The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-24.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what his Office’s policy is on allowing officials to appear before all-party parliamentary groups.
Mr Nick Clegg
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 26 Mar 2014, Column 300W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the performance of Capita on the delivery of personal independence payments for those who are terminally ill.
Mike Penning
Personal independence payment (PIP) is a new benefit and processes are currently bedding in. The Department’s contracts with Capita and Atos Healthcare for the delivery of assessments for personal independence payment include a full set of service level agreements setting out the Department’s expectations for service delivery, including quality of assessments and the number of days to provide advice to the Department.
Officials meet regularly with both assessment providers to discuss performance. We are closely monitoring their progress against the Department’s expectations for service delivery and are taking action to drive up performance where this does not meet the required standards. In particular, for both providers, the end-to-end process for many claimants is taking significantly longer than originally anticipated. We are working with the providers to ensure that they are taking all necessary steps to improve performance, speed up the process and ensure claimants receive a satisfactory experience. Special rules claims for terminally ill claimants are dealt with urgently by our assessment providers. The latest published statistics show that over 99% of people with terminal illnessess who have applied have been awarded the benefit, which means over 9,500 terminally ill claimants are now receiving personal independence payment.
Although limited data has started to feed through, we need to wait until the Department has quality assured, meaningful figures for publication. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy. An ad-hoc release of PIP information was published on 11 February 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the contract for the introduction of personal independence payment included targets for the (a) proportion of assessments to be conducted face to face and (b) average length of time for each assessment.
Mike Penning
The Department has not set Personal Independence Payment assessment providers targets for the proportion of assessments to be conducted face to face and the average length of time for each assessment.
Personal Independence Payment started from April 2013 and although limited data has started to feed through we need to wait until the Department has quality assured meaningful figures for publication. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department has given across government on steps to improve communications with the visually impaired.
Mr Nick Hurd
I refer the Hon member to the Office for Disability Issues’s publication Fulfilling Potential. The Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Service is working with departments to digitise public services. Our Assisted Digital approach will ensure that these services serve the needs of all users, including people with a visual impairment.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the accuracy of the data on levels of child mortality in the UK published by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.
Dr Daniel Poulter
We have no reason to question the accuracy of the data from the Global Burden of Disease study. Any limitations of the estimates made and methodology used are clearly set out in the published article.
The findings reflect other studies which show that the United Kingdom child mortality rate continues to fall, but not as much as in comparable European countries.
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 20 October 2011, Official Report, column 1099W, on electoral register, what proportion of pupils between the ages of 16 and 18 on the National Pupil Database were registered to vote in each year for which data is available.
Greg Clark
The information requested is not held centrally.
The National Pupil Database does not include information on pupils’ eligibility to be registered.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what funds the Crown Estate received from offshore wind farms in each coastal constituency in each of the last five years.
Nicky Morgan
It is not possible to breakdown the revenue The Crown Estate receives from its offshore activity against constituency boundaries onshore.
The Crown Estate’s Annual reportand accounts is available at http://ar2013.thecrownestate.co.uk/ and includes a section on Energy and Infrastructure.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-12.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2014, Official Report, columns 509-10W, on electoral registration, whether his Department provides funding to Bite the Ballot to increase voter registration.
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, on how many occasions and relating to which locations proposals for overground cables between onshore windfarms and the connecting sub-station have been rejected in each of the last 10 years.
Michael Fallon
The Department has not rejected any applications for overhead line connections to onshore windfarms in the past 10 years in England and Wales.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of people eligible to be on the most recent (a) census and (b) electoral register who were not recorded.
Mr Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.