Tag: Louise Haigh

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the contractual agreement between her Department and G4S Care and Justice Services (UK) Limited at HM Prison (a) Birmingham and (b) Oakwood for what reason financial remedies have been levied in (i) failure to comply with procedures, (ii) incidents and (iii) failure to comply with prison regime in each year from 2012-13 to date.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Privately Managed prison contracts contain provisions which allow financial remedies to be applied for non-performance.

Performance points are awarded according to the severity of failure. If the total number of points exceeds the agreed baseline for the performance quarter or year, financial remedies are applied against the Contractor in accordance with the Contract.

As financial remedies are only applied if baseline targets are exceeded it is not, possible to link individual incidents to the value of remedies that have been applied due to this cumulative effect.

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)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons recipients of personal independence payments are called for reassessment.

Justin Tomlinson

Personal Independence Payment is designed to ensure decisions on entitlement, award lengths and timing of reviews are appropriate and evidence-based.

All ongoing awards, regardless of duration, will be reviewed periodically to ensure that the individual continues to receive the correct amount of benefit. Where we have sufficient evidence to do so, we will conduct a paper based assessment without the need for the claimant to attend a face to face assessment.

The claimant can also ask for a review if the daily living needs or mobility needs arising change.

Reviews can result in a higher or lower award or no change.