Tag: Alison McGovern

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the guaranteed fulfilment period is for (a) issuing new and (b) renewing (i) children’s and (ii) adult passports.

Mike Penning

The gov.uk website sets out expected turnaround times for applications made in
the UK and, on a country-by-country basis, for applications made overseas. HM
Passport Office aims to deal with applications within published turnaround
times, but this is a guideline only as there are a number of factors that can
affect how long it takes to process an application.
The premium and fast track service provide a guaranteed turnaround period of
four hours and seven days respectively on payment of an additional fee,
provided the applicant has submitted all the relevant information and the
necessary security requirements are met.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government and Merseyrail on electrification of the Wrexham to Bidston railway line.

Claire Perry

The proposals to electrify the Wrexham to Bidston rail line are a local matter and being led by Merseytravel and the Welsh Government. My Department has not been involved at this stage in the proposals. The Welsh Government is considering the economic benefits of investment on a number of lines in North Wales.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the change in real terms of the cost of travelling by (a) private car, (b) bus, (c) train and (d) domestic air flight between (i) 2000 and 2010 and (ii) 2010 and 2014.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Department for Transport published statistics on travel costs, based on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in the Transport Statistics Great Britain compendium.

Data from the independent ONS suggests that:

(i) Between 2000 and 2010 the real cost of motoring, including the purchase of a vehicle, declined by 8%, bus and coach fares increased by 20% and rail fares increased by 15% in real terms.

(ii) Between 2010 and 2014 the real cost of motoring, including the purchase of a vehicle, decreased by 5%, bus and coach fares increased by 2% and rail fares increased by 6% in real terms.

(iii) The costs of travelling by air are not available from ONS data. However information is available based on fare data from the Civil Aviation Authority. The real cost of the average UK one-way air fare, including taxes and charges, covering domestic flights from 2000 to 2010 declined by 41% and from 2010 to 2013 declined by 4%, reflecting a range of factors including increased competition between airlines. Estimates for 2014 are not yet available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with the Welsh Government and Merseyrail on electrification of the Wrexham to Bidston railway line.

Alun Cairns

On 30 January, I held a transport summit with businesses and local stakeholders in north Wales including Merseytravel and Arriva Trains Wales. The summit discussed transport priorities across north Wales and the case for investing in cross border routes including the rail line between Wrexham and Bidston.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what processes his Department has agreed to enable housing associations to be informed when tenants migrate to universal credit.

Mr Mark Harper

The Social Security (Information-sharing in relation to Welfare Services etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 came into force on 13 February 2015 and enable the Department to inform social landlords whenever one of their tenants makes a claim for, or receives an award of, Universal Credit (UC) with housing costs, for the purposes of enabling social landlords to assess which UC claimants may need advice, support or assistance in relation to managing their financial affairs.

The Department will write to social landlords when a tenant makes a claim for UC, or when a UC claimant becomes a tenant of theirs and the Department has confirmed the tenancy details. The letter will identify the tenant and confirm the date that UC has been claimed from. The information sharing with social landlords through these regulations is aimed at maximising relevant support for vulnerable UC claimants, including enabling social landlords to request Alternative Payment Arrangements (APA) for vulnerable claimants if needed. The Department’s proposals for sharing information with social landlords were published for public consultation last year. Apart from the public consultation, we have also been working closely with local authorities and representatives from the housing organisations in developing our plans for delivering this data sharing.

This data sharing is being implemented on a test and learn basis, and initially being introduced from 16 February 2015 in areas where UC has been rolled out nationally for single people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what definition the Government uses for classifying a zero hours contract.

Jo Swinson

There is no legal definition of a zero hours contract in UK domestic employment law. In general terms a zero hours contract is an arrangement under which an employer does not guarantee the individual any work, and the individual is not obliged to accept any work offered.

The ONS in their Labour Force Survey describe a zero hours contract as a contract ‘where a person is not contracted to work a set number of hours, and is only paid for the number of hours that they actually work’.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people receiving jobseeker’s allowance who have accessed Universal Jobmatch.

Esther McVey

Universal Jobmatch does not differentiate between the different types of user who access the service. Universal Jobmatch is open to all, whether they are in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance or not. There are currently 8.6 million registered users. In order to receive Jobseeker’s Allowance, claimants must (amongst other things) be available for and actively seeking work. Universal Jobmatch is a key source of jobs, so for the vast majority of claimants, using the service will be a key part of actively seeking work and also allows Jobcentre Plus Staff to assist claimants when looking for work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken from an application for reconsideration of an employment and support allowance decision to a decision being made on that case was in each month since October 2013.

Mr Mark Harper

The latest information available is provided in Table 2.1 in the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mandatory-reconsiderations-of-dwp-benefit-decisions-data-to-october-2014

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department has taken to investigate allegations that employees of programmes in Bihar State funded by her Department are not receiving their salaries.

Mr Alan Duncan

DFID is aware of a contractual dispute between a contractor to the Government of Bihar and its sub-contractors. We have looked into this, and are clear that this is now a matter for the Government of Bihar.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Immigration and Passport Service on (a) the service’s ability to meet the three-week timescale for processing an application for a child passport and (b) possible extension of that timescale.

James Brokenshire

Expected service standards for processing passports are given at: www.gov.uk.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Home Secretary explained in the House on 12 June 2014
a set of measures to deal with the high level of passport demand has been put
in place. I refer the Hon. Member to the statement of 12 June 2014, Official
Report, columns 693 and 694.