Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) financial and (b) childcare support is offered to young women who work as apprentices in the (i) engineering, (ii) manufacturing, (iii) hospitality, (iv) IT, (v) transport and (vi) science sectors.

    Robert Halfon

    An apprenticeship is a paid job. As an apprentice, an individual can acquire skills much-valued in the labour market without having to contribute to the costs of their learning. The benefits system treats an apprentice in the same way as any other employee regardless of the sector they are working in. As an employee aged 18 or over, an apprentice may be entitled to the usual in-work benefits, such as Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credits.

    If an apprentice has children, or is aged 16 or over and does paid work of at least 16 hours a week, they could qualify for tax credits, unless they are already earning £25,000 or more per year. Further information can be found on the tax credit section of the HMRC website.

    The Apprentice National Minimum Wage applies equally to all apprentices regardless of gender. Most apprentices receive more than the apprentice minimum rate of £3.40 per hour. The latest Apprenticeship Pay Survey (2014) estimates that the median hourly pay for Level 2 and Level 3 female apprentices across Great Britain is £6.36. For males it was £6.19. Differences in pay may be related to the proportion of males and females in higher and lower paid apprenticeship occupations.

  • Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Karen Buck – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karen Buck on 2015-10-27.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average duration is of a tax credit claim.

    Damian Hinds

    The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2015-11-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel regarding the retention by Israel of the bodies of suspected Palestinian combatants, rather than returning those bodies to their families.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Deputy Head of Mission at our Embassy in Tel Aviv raised this issue with Israel’s National Security Council Director on 18 November. We continue to urge both the Israelis and Palestinians to maintain calm and refrain from taking actions which could make peace more difficult to achieve.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what projection she has made of the number of full-time equivalent staff working in the Environment Agency in each year until 2020.

    George Eustice

    There are no firm projections over the next 5 years of the number of full-time equivalent staff working in the Environment Agency. Formal budgets have not yet been allocated for 2016/17 to 2020/21.

  • George Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    George Howarth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on what proportion of the £2 billion cost of whiplash claims comes from (a) genuine claims and (b) fraudulent claims.

    Dominic Raab

    As noted in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, the figure of £2 billion a year is an insurance industry estimate of the cost of dealing with road traffic related personal injury claims.

    The Government will be publishing an impact assessment alongside its consultation on the whiplash reforms announced in the Autumn Statement in due course.

  • Graham Stuart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Graham Stuart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Stuart on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time between application to initial decision was for awards issued by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

    Mike Penning

    The average time taken for CICA to reach an initial decision in the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 were as follows. Note that this time includes cases where no compensation was payable within the terms of the Scheme. Comparable data going back to financial year 2010-11 is included.

    2010-11

    7.2 months

    2011-12

    7.8 months

    2012-13

    8.8 months

    2013-14

    10.4 months

    2014-15

    10.9 months

    The average time taken for CICA to reach an initial decision where compensation was offered, during the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 were as follows. Comparable data for the average time taken to make a decision where a monetary award was offered is not held.

    2013-14

    14 months

    2014-15

    16 months

    In the last year, CICA have focused on clearing the older cases from its caseload, which has allowed CICA to reduce the proportion of cases which are more than two years old. However, this has contributed to longer average clearance times.

  • Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2016-03-17.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether all documents released by his Department as a result of Freedom of Information requests are placed on his Department’s website.

    Harriett Baldwin

    A proportion of our responses are published on GOV.UK, which you can find at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=hm-treasury&publication_type=foi-releases.

    “

  • Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what weighting her Department gives to deprivation as a factor affecting educational outcomes.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The department recognises that deprivation is a strong predictor of pupils’ future attainment and acts as a proxy for a range of barriers to educational success, including low aspiration for the future, low levels of parental education and special educational needs.

    Overcoming these barriers can create additional costs for schools as they seek to provide additional support. This is why we have committed to continuing the pupil premium at current rates for the duration of this Parliament. Worth £2.5bn this year, the pupil premium provides schools with significant extra funding to help disadvantaged pupils achieve their full potential. Since its introduction in 2011 the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers has narrowed at age 11 and age 16, offering disadvantaged pupils a more prosperous future as adults.

    We are committed to introducing a national funding formula so that schools’ funding is matched fairly and consistently to need. In our recent consultation on the principles and building blocks of a national funding formula we proposed to include a deprivation factor. We will set out the detail of the formula in a second consultation, to be published later this year.

  • Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wendy Morton on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of (a) special care neonatal and level three cots and (b) transfers between neonatal units and between neonatal intensive care units.

    Ben Gummer

    The NHS Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services (2009) and NHS England’s service specification for Neonatal Intensive Care Transport (2013) sets out standards that neonatal services in England should be meeting to make sure babies born premature or sick get the care they need and deserve. For those babies who are born sick or premature, NHS England commissions Neonatal Care from 165 neonatal units. These units are organised and supported by 13 Operational Delivery Networks with well-defined service standards for all levels of neonatal care within the NHS England Maternity, Children and Young People Managed Clinical Networks. These are intended to provide appropriate levels of care for all babies identified with problems both before and following delivery. Neonatal transport services are a vital part of care for premature and sick babies, to ensure that babies can be moved quickly for the right care in the right place for their needs.

    We know that that there is still more to do to ensure neonatal services are consistent across the country and that is why the Neonatal Clinical Reference Group at NHS England has committed to review the findings of the ‘Bliss Baby report 2015’, (http://www.bliss.org.uk/babyreport) and consider plans for improvement in neonatal services.

    “

  • Judith Cummins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Judith Cummins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Judith Cummins on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claims for employment and support allowance were refused following a work capability assessment were subsequently allowed after (a) mandatory reconsideration and (b) appeal to tribunal in Bradford South constituency in each of the last three years.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Information on Employment and Support Allowance, outcomes of Work Capability Assessments and Mandatory Reconsiderations are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/statistics.

    Constituency level information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    “