Tag: Chris Ruane

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, columns 20-1W, on electoral registration, which local authorities and electoral registration officers the Electoral Commission has identified as pursuing best practice in electoral registration.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it will write to the honourable member on this issue alongside its report on EROs’ planning and preparedness for IER, including their progress in developing public engagement strategies, at the end of March 2014 and will place a copy in the House library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if his Department’s funding to improve registration will be given to local authorities that are spending (a) more than and (b) less than the average on voter registration.

Greg Clark

All Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have received funding, based on their levels of under-registration, to help with the costs of local activities to maximise registration, as part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration.

Funding allocations were based on the number of non-registered people, comparing the size of the register to the 16+ population. An element was based on the number of 16-18 year olds to encourage activity in schools to register attainers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of his Department’s databases of people (a) in receipt of and (b) not in receipt of benefits for the purposes of data matching with the electoral register.

Esther McVey

Results of DWP data matching with the Electoral Register have been subjected to review by both the Electoral Commission and Electoral Registration Transformation Programme with positive results

No separate assessment has been made of accuracy of data for benefit and non-benefit recipients for the purposes of data matching with the electoral register.

To undertake such an assessment would entail disproportionate costs due to the need to contact and compare citizen details against data held by DWP.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2013, Official Report, columns 455-6W, on the Electoral Register, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Electoral Commission’s review of public engagement strategies.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that its Report, titled ‘Readiness for the transition to Individual Electoral Registration’ was published on 31 March with a copy placed in the House Library. The Commission’s report includes the conclusions of its assessment of all Electoral Registration Officers’ (EROs’) public engagement strategies, which found that all EROs have the right plans in place to identify the challenges for their particular local area and what mechanisms they will use to engage with residents to maximise registration. The Commission has also written to the honourable member with a copy of its report.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-24.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2014, Official Report, columns 654-5, on electoral register, if the Electoral Commission will publish the results of all research it has conducted into the size of the electorate.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it publishes all of its completed research on electoral registration on its website, here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/our-research/electoral-registration-research

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what outstanding commercial risks that might affect operational security his Department has identified in its relationship with contracted assessment providers.

Mike Penning

In the area of contracted assessment providers who are delivering Work Capability Assessments under the Medical Services Contract and Personal Independence Payment Assessments, the Department has no commercial risks that might affect operational security. Any commercial risks that might affect operational security are managed within the Department’s standard risk management framework and procedures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to inform claimants about delays they may experience while plans to improve performance of personal independence payment take effect.

Mike Penning

The Department does not have a target for completion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims whilst processes are bedding in. Clearly, we want to minimise the length of time claimants have to wait for assessments but the key requirement is to produce high quality assessments, to enable DWP decision makers to make the right decisions about benefit entitlement.

We are committed to driving up PIP performance and are in regular contact with our assessment providers to do this. We already monitor performance closely and liaise with assessment providers on a daily basis, supplemented by formal monthly performance review meetings. We will continue to work closely with assessment providers on an ongoing basis to monitor quality.

Our original Departmental operational delivery plans assumed a larger volume of assessment provider referrals than we are currently receiving and we have retained this surplus capacity using it to consolidate learning or carry out other duties. This will be available for deployment as cases are returned to the Department for decision maker action. The Department has contingency plans in place to secure additional capacity from other areas of the Department should assessment provider volumes exceed plans.

From 10 March we have included with the PIP2 ‘How your disability affects you’ questionnaire, issued to PIP claimants, communications explaining how long they might be expected to wait for a PIP assessment. This information is also available on Gov.uk.