The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce a limit on the size of personal, or company, donations to political parties.
Lord Bridges of Headley
We remain committed to negotiating a comprehensive cross-party reform agreement, including donations from all funding sources including trade unions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the statement by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen on 20 October (HL Deb, col 2484–90), whether the Pharmacy Integration Fund is still planned to rise to a total of £300 million by 2020–21, and whether the planned expenditure of £42 million over two years means that previously planned support is being cut back.
Lord Prior of Brampton
In 2016/17, it was planned that £20 million would be available for the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF), rising by £20 million per year to a total of £100 million per year by 2020/21, so that over the course of 5 years, £300 million would be distributed through the Fund.
The establishment of the Fund and associated work programme for 2016/17 is dependent on the overall financial pressures for NHS England, set out in the Five Year Forward View, and the priorities identified through the recently published National Health Service planning guidance.
This means through the business planning process, funding of £42 million has now been secured for 2016/17 and 2017/18.
There will be further business planning within NHS England for 2018 onwards which will determine the future provision within the Fund. However, the PhIF is a key priority for NHS England and is aligned with the Five Year Forward View priorities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2015-12-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to limit spending in particular constituencies during a general election campaign to prevent any imbalance in the funding available to candidates unduly affecting election outcomes.
Lord Bridges of Headley
Existing electoral law limits spending.The Representation of the People Act 1983 sets limits for spending by candidates, and for those campaigning for or against a candidate, at a General Election. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 sets constituency limits for spending by third party campaigners at General Elections.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the statement by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen on 20 October (HL Deb, col 2484–90), how much of the Pharmacy Access Fund will come from existing funds to support community pharmacies, and how much of the Pharmacy Access Fund will be additional money to support community pharmacies.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Pharmacy Access Scheme (PhAS) will be paid for from the funding for the community pharmacy contractual framework. The PhAS will be an additional monthly payment, made to all small and medium sized pharmacies that are a mile or more from another pharmacy. The PhAS has been designed to capture the pharmacies that are most important for patient access, specifically those pharmacies where patient and public access would be materially affected should they close. The PhAS takes isolation and need levels into account.
The scheme also includes a review process, and reviews of eligibility will also be granted for pharmacies that may have narrowly missed out on the scheme through the distance criteria, but are in areas of high deprivation. This will cover pharmacies that are located in the top 20% most deprived areas in England, and are located 0.8 miles or more from another pharmacy. Additional funding for successful reviews under this criterion will be made available as required.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of research from the University of East Anglia forecasting that the introduction of Individual Voter Registration will lead to a decline in levels of electoral registration.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government is aware of research by the University of East Anglia into Individual Electoral Registration (IER) that was submitted to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in 2011. The electoral registers used for the 2015 General Election contained over 400,000 more entries than the last registers published prior to the introduction of IER. As such, suggestions that IER would lead to a decline in registration levels were proved incorrect.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the independent report commissioned by the Electoral Commission, Evaluation of Electoral Administration at the EU Referendum, published in August, which showed that almost half of Counting Officers responsible for the referendum considered that their teams had insufficient funds available to support the work required to compile the electoral register, whether they plan to review the electoral registration funding process.
Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
It is the responsibility of Local Authorities, under the Representation of the People Act 1983, to appoint an Electoral Registration Officer who has a statutory duty to maintain registers of UK Parliamentary and local government electors for their area. To support Local Authorities with this process, and fund the transition to Individual Electoral Registration, the Cabinet Office has provided over £25 million of funding in 2014/2015 and over £15 million in 2015/2016. In addition, the Government has committed to cover the additional costs associated with the modernisation of electoral registration for at least the rest of this parliament.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ascertain how many people shown as having voted on the marked register for the General Election on 7 May 2015 were on the electoral register at that time solely by virtue of the household based electoral registration system; whether they will make any such data available, broken down by (1) country, (2) constituency, and (3) local authority; how many of those voters were removed from the electoral registers on 1 December 2015; and what plans they have to help ensure that those voters are included on electoral registers based on Individual Electoral Registration.
Lord Bridges of Headley
While data is not available on the number of non-IER registered electors who voted at the 2015 General Election, the Electoral Commission found 96% of the entries on the electoral register in May 2015 were already registered under IER. The remaining non-IER registered electors will have been contacted as part of the annual canvass, and specifically targeted by Electoral Registration Officers, to encourage them to submit an application under IER ahead of the end of the transition to IER.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 15 June (HL Deb col 1218), what progress they have made in assessing the benefits of an online registration checking tool.
Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The Government recognises that finding a way to reduce the number of duplicate applications to register to vote would be beneficial for both citizens and electoral administrators. An online registration checking tool is one of many potential solutions.
We are currently in the discovery phase of investigating the issue of duplicate applications and are scoping a number of options. Whether or not an online registration checking tool is the most viable solution will only become clear after this work has been completed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to gather data from Electoral Registration Officers about levels of electoral registration as at 1 December 2015, and whether that process will differ from practice in previous years.
Lord Bridges of Headley
Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will have published their revised registers by 1 December 2015. As in previous years the Electoral Commission will use the data from these registers to inform their assessment of the state of the December 2015 registers, which they plan to publish in late February/early March. The Cabinet Office has worked with EROs, Electoral Management Software suppliers and the EC to gather data that will assist the assessment of the December 2015 registers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-20.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what their response is to the recommendation of the Electoral Commission in its report on the 2016 EU referendum that Governments should make use of all available owned channels to promote voter registration ahead of any major poll.””
Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
We welcome the Electoral Commission’s recommendation. This recommendation reflects the success of activities conducted by the Government to promote registration ahead of the EU Referendum that complemented the activity delivered by the Commission.