Tag: Keith Vaz

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of the emails sent by his Department to schools on 3 April 2014 setting out guidance on keeping children safe have not been opened by the recipient to date.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    On 3 April the Department for Education published updated statutory guidance on safeguarding, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’. On the same day, we emailed all headteachers a letter from the Secretary of State drawing their attention to the guidance. We will be publishing this on the website in due course.

    The letter was emailed to 31,660 addressees in 25,035 schools. As of 30 April, 13,285 (43.1%) recipients had opened the email, and 9,402 (30.5%) recipients had clicked through to the guidance on safeguarding.

    Other records show that the guidance has been seen by a greater number of people. Between 3 and 29 April the web page hosting the guidance received 65,729 page views. The Department also published 5 tweets in support of the publication. These achieved a total reach of 639,315, and the embedded links were clicked 755 times.

    The guidance will also be highlighted in the summer term 2014 schools’ email and Need to Know timelines that will be sent to all schools in May. Schools can also access relevant information through social media, and messages from the Education Funding Agency and the National College for Teaching and Leadership. The Department also sends regular emails to all local authorities.

    Officials have also promoted the guidance through various stakeholder groups that work with the Department, including the Headteacher Reference Groups and the Education Forum; members of the latter include chairs of local safeguarding children boards. And they have written to head and teacher unions who met Ministers in January to discuss female genital mutilation and broader safeguarding issues.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total yearly salary of each grade of the UK Visa and Immigration Directorate senior staff was on 1 April 2014.

    Karen Bradley

    The following table shows the total yearly salary for each senior civil
    service grade in UK Visa and Immigration Directorate as at 1 April 2014. These
    are presented in £5,000 bands in line with our commitment to publish
    departmental salary information.

    Grade Salary band (£)
    Deputy Directors 755,000-759,999
    Directors 420,000-424,999
    Director General 132,000-134,999

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by the UK Visa and Immigration Directorate on 1 April 2014.

    James Brokenshire

    The number of people (paid and unpaid civil servants as well as agency and
    contractors substituting as civil servants) employed by UK Visas and
    Immigration on 31st March 2014 was 7,107 (6,598.67 Full Time Equivalent).

    In line with Office for National statistics guidelines, all government
    departments are required to report their official statistics relating to
    numbers of employees using calendar month end dates. This answer has therefore
    been provided using information as at 31st March 2014 rather than 1st April
    2014.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what budget is allocated to the UK Visa and Immigration Directorate.

    James Brokenshire

    UK Visa & Immigration Directorate Budget 2014/5

    Resource Administration £13.6 million
    Resource Programme £744.3 million
    Income Programme £1,022.6 million
    Capital £6.0 million

    Source: Home Office Main Estimates published on 29th April 2014

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many marriages were reported to the Home Office as suspicious or sham in each year since 2009.

    Karen Bradley

    Sections 24 and 24A of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 place a duty on
    registration officers to submit a report to the Home Office where they have
    reasonable grounds to suspect that a marriage or civil partnership is a sham
    being entered into for immigration purposes. Table 1 shows the
    number of section 24/24A reports received in each year since 2009. Same sex
    marriages only came into effect this year there is therefore no data relating
    to this period, or for civil partnerships before 2011.

    The Home Office Intelligence Management System (IMS) records allegations from
    the public regarding immigration-related offences. Since 30 September 2012 we
    have recorded the following numbers of reports relating to sham marriage as set
    out in Table 2.
    These figures relate to reports identified by the public as possible sham
    marriage.

    Table 1

    Year

    Number of section 24/24A reports

    Of which refer civil partnerships

    2009

    561

    2010

    934

    2011

    1,741

    28

    2012

    1,891

    28

    2013

    2135

    25

    Table 2

    Year

    Number of reports relating to sham marriage recorded on IMS

    2012 (from 30 September)

    984

    2013

    6909

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many marriages reported as suspicious or sham were (a) same sex marriages, (b) heterosexual marriages and (c) civil partnerships in each year since 2009.

    James Brokenshire

    Sections 24 and 24A of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 place a duty on
    registration officers to submit a report to the Home Office where they have
    reasonable grounds to suspect that a marriage or civil partnership is a sham
    being entered into for immigration purposes. Table 1 shows the
    number of section 24/24A reports received in each year since 2009. Same sex
    marriages only came into effect this year there is therefore no data relating
    to this period, or for civil partnerships before 2011.

    The Home Office Intelligence Management System (IMS) records allegations from
    the public regarding immigration-related offences. Since 30 September 2012 we
    have recorded the following numbers of reports relating to sham marriage as set
    out in Table 2.
    These figures relate to reports identified by the public as possible sham
    marriage.

    Table 1

    Year

    Number of section 24/24A reports

    Of which refer civil partnerships

    2009

    561

    2010

    934

    2011

    1,741

    28

    2012

    1,891

    28

    2013

    2135

    25

    Table 2

    Year

    Number of reports relating to sham marriage recorded on IMS

    2012 (from 30 September)

    984

    2013

    6909

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which companies that have been asked to report on progress relating to the Responsibility Deal have not yet done so.

    Jane Ellison

    Reports from Responsibility Deal (RD) partners are published on the RD website as they are submitted and processed, which takes place throughout the year. Full details of the 675 partners signed up to the RD, the pledges they have signed up to and their annual updates are available on the RD website at:

    https://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk/partners/

    As at 5 June 2014, more than 70% of expected reports had been submitted for the 2013-14 reporting cycle.

    Partners new to the RD (signed up after 1 October 2013) and those signed up to new pledges launched during 2013, were not expected to provide an annual update. Other partners signed up to one or more of the majority of collective pledges were asked to provide an annual update.

    The RD reporting cycle does not always map with organisations’ cycles (for example clearance at board level) and end of fiscal year is a busy period for most partners. Some updates will also be in a ‘draft’ status where they are partly completed by partners and not yet submitted. This means there can be delays, and we expect further submissions over the next few months. Partners can also update their submissions in-year, reporting on further progress made.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many lawyers were employed in the Treasury Solicitor’s Department in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014 to date.

    Oliver Heald

    The figures below give the number of lawyers employed in the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol), as at 31st March each year and to date for 2014.

    Year

    Full Time Equivalent

    31st May 2014

    910

    31st March 2013

    572

    31st March 2012

    565

    31st March 2011

    464

    31st March 2010

    451

    The figures given are for permanent staff.

    Since 2010 TSol has been engaged on a process of transferring lawyers from other departments to TSol as part of the the Shared Legal Services Programme. Sharing legal services brings considerable benefits including greater flexibility and resiliance, more efficient deployment of legal resources, more opportunities for savings and improved knowledge sharing, which in turn supports consistency of legal advice across Government.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many meetings he has had with world leaders to discuss the situation in Yemen since 1 January 2013.

    Hugh Robertson

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), as well as other FCO Ministers, have regular discussions on Yemen with their counterparts, particularly with those from the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Friends of Yemen Ministerial Group, which the UK hosted in London most recently on 29 April.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by HM Passport Office on 1 January (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

    James Brokenshire

    The formal record for workforce data is made on the last day of each calendar
    month.

    The data as of 31 December in each year were as follows.

    31 December 2010: 3,700 full-time equivalents
    31 December 2011: 3,286 full-time equivalents
    31 December 2012: 3,164 full-time equivalents
    31 December 2013: 3,333 full-time equivalents

    These figures are for permanent civil servants employed by HMPO, including part
    year appointments and permanent members of staff employed on contracts for nine
    months of the year. This excludes staff on secondment or loan, and agency and
    temporary staff – with these staff included, the March 2014 figure is 3,444.