Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle disability hate crime.

    Karen Bradley

    The Government takes all forms of hate crime very seriously. Crime that is motivated by hostility or hatred towards the victim is particularly corrosive and can have devastating consequences for victims and their families. We are committed to working with communities in order to keep them safe.

    We have announced that we will publish a new hate crime action plan next year. This will include a number of actions aimed at reducing the number of hate crimes committed against disabled people, and also improving the response to these crimes when they occur.

    I, and other ministers, attended a roundtable on disability hate crime in October. This gave me the opportunity to speak to a range of people, including representatives of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, researchers and service users. A key part of our action plan will include understanding the issues behind hate crime, and this was an important first step towards this. Officials are taking forward actions from this meeting.

    The Government is currently speaking to a number of organisations and individuals to inform the next steps in developing this action plan. This includes work with the Fulfilling Potential Forum, which is led by the Office for Disability Issues within DWP and is made up of around 40 disability charities, including disabled people’s user led organisations.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his plans are for the future of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

    Nick Boles

    As announced in the 2015 Spending Review, in order to prioritise funding to allow the core adult skills participation budgets to be protected in cash terms, savings are being made from the supporting budgets including the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).

    Whitehall Departments will be withdrawing their funding for UKCES during the 2016-17 financial year. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is working with UKCES to manage the implications of this decision.

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 22835, in what months the biometric passport chip reading facilities were deactivated in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    For the period for which figures are available, biometric chip reading facilities were deactivated 7 times in 2013 and these occurred during the months of February, March, May & June. In 2014 chip reading facilities were deactivated 3 times and these occurred during the months of September, October and December. In 2015, chip reading facilities were deactivated 3 times and occurred during the months of February, April, and June.

    These figures should be considered against the background of the overall volume of transactions which are currently running at over 100 million per year and each of the instances has been thoroughly investigated and we are satisfied that there has been no risk to the border as a result.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many recorded incidents there were of no custody nurses being available in police stations when required in each year since 2010.

    Mike Penning

    The provision and commissioning of police custody healthcare services including custody nurses is the responsibility of individual Police and Crime Commissioners, and healthcare staffing levels are an operational policing matter in conjunction with the custody healthcare service provider. Information on these issues is not held centrally by the Home Office.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the annual amount saved in ISA accounts across each income group in financial year (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

    Harriett Baldwin

    ISA statistics are published on the National Archives website and GOV.UK website.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the role of the PrescQIPP Programme is within his Department.

    Alistair Burt

    The PrescQIPP NHS Programme currently has no direct role within the Department as it is an independent social enterprise.

    Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) use its materials to improve the prescribing of medicines. These are mainly publicly available for CCGs and Health Boards, with some additional subscription-only content. Their governance and annual work programme is overseen by a strategic oversight group representing the users.

  • Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to reduce re-offending.

    Andrew Selous

    Reducing reoffending is a priority for the Ministry of Justice, to cut crime and improve public safety. The Ministry of Justice does not analyse the overall cost to the public purse of reoffending. However, the National Audit Office (NAO) has produced analysis in the past.

    Reoffending has been too high for too long which is why we are investing £1.3bn over the next five years to transform the prison estate and give prisoners the help they need to turn their lives around. We have also changed the way offenders are managed in the community with almost all now receiving targeted support on release. This will help reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer.

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials of his Department are assigned to the provision and collation of data relating to the free television license scheme for people over 75.

    Richard Harrington

    The summer budget 2015 announced a number of fundamental changes relating to the BBC and free TV licences for those aged 75 and over. DWP will cease to fund free TV licences from 2019/20 and the BBC will absorb the cost of this and take responsibility for the policy which currently sits with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is estimated that the provision of free TV licences for 2016/17 will cost £629m and DWP will continue to make a transfer to the BBC during the phasing period, as set out in the table below.

    2018/19

    2019/20

    2020/21

    HMG transfer for free TV licences (£m)

    468

    247

    0

    DWP resources currently assigned to the provision and collation of data relating to the free television licence scheme for people aged 75 and over is 12 staff days per annum. Any plans for the future role of employees and contractors will be determined following detailed discussions between my Department and the BBC nearer the time the BBC take full responsibility for funding and policy.

    In 2014/15 the cost of providing free TV licences to those 75 and over in Scotland was £49m and it is estimated the cost for qualifying residents in Glasgow South West constituency and Glasgow City local authority area was £0.7m and £4m respectively.

    The cost of the free TV licences to those aged 75 and over in Scotland for 2015/16 will be published on 21 September on the DWP website. Breakdowns by Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency use that Scotland expenditure estimate and are therefore not currently available.

    Savings to the Exchequer resulting from the future transfer of responsibility for funding television licences for people aged 75 or over were set out in the summer budget 2015.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps are being taken to attend to Iraqi civilians expected to be displaced as a result of a planned offensive on Mosul, Iraq.

    Rory Stewart

    On 21 September, the UK announced an extra £40 million of humanitarian funding to Iraq, taking our total commitment to £90 million this financial year and £169.5 million since June 2014. This new assistance will be targeted specifically to enable a scale up of humanitarian assistance ahead of the Government of Iraq-led Mosul operations. It will provide emergency life-saving assistance – such as food, shelter, medical and protection services – to civilians affected by Mosul operations, as well as continued support to displaced and vulnerable people across the country.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has made to ensure that the homelessness prevention grant is being used effectively.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    We have made available over £500 million to local authorities and the voluntary sector to tackle homelessness and since 2010 this has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless.

    Since 2010, local councils have had more flexibility over how they spend the money they receive from central government.

    The allocation of Homeless Prevention Grant has developed over many years to take account of different kinds of pressures, including rough sleeping and statutory homelessness. We supported the establishment of the National Practitioner Support Service’s ‘Gold Standard’ programme to help improve the effectiveness of local authority homelessness prevention services.

    Decisions on funding beyond 2015/2016 will be subject to the forthcoming spending review.