Tag: Emily Thornberry

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release, Prison building revolution announced by Chancellor and Justice Secretary, published on 9 November 2015, which prisons the Government plans to sell to property developers; and what estimate he has made of the value of land on each of those sites.

Andrew Selous

On 9 November the Chancellor and Secretary of State announced their intention to build a prison estate which allows prisoners to be rehabilitated, thereby enabling them to turn away from a life of crime. This will involve building nine new prisons and closing old and inefficient prisons which do not support the aims of a redesigned estate. No decisions have yet been made on where new prisons will be built.

We are currently considering which of our old and inefficient prisons will close. We will engage with stakeholders during the process of sale including valuation experts and potential developers in order to maximise the value achieved.

Any relocation of prisoners will be done with careful planning. Where staff are affected they will be managed through the process of change using processes deployed during previous closures.

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 (a) referrals to the Work Programme since 2011 and (b) current participants in the Work Programme had no classifiable qualifications at the time of their referral.

Priti Patel

The information requested, in the above three questions, is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many working households in receipt of (a) working tax credit and (b) universal credit have marginal deduction rates of (i) less than 70, (ii) between 70 and 80, (iii) between 80 and 90 and (iv) more than 90 per cent on earned income above the level of the applicable disregard.

Priti Patel

In 2010 we estimated that in the existing system half a million people had marginal deduction rates of 80% or above. See page 55 of Universal Credit: Welfare that Works report, below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48897/universal-credit-full-document.pdf

Further information is not available as we have not updated these estimates.

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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 and what proportion of vacancies in each region and nation of the UK which were advertised on Universal Jobmatch were advertised as paying the National Minimum Wage in the most recent month for which figures are available.

Priti Patel

As part of the terms and conditions which employers must agree to in order to be able to post their vacancies on Universal Jobsmatch, it states that employers must ‘provide a rate of pay equal to, or more than the National Minimum Wage, unless a lawful exemption applies.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Oral Contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions of 7 December 2015, Official Report, column 693, (a) which food banks he visited and (b) on which dates those visits took place in the last 12 months.

Justin Tomlinson

The Department does not hold the information requested. Ministers have conducted visits to food banks in various capacities, including in their roles as Members of Parliament.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the effect of capping housing benefit for social tenant at the relevant Local Housing Allowance rate on the incomes of the tenants affected.

Justin Tomlinson

Capping high social sector rents at the relevant Local Housing Allowance rate does not come into effect until April 2018 and then only where a new tenancy is taken out or a tenancy is renewed after April 2016 and the resulting social rent charged exceeds the appropriate Local Housing Allowance rate for the size of household in the area at that time.

Because a range of factors will influence where and when a cap is applied, including behavioural responses from both claimants and landlords, it is not possible to assess the potential effect of the policy on the incomes of the tenants affected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of housing benefit claims in respect of which a request for backdating was approved resulted in the payment of arrears for a period of (a) less than one month, (b) one month only, (b) between one and three months and (d) between three and six months in the most recent period for which figures are avilable.

Justin Tomlinson

Information on the number of Housing Benefit claims that were backdated is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on the Mandatory Work Activity scheme in each of the last four years.

Priti Patel

The Department’s expenditure in respect of Mandatory Work Activity in each of the last four financial years is as follows:

2011-12 £9.2m

2012-13 £13.7m

2013-14 £15.0m

2014-15 £12.8m

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of uprating the Minimum Income Floor for the self-employed on universal credit inline with the National Minimum Wage on the number of people moving into self-employment.

Priti Patel

An estimate of the overall impact on self-employment is not available. The Minimum Income Floor is intended to encourage those reporting very low self-employed income to increase their earnings either through increasing their earnings from self-employment, or through other employment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Review of childcare costs: the analytical report, published by her Department on 25 November 2015, if she will publish the responses to her Department’s call for evidence on childcare costs in full.

Mr Sam Gyimah

It is not the Department’s policy to publish individual responses to a consultation or to a call for evidence, some of which may have been submitted to the Department in confidence. The Department published the findings of the call for evidence on 8 October 2015 and the report is available from this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/cost-of-providing-childcare-review-call-for-evidence

The call for evidence was an important part of the government’s review of the cost of childcare and it is one of the sources of evidence that informed the final report which was published on 25 November 2015.

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