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 2014-05-06.

    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.

  • 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 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Hill of Oareford on 8 May (HL Deb, col 1574), when will they respond to the email sent by Lord Wills to Roger Smethurst at the Cabinet Office on 14 March.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    Mr Smethurst replied to the noble lord on 23 June 2014.

  • 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 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stowell of Beeston on 14 May (WA 507), what allowance was made in each of the last five years for funding local authorities to pay the expenses incurred by a registration officer in the performance of their registration duties.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    Funding for local authorities provided by central Government through Formula Grant up until 2012-13 or the current Business Rates Retention scheme is un-hypothecated and, therefore, it is not possible to provide a figure for any specific service in a year. Funding for all net costs of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration is paid through non-ring fenced section 31 grants to local authorities in England. Spending decisions are made by local authorities and details of expenditure can be found in the annual Local Government statistics at:

    www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-financial-statistics-england-2014

    Details of the Individual Electoral Registration funding are available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254816/Indicative_allocations_spreadsheet_formatted.xlsx

  • 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 2014-03-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when Lord Wills will receive a response to his email to the Cabinet Office of 6 November 2013 (Cabinet Office reference IR317467) about Freedom of Information requests.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    I apologise for the delay. The Noble Lord has received a reply.

  • 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 2014-03-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 10 February (WA 95), whether, in calculating the Local Government Finance Settlement, they have made any assumptions of the likely expenditure on electoral registration.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    Funding for electoral registration is included within the local government finance settlement, and it is for the Local Authority to manage the non-ring fenced funding it provides to deliver statutory obligations, including electoral registration.

    The Government is funding the net additional costs to local authorities of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration in financial years 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 via grants to local authorities in England and Wales and on invoice for the Valuation Joint Boards in Scotland.