Tag: Chris Ruane

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many times an electoral registration officer (ERO) has to fail Standard Three before the Electoral Commission will refer the ERO to the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office for the purpose of improving the performance of the ERO.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that it has reported on ERO performance against Standard 3 for each year since 2008.

To support EROs in preparing for and delivering the transition to individual electoral registration (IER) the Commission has developed a new performance standards framework, which it will use to monitor the performance of EROs against throughout the transition to individual electoral registration. The Commission will continue to carefully monitor and work closely with EROs and will consider a range of options to ensure EROs are carrying out their duties in full.

Discussions between the Electoral Commission and the Cabinet Office take place regularly on a range of subjects.

The Commission made clear in its June report that it would use its statutory powers to make a recommendation to the Secretary of State to require specific EROs to do door-to-door canvassing if this didn’t happen during the introduction of IER, which began on 10 June in England and Wales.

No specific date for conclusion has been set as it will depend on the circumstances in each area, but the Commission will continue to keep this under active review. Should the Commission make a recommendation for such a direction, it will write to the relevant honourable members and local council leaders. We will also write to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee and ask for this correspondence to be placed in the House Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many external ATMs have been installed at (a) Crown, (b) main and (c) local post offices in each year for which data is available.

Jo Swinson

The provision of Post Office ATM’s at post offices is the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited.

As such I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the target was for each voter registration drive of the last five years of the number of electors they hoped to register; how much was allocated for each campaign; and how much the Electoral Commission planned to spend on each registration drive.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the information requested for the years 2010 to 2013 was provided to the honourable member in response to his PQs 189416 (6 Mar 2014 : Column 892W) and 185198 (3 Feb 2014 : Column 61W).

In addition, for 2014, the Commission ran a registration campaign for the local and European Parliamentary Elections which were held on 22 May. The campaign budget was £2,800,000 and there was a target of 150,000 registration form downloads. 207,000 downloads were achieved during the campaign.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many (a) Crown and (b) sub-post offices have been (i) temporarily and (ii) permanently closed in each of the last five years.

Jo Swinson

The Government understands the important role that post offices play in communities across the country and since 2010 has committed nearly £2 billion to maintain, modernise and protect a network of at least 11,500 branches that continues to meet strict access criteria that see, for example, 99% of the population nationally living within three miles of a post office outlet.

This Government has also committed that there will be no programme of Post Office closures and there are currently around 11,700 post office branches in the UK, with the Post Office network at its most stable for over two decades.

As the provision of post offices and the investment made under its network transformation programme are the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on these matters. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the postal vote matching rates were during the data matching dry run in each (a) local authority area and (b) constituency in the UK.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the data for local authorities is available on its website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0020/163145/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Local-Authority.xls

The Commission does not hold the data in a way that is broken down by constituency.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the shortest period was between the date on which a post office branch received public funding for improvement and the date on which it closed.

Jo Swinson

The Government understands the important role that post offices play in communities across the country and since 2010 has committed nearly £2 billion to maintain, modernise and protect a network of at least 11,500 branches that continues to meet strict access criteria that see, for example, 99% of the population nationally living within three miles of a post office outlet.

This Government has also committed that there will be no programme of Post Office closures and there are currently around 11,700 post office branches in the UK, with the Post Office network at its most stable for over two decades.

As the provision of post offices and the investment made under its network transformation programme are the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on these matters. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-24.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people died of congenital heart disease below the age of 40 years in each region and constituent part of the UK in each of the last 15 years.

Mr Nick Hurd

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Electoral Commission will conduct research into the use of data matching of local and national databases to better identify people who are entitled to register to vote but who are not registered.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the Cabinet Office has previously conducted several pilots on this topic and the Commission has evaluated them. The full evaluation reports are available on the Commission’s website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/our-research/electoral-registration-research

The Cabinet Office plans a further pilot for early 2015 and the Commission intends to evaluate this as well.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he held with the National Federation of SubPostmasters on the abolition of road tax discs.

Jo Swinson

The abolition of vehicle tax discs is a matter for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has not held any discussions with the National Federation of SubPostmasters specifically on the subject of vehicle tax.

Ministers meet the National Federation of SubPostmasters regularly to discuss a range of issues relating to the Post Office network. The dates of these meetings are available on the gov.uk website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether levels of poverty and deprivation in coastal towns are considered by his Department when making grants from the Coastal Communities Fund.

Brandon Lewis

Grant applicants submitting bids to the Coastal Communities Fund are expected to demonstrate the need for their project, which can include levels of poverty and deprivation in their area. This information is one of a range of factors that are taken into account in the assessment of grant applications. However, the Fund is not specifically targeted on deprived coastal towns. Its aim is to support jobs and growth in coastal communities across the United Kingdom where projects can best exploit local assets and opportunities to unlock their growth potential. In addition to demonstrating need, applications to the Fund must be clearly linked to an economic opportunity to create and safeguard jobs within the coastal community. Coastal flooding and erosion risk management and repair are also priorities for grant aid where proposed works support economic development.