave the EU.
Mr David Jones
Legislation resulting from the UK’s exit must work for the whole of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister has already held initial conversations with the leaders of the devolved Governments about our plans, and she will make sure that the devolved Administrations have every opportunity to work closely with us.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether she has given consideration to re-classifying electricity storage vessels to enable distribution network operators to utilise such vessels without paying generation charges.
Andrea Leadsom
The Department recognises the potential for storage to help us use energy more flexibly and decarbonise our energy system cost effectively, alongside interconnection and demand-side response (DSR). As such, DECC is investigating the potential barriers to the deployment of energy storage. We are carefully considering possible mitigating actions, focussing in the first instance on removing regulatory barriers to energy storage. The re-classification of energy storage is one of the options we are considering. We plan to conduct a consultation and call for evidence in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to bring forward proposals to ensure service level agreement requirements incorporated into broadband supplier contracts with their customers ensure a reasonable minimum speed of download is maintained and commensurate with the advertised product.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Ofcom Code of Pratice on Broadband Speeds, effective from October 2015, requires internet service providers (ISPs) to give customers clear and accurate information on home broadband speeds, including the maximum speeds they can achieve, the estimated speed on the customer’s line, and factors that may slow down the speed, such as any fair use or traffic management policies.
ISPs must have systems in place to find the cause of speed problems, take steps to fix any issue they are responsible for, and explain to customers if they can do anything to improve the situation. As a result of the October 2015 revised code, customers can terminate contracts at any time without penalty if they receive speeds significantly below the ‘minimum guaranteed access line speed’; previously customers could only terminate within the first three months.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Housing Statistical Release Right to Buy Sales October to December 2015, published on 24 March 2016, what the average length of time was from a start on site to occupancy.
Brandon Lewis
This information is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 April 2016 to Question 32963, how many people have been allocated personal independence payments with enhanced mobility payments; and how many of those people have been classed as having muscle degenerative diseases or conditions.
Justin Tomlinson
Information on the number of claimants receiving PIP, by a range of breakdowns, including award combinations in payment and main disabling condition, is published and available using Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-06-24.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many pensioners pay income tax at the higher rate.
Mr David Gauke
For 2013-14 it is estimated that 558,000 individuals above State Pension Age were liable for Income Tax charged at or above the higher rate. This is based on the most recent Survey of Personal Incomes (2013-14)