Tag: Parliamentary Question

Kate Hoey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time was for a Disclosure and Barring Service check to be completed in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

The Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body which provides access to appropriate criminal record information for employers through its disclosure service for England and Wales. It also makes independent barring decisions about people who have harmed, or where there is considered to be a risk of harm to, a child or vulnerable person within the workplace. Given the sensitive nature of this work and the reliance on police forces to provide locally held intelligence, it would not be appropriate to introduce competition.

Whilst no assessment has been made of the affect of timeliness on the number of job opportunities which may have been lost, the impact which delays may have on applicants is recognised. The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. 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 average end to end time taken to complete a DBS check, including the time taken by police forces, is listed in following table.

Financial Year	Average calendar days for a disclosure to be processed
13/14	11.5
14/15	14.4
15/16	14.5

The proportion of checks which took longer than (a) eight weeks (b) 12 weeks and (c) six months is listed in the following table.

Financial Year	Disclosures which took longer than 8 weeks	Disclosures which took longer than 12 weeks	Disclosures which took longer than 6 Months
% of Disclosures	% of Disclosures	% of Disclosures
13/14	2.6%	0.8%	0.0%
14/15	4.9%	2.1%	0.1%
15/16	5.2%	3.5%	0.3%

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01/01/2023

Maria Eagle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) households and (b) businesses unable to access broadband speeds of (i) 10 Mbit/s and (ii) two Mbit/s in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Edward Vaizey

According to Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2015 report – based on the state of the market in May 2015 – 8% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 10Mbp/s and 2% of premises were unable to access broadband speeds of 2Mbp/s. These figures are likely to have reduced due to continued commercial and BDUK broadband deployment across the UK – superfast broadband access has increased from 45% in 2010 to 90%, and by the end of next year, 95% of homes and businesses will have access to superfast broadband. In addition, all premises with speeds below 2Mbp/s now have access to speeds greater than this through the Government’s Basic Broadband Scheme, and the Prime Minister has announced the Government’s intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation, with a minimum speed of 10Mbps, to help ensure no-one is left behind.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2016 to Question 40374, what the estimated values are of Network Rail’s costs referred to in that Answer by (a) costs incurred with the supplier, (b) installation and (c) operational costs for the (i) Cardiff and (ii) Romford Rail Operating Centre.

Paul Maynard

The Department for Transport does not hold this level of detail on Network Rail’s costs.

01/01/2023
Madeleine Moon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on Wales of the proposal to transfer responsibility for attendance allowance to local authorities; and if he will make a statement.

Alun Cairns

The Government is committed to working closely with the Welsh Government to ensure the implications of any reforms for devolved administration services or budgets are properly understood.

01/01/2023

Lord Kilclooney – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government who are the UK members of the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly; and to which political group each member belongs.

Lord Dunlop

Responsibility for appointing the United Kingdom delegation to the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly lies with the Lords Speaker and the Speaker of the House of Commons.

The current members of the United Kingdom delegation and the political party to which they belong are set out below:

MEMBERS
Lord (Paul) Bew	Cross-Bench
Baroness (May) Blood MBE	Labour
Mr Andrew Bridgen MP	Conservative
Ms Deirdre Brock MP	SNP
Mr Oliver Colvile MP	Conservative
Miss Rosie Cooper MP	Labour
Rt Hon Baroness (Jean) Corston	Labour
Rt Hon Mr Jeffrey Donaldson MP	DUP
Lord (Alf) Dubs	Labour
Mr Mark Durkan MP	SDLP
Mr Nigel Evans MP	Conservative
Mr Paul Farrelly MP	Labour
Lord (Robin) Glentoran	Conservative
Ms Helen Jones MP	Labour
Mr Danny Kinahan MP	UUP
Mr Jack Lopresti MP	Conservative
Rt Hon Lord (Brian) Mawhinney	Conservative
Mr Conor McGinn MP	Labour
Mr Nigel Mills MP	Conservative
Lord (Roger) Skelmersdale	Conservative
Mr Robin Walker MP	Conservative

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Ms Caroline Ansell MP	Conservative
Ms Victoria Atkins MP	Conservative
Mr Tom Blenkinsop MP	Labour
Viscount (Robin) Bridgeman	Conservative
Mr Glyn Davies MP	Conservative
Lord (Bernard) Donoughue	Labour
Lord (Reg) Empey	UUP
Mrs Margaret Ferrier MP	SNP
Lord (James) Gordon of Strathblane	Labour
Rt Hon David Hanson MP	Labour
Mr Stephen Hepburn MP	Labour
Lord (John) Kilclooney	Cross-Bench
Ms Siobhain McDonagh MP	Labour
Sir Alan Meale MP	Labour
Lord (Christopher) Tugendhat	Conservative

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01/01/2023

Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Action Fraud’s budget has been in each year of its existence; how many cases it has pursued in each such year; and what proportion of such cases involved cybercrime.

Mike Penning

Action Fraud is the national reporting point for fraud and also cyber crime. Crime reports received by Action Fraud are considered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), both of which are operated by the City of London Police. Neither Action Fraud nor the NFIB are investigatory agencies. Crime reports are evaluated to assess the information available which could assist an investigation, and to identify links between seemingly unconnected incidents. Where there is enough evidence available and a viable lead, actionable intelligence packages are created by the NFIB and are sent to the appropriate police force to consider whether enforcement activity should take place. All crime reports are assessed against a number of variables, which may alter according to demand. It would be improper to comment on the procedure on which these decisions are made in the public domain.

Action Fraud was rolled out to all police forces in April 2013; the data below includes crime reports and disseminations in England and Wales only. For the 12 months to 31 March 2015, Action Fraud received 230,399 reports of crime. Of these, 14,509 were cyber dependent crimes, namely, crimes which can only be committed using computers, computer networks or other forms of information communication technology – for example, hacking or malware offences. These crimes fall under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. For this period, the NFIB disseminated a total of 61,682 crimes to Forces and partner agencies to consider investigation. For the period April 2013 – March 2014 Action Fraud received 211,221 crime reports and of these, 21,686 were cyber dependent. For this period, the NFIB disseminated a total of 39,138 crimes to Forces and partner agencies to consider investigation.

Historically the Action Fraud capability came into life in 2009 and was funded by the National Fraud Authority (NFA), which has since been closed, a proportion of the NFA’s total budget was used to fund the Action Fraud Capability and is as follows:

• 2009/10 £5.7 million including a £1.4 million uplift to set up the service

• 2010/11 £4.9 million

• 2011/12 £6.68 million

• 2012/13 £9.4 million

Since the closure of the NFA in March 2014 Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau have been funded by Home Office funding, Cabinet Office funding for Cyber Security and funding from the City of London Police core grant, and is as follows:

• 2013/14 £11.11 million

• 2014/15 £10.62 million

• 2015/16 £11.03 million

01/01/2023
Lord Wasserman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wasserman on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they have made to archive the public papers of Police and Crime Commissioners following the end of their terms in May 2016.

Lord Bates

It is the responsibility of the local Chief Executive in their role as Monitoring Officer and the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to make arrangements for the archiving of public papers following the end of their PCC’s term of office in May 2016.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to performance indicators for helping cyclists, walkers and other vulnerable users of the network in the Highways England operational metrics manual, whether any additional resource funding has been allocated under the Road Investment Strategy to reduce vulnerable user casualties.

Andrew Jones

Highways England has committed to provide a safer, integrated and more accessible strategic road network for cyclists, walkers and other vulnerable road users. Through the first Road Investment Strategy for Highways England, a ring-fenced allocation of £175 million has been made available between 2015 and 2020 to improve the safety of the Strategic Road Network and improve conditions for cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

The Highways England current delivery plan states that £78 million will be used to improve conditions for those cycling alongside and crossing the Strategic Road Network. The remaining £97 million will be used to enhance the safety of our network, with £20 million of this specifically targeted at improving facilities to provide a more accessible and integrated network.

01/01/2023
Steve Rotheram – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on legal costs related to the under-occupancy penalty.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government has incurred approximately £387,155 to date on legal costs associated with judicial review challenges to the under-occupancy penalty.

It should be noted that this figure includes VAT where this is payable (e.g. on Counsel’s fees) and disbursements but does not include costs attributable to the time spent by Government advisory lawyers, as time spent by such advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributed to individual cases. This figure does not include all of Counsel’s fees incurred in relation to the Supreme Court hearing of MA & Others/A and Rutherford v the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (29 February to 2 March) which have not yet been billed.

01/01/2023
Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 16 December 2013, column 507W, what the updated figures are for the latest period available.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The average waiting time from receipt to disposal for all Social Security and Child Support appeals between October and December 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) was 19 weeks nationally and 15.9 weeks in the Kettering venue.

01/01/2023