Tag: Andrew Gwynne

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was paid in (a) year end and (b) in-year bonuses to officials of his Department in each of the last three years.

Mike Penning

Details of the cost of a) year end and b) in year performance related payments that have been paid to officials of the department from 2011/2012 and 2013/2014 can be found at:

2011/2012: http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-consolidated-performance-related-payments-ncprps

2013/2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mod-non-consolidated-performance-related-pay-2013-to-2014

Data on payments made during 2014/2015 will be published in March 2016.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much was paid in (a) year end and (b) in-year bonuses to officials of his Department in each of the last three years.

Mr Philip Dunne

Non consolidated performance awards are paid to reward excellence and are given to no more than 25% of staff each year based on the relative assessment of performance against objectives throughout the reporting year. The awards are not pensionable and the values for each grade are set centrally and agreed by the Secretary of State as part of the annual pay remit.

The Special Bonus Scheme (SBS) is discretionary and there is no limit on the number of people that can receive a cash award provided the award is approved within the policy, rules and guidance governing the SBS. Special Bonuses are not pensionable and are awarded for exceptional performance in a specific task or for the achievement of a professional qualification that benefits the Ministry of Defence and the individual. A Special Bonus can be awarded at any time. Awards vary in value with the maximum single payment being £2,000.

The following table shows how much the Department has paid out in year-end performance awards and the SBS in each of the last four financial years to staff below the Senior Civil Service.

TYPE OF AWARD	FINANCIAL YEAR (1 APRIL TO 31 MARCH) £ Million
2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Performance Award	38	25	20	18.5
Special Bonus Scheme	3.9	4	4	4.6
Total	41.9	29.0	24.0	23.1

The following table details the combined total value of payments made to staff below the Senior Civil Service by way of non consolidated performance awards and SBS awards for financial years 2008-09 to 2010-11.

Financial Year	Total Value of Awards made £ Million
2008-09	47.5
2009-10	44.2
2010-11	43.5

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what equality impact assessment has been carried out on the decision to reduce by £200 million the local government public health grant; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

The Department has conducted a public consultation exercise on the options for delivering this saving and specifically invited views in relation to the potential impact on people with protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010. We will publish our conclusions shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average response time was of Veterans UK to queries raised with them by veterans in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Philip Dunne

The information requested is not held. However, between 1 April and 30 September 2015, the Veterans UK Helpline received a total of 79,636 calls, answered within an average of two minutes 17 seconds. A total of 18,638 emails and approximately 84,500 letters (all correspondence received via the Norcross Post Room – it is not possible to filter out Veteran UK queries, from claim forms and post for other areas of Defence Business Services), were received and acknowledged within five working days with a full response expected to be issued within 10 working days.

Over the same period the Veterans Welfare Service addressed 10,448 queries. A total of 27 per cent were resolved at first point of contact, with the remainder being immediately referred to Welfare Managers for follow up visits; arranged within 10 working days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the local government public health grant will be in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

No decisions have yet been made on the public health grant for future years. This is being considered as part of the Spending Review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total additional cost was of the net 52-month deferment of the final stage of the Core Production Capability Project.

Mr Philip Dunne

As stated in the National Audit Office (NAO) Major Projects Report (MPR) 2015, the Core Production Capability project was deferred for 52 months due to the decision to refuel HMS Vanguard and keep the option open to refuel HMS Victorious. As a result of this new requirement that was unforeseen, an additional £196 million was approved for this project of which £17.6 million represents the cost of deferment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications have been made to the forces help to buy scheme in (a) each region in England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in each month since that scheme’s inception; and how many such applications have been successful in each of those areas.

Mark Lancaster

The Forces Help to Buy scheme was introduced in April 2014 and has been popular and successful amongst Service personnel and their families. To date, the scheme has helped over 5,000 military personnel purchase their own property, and a further 1,900 approved applications are awaiting the completion of the property purchase.

The information requested is not readily available, but the following table shows the number of recipients, by English regions, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, where applications have been successful.

Region	Forces Help To Buy Recipients (Numbers)
England –	4,300
South West	1,100
East Midlands	650
South East	600
Yorkshire and The Humber	450
North West	450
East of England	350
West Midlands	350
North East	300
London	50
Wales	250
Scotland	400
Northern Ireland	50

Note: Figures have been rounded

The Forces Help to Buy demonstrates the Department’s commitment to strengthen the Armed Forces covenant, ensuring that personnel and their families are not disadvantaged by their service. By giving our Service personnel this extra help, those who aspire to be homeowners will be able to set down roots and get onto the property ladder, giving their families the domestic stability that many of us take for granted.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of Army (a) officers and (b) regular soldiers are recruited from (i) Scotland, (ii) England and Wales and (iii) Northern Ireland.

Mark Lancaster

The proportion of regular Army officers and soldiers recruited from each country of the United Kingdom for 2014-15 is shown below:

Regular	Officer	Soldier
England	88.4%	80.6%
Scotland	4.7%	8.9%
Wales	4.7%	6.3%
N Ireland	1.4%	2.5%
Other	0.8%	1.7%

The locations shown reflect the contact addresses recorded and may not be the home address. ‘Other’ refers to non-UK contact addresses, or those not identifiable, but does not include Gurkhas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much was paid in (a) year-end and (b) in-year bonuses to officials of her Department in each of the last three years.

Mr Ben Wallace

In the last three financial years my Department paid officials the following amounts for year-end and in-year bonuses:

Financial Year	In-Year Bonuses (£)	Year-End Bonuses (£)
2012/13	22,100	35,800
2013/14	32,150	31,800
2014/15	22,710	25,600

Non-consolidated performance related pay is only paid to reward excellence, for example to recognise and incentivise those responsible for delivering high quality public services and savings to the taxpayer. These one-off payments are not pensionable. Since 2010-11, the Government has restricted awards for senior civil servants to the top 25% of performers (from 65% in previous years), saving around £15 million overall.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will undertake a feasibility study on establishing a credit union open to British military personnel; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Dunne

On 8 December 2014, the then Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans (Anna Soubry) fully endorsed the expansion of existing, strong Credit Unions to the Armed Forces community and stated that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was working to bring this about. The Minister also advised that the MOD’s payroll provider was working with officials to scope and cost payroll deductions for a Credit Union.

The work on scoping payroll deductions has now been concluded successfully and we have now established a facility where Credit Union services are available to Armed Forces personnel via payroll deductions; the formal launch of this service took place on 15 October 2015.

The three chosen Credit Unions are PlaneSaver Credit Union, London Mutual Credit Union and Police Credit Union trading as Serve and Protect. This facility will provide UK Armed Forces personnel with access to dependable savings facilities and safe affordable loans.

An internal communication has been issued across the Department to alert Service personnel of this new facility.