Tag: Mary Creagh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of how many indebted prepayment meter customers there are in (a) Wakefield constituency and (b) the UK; and what the change in the number of such customers has been over the last five years.

Andrea Leadsom

Ofgem closely monitors domestic energy supplies’ performance and publishes information on the number of prepayment meters installed for debt in Great Britain each year. The data does not show how many prepayment meters were installed for indebted customers in the Wakefield constituency.

The table below shows the number of prepayment meters installed to manage debt in GB in 2010 to 2014. Ofgem does not monitor the gas and electricity supply market in Northern Ireland, as it is devolved matter.

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Gas	199,964	184,726	208,235	226,999	195,841
Electricity	227,352	199,483	211,519	227,886	175,348

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many complaints the Energy Ombudsman has received about post-installation delays for feed-in tariff payments to customers by energy companies.

Andrea Leadsom

This is a matter for the Energy Ombudsman. I have asked them to write directly to the hon. Member, and a copy of their response will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much her Department has spent on the Darwin Initiative in each year since 2010.

Rory Stewart

The Darwin Initiative has funded biodiversity projects in developing countries since 1992 and is managed by Defra. Since 2011 it has been co-funded by Defra and the Department for International Development (DFID). The total expenditure on Darwin Initiative projects and running costs since 2010 is as follows:

2010/11 – £6.1 million

2011/12 – £4.3 million

2012/13 – £5.7 million

2013/14 – £6 million

2014/15 – £6.9 million

Darwin Initiative funding from DFID can only be spent on projects which meet Official Development Assistance (ODA) criteria and this ODA expenditure (reported by calendar year) is as follows:

2010 – Zero

2011 – £2.4 million

2012 – £2.4 million

2013 – £3.1 million

2014 – £5.3 million

Defra additionally manages the Overseas Territories Environment and Climate Fund (also known as Darwin Plus) which is co-funded by Defra, DFID and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The total expenditure since it was established in 2012 is as follows:

2013/14 – £720,000

2014/15 – £1.8 million

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people in (a) Wakefield and (b) the UK have purchased homes through Help to Buy.

Brandon Lewis

The total number of homes sold under the three Help to Buy schemes are 153,235 in the UK and 1,402 in Wakefield.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to revise his Department’s position on the European Commission’s Green Paper on safety of tourism accommodation services to take account of the recent coroner’s report on the death of Christi and Bobby Shepherd.

Tracey Crouch

The deaths of Christi and Bobby Shepherd were a horrific tragedy and our deepest condolences remain with their parents. The safety of tourists at home and abroad is an absolute priority and we will continue to keep the area under review.

The Government is currently examining the Coroner’s recommendations from the inquest into the children’s deaths and will respond in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what organisations provide Flood Defence Partnership Funding; and how much each such organisation has invested.

Rory Stewart

We are investing £2.3 billion in 1,500 flood defence improvement schemes over the next six years – which is a record capital settlement for government. This will provide better protection to at least 300,000 households.

In addition to this, we have identified £600 million of additional partnership funding. Six months into a six-year programme, £250 million has been secured and potential funding contributions to cover the remaining £350 million have been identified.

Of the £250 million secured contributions, £61 million comes from the private sector and £189 million comes from Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other public bodies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people in each income group decile and in each year have purchased houses through Help to Buy since that scheme started.

Brandon Lewis

The Department’s statistics on the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme are published and available at the following link. This includes a table with completions by total applicant household income deciles. The figures are cumulative (for the first 33 months of the scheme) and not available by individual years.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/help-to-buy-equity-loan-and-newbuy-statistics

HM Treasury’s statistics on the Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee scheme are published and available at the following link.

www.gov.uk/government/collections/help-to-buy-mortgage-guarantee-scheme-quarterly-statistics

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2015 to Question 8364, (a) how many and (b) in which countries British military personnel were embedded in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2015 to date.

Penny Mordaunt

As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Defence said in response to your question 8364 on 7 September 2015: given the routine nature of embedding, this information has not been coordinated centrally. The Ministry of Defence is in the process of compiling data on UK personnel embedded with other nations’ armed forces, who are deployed on the operations together with those who work on operations in deployed coalition or single nation headquarters roles. I intend to update the House after this process is complete.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department has spent on the Darwin Initiative in each year since 2010.

James Duddridge

I refer the Honourable Lady to the answer provided by my Hon Friend the Member for Penrith and the Border (Rory Stewart), Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, in PQ 20429 on 5 January 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many queries the Central Point of Expertise on Timber has received from (a) public sector bodies and (b) businesses in each of the last 10 years.

Rory Stewart

The Central Point of Expertise on Timber service closed on 31 March 2016. Defra does not hold complete information on how many queries the service received in the format requested.

The contractors advised that the number of queries had dropped over time. We hold some information from the final phase of the contract between 2012 and 2016, which illustrates this trend. The service received 257 queries between October 2012 and September 2013, 146 queries between October 2013 and September 2014, and 48 queries between October 15 and March 2016. These figures cover queries on timber, wood fuel and palm oil.

The government’s policy of buying timber and wood products only from legal and sustainable sources is well embedded within the key systems which govern our procurement, specifically the relevant government buying standards and the centralised procurement frameworks. Comprehensive online guidance is also provided.