Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment her Department has made of the relative costs of tidal lagoon projects compared to other forms of tidal power technology.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government’s extensive Severn Tidal Power feasibility study and the recent work as part of the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon Contract for Difference negotiations show that costs for tidal lagoons may be broadly comparable to other tidal range technologies. However, the detailed relative costs of projects will be dependent on their geographical location, individual design and financing models.

    We have not made any comparative assessment of costs with tidal stream technologies, which are at a very early stage of development and have a highly different asset-life to tidal range.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of the NHS budget spent on general practice in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England has confirmed that the funding it invests in general practice will increase by an average of 4.5% each year from 2016/17 to 2020/21.

    The below table shows the proportion of spend on general practice for each of the last five years for which data is available. The figures for spend on general practice are taken from the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Investment in General Practice 2011-2015 report, which is the most comprehensive source of data on investment in general practice. The NHS Revenue Expenditure data is taken from the Department’s accounts.

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    NHS Revenue Expenditure under Clear Line of Sight Rules (£ billion)

    97.47

    100.27

    102.57

    106.5

    110.56

    Spend on general practice (£ billion)

    8.350

    8.397

    8.459

    8.766

    9.001

    Spend on General Practice as a proportion of total

    8.6%

    8.4%

    8.2%

    8.2%

    8.1%
  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to respond to the letter of 24 March 2016 on ethical procurement from the hon. Member for Birmingham, Northfield.

    Matthew Hancock

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today.

  • 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 2016-06-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37789, how much investment there has been in rolling stock by (a) private operators and (b) his Department in each year since 1994.

    Claire Perry

    The value of contracts are a commercial matter between the operator and the rolling stock owner. However, private investment in new and refurbished rolling stock since 1994 is in excess of £7.5 billion.

    The Department has procured the Thameslink and InterCity Express Programme rolling stock as part of complete packages. The costs of the rolling stock is a commercially confidential matter between the Department and the successful bidders for those projects.

  • David Winnick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    David Winnick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Winnick on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff at the Education Funding Agency assist with assessing applications to the Condition Improvement Fund; and how many staff assisted with such applications in each of the last three years.

    Edward Timpson

    Each CIF application was assessed twice independently. 9 EFA technical assessors worked on the assessment of CIF bids between January and February 2016 (alongside other duties). The EFA also contracted 2 external technical assessor suppliers to assess CIF applications. These suppliers assessed CIF bids between January and February 2016. Each supplier utilised some 25-30 assessors in total through the period, reducing or increasing levels according to the progress they were making against the deadline for assessing bids. In addition 9 other EFA staff worked on the Condition Improvement Fund throughout the 2016-17 programme on matters like processing applications and managing assessors.

    The resource approach to previous bidding rounds has been similarly based on the volume of applications received.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what checks his Department has in place to measure the standard of work carried out by contractors under the Energy Company Obligations scheme.

    Jesse Norman

    All Energy Company Obligation (ECO) measures are installed in accordance with the appropriate industry standards including PAS 2030 (Publicly Available Specification) and building regulations.

    Ofgem, the scheme administrator, carries out checks to ensure that the relevant scheme requirements have been met and that the energy bill and carbon savings reported by suppliers are accurate. These checks include technical monitoring which verifies that measures have been installed in accordance with the relevant installation standards.

    Ofgem also conducts audits on measures notified to them by suppliers and have a counter-fraud team which works to detect, prevent and deter fraudulent activity. In addition, energy suppliers are required to conduct their own technical monitoring to ensure their measures are compliant.

    Further to this, last year Government commissioned the Bonfield review, an independent review of consumer advice, protection, standards and enforcement for energy efficiency and renewable energy which will be published shortly.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the average hourly earnings of working people in receipt of universal credit.

    Priti Patel

    The information you have requested is not currently available. The Department published its strategy for releasing official statistics on Universal Credit (UC) in September 2013. As outlined in the strategy, officials are currently quality assuring data for UC therefore it is not yet possible to give a definitive list of what statistics will be provided in the future. These statistics however will be published in accordance with the relevant protocols in the Code of Practice for official statistics.

    The latest official experimental statistics on UC and the Departments release strategy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics.

    “

  • David T. C. Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    David T. C. Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, whether he plans to amend the draft Wales Bill to enable the National Assembly for Wales to vary income tax without a referendum.

    Stephen Crabb

    At Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, my Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government will remove the need for a referendum to introduce the Welsh Rates of Income Tax. This will be done in the Wales Bill, which will be introduced into Parliament in the New Year.

  • Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the functions of the officials from the Home Office and other departments who are now serving in the north of France; whether they will instruct those officials to give priority to finding and assisting refugees there (1) who may be eligible for family reunion in the UK, or (2) for whom the Government have some responsibility, such as interpreters formerly employed by the Armed Forces; and if not, whether they will fund an NGO to do that work.

    Lord Bates

    Border Force officers are deployed to the Northern French ports to undertake immigration and customs functions as part of the juxtaposed controls arrangements with France, whereby elements of border control are completed prior to travel to the UK. Under the treaties which govern these arrangements, Border Force officers can only undertake official functions within defined “control zones” at the ports. Under the terms of the August 2015 UK-France Joint Declaration, Border Force officials additionally visit the migrant camps in conjunction with French officials to inform migrants of the dangers in seeking entry to the UK illegally and the importance instead of seeking asylum in France, and the fact that this is a prerequisite to apply for family reunion. French officials, as the responsible authority, also provide information to migrants during these visits.

    Separate schemes have existed since 2013 to assist interpreters previously employed by the UK Armed Forces. These apply only to those who have remained in Afghanistan and, in recognition of their unique and exceptional service or the danger the interpreters may face because of their work, can lead to relocation to the UK if certain criteria are met.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which national homelessness prevention and reduction schemes received direct funding from central government (a) in 2015-16 to date and (b) in each financial year since 2009-10; and what the cost of these schemes to the public purse was in those years.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Since 2010 we have invested over £500 million to enable local authorities and the voluntary sector to support those vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. Our initiatives have included funding:

    • Crisis – £14 million funding to support their Access to Private Rented Sector scheme, which has helped created 10,000 tenancies.
    • Homeless Link – over £30 million, £20 million of which went to their Homelessness Transitional Fund, which provided support to 115 areas to ensure that more rough sleepers are found quicker and given the help they need.
    • Help for Single Homelessness Fund – £8 million to help improve local authority support for 22,000 single homeless people.

    The Government has provided £470 million funding for homelessness prevention over the last Spending Review period. Salford City Council was allocated the following amounts based on the homelessness prevention funding formula within the Local Government Finance Settlement:

    • 2014-2015: £70,591
    • 2015-2016: £70,319