Tag: Louise Haigh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish his Department’s business case on the closure of his Department’s office in Sheffield.

Joseph Johnson

Since summer 2015 the Department has been reviewing its business model. By 2020, we want to simplify our structure, become more digital, be cheaper for taxpayers and better for users. As part of this we anticipate reducing the number of our locations from more than 80 to approximately 7 centres plus a regional footprint. The intention to close the BIS Sheffield office in St Paul’s Place was formed in light of these plans.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish in full his Department’s report entitled, BIS 2020: What-why-when-how.

Joseph Johnson

“BIS 2020: What-why-when-how” (September 2015) was one of a series of internal briefings for BIS staff. Staff are briefed on our change programme on a regular basis. The briefings are not formal documents and, as such, we do not publish them.

The House was informed about the recent BIS 2020 announcements and their impact on BIS staff by my Rt hon Friend the Minister of State for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise (Anna Soubry) on Friday 29 January.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the correction of 9 February 2016 to Question 13206, what the cause was of the error in information on former unaccompanied minors removed between 2007 and 31 December 2015; and what steps she is taking to ensure that correct information is collected and published in future.

James Brokenshire

The mistake given in the original response to Question 13206 resulted from two errors in the query for extracting information from the relevant database. One error involved the use of an incorrect definition which excluded former unaccompanied asylum seeking children who now had linked dependants. The other was an error in the computer code which extracted the data. In this instance, the code for the query was mistyped and so the data returned was incorrect. These errors have now been resolved and a correction issued. Such mistakes are rare and when they occur they are taken very seriously.

It is regrettable that human error caused the original response to this Parliamentary Question to be incorrect and improvements have been put in place. The appropriate definition has been reviewed and confirmed. This definition, and the correct approach on careful coding, have been made clear to the officials involved. We are reviewing other Parliamentary Answers about unaccompanied asylum seeking children to see if these were affected by similar issues. While these respond to different specific questions, we wish to review the methodology used thoroughly. We are also reviewing whether additional processes are needed for Parliamentary Questions that require complex data queries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) guidance his Department issues and (b) regulations are in place on the provision of electoral roll data to credit reference agencies.

John Penrose

The Electoral Commission provides detailed guidance to Electoral Registration Officers on access and supply of the full electoral register, including by credit reference agencies.

The regulations on the supply of electoral roll data to credit reference agencies are set out in The Representation of the People (England and Wales)(Amendment) Regulations 2002. Under Regulation 114, credit reference agencies registered under Part III of the Consumer Credit Act and carrying on the business of providing credit reference services may only use the full electoral register for specified purposes; namely for checking a person’s identity if they apply for credit, and for the prevention of money laundering fraud. Electoral Registration Officers are entitled to charge credit reference agencies a small fee for copies of the full register, to cover administration costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the scale of fraud carried out against the public sector by (a) individuals and (b) serious and organised criminals by means of (i) identity theft and (ii) creation of fake identities.

Matthew Hancock

We do not have any estimates on the scale of public fraud carried out by individuals or by serious and organised criminals in relation to identity theft or the creation of fake identities.

In the financial year 2014/15, £4.13m worth of detected external identity theft was reported to the Cabinet Office through the fraud and error MI collection. Identity theft includes: fraudulently obtained genuine documents; counterfeit documents; and, forged documents. We do not have a breakdown of whether this was committed by individuals or organised criminals.

The National Crime Agency, not the Cabinet Office, lead on matters related to serious and organised crime.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many former, unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who were removed to Vietnam in the last three years were also classified as foreign national prisoners.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office does not disclose country specific information regarding deportation of foreign national offenders as its disclosure could prejudice relations between the UK and foreign governments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what projection he has made of the number of civil service apprenticeships that will be created in each department in each year until 2020.

Matthew Hancock

It is the responsibility of individual Departments to project their workforce, including apprenticeships. The Civil Service implemented a single apprenticeship target of a minimum 2.3% of the workforce in England as apprenticeships starts from 1 January 2016. Departments have agreed to achieve 2.3% of their workforce in England as apprenticeship starts. This is an annual target that will be measured by financial years based on headcount at the start of that reporting period.

We estimate that there will be at least 30,000 apprenticeship starts in the Civil Service in England by the end of the Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the planned timetable is for the scoping exercise for special provisions, including fast tracking for treatment, for people with obstructive sleep apnoea who drive for a living.

George Freeman

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been asked to develop a clinical guideline and quality standard on sleep disordered breathing (including obstructive sleep apnoea). NICE will develop the scope of the clinical guideline, including the key questions that will be addressed by the guidance, in consultation with stakeholders.

NICE has advised that there is currently no timetable for developing this guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-04-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) full-time equivalent civil servants work in his Department and (b) civil servants work full-time on the Northern Powerhouse agenda.

Harriett Baldwin

Data for full-time equivalent Civil servants working in HM Treasury are published on .gov.uk and can be found using the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmt-workforce-management-information-december-2015

We are unable to supply information on employees who may work on the Northern Powerhouse agenda as our system does not give a breakdown of staff to that level. Therefore to supply this information would be at a disproportionate cost.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-04-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with (a) the Nursing and Midwifery Council, (b) the Royal College of Midwives, (c) the Royal College of Nursing and (d) Independent Midwives UK on changes to midwifery regulation.

Ben Gummer

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) have all been involved in discussions concerning the proposed changes to midwifery regulation.

On 22 January 2016 the Department, on behalf of the four United Kingdom Chief Nursing Officers and their external partners, published plans for a new non-statutory system of midwifery supervision that will meet the need for clinical supervision of midwives in clinical practice, and peer review for those not in clinical practice. The NMC, RCM and IMUK were consulted on and contributed to the published proposals.

The Royal College of Nursing has not been involved in the above discussions, as midwifery regulations do not affect nurses.