Tag: Cathy Jamieson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many tenants from elsewhere in the UK have taken advantage of Home Swap Direct to arrange exchanges to Scotland in each of the last three years for which figures are available.

Kris Hopkins

Details of the number of moves that have taken placeunder the HomeSwap Direct Scheme from elsewhere in the United Kingdom to Scotland in each of the last three years are not held centrally.

HomeSwap Direct increases opportunities for social tenants who wish to find a new home by allowing tenants looking for a swap to see details of every possible property nationwide, no matter which mutual exchange website their landlord has chosen to subscribe to. The scheme has operated very successfully since its launch in October 2011 with tenants carrying out over 18 million searches of the property data held on HomeSwap Direct.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 1 April 2014, Official Report, column 625W, on coinage, whether he has fixed the dates for the public consultation on the impact of the introduction of a new one pound coin.

Nicky Morgan

The Budget announced that the existing £1 coin will be replaced with a more modern and secure design. After thirty years in circulation, the current coin has become vulnerable to counterfeiting.

There will be a public consultation this summer that will focus on how to manage impacts on industry and other affected parties. The government remains committed to this timetable, and to working with industry to minimise costs and disruption.

The precise dates of the consultation period will be published in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many requests for discharge were made by soldiers aged (a) 19 and (b) 20 years who had served at least three years in the regular Army in the last five years; and what the outcome was of each such request.

Anna Soubry

Soldiers must normally serve a minimum of three years before they can voluntarily discharge with a year’s notice. Consequently, the number of applications from 19 year-olds is lower than from those aged 20 years of age. "Requests for discharge" has been interpreted as Voluntary Outflow Applications which are recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration system.

The number of applications for voluntary discharge made by trained Regular Soldiers aged 19 and 20 between 1 March 2009 and 1 March 2014 are shown in the following table

Age on Application	No of Applications
19	50
20	330
Total	380

Source: Defence Statistics (Army)

These figures include some personnel who applied for voluntary release, but who were subsequently discharged for other reasons. The actual numbers discharged between 1 March 2009 and 31 March 2014, and the reasons for the discharge are shown below:

Age on Application

19 20

Voluntary Outflow 20 240

Administrative discharge 10 30

Medical/Other – 10

Total 30 270

Source: Defence Statistics (Army). Figures have been rounded to 10; numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

These figures exclude requests for medical, administrative and disciplinary discharges. Some applications may have been withdrawn at a later date and that some individual soldiers may have applied for voluntary discharge more than once.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the efficacy of the published acceptable limits for formaldehyde in the air within a domestic dwelling.

Dan Rogerson

Defra is not responsible for air quality policy within domestic buildings and so has made no such assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-04-30.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with (a) representatives or organisations offering free debt advice, (b) representatives of fee charging debt management organisations, (c) creditors and (d) the Insolvency Service on the potential effect of his Department’s withdrawal from the Debt Management Plan Protocol guidance group.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government is committed to improving standards in the debt management industry to deliver a better deal for consumers and greater transparency for creditors. The Debt Management Plan Protocol played a crucial role in meeting this objective, working in complement with the OFT regulatory framework, and paved the way for more robust regulation of the sector by the FCA.

From 1 April, responsibility for regulating debt management firms, along with all other consumer credit firms, transferred from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Consumers will be better protected under the new regime – the FCA will:

· police the gateway to the market more thoroughly;

· proactively identify risks to consumers;

· focus its supervisory resources on areas most likely to cause consumer harm;

· approve individuals in influential roles in firms;

· operate a flexible and responsive regime;

· use its wide enforcement toolkit;

· and ensure consumers have access to redress.

The FCA will thoroughly assess every debt management firm’s fitness to trade as part of the authorisation process – debt management firms will be amongst the first to require authorisation.

The FCA has also introduced new requirements for debt management firms, including:

· Prudential requirements: Debt management firms often hold consumers’ money – the FCA is requiring large debt management firms to hold capital to ensure that consumers don’t risk losing their money if things go wrong.

· Guidance added that debt management firms should not allocate more than half the money received from customers in debt management plans to meeting their fees and charges.

With the new FCA regulatory regime in place which will greatly improve consumer protection in the debt management market, the Government decided following discussions with a range of stakeholders that it was the right time to step away from an active role in the Protocol.

The Government hopes that the stakeholders involved in the Protocol will continue to work together to help the FCA monitor the market and drive best practice in the sector.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what training programmes or qualifications are available to recruits who enlist as minors which are not available to those who enlist aged 18 years or over.

Anna Soubry

Young people joining the Army attend Phase 1 training at the Army Foundation College (Harrogate) and complete different programmes depending on the part of the Army they wish to join. Full details of the training offered at Harrogate is available at this link: http://www.army.mod.uk/training_education/24420.aspx

For the Royal Navy and RAF, age at enlistment has no bearing on the training programmes or qualifications available during initial training.

Irrespective of the age that an individual joins the Armed Forces, approximately 90% of all recruits complete an apprenticeship within three years of joining.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the additional costs to claimants living in rural communities of travel to attend jobcentre interviews for (a) fortnightly signing and (b) other interviews and advisory meetings.

Esther McVey

The department has not made an estimate regarding the additional costs for claimants living in rural communities. Providing such an estimate would require the DWP to differentiate the costs to rural claimants from those elsewhere. This can only be done at disproportionate cost to the department. However, the department does have some flexibility to meet the needs of those living in rural areas: for example, postal signing can be offered and claimants attending interviews on days outside their normal day of attendance can have their travelling expenses reimbursed. Additionally, Work Coaches are also able to use the Flexible Support Fund and issue Travel Discount Cards to help claimants with travel expenses.