Tag: Emily Thornberry

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff employed by his Department have been (a) seconded to and (b) directly recruited by the Department for Exiting the EU.

Boris Johnson

​The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has seconded 39 positions including 30 officials on loan to the Department for Exiting the EU. This figure includes ten officials who were on loan to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from other government departments. No staff have been directly recruited by the Department for Exiting the EU from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UK’s Representation in Brussels will report jointly to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Exiting the EU.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who will be in receipt of legacy benefits and awaiting transfer to universal credit in May 2020.

Priti Patel

As quoted in the Public Accounts Committee report (attached below), the bulk of legacy claims will be transferred by the end of 2019.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmpubacc/810/81002.htm

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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 the Rent Officers (Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Functions) (Local Housing Allowance Amendments) Order 2015 (S.I., 2015, No. 1753), what total amount will be made available to local authorities under the Targeted Affordability Fund before the date on which those regulations are due to come into force.

Justin Tomlinson

Over the next five years Targeted Affordability Funding (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 HM Revenue and Customs in fines for non-compliance with minimum wage legislation in each of the last 10 years.

Mr David Gauke

In 2014/15, HM Revenue and Customs identified 735 incidences of non-compliance and issued penalties of £934,660. They recovered arrears for 26,318 workers.

I refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 218083 for numbers of workers for the previous years, to the answer provided to her on 6 May 2014 at Hansard Column 110W for information on arrears, and to the answer provided to her at UIN 205613 with regard to penalties.

I further refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 211605 for information on recovery of arrears.

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 have left the scheme after opening a claim for working tax credit.

Priti Patel

The information as requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The information that is available on Help to Work, on the number of programme referrals and Community Work Placement starts can be found at:

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

The latest published information on Help to Work covers the period from April 2014 to June 2015 inclusive.

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

To ask the Attorney General, how many Crown Prosecution Service staff worked on (a) referrals for suspected non-compliance with minimum wage legislation and (b) prosecutions for non-compliance with minimum wage legislation in each of the last five years.

Robert Buckland

All cases referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for the purposes of considering a prosecution for an offence contrary to national minimum wage legislation, are dealt with by the Specialist Fraud Division. The number of people dealing with such cases at any given time depends on the number of cases received and how they are allocated.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken since 2012 to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of the work-preparation requirements which have applied to single parents who are in receipt of income support and whose youngest child is aged three or four.

Priti Patel

There is currently no evaluation on the effectiveness of the application of this requirement, however, we have this under review. Statistics show that the employment rate for lone parents has increased from 57% in June 2010 to 64.4% in June 2015.

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 has taken to monitor the application of the easement of conditionality rules under the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Homeless Claimants) Amendment Regulations 2014 since those Regulations were brought into force.

Priti Patel

It is the responsibility of Jobcentre Plus managers to monitor the appropriate application of easements to Jobseeker’s Allowance conditionality. In doing so, they use an assurance framework to assess the quality of work coach interviews and Claimant Commitments to make sure they appropriately reflect individual circumstances.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.149 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what steps his Department plans to take to assist local authorities for which the cost of providing temporary accommodation exceeds their pre-allocated share of funding.

Mr Marcus Jones

The Spending Review and Autumn Statement announced that funding of the Temporary Accommodation management fee will be devolved to local authorities from 2017/18, giving them more freedom and flexibility in how they use this funding. Current levels of funding will be maintained and, in addition, councils will receive £10 million a year more. The Department for Communities and Local Government will set out the precise detail of how the new funding will be distributed in 2016/17. The Department will work closely with local authorities and other partners to ensure that funding will be allocated in order to most effectively help councils tackle homelessness.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his estimate is of the notional average weekly change in benefit which working families currently claiming housing benefit would face as a result of removing the family premium from the calculation of their housing benefit entitlement.

Justin Tomlinson

This policy only applies to new claims to Housing Benefit (HB), or those who have a first child while claiming HB. The impact for working families will not be as much as the premium itself because of the income taper, which reduces the impact on average to around £10.63 per week.