Tag: Chris Ruane

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 11 October 2011, Official Report, column 343W, on electoral register, what steps he has taken to ensure that aspects of good practice in Northern Ireland are adopted elsewhere in the UK.

Greg Clark

This Government has taken on board the lessons of the 2002 introduction of Individual Electoral Registration in Northern Ireland. A number of safeguards are in place for the transition that were not used in 2002. For example data matching will allow the vast majority of electors to automatically re-register and the transition is being phased over two years to allow those not yet individually registered to vote in the 2015 General Election.

Funding has been made available to all 363 local authorities and valuation joint boards in Great Britain. Electoral registration officers have been encouraged to use this funding to support the delivery of the Rock Enrol! learning resource.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authority had the biggest percentage (a) increase and (b) decrease in electoral registration in each year since 2010.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that there are no reliable yearly estimates of levels of registration at a local authority level.

The Office for National Statistics publishes total electorates for each local authority on an annual basis. This data can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/electoral-statistics-for-uk/2013/index.html

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-12.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to provide that the freeze dates for population size for boundary reviews and the census be in the same year.

Greg Clark

It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, in which locations cables between onshore windfarms and connecting sub-stations have been placed completely underground in each of the last 10 years.

Michael Fallon

The Department does not hold this information. Windfarms usually own the cables connecting them to substations. Gathering the information requested would, therefore, require contacting individual windfarm developers at a disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 27 January 2014, Official Report, column 387W, on electoral register, what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of gathering and holding information on the proportion of attainers who are registered to vote; and what assessment he has made of the usefulness of such information for improving the introduction of individual electoral registration.

Greg Clark

The Government has made no such estimate or assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-12.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, in which local authority wards in which constituency postal ballot turnout was greater than 90 per cent at the 2010 general election.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission does not hold the data requested at ward level. The Commission collects electoral data at each set of polls down to the level of individual contests, which means that it only holds ward level data for local elections.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what sanctions his Department uses on universal credit claimants who refuse a zero hours contract.

Esther McVey

Universal Credit means that claimants can accept any offer of work without fear of their benefits or the support they receive from the Jobcentre being negatively affected. They will always be better off in work.

All claimants are expected to accept reasonable offers of employment. If they do not then they may be referred for a sanction. This is the same for UC.