Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Clive Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Lewis on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who have been reassessed to remain in the support group of employment support allowance have medical conditions that are not expected to improve.

    Priti Patel

    Between October 2008 and September 2015 a total of 38,100 people in the Support Group have been reassessed and found to still be eligible for Employment and Support Allowance, and to remain in the Support Group, and were also found to either be terminally ill or had a prognosis of “in the longer term”, suggesting that their conditions are not expected to improve in the short term.

    Source: Data is derived from administrative data held by the DWP and assessment data provided by Atos and the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments.

    Notes:

    1. Please note that the figure supplied is derived from unpublished information and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.
    2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
  • Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Justin Tomlinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce costs incurred by schools which were built under the Private Finance Initiative.

    Edward Timpson

    Local authorities are responsible for their own Private Finance Initiative contracts and are encouraged to seek savings in the context of those contracts.

    The Department is working closely with Her Majesty’s Treasury to develop guidance to demonstrate how local authorities may make savings.

    The Department continues to work closely with local authorities to assist in identifying and securing savings.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which local authorities’ children’s social work services have been rated inadequate; and if she will make a statement.

    Edward Timpson

    The following local authorities are currently rated as ‘inadequate’ under Ofsted’s Single Inspection Framework:

    Birmingham, Bromley, Buckinghamshire, Coventry, Cumbria, Darlington, Doncaster, Dudley, Knowsley, Lambeth, Lancashire, Leicester City, Manchester, Norfolk, Reading, Rotherham, Sandwell, Slough, Somerset, Sunderland, Surrey, Torbay, Wandsworth, West Berkshire and Wirral.

    The Government does not use set criteria to require local authorities to contract out their statutory children’s social care services.

    The Department for Education has statutory powers to intervene in local authority children’s services under section 497A of the Education Act 1996. This legislation allows the Department to remove day-to-day operational control of children’s services from the local authority, for a period of time, if the Secretary of State believes that the local authority is failing to secure its relevant statutory functions by delivering children’s services to the required standard.

    As a matter of policy, the Government has decided that any authority rated by Ofsted as ‘inadequate’ across all the key judgements in any one Ofsted inspection is deemed to be failing ‘systemically’, and any authority that is rated inadequate twice overall in any five year period is deemed to be failing persistently.

    In these circumstances the Secretary of State appoints a children’s services commissioner to review services and then provide advice to the Secretary of State on whether they should remain in local authority control.

    Once the Secretary of State has received the commissioner’s advice, she will decide whether to direct the authority to enter into a contract with a third party – for instance a Children’s Services Trust – to deliver those services on its behalf.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the study entitled ‘First, do no harm’: are disability assessments associated with adverse trends in mental health? A longitudinal ecological study, published in November 2015 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

    Priti Patel

    The Department will study the report. However, as the authors make clear, their report does not show a causal link between the Incapacity Benefit reassessment process and rates of suicide, mental ill-health or use of anti-depressants.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-12-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make representations to the Office for National Statistics to include earnings from self-employment in its weekly earnings series.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Cabinet Office will be working with the Office for National Statistics to consider ways to improve data collection capability, including potential legislative options.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of the amount of (a) public and (b) private sector investment needed to fulfil Government targets for low-carbon infrastructure and supply chain investment in each year to 2025.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The National Infrastructure Pipeline provides annual estimates of investment in the Energy Sector. The 2015 publication of the National Infrastructure Pipeline [1] estimates £141bn worth of investment up to 2020/21 with a further £103bn post 2020/21. The figures do not distinguish between private and public investment.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-pipeline-july-2015

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  • Vicky Foxcroft – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Vicky Foxcroft – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vicky Foxcroft on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what safeguards her Department has put in place to ensure that out-of-country entry clearance applications are rigorously checked and processed.

    James Brokenshire

    All out of country entry clearance applications are subject to an extensive range of mandatory and discretionary checks.

    These include, but are not limited to, identity, travel document verification, searches against national and international police records and against previous Immigration history. But biographic and biometric checks can also be made.

    Applications are then assessed against the Immigration Rules. Decision quality is assured both by local managers and as part of the overall Departmental audit and assurance framework. Further assurance is provided by regular third party inspections and audits.

  • Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Imran Hussain – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Imran Hussain on 2016-03-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what contingency plans her Department has for additional support to Burundi in the event of a further escalation of violence in that country.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    DFID is supporting Burundian refugees in Tanzania and Rwanda, as the second largest donor to the regional appeal with £21.15 million in contributions since April 2015. DFID has deployed a humanitarian adviser to the region, and within Burundi we are supporting technical experts seconded to the UN. DFID will continue to work with counterparts across Whitehall, the international financial institutions (IFIs) and humanitarian partners in Burundi. DFID has prepared a response plan in the event of significant unmet humanitarian needs emerging. DFID is monitoring the situation closely with the FCO, and will consider additional funding should there be a further deterioration in the situation.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court buildings have been sold in (a) Lancashire and (b) Burnley.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    Two court buildings in Lancashire have been sold since the creation of HM Court Service in 2005. Neither of these were in Burnley.

    Prior to 2005 magistrates’ courts were the responsibility of locally managed magistrates’ courts committees.

  • Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they have in place to publish the details of police, law enforcement specialists and other relevant civilian experts in service in UN operations and at the UN Headquarters.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The National Police Chiefs’ Council has established the new Joint International Policing Hub to triage requests for international police assistance through a single point. The Hub joins up the police at a national level and with Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is intended to promote the UK model of policing by consent. Decisions on who to recommend to deploy, and where, lies with Chief Constables, in conjunction with their Police and Crime Commissioners.

    As the first professional body for all of policing in England and Wales, the College of Policing develops standards and guidance for policing. The College is considering flexibility and the structure of entry, exit and re-entry of officers. It is also considering routes for officers to gain external experience, such as secondments, as part of the Leadership Review.

    The Government has no plans to publish the details of police, law enforcement specialists and other relevant civilian experts in service in UN operations and at the UN Headquarters. Any personnel deployed as part of a national contingent are listed on the UN website: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2016/apr16_4.pdf