Tag: Jonathan Reynolds

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the average number of weeks is for which statutory shared parental pay has been claimed since 1 April 2015.

Nick Boles

The Government does not yet have any information on the take up of Statutory Shared Parental Pay. Information for the 2015-16 tax year will be available from May 2016, although it will also include claims for Additional Statutory Paternity Pay. Information is not held on the number of claims for Statutory Shared Parental Pay that are linked to adoption leave.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make representations to the Post Office on providing free business banking services to small and medium-sized enterprises.

George Freeman

The provision of services at post offices is the operational responsibility of the Post Office. Post Office offers a Retail (consumer) Bank Account direct to its own customers and, like any other business, can only offer services which are commercially sustainable for the business. The Post Office does not offer a Business (SME) type Bank Account direct to small businesses.

In addition to its own consumer financial services, the Post Office has offered access to ‘basic bank branch’ services for business and personal banking customers of almost all high street banks for a number of years. The banks charge their customers at the applicable rate agreed in their customer terms and conditions. The Post Office provides the services free to the customer at the counter, based on a series of commercial agreements with the banks. These agreements have recently been reviewed and discussed as part of the industry response to the Government sponsored ‘Access to Banking Protocol’ from March 2015.

The Post Office believes that personal and business customers of all banks would benefit from being able to continue to access existing basic banking services at Post Office branches, making sure that all communities can access banking services locally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether patients on assessment and treatment units have access to independent mental health advocates.

Alistair Burt

Access to an independent mental health advocacy (IMHA) is a statutory right for people detained under most sections of the Mental Health Act, subject to Guardianship or on a community treatment order. We would expect Assessment and Treatment Units to follow their statutory obligations to ensure patients have access to an IMHA where appropriate.

The Learning Disability Assuring Transformation statistics data shows that of the 2,565 inpatients at the end of April 2016, 600 patients had a main diagnostic category of mental illness on admission.

Data on the numbers of formal complaints made about patient care; the management of assessment and treatment units; access to autism-specialist services and access to occupational and speech and language therapy are not held centrally. However, NHS England, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Local Government Association, published in October 2015, a Service Model for commissioners of health and social care services. This model sets out that when people are admitted to inpatient settings services should seek to minimise their length of stay and any admissions should be supported by a clear rationale of planned assessment and treatment with measurable outcomes. We would therefore expect all patients, irrespective of inpatient setting, to have access to the treatment and therapeutic interventions they require.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans for the electrification of the Great Western Mainline to be completed.

Claire Perry

The Secretary of State announced in June that Sir Peter Hendy, the new Chair of Network Rail, would develop proposals for how the rail upgrade programme, including the Great Western Mainline, will be carried out. He will report to the Secretary of State later in the autumn and it would be premature to speculate on his conclusions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much has been spent by his Department on franchising negotiations since 2010.

Claire Perry

Since 2013, and the setting up of Rail Executive Passenger Services, the Department has separated out the cost of individual Franchise Competitions and Direct Awards. Prior to 2013 such costs are merged within the general costs of running the franchised passenger services and we are unable to disaggregate them from the general costs.

The cost of re-franchising projects since the re-launch of the Franchising Programme in Spring 2013 is £41.4 million. This represents the actual consultancy and non-pay staff costs for the duration of the completed competitions and Direct Awards. This figure includes costs for ongoing competitions and Direct Awards up to and including the end of September.

Franchise competitions are not the result of negotiation, but of open competition. The benefits these competitions bring to the passenger far outweigh the cost to the Department. I also note that the franchising system returned £1.15billion to the taxpayer in financial years 2014/15, and is expected to return a similar amount in 2015/16.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many complaints by passengers were received by Network Rail in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014 and (f) 2015.

Claire Perry

Network Rail was reclassified as an arm’s-length public sector body on 1 September 2014 and the collation of statistics of annual complaints received remains an operational matter for the company.

Network Rail advises that its customer relationship management system focusses on providing solutions to a range of customer service requests, the majority of which are received from line-side residents rather than passengers. Network Rail’s system does not focus specifically on logging the annual number of passenger complaints.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans for the South East Flexible Ticketing scheme to be delivered.

Claire Perry

Smart ticketing was taken forward by the Coalition Government after 2010. Five train operators, serving 73% of all rail season ticket holders in the South East, have now signed up to the South East Flexible Ticketing (SEFT) programme.

Smart season tickets are already available to customers on Govia Thameslink Railway and c2c. South West Trains and Abellio Greater Anglia plan to introduce smart seasons on their services in January 2016; Southeastern will follow at the end of 2016.

A new SEFT central back office, providing critical IT infrastructure and data processing capability, underwent testing in August 2015. This will enable train operators to consider a range of new products and services including automatic delay repay, flexible season tickets and loyalty schemes, and also to extend smart ticketing across a range of transport modes including rail, trams and buses.

In September 2015, Birmingham New Street station reopened with smart-enabled ticket barriers supported by the central back office.

On current plans, the South East Flexible Ticketing programme will complete in 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with (a) Ministers of the Scottish Government and (b) his Cabinet colleagues on reducing the voting age to 16 for all Scottish and UK elections.

David Mundell

The Scottish Parliament passed an Act to lower the voting age in those elections in June 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if he will take steps to limit the amount energy suppliers can charge consumers for the introduction of smart meters.

Amber Rudd

The Government has introduced regulation to ensure that there will be no upfront charges to consumers for the introduction of smart meters.

The Government’s approach to minimising costs and ensuring cost savings from smart metering are passed on to consumers is embedded in the strategy of mandating an energy supplier-led roll out. As commercial entities competing for customers, energy suppliers are incentivised to minimise costs and maximise cost savings. Where suppliers do not keep their customer offer and prices competitive, customers will be able to switch to a new energy supplier.

The Government and Ofgem are committed to further enhancing retail energy competition. To this end, Ofgem has referred the retail energy market to the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate if features of the market are having an adverse effect on competition and, if so, what reforms would make competition even more effective.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what information energy suppliers are required to provide (a) his Department and (b) Ofgem to assist with monitoring the roll-out of smart meters to vulnerable, low income and pre-payment meter customers.

Amber Rudd

On an annual basis larger suppliers are required to provide the Department with a qualitative report on their roll-out strategies, including plans to engage with vulnerable and pre-payment customers. Smaller suppliers are also required to provide annual data on their plans for engaging vulnerable customers. Low income households are not defined as a separate category.

The Department also collects quarterly data from larger energy suppliers which includes details of smart meters installed and operated in pre-payment mode, and details of their plans for installing smart meters, including where those meters will be operated in pre-payment mode. The same information is collected annually from small suppliers.

Ofgem collects data from the larger suppliers on the number of pre-payment meters that have been replaced with smart meters, and from January 2016 suppliers will report on the number of customers on the Priority Services Register who have a smart meter installed. This data will be collected annually. The larger suppliers will also shortly be submitting qualitative roll-out plans to Ofgem, explaining how they plan to develop their IT systems to support the rollout of smart pre-payment.

Separately, Ofgem is reviewing suppliers’ policies and practices relating to charges for installing and removing pre-payment meters, which will also cover aspects of smart meter services. The review will also look at company practices in relation to security deposits, including for customers with smart meters. Ofgem will report on its findings in summer 2015.