Tag: Chris Ruane

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-01.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what steps his Department has taken to improve registration rates and voter turnout of (a) visually impaired voters and (b) voters with learning difficulties.

Greg Clark

Electoral law requires returning officers to take account of the needs of people with disabilities by making polling stations and voting accessible.

In June 2014, the government will be introducing an online facility for registration which will support further accessibility options for those with particular needs. User testing of paper forms has allowed their design to take into account the requirements of those with disabilities.

The Cabinet Office has also funded the Royal Mencap Society to create educational resources for people with a learning disability and to develop a model for one-to-one support for families, carers and others to encourage and enable registering to vote.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-04-29.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 766W, on electoral register, in which cases numbers of electors registered to vote in the transition from individual electoral registration will be monitored at an electoral ward level.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it will collect and publish the results of the confirmation data matching process for all electoral wards in Great Britain. These will be available in late-summer 2014.

The Commission also informs me that subsequently data will be collected and published at a local authority level. This will take place after the publication of the December 2014 register and at the time of the 2015 UK parliamentary general election. However, the Commission may choose to ask for more detailed ward statistics from individual EROs if it has concerns around the implementation of individual electoral registration in a particular area.

The Commission also expects electoral registration officers to be monitoring their own data on registrations at ward level, or below, throughout the transition to individual electoral registration, and to communicate them locally to elected representatives and others.

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 6 June 2011, Official Report, columns 625-6W, on the electoral register, what assessment he has made of the effect of the ending of the Participation Fund on voter registration levels before the introduction of individual electoral registration.

Greg Clark

As part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration, the Electoral Commission has been responsible for conducting research into the completeness and accuracy of the register. Their previous report, following the conclusion of the Participation Fund, can be found at:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/145366/Great-Britains-electoral-registers-2011.pdf.

The Electoral Commission will be publishing a further assessment of the completeness and accuracy of the register in Summer 2014.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many single person tax credit claims have been sanctioned or stopped in each constituency in each of the last five years.

Nicky Morgan

HMRC do not hold the requested information and there would be a disproportionate cost attached to obtaining it.

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

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 24 January 2012, Official Report, column 203W, on the electoral register, what assessment he has made of his Department’s performance in making the public aware of individual electoral registration; and how he measures that performance .

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, what the average distance is between an onshore windfarm and its connecting sub-station.

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, when electoral registration officers will be able to impose fixed penalty notices for non-registration.

Greg Clark

From 10 June 2014, alongside the introduction of individual electoral registration (IER), Electoral Registration Officers in England and Wales will be able to impose civil penalty notices for failure to respond to a notice of requirement to register on the electoral register. In Scotland this will be from 19 September 2014 alongside the introduction of IER in Scotland, following the Scottish referendum.

In conjunction with the Electoral Commission we intend to collect information on the number of civil penalties issued for failure to respond to an IER invitation through each local authority’s Electoral Management System.

Local authority staff who are responsible for the delivery of electoral registration have been fully trained on IER processes, including a module on notices of requirement to register and on civil penalties.

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

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, with reference to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 19W, on electoral register, with which civic society organisations the Electoral Commission is proactively seeking partnership for the purpose of increasing electoral registration.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it is seeking to establish new partnerships and ways of working with a wide range of organisations to help ensure voters are aware of what they need to do under the new system of individual electoral registration.

In addition to the partnerships it is currently finalising, the Commission will continue seeking to establish new partnerships up to, and beyond, the next UK Parliamentary General Election in 2015 to achieve this. As partnerships are finalised, they will be highlighted on the Commission’s website and we will make members aware of where they can find this information when the first batch of information is published online.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much a GP practice is paid for each patient visit to a GP.

Dr Daniel Poulter

General practitioner (GP) practices are not paid for each patient visit to a GP. GP practices hold contracts with NHS England to provide primary medical services for their registered list and receive capitated payments for doing so.

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

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many and what proportion of questions answered by the Electoral Commission involving four pages of data or less were (a) placed in the Library without a web link, (b) placed in the Library with a web link and (c) given in full in Hansard in each of the last five years.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that it does not collect this information in the requested format.