Tag: Louise Haigh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-09.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what guidance the Electoral Commission has received from the Government on providing the latest electoral registration statistics in response to Freedom of Information requests.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission has received no specific guidance from the Government in relation to the Freedom of Information Act, although it is aware of the general guidance produced by both Government and the Information Commissioner’s Office regarding the Act and the handling of requests.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to extend the entitlement to their late spouse’s teacher’s pension to the surviving spouses of teachers who retired or died prior to January 2007 and lost their entitlement to their late spouse’s pension on remarrying.

Nick Gibb

It has been the policy of successive governments that changes or improvements to all public service pension schemes should not normally be applied retrospectively. This policy protects the current membership from having to meet the cost of potentially very expensive improvements. There are therefore no plans to extend the entitlement for those whose spouse was a member of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and who died or retired before January 2007.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Minister’s assessment is of morale in the civil service.

Matthew Hancock

It is a tribute to the dedication and work of individual Civil Servants that job satisfaction remains high and wellbeing has increased. It should be a source of pride that the Civil Service has successfully changed the way it operates and become more efficient – it is now delivering far more, for less, than it did before 2010.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many civil servants in her Department are in the redeployment pool.

Andrea Leadsom

On 30 November 2015 there were 18 civil servants in the redeployment pool within the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the definition of paper-assisted digital applications is for the Common Agricultural Policy Delivery Programme.

George Eustice

The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.

For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to release Cabinet papers for the 1986-1988 period to the National Archives.

Matthew Hancock

Cabinet papers for the period 1986-1989 1988have already been transferred to the National Archives. Transparency is at the heart of this Government’s agenda and we are publishing unprecedented amounts of information.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions he has met with National Archive officials to discuss the release of Cabinet Office papers for the 1986 to 1988 period.

Matthew Hancock

The Cabinet Office has regular ongoing communications with the National Archives.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office met National Archive officials to discuss the release of Cabinet Office papers for the 1986 to 1988 period on two occasions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants made redundant have been hired back in each year from 2011.

Matthew Hancock

Data is not held centrally on the number of individuals who have been made redundant from the Civil Service and then rehired, and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Since 2010 we have introduced into the Civil Service Compensation arrangements new provisions to prevent windfall benefits to anyone made redundant and then hired back into the Civil Service. These did not previously exist.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on rebalancing the Civil Service between London and the regions; and if he will make a statement.

Matthew Hancock

The Civil Service has a significant presence across the UK and we are considering how new government hubs, in strategic locations across the country, will help to make sure that we have an efficient and effective Civil Service at the same time as we consolidate the government estate. Currently, 18.1% of civil servants are based in London.

Any proposed relocation is done based on operational need.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the amount spent on consultancy support for Independent Shared Services Centres; and for what reasons the consultants were so engaged.

Matthew Hancock

No external consultancy support is funded by the Cabinet Office to the Independent Shared Services Centres directly to support operations.