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, how many performance points have been incurred and for what reason those performance points have been incurred in each year from 2012-13 to date.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Well-run prisons are fundamental to the proper functioning of our justice system, and a vital part of our reform plans. Private providers play an important role in the prison estate. Performance of all providers is closely monitored and we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short.

Prison Contracts set out a strict performance framework, consisting of prescriptive performance targets. Failure by the provider to meet performance targets results in performance points being applied.

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. In certain circumstances financial remedies can also be applied directly, without performance points being accrued. The amount of points awarded therefore cannot always be linked to the value of remedies imposed.

The number of performance points incurred at HMP Birmingham and HMP Oakwood for the reporting years 2012-2013 through to 2015-2016 are as follows.

Data for reporting year 2016-2017 is not yet available as it has not been finalised.

		2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016
		Points	Points	Points	Points
Birmingham	Failure to comply with procedures	0	248.9	25	103
Incidents	0	0	0	0
Failure to comply with prison regime	135	45.71	0	0
Oakwood	Failure to comply with procedures	7	1.5	0	0
	Incidents	0	0	0	0
	Failure to comply with prison regime	90	10	0	0

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost is to her Department of processing an application for a certificate of travel.

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, what steps he is taking to increase participation in all-employee tax-advantaged share plans; and if he will make a statement.

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 Energy and Climate Change, what average time her Department took to respond to freedom of information requests in each year since 2005.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government publishes statistics on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within central government, including on timeliness. These 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, with whom he consulted on recent changes to the ministerial code.

Matthew Hancock

The Ministerial Code is the Prime Minister’s guidance to his Ministers. It is normally updated and reissued following a General Election. The Code is not subject to external consultation. This has been the practice under successive Administrations.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 9 January 2015 to Question 219449, what progress has been made in improving wheelchair services following the NHS England review.

Alistair Burt

Following the conclusion of its review NHS England has set up an improvement support programme working with 11 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to improve services for wheelchair users. The 11 CCGs are:

– North Yorkshire (NHS Harrogate and Rural District;

– NHS Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby;

– NHS Scarborough and Ryedale;

– NHS Vale of York CCG;

– North West London (NHS West London);

– NHS Hounslow;

– NHS Ealing;

– NHS Central London;

– NHS Hammersmith and Fulham;

– NHS Barnet; and

– NHS Brent.

NHS Improving Quality is supporting the programme which will run from September 2015 to March 2016 and include creating guidance, evidence and material to share with other organisations and communities.

NHS England has also introduced a new national wheelchair dataset with the aim of providing information centrally on the volume, expenditure, access to, and patient experience about wheelchair services to enable transparency and benchmarking. From July 2015, data are being collected quarterly from CCGs.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, 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.

Mike Penning

From July 2014, recruitment for SCS posts have been managed centrally by Civil Service Resourcing. Data prior to that date is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

As part of its long-term economic plan, this Government has reduced the size of the Civil Service by 22%, adjusting for Machinery of Government changes that moved staff into and out of the Civil Service since the 2010 General Election, representing a significant increase in efficiency and productivity that helped save taxpayers £2.8 billion last year alone.

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to update information online on civil servants earning an annual salary of over £150,000.

Matthew Hancock

As part of its transparency agenda, the Government is committed to publishing an annual list of senior officials in departments, agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies with pay rates of £150,000 and above. The 2015 list will be published on the Cabinet Office website shortly.

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) redundancy and (b) voluntary exit programmes for civil servants are currently in operation in each department.

Matthew Hancock

This information on the number of exit schemes currently in operation is not collated centrally.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of employees in his Department have (a) taken the CESG Certified Cyber-Security Training Course and (b) received other cyber-security training.

Harriett Baldwin

One current HM Treasury employee has attended courses which are part of the CESG Certified Training (CCT) scheme, while three have attended other external training courses devoted entirely to Cyber Security. All HM Treasury’s employees periodically undertake online information assurance training which contains some cyber security related content, and are also provided with cyber security related guidance/advice on the Department’s intranet. All new employees have to attend induction training which contains some basic pointers on Cyber Security.