Tag: Emily Thornberry

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) start fees, (b) short placement completion fees, (c) long placement completion fees and (d) job outcome fees have been paid to providers of Community Work Placements under the Help to Work scheme since April 2014.

Priti Patel

From April 2014 to the end of June 2015 there were 25,340 participants who started a Community Work Placement. These would all have triggered a start fee to the relevant provider.

The department intends to publish further information on Community Work Placements on the 22 December 2015. This release will cover the number of short placement completion, Long placement completion and Job Outcome fees paid to providers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans the Government has to improve employment support for people with disabilities who are in receipt of the support component of employment and support allowance.

Priti Patel

In the Autumn Statement on Wednesday 25 November, the Chancellor announced a real terms increase in funding to help people with health conditions and disabilities including those in receipt of the support component of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), return to, and remain in, work.

Government will be launching a new ‘Work and Health Programme’ – restructuring our current provision so that it provides the best possible support for people with health conditions or disabilities, including those classed as economically inactive due to long term sickness or disability.

At least £115m of funding will go to the Work and Health Unit, including a work and health innovation fund to test new ways to join up health and employment to help people with disabilities and health conditions to return to and stay in work.

Government will publish a White Paper in the New Year that will set out further reforms to improve support for people with health conditions and disabilities and further reduce the disability employment gap.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many local housing allowance rates were subject to the overall caps rates for the relevant property size in (a) 2011-12, (b) 2012-13, (c) 2013-14 and (d) 2014-15.

Justin Tomlinson

In 2011-12 Local Housing Allowance rates were uprated on a monthly basis. In April 2011, eleven LHA rates were set at the level of the LHA caps for the relevant property size. By the end of the year, in March 2012, seventeen LHA rates were set at the level of the caps. In 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 the number of LHA rates subject to the caps was 17, 15 and 18 respectively.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints from workers were received by HM Revenue and Customs on non-compliance with minimum wage legislation in 2014-15.

Mr David Gauke

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it. Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay back arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) enforces the national minimum wage (NMW) legislation on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It does so by investigating all complaints made about employers suspected of not paying the minimum wage, and carrying out targeted enforcement where it identifies a high risk of non-payment of NMW across the whole of the UK.

I refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 28587 for information on recovery of arrears and on the number of incidences of non-compliance on 26 November 2015.

In 2014/15, HMRC issued financial penalties on 735 employers totalling £934,660 for non-compliance with NMW legislation.

In 2014/15, HMRC completed 2,204 investigations as part of its duty to enforce minimum wage legislation.

Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should contact Acas on 0300 123 1100. HMRC reviews every complaint that Acas refer to it but these may not always lead to an investigation. In 2014/15, HMRC received 2489 worker complaints via the helpline.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many single people under the age of 35 with no dependent children are registered on waiting lists for social housing.

Brandon Lewis

In 2013-14, there were around 91,000 single people under the age of 35 with no dependent children on at least one social housing waiting list in England. This is down from 124,000 in 2004-5 and 110,000 in 2010-11. (Source: English Housing Survey, Department for Communities and Local Government).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications of differences in the administration of universal credit amongst the different local authorities involved in the Universal Support Delivered Locally pilot programme for the effectiveness of that pilot.

Priti Patel

Assessment of the Universal Support trials is currently underway. The final evaluation will be published in late Spring 2016. The Trials will enable us to ensure we follow the most effective delivery approach.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s publication, Mandatory Programmes official statistics: May 2011 to August 2015, published on 25 November 2015, how many people who joined the Mandatory Work Activity scheme during this period subsequently completed a work placement in full.

Priti Patel

Mandatory Work Activity is a supportive programme designed to help claimants who need extra support from a short work placement to re-focus their job search activity and gain further experience of work. Unemployed Jobseekers Allowance or Universal Credit claimants are referred for up to 4 weeks work experience and will participate on the placement for up to 30 hours a week.

The number of referrals and starts is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/pre-work-programme-and-get-britain-working.

An impact assessment of Mandatory Work Activity was published in 2012 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mandatory-work-activity–2) which considered referrals to the programme in the period May to July 2012. An evaluation of Mandatory Work Activity also published in 2012 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-mandatory-work-activity-rr823) which included a telephone survey of participants who had been referred to and started an Mandatory Work Allowance placement.

The evaluation and impact assessment were conducted in 2012 and does not cover the period of the Official Statistics from May 2011 to August 2015.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects to submit the full business case for universal credit to HM Treasury; and when he expects final approval of that case to be granted.

Priti Patel

The Strategic Business Case was submitted and signed off by HMT in 2014. As HMT colleagues stated at the PAC on 7 December (link below) the Outline Business Case was approved in December 2015 and the Full Business Case will be submitted in 2017.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmworpen/1082/1082.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s report, Universal Credit Extended Gateway Evaluation, published on 6 December 2015, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the report’s finding on page 39, that participants in the study who were claiming universal credit were more flexible regarding the type of work they would consider at the outset than people claiming jobseeker’s allowance.

Priti Patel

The research finding that Universal Credit claimants appeared to be more flexible regarding the type of work they would consider is broadly consistent with other findings from the same research report that indicate that UC claimants are more engaged with the labour market than their JSA counterparts. UC claimants are spending longer on job search per week, and Universal Credit appears to be driving more active labour market behaviour, resulting in better labour market outcomes.

The key finding from another recently published report entitled, ‘Estimating the Early Labour Market Impacts of Universal Credit’, is that UC has a substantial impact on the chances of people moving into work after they make a new claim. UC claimants were 8 percentage points more likely to get a job within 270 days of claiming than equivalent new claims to JSA made at the same time in similar areas by similar individuals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of (a) Tornado and (b) Typhoon aircraft in the Forward Available Fleet are classed as short term unserviceable as a result of undergoing (i) short term maintenance and (ii) other short term works.

Mr Philip Dunne

The information requested is detailed in the attached table.

The Forward Available Fleet comprises aircraft which are serviceable and those which are short-term unserviceable. Short-term unserviceable aircraft are undergoing minor works, forward maintenance or any other rectification or technical inspection work that can arise on a day-to-day basis. Dependent on the nature of the work, aircraft may be designated as requiring either ‘short-term maintenance’ or ‘short-term works’.

The Sustainment Fleet numbers represent those aircraft in the Depth Fleet, which comprises aircraft which are undergoing planned depth maintenance or upgrade programmes.

Decommissioning and disposal are part of the same process and are therefore grouped together.