Tag: Frank Field

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has conducted of the potential effect of the closure of 86 courts and tribunals in England and Wales on access to justice by people in low-income households.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Before making any decision to close a court or tribunal, we considered carefully the effect of closures on all court and tribunal users.

The court estate is underused and needs to be updated. Last year, nearly half of our courtrooms were used for less than half of their ordinary sitting time. The Government is committed to modernising the way justice is accessed and delivered, putting users at the heart of the system.

To ensure that access to justice is maintained, we are committed to providing alternative ways for users to access our services, including the use of other civic buildings for video links or hearings.

The consultation response is available online at www.gov.uk/moj.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls have been made to the Universal Credit 03456000723 number to date; what the average duration is of such calls; what the average cost is of each call; and how much revenue in total has been generated by these calls.

Priti Patel

To date, 2.2million calls have been answered by Universal Credit agents. The average call duration is 07:29 minutes. This information includes calls to the 0345 number and to the 0845 number it replaced.

Calls to 0345 numbers are charged to the customer at the same rate as a call to a standard local or national geographic number. The cost is dependent on the customer’s tariff and will be taken from inclusive bundled call minutes where applicable.

Information about call charges are available at the following link https://www.gov.uk/call-charges

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The Department generates no revenue from these calls and is unable to comment on revenue generated by other parties

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of incorporating flood rescue into the statutory duties of the fire and rescue services.

Mike Penning

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 already set out clearly the roles and powers of fire and rescue authorities in respect of emergency response and rescue in a wide range of situations, including flooding.

Fire and rescue authorities are required to produce Integrated Risk Management Plans which identify the full range of risks to which an authority’s service is expected to respond, and these plans are subject to consultation with local communities. This approach is enshrined in the National Fire Framework which was given statutory effect in August 2012.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants making the transition from employment and support allowance to jobseeker’s allowance have received a decision assurance call; and what the outcome was of each such call.

Priti Patel

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of work capability assessments were carried out within 13 weeks of submission of a new employment and support allowance claim in the latest period for which figures are available.

Priti Patel

Official statistics for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) processing times are not readily available and to provide the information requested would incur disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people working for her Department or its executive agencies on a (a) directly employed, (b) agency or (c) outsourced basis are paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation; and how many of those people are employed on zero-hours contracts.

Sarah Newton

All permanent members of staff directly employed by the Home Office and its agencies are paid the Living Wage Foundation rates or above. The Home Office and its agencies do not retain any directly employed staff on zero-hour contracts.

All temporary agency staff are employed in accordance with the Agency Workers Regulations which ensures parity with directly employed staff after 12 weeks. Starting pay rates comply with the requirements of the current Government Living Wage legislation; this is a contractual obligation on the supplier and is monitored through contract compliance mechanisms.

The Home Office only requires its outsourced contractors to comply with the legal minimum standards of pay of their staff as set out in the Government National Living Wage legislation; again this is a contractual obligation on the supplier and is monitored through contract compliance mechanisms and annually through out supplier assurance programme.

The Home Office does not however require outsourced contractors to pay the Living Wage Foundation rates or requires or monitors that such outsourced contractors do not employ staff on zero hours contracts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of people released from each prison in England and Wales (i) reoffended and (ii) went into employment within six months of their release in each of the last five years.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Information on the employment status of prisoners beyond the point of release is not available centrally and can only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

All other information requested can be found on GOV.UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much from the public purse has been distributed in the UK by Magic Breakfast; and what objectives have been set for that expenditure.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Magic Breakfast currently receive central government funding from a contract with the Department for Education. The objective of the project is to set up and run 184 breakfast clubs in schools where 35% or more children are eligible for free school meals, to ensure that children are fed and are at school on time and ready to learn. Magic Breakfast are required to develop plans to enable the breakfast clubs to be self-sustaining beyond the contract period. The project is being externally evaluated.

The value of the contract is £1.087m, of which £518,523 has so far been paid. This is the only central government funding currently provided to Magic Breakfast in England. Any funding in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland would be a matter for the relevant governments. The Department does not hold a breakdown of contract expenditure by parliamentary constituency.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-11-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax credit claimants have received help with the digital skills required to renew their tax credit claim in the last 12 months.

Damian Hinds

The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to extend central government funding for Age UK Wirral beyond April 2016.

Mr Rob Wilson

As far as we have been able to ascertain Age UK Wirral has not received direct funding from central government during the financial year 2015/16.