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Tag: Lord Wills

  • Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of breaches of traffic laws and regulations by bicyclists in each of the last five years.

    Lord Bates

    No assessment has been made of the number of breaches of traffic laws and regulations by bicyclists in each of the last five years. This information is not held centrally. It is important that cyclists follow the rules of the Highway Code. It is an operational matter for local Chief Officers to enforce the law.

  • Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates who will not be in education or employment one year after graduation, in each of the next five years.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    Estimates for future years are not available.

  • Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates in education or employment one year after graduation.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    The Government attaches great importance to the supply of science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills and the value that they bring to all sectors of our economy. It has commissioned two independent reviews into graduate employment and accreditation in STEM which aim to explore some of the issues around the employment outcomes of graduates from STEM disciplines.

    Sir William Wakeham is leading the review into STEM disciplines. A second, separate review is being led by Sir Nigel Shadbolt and is considering the specific concerns related to graduates of Computer Science. [HL3019]. The reviews are due to report to Ministers in Winter 2015/16. (Note: further information can be found at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/kess/gradstemreview/)

    “

  • Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Wills – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2015-10-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research they are planning to fund in West Africa into the persistence of the Ebola virus in survivors, and into post-Ebola syndrome.

    Baroness Verma

    DFID is making UK-funded treatment facilities and laboratories available for research into Ebola survivors and existing DFID-funded research may provide relevant evidence. For example the Anthropology Platform is conducting research into survivors, and the WHO vaccine trial in Guinea is following up participants for three months.

    To mitigate any risk of potential Ebola transmission, the UK is also helping the Government of Sierra Leone to assist survivors with access to healthcare, safe sex education and condoms, counselling and stigma reduction activities.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-01-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, of the £108 million allocated in the 2010 Spending Review to cover the costs of introducing individual electoral registration, how much was spent in (1) 2010–11, (2) 2011–12, and (3) 2012–13; and how much is planned to be spent in (1) 2013–14, and (2) 2014–15.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    The spend to date and budgeted amounts are in the table below. The budget for the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) was set in 2010, based on robust cost projections and included optimism bias in line with best practice. Careful management of budgets, combined with an agile approach to the development of the IT supporting the move to IER has helped to ensure that, to date, the programme has come in under budget.

    The budget for IER has supported three rounds of pilots since 2011 and a complete national test of the IT that will support the automatic confirmation of at least 78% of current electors. It has enabled the allocation of resources to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and partner organisations (£4.2m in the current financial year) to improve the completeness and accuracy of the Electoral Register.

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Actual:

    £2,369,719

    Actual:

    £5,074,446

    Budget:

    £26,148,664

    Budget:

    £65,478,868

    For financial year 2015/16, £148 million has been set aside for the costs of Individual Electoral Registration, the General Election and the 2015/16 Boundary Commission; specific budgets for each of these areas are yet to be allocated.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they calculate the local government finance settlement.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    The method of calculating the local government finance settlement is set out in the Local Government Finance Report (England) for each year. The report for 2014/15 was approved by Parliament on 12 February. A copy of this report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-finance-report-2014-to-2015

    “

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-04-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the average charge-out rate of pension advisers in calculating the quantity and quality of advice that will be available to people retiring under the new pension arrangements announced in the 2014 Budget.

    Lord Deighton

    At Budget the government announced a new guarantee that everyone with a defined contribution pension will be offered free and impartial face-to-face guidance on their financial choices in retirement when they retire. The government is consulting on how best to deliver this guidance as part of its consultation, ‘Flexibility and Choice in Pensions’.

    In addition, the government will work with the FCA to explore the extent to which regulated advice can be made more affordable through more cost effective delivery, such as through the development of online delivery channels.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-04-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what new measures they will put in place to protect against the mis-selling of financial advice to people retiring under the new pension arrangements announced in the 2014 Budget.

    Lord Deighton

    Alongside the pensions flexibility announced at Budget, the government announced a new guarantee that everyone with a defined contribution pension will be offered free and impartial face to face guidance on their financial choices in retirement when they retire. The Government is consulting on how best to deliver this guidance as part of its consultation, ‘Flexibility and Choice in Pensions’.

    The guidance will be designed to help consumers navigate the options available and is not intended to replace the services of professional financial advice. The government expects that many consumers will go on to seek further advice and will ensure that the guidance equips consumers to choose the advisory service that suits their needs.

    The government has asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to coordinate the development of robust standards for this guidance and a framework for monitoring compliance.

    Professional financial advice is regulated by the FCA. The FCA’s statutory objectives and regulatory powers are geared to protect consumers. The FCA has committed to taking a proactive and interventionist approach to retail conduct regulation.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-04-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the impact on public spending as a result of the new pension arrangements announced in the 2014 Budget.

    Lord Deighton

    The impact will depend on how people choose to use their pension savings, which is difficult to predict. The Government expects any impact to be small in the context of the other pension measures announced in this Parliament – including State Pension age changes, the introduction of the single tier pension and public service pension reform – which are projected to save around £17 billion in 2030 in today’s terms. The estimated net fiscal impact of pension changes announced in this Parliament can be found in Chart 1.12 of the Red Book here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293759/37630_Budget_2014_Web_Accessible.pdf

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-05-06.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stowell of Beeston on 9 April (WA 304), whether the range of services to which they refer includes electoral registration.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    Local authorities are statutorily required to provide a number of services including electoral registration. Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 provides for the appointment of an officer of the council to be the Registration Officer for the registration of parliamentary and local government electors, and section 54 of that Act provides that expenses properly incurred by a registration officer in the performance of his registration duties shall be paid by the local authority by whom the registration officer was appointed.

    Additionally, the Government has committed to funding all net costs of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration to ensure that authorities are not left with unfunded burdens in line with the New Burdens Doctrine. In April 2014 the programme paid non-ring fenced section 31 grants to local authorities in England and Wales and paid invoices directly to Scotland to cover core Individual Electoral Registration costs.