The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the current average waiting time is for personal independence payment assessments to be completed and a decision made in (a) England and (b) Leeds.
Mike Penning
The information you have requested is not currently available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many staff have (a) taken voluntary redundancy or (b) been made compulsorily redundant from his Department since May 2010; and how many of these (i) received special severance payments or (ii) were subject to compromise agreements.
Brandon Lewis
[Holding Reply: Monday 7 April 2014]
The number of staff that left the Department on (a) voluntary redundancy and (b) compulsory redundancy terms from May 2010 to March 2014 is set out below.
|
May 2010 to March 2014 |
|
|
Compulsory Redundancy |
8 |
|
Voluntary Severance or Redundancy |
522 |
|
Total |
530 |
None of these staff (i) received special severance payments or (ii) were subject to compromise agreements.
Exit figures through 2010 – 2012 reflect the completion of the Department’s major restructuring programme. Our departmental audited annual accounts for the core Department show that total staff costs fell from £216 million in 2009-10 to £99 million in 2012-13, a reduction of 54% in cash terms, or a saving of £117 million a year. The number of staff has been reduced from 3,781 full-time equivalent in 2009-10 to 1,681 in 2012-13, a reduction of 56%.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-05-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will review the effectiveness of current legislation on banned breeds of dog.
George Eustice
The Government has introduced new legislation to tackle irresponsible dog ownership, including extending the criminal offence of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control to all places, increasing the maximum penalties for allowing a dog to become dangerously out of control and ensuring that the new measures to deal with anti-social behaviour will include such instances when they involve a dog. As announced on 6th February 2013, Defra is looking at making changes to the arrangements for seizure and kennelling of suspected dangerous dogs but there are noplans to review the effectiveness of the restrictions on keeping certain types of dogwhich are specifically bred for fighting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations his Department has received from (a) local authorities and (b) others on sanctions available to councils under the Localism Act 2011 where councillors have been found to have been in breach of the Code of Conduct under that Act.
Brandon Lewis
[Holding Reply: Thursday 12 June 2014]
As stated in the impact assessment on the abolition of the Standards Board regime (published in January 2011), a post implementation review will be carried out three to five years after implementation of the policy which was in July 2012.
My Department routinely receives representations about standards arrangements in local government, and indeed, on a whole range of local government issues. We will have regard to representations and comments when we undertake our post implementation review.
However, Ministers are clear that the new provisions are a significant improvement on the old, discredited regime. The Localism Act has clarified predetermination rules allowing elected councillors to campaign and speak up on local issues. We have reversed the petty culture of malicious and unfounded complaints that wasted time and energy and undermined the good reputation of local government. We have increased transparency on councillors’ interests, and put in place criminal sanctions for the very rare instances of corruption. This is complemented by the role of political parties in ensuring good conduct, the law of libel, and the ultimate sanction: the ballot box.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to which local authorities he has written about their compliance with the Publicity Code asking them to take steps to ensure complete compliance with that Code; and whether each of these letters was copied to the Leader of the Opposition of the local authority.
Brandon Lewis
[Holding Reply: Monday 7 April 2014]
On 25 March, Departmental officials wrote to the Chief Executives of every principal local authority in England, advising how the Secretary of State is minded to exercise his powers to direct compliance with the Code of Recommended Practice on local Authority Publicity. On the same day, I wrote individually to the Leaders of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London Borough of Hackney, Newham Council, Nottingham City Council, Tower Hamlets Council and the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Without prejudicing any formal consideration by the Secretary of State, I observed that there were suggestions that those councils in particular might not be complying with the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity. I suggested that prior to the Secretary of State’s new powers for directing compliance with the Code on publicity coming on-stream at the end of March, they take steps to ensure that their council is in complete compliance with the provisions of the Code. Those letters were copied where applicable to the Leaders of the opposition in those authorities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the reasons are for the time taken to answer question 191956 tabled for answer on 8 April 2014.
Stephen Williams
I refer the rt. hon. Member to my answer of 1 May, Official Report, Column 803W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to carry out a post-implementation review of the local government standards framework in the Localism Act 2011.
Brandon Lewis
[Holding Reply: Thursday 12 June 2014]
As stated in the impact assessment on the abolition of the Standards Board regime (published in January 2011), a post implementation review will be carried out three to five years after implementation of the policy which was in July 2012.
My Department routinely receives representations about standards arrangements in local government, and indeed, on a whole range of local government issues. We will have regard to representations and comments when we undertake our post implementation review.
However, Ministers are clear that the new provisions are a significant improvement on the old, discredited regime. The Localism Act has clarified predetermination rules allowing elected councillors to campaign and speak up on local issues. We have reversed the petty culture of malicious and unfounded complaints that wasted time and energy and undermined the good reputation of local government. We have increased transparency on councillors’ interests, and put in place criminal sanctions for the very rare instances of corruption. This is complemented by the role of political parties in ensuring good conduct, the law of libel, and the ultimate sanction: the ballot box.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-03-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many applications to dispose of statutory allotments have been (a) submitted, (b) approved and (c) rejected in each local authority area in each year since 2010.
Stephen Williams
Further to the Allotments Act 1925, applications for consent to dispose of allotment land are submitted to the Department by local councils (parish councils and principal authorities). The table below shows the breakdown of applications since May 2010.
|
Granted |
Withdrawn |
Refused |
|
|
May 2010- March 2011 |
18 |
6 |
0 |
|
2011-12 |
17 |
5 |
0 |
|
2012-13 |
15 |
2 |
1 |
|
2013-14 |
17 |
1 |
4 |
|
2014-15 to date |
1 |
1 |
0 |
To place this in context, the Secretary of State granted 34 allotment disposals in 2007, granted 22 in 2008 and granted 18 in 2009, whilst only 2 were declined, which is a greater rate than under this Administration.
I observe that the rt. hon. Member has been quoted in the media attacking such consents. He would have been wiser however to have undertaken a closer examination of the 68 individual consents granted to the local councils since May 2010.
The table below provides some context to help explain why there was a reasonable case by the representative local bodies for changing the statutory status of the land.
In January 2014, my Department published Allotment Disposal Guidance: Safeguards and Alternatives replacing the previous guidance from 2002. The new guidance strengthens allotment protection, as the requirement for waiting lists to be taken into account must now be rigorously applied to all that council’s waiting lists, not just the waiting list for the site to be disposed of. This aims to ensure that poorly maintained sites are not used to justify disposal. Ministers will be closely monitoring to ensure that this new guidance is followed.
Notwithstanding, I have taken the opportunity to analyse these previous cases in the table below. The National Allotment Society was consulted in every case, and nine out of ten decisions were consistent with advice from the National Allotment Society (where advice was given); the remaining cases where the advice diverged related to land not actually in use as allotments, requiring a judgement call on whether it was realistic to bring the land back into productive use.
Having analysed these approvals, I can note that half of the land disposed was not actually in use as allotments. Moreover, in every case where existing allotment plot holders were displaced, evidence from local authorities indicates that alternative plots were made available to them.
More new plots were proposed to be created and/or vacant sites proposed to be brought back into use than the number of proposed disposals of in-use allotment plots. Consequently, the statutory disposal process overseen by the Secretary of State since May 2010 should have resulted in an increase in allotment provision not a reduction. This reflects this Government’s commitment both to supporting local communities grow their own food and to protecting important community assets.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the use of public money by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets to fund third sector organisations; and if he will make a statement.
Brandon Lewis
I refer the rt. hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made today by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to answer Question 194894, tabled for answer on 8 April 2014.
Stephen Williams
I refer the rt. hon. Member to my answer of 1 May, Official Report, Column 803W.