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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Julie Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Julie Elliott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to promote the welfare of members of the armed forces.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Armed Forces Covenant ensures that those who serve and have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, are treated fairly. In June 2013 the Chancellor announced that the financial commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant would be made permanent through a £10 million fund per annum in perpetuity from 2015-16.

    The Annual Report on the Armed Forces Covenant from December 2015 detailed a number of achievements of which this Government can be proud, including allocating £40 million for accommodation projects for veterans; the £200 million Forces Help to Buy Scheme; and a world class centre for excellence for the training and delivery of Defence Medical Services.

    In 2016 to date under the large grants scheme we have awarded a total of almost £7.5 million to 24 projects supporting community integration, criminal justice system initiatives and the co-ordination and delivery of support. Under the small grants scheme we have awarded a total of almost £2.4 million to 150 community integration projects. Depending on the quality of the bids, we hope to be able to announce the preferred bidder for the Veterans Gateway Service in November, as well as further tranches of Covenant Grant funding.

    In January 2016, the Department published the first ever Armed Forces Families Strategy, embracing seven key themes – partner employment, accommodation, children’s education and childcare, community support, specialist support, health and wellbeing, and transition. This is now routine business supporting our families.

    We have reviewed our casualty and compassionate processes, and this autumn we are introducing a new reserves welfare health-check. In the last year Defence has enabled payroll deductions for Service personnel to take advantage of the savings and cheap loan facilities from selected credit unions. This facility was extended to veterans in receipt of a pension in March 2016.

  • Graham Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Graham Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2015-10-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2015 to Question 12045, on tax credits, if he will publish that data in the form in which it is available.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs is now able to provide the data in the format requested.

    The table below shows the number of mandatory reconsiderations for tax credits undertaken by Synnex-Concentix UK Ltd since the start of the contract. The data is accurate as at 2 November 2015.

    Within Week

    Number

    One

    1,136

    Two

    133

    Three

    160

    Four

    117

    Five

    97

    Six

    94

    Seven

    89

    Eight

    70

    Nine

    44

    Ten

    38

    More than ten

    106

  • Nicola Blackwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Nicola Blackwood – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicola Blackwood on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much of her Department’s funding allocated in the Spending Review 2015 will be for research and development expenditure up to 2020.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    DFID is a leader in funding high-quality high-impact development research, providing technologies and rigorous evidence to tackle critical development challenges – from new treatments for children with malaria to what approaches work to prevent violence against women. DFID’s funding for research and development expenditure up to 2020 will be determined through the Department’s internal resource allocation process. Decisions will be based on an analysis of critical development challenges, key evidence and technology gaps, and DFID’s areas of comparative advantage as a research funder. We committed in our manifesto to lead a major new global programme to accelerate the development of vaccines and drugs to eliminate the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, and in November announced the Ross Fund which will deliver on this commitment.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many credit unions were subject to intervention by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in 2014 and 2015.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Financial Services Compensation Scheme regularly publishes details of the interventions it has undertaken to protect depositors. The Scheme announced that it had protected the savings of members in five credit unions which entered default in 2014; and six in 2015.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she last discussed funding for armed police response with each of the four Welsh police commissioners.

    Mike Penning

    Home Office Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of partners, as well as organisations and individuals such as Police and Crime Commissioners, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office

  • Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Murrison on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what metrics she uses in monitoring human rights abuse (a) by governments and (b) in countries in receipt of UK aid.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID works closely with the FCO to assess and monitor the civil and political rights context in the countries where it has programmes. DFID draws on the FCO’s annual Human Rights and Democracy Report, which takes international human rights obligations as its starting point, and assesses FCO country specific updates to that report. It takes into account the views of a range of sources including EU and other development partners, and civil society reports.

    DFID provides aid to governments when it is satisfied that they share Britain’s commitments to reducing poverty and to respecting human rights. Before providing aid to a partner government, DFID assesses their commitment to four Partnership Principles. These include a commitment to poverty reduction; respecting human rights and other international obligations; improving public financial management, promoting good governance and transparency, and fighting corruption; and strengthening domestic accountability.

  • The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Coventry on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to assist the government of Iraq in its efforts to encourage post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction in areas now liberated from Daesh in Iraq.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    With our partners in the Global Coalition and the wider international community, the UK is supporting the Government of Iraq’s recovery efforts in areas liberated from Daesh.

    In the last year UN Development Programme (UNDP) report that these efforts have contributed to the return of 170,000 people to Tikrit, 49,000 people to Al Dour and 15,000 people to Mkeishifa.

    Specific UK support includes providing: £2.5 million for UNDP’s Funding Facility for Immediate Stabilisation, which supports community reconciliation and the rehabilitation of infrastructure in newly liberated areas of stabilisation; a stabilisation advisor for UNDP; a Communications Advisor to support the Governor of Anbar; and £225,000 to UN Mine Action Service to establish a coordination unit to assess the scope of explosive threats. During his recent visit to Iraq, the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), discussed with Prime Minister Abadi the importance of reconciliation and rebuilding the lives of all Iraqis.

  • Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of dairy products procured for his Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

    Jane Ellison

    Details of dairy products procured for use in in the Department’s catering contract and sourced from British producers for the last reporting period, January to March 2016, are as follows:

    Dairy sub-category

    Total spend

    British Spend

    Butter

    £297.30

    £0.00

    0%

    Cheese

    £4,244.55

    £2,547.61

    60%

    Cream

    £184.59

    £184.59

    100%

    Milk

    £7,148.74

    £7,148.74

    100%

    Yoghurt

    £1,997.24

    £1,997.24

    100%
  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what proportion of staff in his Department were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

    David Mundell

    The proportion of Scotland Office staff who were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16 is shown below.

    Year

    Payroll

    Non-payroll

    2010-11

    100%

    0%

    2011-12

    96%

    4%

    2012-13

    97%

    3%

    2013-14

    98%

    2%

    2014-15

    91%

    9%

    2015-16

    93%

    7%
  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to publish data on the number of (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high level sanctions applied to universal credit claimants (i) before and (ii) after challenges.

    Damian Hinds

    The Department updated its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in February 2016. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently assessing the data for UC and will only release information once the necessary quality assurance work has taken place. These statistics will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

    Universal Credit official statistics and the Departments release strategy can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics

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