Tag: Emily Thornberry

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the planned duration is of the current deployment of UK military personnel to Tunisia.

Penny Mordaunt

The Ministry of Defence has 10 military and no civilian personnel currently deployed in Tunisia. Two personnel form the enduring British Embassy Defence Section, comprised of the Defence Attache and his assistant. The remaining eight personnel are deployed on a temporary basis, subject to regular review, and are either coordinating or delivering training to Tunisia’s security institutions or supporting UN and EU missions in-country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the German Bundeswehr’s M3 Amphibious Rig bridging vehicles were loaned to UK armed forces in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne

38 M3 Amphibious Rigs have been in service with the British Army in each of the last six years. No additional rigs have been loaned from the German Army during that time. The planned out of service date for the M3 amphibious rig is 2027; early work is under way to provide a wide wet gap crossing capability in future. No decisions have yet been made about future basing sites for the M3 Amphibious Rig.

The following table shows the number of recorded equipment failure reports (EFR) in each of the last six years.

Calendar Year in which EFR recorded	No of EFRs recorded in calendar year
2010	16
2011	0
2012	5
2013	1
2014	4
2015	0

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of each type of vehicle procured as part of urgent operational requirements for (a) Operation Herrick and (b) Operation Telic have been returned to the UK.

Mr Philip Dunne

The information on more than 19 vehicle types used over 13 years of both Operation Herrick and Operation Telic is not held centrally and could be provided only at disapproportionate cost.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in receipt of universal credit are self-employed.

Priti Patel

The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 7.4 of the Explanatory Memorandum for the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Functions) (Local Housing Allowance Amendments) Order 2015 (S.I., 2015, No. 1753), how the Government plans to define higher rent increases for the purposes of determining eligibility for additional funding under the Targeted Affordability Fund.

Justin Tomlinson

Since 2014/15 the Government has made available £140 million in Targeted Affordability Funding (TAF). Over the next five years TAF will be drawn from recycling a percentage of the savings from the freeze of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates. As a result of the level of savings produced by the freeze next year there will be no TAF available in 2016/17; however, there will be funding from 2017/18 to 2020/21.

From 2017/18 around 30 per cent of the potential savings per year from the freeze to LHA will be used to support areas where higher rent increases are causing a shortage of affordable accommodation.

The level of TAF in 2016/17 would have been the same if, as planned, LHA rates had been uprated by CPI inflation. This is because the CPI forecast in September was zero (0.01 per cent) and therefore LHA rates would not increase in 2016/17 but would remain at the 2015/16 levels.

The amounts of TAF which will be available each year from 2017/18 and the plans to distribute it will be announced in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been paid to employees in arrears as a result of enforcement of minimum wage legislation by HM Revenue and Customs in each of the last 10 years.

Mr David Gauke

The information requested is provided in the ‘Final Government Evidence for the Low Pay Commission’ reports.

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 and what proportion of people referred to Help to Work since April 2014 who have participated in (a) Community Work Placements and (b) Daily Work Search Review have subsequently been referred to the Mandatory Intervention Regime.

Priti Patel

The information is in the table below:

Period April 2014 to June 2015	1 Number of People Referred to Help to Work	2 Number of People Subsequently Referred to the Mandatory Intervention Regime	Proportion of People Subsequently Referred to the Mandatory Intervention Regime
Community Work Placement	51,430	5,706	11%
Daily Work Search Review	40,060	15,230	38%

1. Source of Information: The Help to Work quarterly statistics provides Official statistics to June 2015 on the numbers of people joining the Help to Work Scheme. This information can be found on the Gov.UK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-work-quarterly-statistics

2. Source of Information: This management information does not form part of any official statistics and is intended for DWP internal use only.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Attorney General, how many employers were (a) charged with and (b) convicted of a criminal offence by the Crown Prosecution Service for non-compliance with minimum wage legislation in each of the last five years.

Robert Buckland

Data held centrally by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), together with information provided by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which has responsibility for enforcing the law in relation to the National Minimum Wage (NMW), shows that in the financial year 2010 – 2011, no employers were charged with a criminal offence for non-compliance with minimum wage legislation but one employer was convicted from an earlier charge. One charge was made in the financial year 2011 – 2012 and one conviction was made in 2012 – 2013. No cases were charged or convicted in 2013 – 2014 and one case was charged in 2014 – 2015.

The majority of employers identified as paying below the National Minimum Wage pay arrears on receipt of a formal Notice of Underpayment. Where they do not do so, HMRC pursues recovery through the civil courts. For deliberate non-compliance or obstructive behaviour HMRC operates a policy of selective and exemplary criminal investigation action as part of a wider enforcement strategy.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of vacancies advertised on Universal Jobmatch in the last three months which offered flexible working arrangements for lone parents.

Priti Patel

The information requested is not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that conditionality requirements for jobseekers in receipt of universal credit are eased during periods when an individual claimant is homeless.

Priti Patel

Work Coaches regularly discuss a range of issues and circumstances with claimants. Where homelessness is raised, and is a barrier to employment, work coaches can temporarily lift or vary work search and availability requirements to help support in finding accommodation. Conditionality requirements reflect reasonable expectations given the claimants circumstance. These are recorded in the Claimant Commitment and regularly reviewed.