Tag: Bridget Phillipson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 37587, what progress the Government has made on consulting local authorities to identified a specified number of children refugees to be resettled in the UK in the next year under subsection (1) of 67 of the Immigration Act of 2016.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Local authorities are already caring for more than 4,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The Government has consulted widely and extensively with local authorities across the UK in order to assess their capacity to care for additional unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children.

The Home Office has also significantly increased the funding available to local authorities that are supporting unaccompanied children and offered additional funding to bolster regional structures for the National Transfer Scheme, which is the mechanism for ensuring there is a more even distribution of unaccompanied children across the UK.

Between 12 May and 1 October 2016 over 50 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act were accepted for transfer, of which over 35 have been transferred. We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities to establish the number of children who may be eligible and have seconded UK experts to France, Greece and Italy to support the commitment to transfer eligible children to the UK, where it is in their best interests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) complaints have been made about and (b) investigations have been conducted into bus companies by the North East Traffic Commissioners in each year since 2010; and what enforcement action has been taken as a result following each such complaint or investigation.

Andrew Jones

The Traffic Commissioner for the North Eastern Traffic Area role is defined in the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 and is a regulatory role as opposed to an investigatory role. When complaints regarding the operation of Public Service Vehicles are received they are forwarded to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) who may carry out an investigation and provide a report to the Traffic Commissioner, should concerns be identified. Complaints and investigations may relate to issues of vehicle maintenance, driver behaviour or the reliability of local bus services. The Traffic Commissioner can request that DVSA conduct an investigation or DVSA may carry out an investigation under their own initiative. Between April 2010 and March 2015, 91 complaints have been received by the Traffic Commissioner relating to PSV operators.

The table below shows the number of public inquiries held between April 2010 and March 2015 at which the Traffic Commissioner considered regulatory action against the holder of a PSV operator’s licence.

	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	Total
Number of public inquiries completed	19	26	19	35	50	149
Licence revocations	7	10	7	9	25	58
Licence suspensions	0	4	2	3	3	12
Reduction of vehicles authorised on licence	3	3	4	2	2	14
Other conditions imposed on licence	0	0	3	3	0	6
Formal warning given	8	9	7	11	12	47
Disqualification of licence holder under the 1985 Act	0	1	2	4	4	11
No action taken	2	1	2	7	6	18
Penalty imposed under Section 155 of the 2000 Act	1	0	0	0	0	1

Note: the figures in the last 8 rows may not equal the number of public inquiries held, as more than one action may betaken against a licence holder.

DVSA started to investigate Bus complaints, under the BOAM (Bus Operator Account Management) scheme in 2012. The first recorded compliant is dated 04/01/13. The BOAM scheme covers complaints for late and early running services, under the Traffic Commissioner’s statuary guidance of up to 1 minute early and 5 minutes late. If a service fails to operate or if the services either cuts short a route or diverts from a route.

Between 2012 up to the present date DVSA received, 97 complaints. Out of those complaints DVSA investigated 94. Three complaints did not fall under BOAM, so were not investigated.

12 complaints were referred to the Office of the Traffic Commissioners once the complaint was investigated.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (a) what representations he has received on and (b) whether his Department plans to incentivise employers to offer the National Living Wage.

Nick Boles

From 1 April 2016 every employer is required by law to pay the new statutory National Living Wage (NLW) for workers aged 25 and above.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24848, on the South Yorkshire Community Rehabilitation Company, what areas of that company’s activities the action plan referred to covers; in what way his Department plans to monitor the implementation of that plan; and what steps his Department can take if a community rehabilitation company fails to implement such a plan in the agreed timescale.

Andrew Selous

The information requested is commercially sensitive. It is normal Government practice not to release commercially sensitive information.

The use of action plans is part of an ongoing standard contract management process used routinely with all 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to promptly and proactively address issues which have been identified.

We have robust contract management in place to monitor these plans, including commercial and financial specialists to ensure that providers deliver effective services and value for money. Robust performance management systems and audit arrangements are in place to manage the contracts. This approach is in line with National Audit Office contract management standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2016 to Question 27240, on family courts: domestic violence, when his Department last reviewed the security standards referred to in that Answer.

Caroline Dinenage

Family Courts are subject to Security Standards, which provide a framework for security measures at each individual court.

Security standards are under continual review by each local court. In practice this comprises each court undertaking reviews of all significant incidents trends/lessons learned, findings from risk assessments, engagement with inter-agency partners, feedback following complaints and regular local inspections. This is to ensure adequate protection measures are in place to protect court users.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to ban the manufacture, sale, possession and use of animal snares.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The Government has no plans to ban the use of all animal snares. The Government has sought to improve the welfare of snared animals through research to improve snare deployment and design and by working with users who are producing new guidance on best practice.

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 contains protection for animals under the control of man to help prevent unnecessary suffering and covers any animal held in a snare. Any suspected cases of illegal use should be reported to the Police.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 37587, how many child refugees are planned to be resettled in the UK in the next year in accordance with subsection (1) of 67 of the Immigration Act of 2016.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Local authorities are already caring for more than 4,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The Government has consulted widely and extensively with local authorities across the UK in order to assess their capacity to care for additional unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children.

The Home Office has also significantly increased the funding available to local authorities that are supporting unaccompanied children and offered additional funding to bolster regional structures for the National Transfer Scheme, which is the mechanism for ensuring there is a more even distribution of unaccompanied children across the UK.

Between 12 May and 1 October 2016 over 50 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act were accepted for transfer, of which over 35 have been transferred. We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities to establish the number of children who may be eligible and have seconded UK experts to France, Greece and Italy to support the commitment to transfer eligible children to the UK, where it is in their best interests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost has been of the North East Traffic Commissioners Quality Contact Scheme board to date.

Andrew Jones

The Quality Contract Scheme Board (QCSB) that was convened to consider the proposed Quality Contract Scheme for Tyne and Wear published their report in accordance with the Transport Act 2000 on 3 November 2015.

The cost incurred by QCSB in fulfilling their statutory obligation to date is £206,088. This figure should not increase significantly as the report has now been published.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 18162, if he will place in the Library a summary of the internal findings following his Department’s consideration of the Quality Contract Scheme Board report.

Andrew Jones

The Quality Contract Scheme (QCS) process is independent of the Department, and as such the Department has not formed a specific view on the merits of the proposed Tyne and Wear QCS proposal. The Quality Contract Scheme Board’s report has been considered internally with a view to informing and developing future policy and it is the Government’s intention to introduce a Buses Bill.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 23948, what the names are of the seven community rehabilitation companies referred to.

Andrew Selous

The information requested is commercially sensitive. It is normal Government practice not to release commercially sensitive information.

The use of action plans is part of an ongoing standard contract management process used routinely with all 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to promptly and proactively address issues which have been identified.

We have robust contract management in place to monitor these plans, including commercial and financial specialists to ensure that providers deliver effective services and value for money. Robust performance management systems and audit arrangements are in place to manage the contracts. This approach is in line with National Audit Office contract management standards.