Tag: Meg Hillier

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of the purchase of the Kingsland Fire Station site for use by the Hackney New Primary School; and how much accrued to the public purse from the sale of that site.

Nick Gibb

The Government purchased the Kingsland Fire Station, 333 Kingsland Road, London E8 4DR for the sum of £16,000,000 (exclusive of VAT) from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority in October 2015. The site has not been sold on.

The purchase, which was funded from the Department for Education’s budget, was made in the name of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government; this is a long standing convention whereby the seal of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is held equally across all government departments and used for Land Registry Title purposes.

We do not have the details of any gain made by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority from the sale of the site; that could only be answered by the Authority.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to enable special circumstances to be taken into account when making the decision to withhold housing benefit from people who are away from their homes for a period of more than four weeks.

Justin Tomlinson

The temporary absence rules allow Housing Benefit to continue where under the normal conditions of entitlement it would not do so. They are therefore extensions of entitlement rather than withdrawals of it.

It is the intention from April 2016, that Housing Benefit claimants who leave Great Britain for longer than 4 weeks will no longer be able to get Housing Benefit while they are away. This aligns the Housing Benefit rules with other benefits including Universal Credit.

We intend that the period of 4 weeks could be extended in exceptional circumstances (for example, if their reason for being abroad is due to the death of a family member).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to enable special circumstances to be taken into account when making the decision to withhold pension credit to people who are away from their homes for a period of more than four weeks.

Justin Tomlinson

It is the intention to amend the Pension Credit temporary absence from Great Britain rules from April 2016. The temporary absence rules allow entitlement to Pension Credit to continue where under normal conditions it would not do so.

We are planning for a general rule which will allow Pension Credit to remain payable for absences not exceeding four weeks. We intend to have exceptions to the general rule to cater for bereavement or medical treatment. Where the absence from Great Britain is in connection with a bereavement concerning a partner or close relative then entitlement to Pension Credit may continue for absences not exceeding eight weeks. Where the absence from Great Britain is in order to receive medical treatment then entitlement to Pension Credit may continue for absences not exceeding 26 weeks.

These changes do not affect the Pension Credit rules covering absences from home within Great Britain.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 January 2016 to Question 20730, what change there has been in the level of overall police spending in real terms over the Spending Review period when precept is not taken into account.

Mike Penning

Overall central Government funding to the police (excluding funding for counter-terrorism policing) will reduce by 1.4% in real terms over the Spending Review (SR) 2015 period. This is equivalent to a £500 million (6.2%) cash increase over the period.

When precept is taken into account, this amounts to a flat cash protection for policing over the SR period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-02-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that there is full market participation in real-time data-sharing in the short-term credit market.

Harriett Baldwin

The Government agrees that market-wide credit data sharing is key to effective affordability assessments in the high-cost, short-term credit market. In February 2014 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) asked the payday lending industry to identify and remove any blockages to real-time data sharing as a matter of urgency. The FCA reports that there has been substantial recent progress made by the industry in this area. Over 90% of high-cost, short-term lenders by market share are meeting the FCA’s expectations to share data in real-time.

The FCA expects that the proportion of firms using real-time data sharing to further increase by the time the authorisation process is complete for most high-cost short-term credit firms. The FCA will continue to monitor progress to keep this momentum, and ensure that there continues to be improvement in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether VAT was charged on the purchase of Kingsland Fire Station from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

Edward Timpson

VAT was not charged on the purchase of Kingsland Fire Station, 333 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4DR when it was purchased in October 2015. The site was not VAT elected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police forces take longest to process applications from the Disclosure and Barring Service; and what the average processing time for such application is for each police force in England.

Karen Bradley

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) processes applications in date order and is reliant on the police completing their checks in a timely manner. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.

The table below shows the average time spent by each police force in England to process disclosure applications between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on priority categories in Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

Karen Bradley

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) processes applications in date order and is reliant on the police completing their checks in a timely manner. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.

The table below shows the average time spent by each police force in England to process disclosure applications between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how often the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been applied in each police authority area in England.

Sarah Newton

The Home Office published an evaluation report on the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme on 8 March 2016 which showed that there had been over 1,900 disclosures under the scheme since national roll out. A full breakdown by police force area can be found in the report which is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-violence-disclosure-scheme-assessment-of-national-roll-out

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his oral contribution of 20 October 2015, Official Report, column 813, what discussions he has had with ministers in the Turkish government on ensuring that freedom of the press is upheld in that country as it relates to citizens of any country.

Mr David Lidington

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers and officials regularly encourage Turkey to continue to work towards the full protection of fundamental rights, including the principles of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. I discussed these issues, in the context of Turkey’s accession to the EU, when I last met my Turkish counterpart in August this year.