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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make representations to the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner to (a) extend the consultation period for closures of police stations in Essex and (b) ensure frontline policing is not reduced following proposed police station closures.

    Mike Penning

    Decisions about the most effective use of available resources, including numbers of police stations and deployment of frontline resources, are rightly a matter for individual Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables, tailored to the needs of the local community. Data published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary shows that the proportion of frontline roles in Essex Police increased from 88% to 91% between March 2010 and 2015.

  • Lord Wallace of Saltaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 2016-01-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what procedures are followed when a foreign national resident in the UK not previously understood to be a diplomat claims diplomatic immunity.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 the sending State must make certain that the agrément of the receiving State has been given for the person it proposes to accredit as its head of mission (Article 4). The UK also requires sending States to submit the names of military, naval and air attaches for approval (Article 7). Diplomatic missions are further required to notify the receiving State of the arrival of all members of the mission (Article 10). If a foreign national resident in the UK claimed to be a diplomat, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) would check whether the person’s name was on its database of foreign diplomats and their families as notified to the FCO by the sending State. As necessary, the FCO would also confirm with the relevant diplomatic mission that the individual was a member of the mission’s staff.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    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, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2016 to Question 25018, what his Department’s estimate is of the cost of the Emissions Testing Programme; and what Skoda’s financial contribution is to the ongoing testing of VW vehicles outside that programme.

    Andrew Jones

    There is an initial budget of £650k for the Emissions Testing Programme. To retain independence we are not seeking contributions from manufacturers. Where testing is being done specifically on Skoda vehicles outside of this test programme, Skoda will be charged on a case by case basis by the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA). The fees are set out in The Motor Vehicles (Type Approval and Approval Marks)(Fees) Regulations 1999, as amended. VCA will charge between £8,000 and £10,000 per vehicle. The emissions test facilities will be charged separately.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of the non-UK EU nationals to whom national insurance number registrations were issued in the year to end of September 2015 were (a) resident in the UK, (b) in employment, (c) self-employed and (d) jobseekers at the time of registration.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of officials of his Department resigned in each of the last six years.

    Joseph Johnson

    The number of employees in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills HQ who have resigned, in each of the last 6 years and the proportion of the headcount, are shown in the table below.

    Year

    Number who resigned

    % of headcount

    2010-11

    0

    0%

    2011-12

    49

    1.6%

    2012-13

    70

    2.2%

    2013-14

    67

    2.2%

    2014-15

    89

    2.9%

    2015-16

    82

    2.6%

    The number of officials who have resigned in any year is in the period April – March, whilst the % is of the headcount at 31 March in that year.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will undertake a comparative assessment of levels of business rates applying to steel producers in the UK and in other EU member states.

    Mr David Gauke

    The government concluded the Business Rates Review at Budget 2016. The government consulted with stakeholders, including the steel industry.

    From April 2020, business rates for all businesses, including the steel industry, will be cut through a switch in the indexation of business rates from RPI to the main measure of inflation currently CPI.

    The government has worked hard to deliver on the steel industry’s key asks. We (a) secured state aid approval to compensate for energy costs, (b) secured flexibility over EU emissions regulations, (c) published guidance so that the true value of UK steel can be taken into account in major procurement decisions, and (d) continue to tackle unfair trading practices at an EU and an international level

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the number of small housing applications that are declined on the basis that they are unsustainable.

    Brandon Lewis

    We do not hold information centrally on why permissions for small sites are refused. Each planning application for development is determined in line with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, taking account of the relevant planning matters and the views of the local community. Small sites play an important contribution to meeting overall housing need. In the year to March 2016, planning permission was granted for 40,000 dwellings on sites of less than 10 units, up 3% on the year to March 2015.

    The planning system has strong levers in place to support the delivery of small sites, including through strong national planning policy and extensive permitted development rights. Through the Housing and Planning Act we have introduced further proposals which will help provide greater opportunities for small-and medium-sized companies to enter the development market, promote custom build development and make effective use of developable land.

  • Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the amount in tolls, charges, penalties and fees which remain unpaid by (a) commercial and (b) domestic drivers from outside the UK in each of the last five years.

    Mr John Hayes

    The Government takes recovery of non-payment of tolls, charges, penalties and fees very seriously both by UK and non UK drivers. When it is non-payment from a non UK driver a European debt recovery agency is used to support recovery of outstanding charges.

    It is not possible to identify the amount in tolls, charges, penalties and fees which remain unpaid by (a) commercial and (b) domestic drivers from outside the UK in each of the last five years without incurring disproportionate cost as this information could only be obtained by a search of all tolling, charging, penalty charging and fee systems.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-11-17.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the ratio of NHS employees to the UK population; and how this compares with major European countries and the USA.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    This information is not collected by the Department. Health is a devolved matter across the four countries of the United Kingdom and the Department is only responsible for the health and care system in England.

    The ratio of National Health Service staff in England to the population of England is 0.019824. This is normally expressed as a ratio per 100,000 population, which in this case is 1,982.4 full-time equivalent staff per 100,000 population.

    The Department does not hold information on estimates of the number of health care staff in other countries.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers who have received (a) severance and (b) redundancy packages since May 2010 have subsequently been re-employed as prison officers.

    Andrew Selous

    Between 1 May 2010 and 30 September 2015 60 prison officers left the prison service, received severance payments and have subsequently re-joined the National Offender Management Service as prison officers.

    Over the last Parliament, NOMS delivered £334m prison efficiency savings and £169m savings in prison capacity management through prison closures and the introduction of benchmarking.

    Voluntary exit was used in the last Parliament as a result of the closure of uneconomic prison places. These prison closures and benchmarking reforms have delivered savings of £300 million a year, with the average cost per prison place falling in real terms by 19% since 2009/10.

    This figure is rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures.