Tag: Frank Field

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-07-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many programmes based in Papua New Guinea have been considered for funding since April 2004; and how many have received funding.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID does not have a bilateral programme with Papua New Guinea. DFID has funded proposals through challenge fund procedures like the Civil Society Challenge Fund (CSCF) which can be viewed on the Development Tracker: http://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/location/country/.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many reports the DVLA has received of applicants’ documents going missing in each of the last five years.

Andrew Jones

The table below provides the number of complaints received at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) from customers about application documents that have been lost or damaged.

Year	Number complaints received	Number of relevant transactions* handled by the DVLA
2010	125	31,153,825
2011	105	30,670,002
2012	129	30,510,913
2013	63	30,506,202
2014	71	29,503,088
2015 to date	68	20,029,717

*This is for driver licensing and vehicle registration and licensing transactions, which may include supporting documentation, such as, identity documents.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which local authorities have withdrawn from the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme to date.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Department is not aware of any local authorities withdrawing from the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme to date.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many decisions on applications for personal independence payments from individuals diagnosed with a terminal illness were made in each of the three months to June 2014.

Mike Penning

I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the Written Answer I gave him on 18 June, Official Report, column 629W. Information on clearance times is not currently available. Statistics on clearance times are intended for future publication.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in which local authorities 30 per cent or more pupils entitled to free school meals are not claiming them; and what steps he is taking to improve the take-up of free school meals.

Mr David Laws

The Department for Education routinely collects information on pupils who are both eligible for and claiming free school meals. This information is published in the ‘Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics, January 2013′ Statistical First Release[1]. Identifying pupils who are eligible for but not claiming free school meals is more difficult.

The Department has published a research paper – ‘Pupils not claiming free school meals: 2013′[2] – which presents estimates of the numbers and proportions of pupils who are entitled to receive free school meals but are not claiming. The paper compares registration rates for children aged between four and 15 and highlights regions and local authorities where under-registration rates are high. A table showing under registration rates by local authority can be found in the annex.

The Department has developed a free school meals Eligibility Checking System (ECS). The ECS enables local authorities to check very quickly and determine whether a parent can claim free school meals by linking benefits information from DWP, HMRC and the Home Office. It represents a significant achievement in reducing bureaucracy and cost for local authorities and encouraging more parents to sign up their children for a free school lunch. The ECS has been extended to allow parents to check their own eligibility, and to apply online, for free school meals. The new system reduces the time, stigma and bureaucracy previously associated with applications for free school meals.

Resources are also available from the Children’s Food Trust to help schools increase take-up of free school meals.[3]

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2013.
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupils-not-claiming-free-school-meals-2013.

[3]http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/schools/resources/free-school-meals-matter-toolkit

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of jobseeker’s allowance claims processed within (a) 10, (b) 20, (c) 30, (d) 40, (e) 60 and (f) more than 60 working days.

Esther McVey

The information requested is not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when the contracts for personal independence payments assessments were awarded to Atos and Capita; and how many applications they were forecast to have processed by (a) March 2014 and (b) March 2015.

Mike Penning

The start date for both ATOS and Capita contracts was the 31st July 2012.

No forecast figures are available for numbers of applications processed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the performance of the School Food Plan in increasing healthy breakfast provision in more deprived areas; and how much had been spent on this programme by April 2014.

Mr David Laws

As part of the school food plan, Magic Breakfast started work in March 2014 to set up breakfast clubs in schools where over 35% of pupils are eligible for free school meals and where there is currently no breakfast provision.

We are currently tendering for a contract to evaluate the effectiveness of the breakfast clubs. The successful bidder will be announced shortly.