The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2016-02-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Duty Provider Crime Contracts have been awarded to women’s syndicate firms in (a) the West Midlands, (b) the city of Birmingham and (c) Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency.
Mr Shailesh Vara
As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of Thursday 28 January, the crime Tender process has been withdrawn.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Legionnaires’ disease incidents have been reported in each prison since May 2010.
Ben Gummer
Due to small numbers involved and risk of deductive disclosure, the number of cases of Legionella pneumonia in people in prisons in England cannot be provided.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the number of domestic violence refuges which have closed as a result of lack of funding in each of the last five years.
Mr Marcus Jones
Domestic Abuse is a devastating crime. That is why we are determined to ensure that victims get the help they need when they need it. In last year’s Spending Review we secured new £40 million funding to support victims of domestic abuse.
It is for local areas to assess their needs for domestic abuse services and to make decisions on the provision of safe accommodation, including refuges and support for victims of domestic abuse.
In the new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy published on the 8 March, we set out our ambition to improve services for women suffering from domestic abuse, commiting to a new Statement of Expectations to set out for the first time what we expect from local areas.
To support this, we are launching a new two year fund for refuges and other forms of accommodation-based support and to help local areas take the steps they need to meet the National Statement.
The new funding builds on the £3.5 million funding to support victims of domestic abuse and is on top of the £10 million funding to stop refuges closing and strengthen the provision of safe accommodation in the last spending review period.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the cost of establishing the Green Deal Finance Company in (a) payments to consultants and (b) other costs.
Andrea Leadsom
DECC has made no payments to consultants in establishing the Green Deal Finance Company, but in other costs payments of £10,294.26 in legal support were made in 2014/15.
The Green Deal Finance Company has not been closed. It is not currently issuing new loans, but continues to collect repayments from its existing loan book. In July 2015, DECC took the decision that the case for further investment was not strong enough in terms of value for money. This decision has no impact on existing Green Deal Finance Plans or existing Green Deal Home Improvement Fund applications and vouchers.
The Green Deal Finance Company is a private company and has its own internal costs which are not included in this estimate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-05-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when NHS England plans to publish its response to its consultation on developing a method to assist investment decisions in specialised services.
George Freeman
The proposed prioritisation methodology which went out to consultation was signed off by the Specialised Commissioning Committee at its meeting on 31 May 2016 – for use in 2016/17.
The consultation outcome document will now be published on the website imminently.
There will be further work undertaken on the methodology in due course to refine and improve it for use in future years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-07-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what account his Department takes of the short and long-term economic effect of the number of births in a household in setting the level of welfare benefits.
Damian Hinds
The law relating to the annual increases to certain social security benefits, known as up-rating, is set out in the Social Security Administration Act 1992.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many civil servants who work for his Department work in each EU member state other than the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Mr David Jones
All departments are equipping themselves with the resources they need to get the best deal for the UK. The Department for Exiting the European Union now has over 250 staff all based in the UK plus the expertise of over 120 officials in Brussels, and we are still growing rapidly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish an updated evaluation of the operation of the Homelessness Prevention Grant.
Mr Marcus Jones
Homelessness prevention grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010 and assisted 220,800 in 2014-15 alone.
The Government does not evaluate the effectiveness of local authority grants including the Homelessness Prevention Grant. As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent from Central Government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities. Since 2010, local councils have had more flexibility over how they spend the money they receive from central government. Together with the money raised through council tax and other local sources, they have considerable freedom to work with their residents to decide how best to spend available resources on local priorities.
My Department regularly engages with a wide range of partners on homelessness prevention. We have received five written representations directly from local authorities on the future of the grant since April 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to increase racial diversity in the workplace in the light of the Business in the Community report Race at Work 2015, which found that ethnic minority Britons are struggling against bias at work.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Equality Act 2010 protects all individuals against racial and other forms of discrimination in the workplace. The Prime Minister has underlined the Government’s commitments to increasing racial diversity in the workplace in his 2020 Vision in which he made a commitment to increase BAME employment by 20% by 2020. Her Majesty’s Government welcomes the publication of the Race at Work report and will study its recommendations carefully,.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to its Saudi Arabian counterpart on the case of Ali Al-Nimr, Dawood Al-Marhoon and Abdallah Al-Zaher.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We are very concerned about the cases of Ali Al-Nimr, Dawood Al-Marhoon and Abdallah Al-Zaher and we have raised these cases with the Saudi Arabian authorities, on many occasions – most recently on 3 January, at a very senior level. We continue to make representations on these cases and others like it, whenever the opportunity to do so arises.