Tag: Kate Green

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much of the £31 million of child maintenance arrears written off in 2014-15 was written off under each of the ground in the Child Support Management of Payment and Arrears (Amendment) Regulations 2012.

Priti Patel

The circumstances of the £31 million of child maintenance arrears written off in 2014-15 is shown in the table below:

Circumstance	2014/15 write off (£m)
The person with care has requested that the Secretary of State ceases to act in respect of the arrears	6.5
A child in Scotland has requested that the Secretary of State ceases to act in respect of the arrears	0.0
The person with care, or (in Scotland) the child, has died	3.0
The non-resident parent died before 25 January 2010 or there is no further action that can be taken with regard to recovery of the arrears from the non-resident parent’s estate	19.8
The arrears relate to liability for child support maintenance for any period in respect of which an interim maintenance assessment was in force between 5 April 1993 and 18 April 1995	0.1
The non-resident parent has been informed by the Secretary of State that no further action would ever be taken to recover those arrears	0.2
Other	1.3

Notes

1. The figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
2. The circumstance ‘Other’ includes amounts written off following Secretary of State and client part payment, £0.5m, arrears written off which were due to the Secretary of State, £0.2m and adjustments to arrears balances which have transitioned to the 2012 Child Maintenance system, £0.6m.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to increase the number of accessible taxis in the UK.

Andrew Jones

Government is committed to giving disabled people the same access to transport services as other members of society. It also recognises the particularly significant role played by taxis and private hire vehicle (PHV) operators for many disabled people, in helping them to remain active and independent.

It is for local authorities to specify a number of accessible vehicles to be within their licensed taxi and private hire vehicle fleet, and to take account of their public sector equality duties when doing so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many of her Department’s policies have been assessed against the family test; what steps she has taken to publish the outcome of such assessments; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The Family Test policy does not apply to DFID’s work as foreign policy is outside of the scope of the Test.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions have taken place with teaching unions on the application of the Prevent programme in schools.

Edward Timpson

The Department of Education consulted the teaching unions on the Prevent duty guidance which was published in March 2015 (see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance) and officials have subsequently briefed union representatives both on the duty and on the Department’s role in implementing the Prevent strategy in education. The Department has worked particularly closely with the unions representing school leaders to support schools in meeting their responsibilities under the Prevent duty.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Policy, Law and Decision Making Guidance used by Child Maintenance Service caseworkers when making decisions on the application of Section 137(2)(b) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 and the unlikely to be paid test.

Priti Patel

The Department is currently revising the Policy Law and Decision Making Guidance, so it is not appropriate to make it publicly available at this time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-10-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with financial services industry bodies on tariffs for customers who do not access services online.

Simon Kirby

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has had no discussions with financial services industry bodies on tariffs for customers who do not access services online.

The Government takes the firm view that consumers must be able to easily access clear and transparent information about their accounts with banks and other financial services companies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of his Department’s policies have been assessed against the family test; what steps he has taken to publish the outcome of such assessments; and if he will make a statement.

Caroline Dinenage

The Family Test was introduced in October 2014 and can be located at the following link Family Test Guidance

The Family Test is part of the policy making process and is applied in a proportionate way in the development of new policy in line with the guidance. Potential impacts of policy on family functioning and relationships are identified and brought to the attention of Ministers where appropriate.

There is no requirement to publish the Family Test assessments. The Ministry of Justice does not collect information on the number of full Family Test assessments completed.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation officers have been employed by the National Probation Service since its establishment in each month in that period, and for each such month in each region of England.

Andrew Selous

Information on the number of probation officers employed in each NPS Division is published quarterly in the National Offender Management Service Workforce Statistics Bulletin. The information on probation officer numbers can be located in table 11 of the publication, which can be found at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects to lay before Parliament the results of the 30-month review required under Section 141 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 of the effect of the Child Support Fees Regulations 2014.

Priti Patel

The department has a statutory obligation to complete the 30 month review of the impacts of charging by 31 December 2016.

Outcomes of the review are expected to be published in spring 2017.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with water suppliers on tariffs for customers who do not elect to pay for services online.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The Department has not had any discussions with water companies about their charges or tariffs in the context of payment methods.

As regulated private businesses, water companies must follow Ofwat’s charging rules and their licence conditions in setting tariffs for customers. Ofwat’s charging rules set out that companies must include a reasonable choice of payment methods.

Water companies do not generally differentiate between customers that access their account online or pay their water bill by direct debit, and those that choose paper billing and annual payment. However, there are some that offer a discount, reflective of the cost saving, to customers that pay by direct debit. This is an incentive to encourage greater sign up as there are benefits for both the customer and the company.