Tag: Louise Haigh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent representations he has received on child sexual exploitation and the licensing of private hire vehicles.

Andrew Jones

The Department for Transport receives a wide variety of representations from a diverse range of stakeholders in relation to private hire vehicle licensing, including child sexual exploitation.

Alongside the Government’s commitment to eradicating child sexual abuse, these representations have assisted us in taking action such as introducing statutory Best Practice Guidance for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing in relation to safeguarding.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Attorney General, what plans he has to add additional capacity to the Government Legal Service for transposing legislation derived from the EU into UK law after the conclusion of negotiations for the UK to leave the EU.

Robert Buckland

The Treasury Solicitor as head of the Government Legal Service is monitoring demand for legal work across government in light of the referendum and business needs will be reflected in recruitment.

Where additional capacity is required we are addressing this by lateral moves between teams supplemented by our normal recruitment processes. We will continue carefully to monitor the demand for legal services across government.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will reduce the cost of an application for a certificate of travel to the same levels as for a convention travel document.

James Brokenshire

The estimated cost of processing a certificate of travel is currently £382 for those over the age of 16 and £244 for those under the age of 16.

Fees for applications for certificates of travel reflect estimated processing costs. The Geneva Convention requires that Convention Travel Document fees must not exceed those for UK passports. Immigration and nationality fees are reviewed and updated annually and reflect changes in estimated costs and passport fees.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will ensure that save-as-you-earn and share incentive plan savings limits are increased in line with inflation on an annual basis.

Mr David Gauke

The tax-advantaged Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) limits were significantly increased from April 2014. The increases the Government have made are reasonable, given the average monthly SAYE savings and the value of awards currently made to employees under SIP, and they represent the best use of resources. The Government will continue to keep the SAYE and SIP limits under review.

In addition to increasing the SAYE and SIP limits, the rules of the schemes were substantially reviewed and simplified following the recommendations made by the Office of Tax Simplification in March 2012. Last year, the requirement that these schemes must be approved by HM Revenue and Customs to qualify for favourable tax treatment was replaced by self-certification. Coupled with other changes to simplify some technical aspects of the rules, this will make these schemes more attractive to businesses and employees.

No data is collected and no estimates are made of the income levels of the participants in SAYE schemes.

Permitting private equity backed companies to offer all-employee tax advantaged schemes would be likely to involve significant changes to the rules of the schemes, and there would be a number of other factors to consider carefully, including the increased cost and complexity of any extension.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what average time her Department took to respond to freedom of information requests in each year since 2005.

George Eustice

The Government publishes statistics on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within central government, including on timeliness.

The published figures can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the likely cost of establishing and running his extended ministerial office.

Matthew Hancock

The costs of running all parts of the Cabinet Office will be accounted for in the Department’s annual report and accounts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure that people with rare neuromuscular conditions in Sheffield, Heeley constituency have access to the appropriate wheelchair for their condition.

Alistair Burt

Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services.

NHS England advises that it is supporting improvements in wheelchair services to ensure wheelchair users and their families can lead full, independent and active lives. This work involves establishing a new national wheelchair data collection to drive improvement, piloting a tariff for wheelchairs and supporting improvements in the commissioning of services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost of using external agencies for recruitment to Senior Civil Service posts in his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The cost to the Department for Transport (including its executive agencies, but excluding its non-departmental public bodies)using external agencies for therecruitmentof Senior Civil Serviceposts in the last three financial years is set out below:

Financial year 2012/2013 – £195,596.40

Financial year 2013/2014 – £219,587.08

Financial year 2014/2015 – £198,740.56

The financial data on the cost of using external agencies for the recruitment of Senior Civil Service posts in the financial years 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 are not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-01.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants in his Department are in the redeployment pool.

Harriett Baldwin

The function of the redeployment pool is to give appropriate support to employees who have become surplus as a permanent post no longer exists for them. The redeployment pool helps them remain in employment and provides priority access to vacancies before they are advertised across Treasury.

There are no employees in the HMT redeployment pool.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many civil servants were employed in his Department in each year from 2010 to 2015.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The number of people employed in the Department for Transport in each financial year is shown for each year in the table below. As at March 15 there were 17,142 employees.

Headcount	Mar ’10	Mar ’11	Mar ’12	Mar ’13	Mar ’14	Mar ’15
DFT central Dept	2,009	1,822	1,669	1,744	1,854	1,841
Driver Standards Agency	2,697	2,607	2,584	2,441	2,264	**
Driver Vehicle and Licensing Agency	6,445	6,360	6,326	6,457	5,568	5,794
Driver Vehicle Standards Agency						4,520
Government Car Despatch Agency	329	235	178	91	*	*
Highways Agency	3,834	3,633	3,488	3,331	3,471	3,757
Maritime and Coastguard Agency	1,230	1,142	1,118	1,086	1,073	1,064
Vehicle Certification Agency	149	147	156	156	163	166
Vehicle and Operator Services Agency	2,527	2,305	2,206	2,265	2,268	**
Total DfT	19,220	18,251	17,725	17,571	16,661	17,142

Notes to Data

* GCDA ceased to be an Agency and joined the central Department as the Government Car Service (GCS) in July 2012, but continued to report their staff separately until March 2013 due to using a different shared services system. After this date, the GCS was reported as part of the central Department

** In April 2014 DSA and VOSA merged to form a new Agency called the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA)