Tag: Emily Thornberry

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Tornado aircraft are fitted with the Honeywell Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System II; and how many are currently being fitted with that system.

Mr Philip Dunne

As at 28 January 2016, 43 Tornado GR4 aircraft had been fitted with a Traffic Collision Avoidance System capability. A total of 61 Tornado GR4 aircraft will be fitted with this capability by the end of 2016, when the project is planned to be completed.

It should be noted that as far as we are aware, this is the first time ever a Collision Avoidance System has been fitted to a combat fast jet, anywhere in the world.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the operational capacity of the (a) Royal Navy and (b) RAF to extend military operations against ISIL/Daesh beyond Syria and Iraq.

Penny Mordaunt

The future operational capacities of the UK Armed Forces are set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Should there be a requirement for new military operations against Daesh beyond Syria and Iraq, these would need to be balanced against the commitments at the time and the capabilities available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.61 of the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, whether civilians employed by (a) the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, (b) Defence Equipment and Support and (c) trading funds are included in his Department’s calculation of the size of the workforce he expects to cut by 30 per cent by the end of this Parliament.

Mark Lancaster

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Defence Equipment and Support and the Trading Funds were included in the baseline workforce calculation.

The Ministry of Defence is managing a range of change programmes designed to deliver Defence outputs more efficiently and effectively, including Army 2020 and outsourcing logistics to Leidos. A Business Improvement Review has been set up to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of support activities across Defence. This Review will look at the total shape, size and structure of our civilian workforce, the functions and processes that they are engaged in, and how those can be made more efficient.

The Department expects the civilian workforce to reduce to around 41,000 by 2020. However, the timing and reductions associated with individual programmes are still to be determined and final decisions will be subject to consultation with employee representatives, value for money considerations and, where appropriate, commercial negotiation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK (a) military and (b) civilian personnel are deployed on UN peacekeeping operations in each operational theatre.

Penny Mordaunt

The tables below show the numbers of military and civilian personnel the UK has deployed to UN mandated peacekeeping and special political missions in the last six years, as at 26 February 2016:

Military Personnel

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
UNFICYP (Cyprus)	271	273	270	274	274	274
MINUSMA (Mali)			1	2	2	2
UNMISS (South Sudan)		3	2	4	3	3
MONUSCO (Democratic Republic of Congo)	5	4	5	5	5	5
UNSOM (Somalia)					2	2
UNSMIL (Libya/Tunisia)					1	1
TOTAL	276	280	278	285	287	287

Civilian Personnel

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
MONUSCO	1	1	1	1	1
UNMISS		4	4	2
UNSMIL					1	1
MINUSTAH (Haiti)				3	3	3
UNMIL (Liberia)					1	1
TOTAL	1	1	1	8	10	7

The civilian figures represent deployments from the Stabilisation Unit; other Government Departments also deploy civilians on UN Peacekeeping missions.

The figures do not include deployments to UN Agencies.