Tag: Parliamentary Question

Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what schemes are available to commercial drivers under the plug-in van grant scheme to purchase a home charge and charge point at work.

Andrew Jones

The Government offers grant funding to offset some of the upfront cost of the purchase and installation of dedicated domestic chargepoints to drivers of plug-in vehicles under the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS). This is available for any van or car eligible for the Plug-in Van and Car Grants. The scheme is available to motorists who are the registered keeper, lessee or have primary use of an eligible electric vehicle and provides up to 75% off the total capital costs of the chargepoint and associated installation costs. The grant is currently capped at £700 including VAT and this is reducing to £500 from 1 March 2016.

The Government does not presently have any similar schemes to assist with the cost of chargepoints in the workplace. This is because our focus so far has been on supporting the installation of chargepoints at motorists’ homes and in public places. However, at the last Spending Review in November last year, we announced that we will spend more than £600 million between 2015 and 2020 to support the uptake and manufacturing of ultra low emission vehicles in the UK. Further details of how this funding will be used – including for provision of charging infrastructure – will be announced in due course.

01/01/2023
Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding from the (a) European Regional Development Fund and (b) European Social Fund he forecasts will be spent in (i) London and (ii) each London borough in each year from 2016 and 2020.

Anna Soubry

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) are administered in London by the Greater London Authority and will respond to priorities set out in the European Structural and Investment Strategy prepared by the London Enterprise Panel and other local partners. The Strategy updated in February 2016 sets out the amounts to be spent in London from ERDF and ESF and can be found on the London Enterprise Panel website.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-03-03.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which banks are permitted by his Department to hold government funds.

Harriett Baldwin

The vast majority of funds is held within the exchequer at the Government Banking Service. It is not held in commercial bank accounts. Public sector organisations require permission from HM Treasury and the Crown Commercial Representative for banking, currently the Head of the Government Banking Service, to open a commercial bank account. Public sector organisations should follow guidelines set out in the banking annex of “Managing Public Money”. The key points within these guidelines are that the balances held in commercial accounts should be minimised and the commercial bank providing the banking service needs to be a member of relevant UK clearing bodies.

01/01/2023

Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children with (a) a Statement of Special Education Needs and (b) Education, Health and Care Plans were educated at home in each of the last five years.

Edward Timpson

The transition period from statements to Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) runs until April 2018. Every local authority has published an individual Local Transition Plan setting out the timings for transfers to the new system. We are monitoring local authority progress and published figures about transition up to January 2015, returned by local authorities, in the Special Educational Needs in England Statistical First Release of May 2015[1]. We will publish the figures up to January 2016 in May 2016.

The Department does not collect information on the number of children who are home educated. Some local authorities choose to maintain registers so that parents can voluntarily register children being educated at home.

The number and proportion of school pupils who had a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an EHCP in each of the last five years is as follows:

x	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Pupils with statements or EHCPs	224,210	226,125	229,390	232,190	236,165
Pupils on roll	8,123,865	8,178,200	8,249,810	8,331,385	8,438,145
Incidence (%)	2.8	2.8	2.8	2.8	2.8[2]

The number of permanent and fixed period exclusions received by pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs in each of the last five years for which data is available is as follows:

x	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14
Fixed period exclusions	37,140	36,740	35,640	32,210	33,190
Permanent exclusions	420	430	380	330	330[3]

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions

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01/01/2023

Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachael Maskell on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the introduction of abortion up to birth.

Jane Ellison

The Abortion Act 1967 sets out that an abortion may be carried out after 24 weeks gestation only where:

― the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman Section 1(1)(b); or

― the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated Section 1(1)(c); or

― there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped Section 1(1)(d).

In England and Wales it is accepted Parliamentary practice that proposals for changes to the Abortion Act come from backbench members and that decisions are made on the basis of free votes. The Government has no plans to review this legislation.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of the single-tier state pension on the level of income of widows.

Richard Harrington

Under the new State Pension over three million women stand to receive an average of £11 a week more State Pension by 2030.

Around four percent of women reaching State Pension age in the first ten years following implementation will be affected by ending access to a derived basic pension while still married and/or when widowed. The proportion falls to two percent or less for succeeding cohorts. We are not able to provide an impact specifically on widows as the analysis does not separately identify the proportion of those who are affected only while married because they predecease their spouse.

01/01/2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

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 working in his Department have been seconded from other government departments; 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 plus the expertise of over 120 officials in Brussels, and we are still growing rapidly.

The term ‘secondment’ to refers to an interchange of staff between the Civil Service and an external organisation as such we have not brought any secondees into the Department from elsewhere in the Civil Service. All joiners from other Government departments have been on a loan basis, which refers to an interchange of staff between Civil Service departments or Agencies.

01/01/2023
Karl Turner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the costs to his Department associated with unmeritorious claims resulting from changes to a fixed cost recoverable scheme for clinical negligence.

Ben Gummer

The Department is working closely with stakeholders to develop the proposal to introduce fixed recoverable costs. We have undertaken a pre-consultation exercise with a number of key stakeholders, including representatives of claimant lawyers, and are planning an open public consultation shortly. We welcome views on the proposal from all sectors.

The consultation documentation, including the Impact Assessment, will be published in early 2016 subject to relevant Committee clearances. We are working upon the assumption that there is nothing about Fixed Recoverable Costs regime which will alter the percentage of unmeritorious claims.

Any scheme proposed will include consideration of the right incentives to support a fairer and quicker process that provides the improvements to the system whilst maintaining access to justice.

The NHS Litigation Authority reported in their annual report for 2014/15 that it resolves over 4,000 clinical negligence cases annually for no payment of damages and in 2014/15 it saved over £1.2 billion for the National Health Service in rejecting claims which had no merit.

01/01/2023
Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the implications for implementing his Department’s policies for combatting climate change and decarbonising electricity generation of the Trade in Services Agreement.

Anna Soubry

The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) negotiation is ongoing. A full sustainable impact assessment is being conducted on the TISA. The terms of reference of the report include analysis of the impact of the TISA on climate change. The final inception report can be found on the EU’s website.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has not carried out any additional assessments in relation to the impact of the agreement on wider climate change policies, but works closely with the Department of Energy and Climate Change on the content of the Agreement to ensure it aligns with the UK’s wider policy objectives.

01/01/2023
Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what arrangements are in place to enable UK citizens to submit reimbursement claims under the European Health Insurance Card regulations; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of those arrangements.

Justin Tomlinson

In the UK, the NHS Choices website provides comprehensive information on the arrangements that are in place to enable UK citizens to submit reimbursement claims under the EU regulations. Such claims are dealt with by a dedicated team in the Department for Work and Pensions – the DWP Overseas Healthcare Team. Contact details for the DWP Overseas Healthcare Team are provided on the NHS Choices website and may also be found on the EHIC itself.

The reimbursement processes to which all member states adhere have been in place for many years and work in much the same way across Europe. The European Commission and the member states are jointly responsible for assessing the effectiveness of the regulations on an on-going basis and where necessary the Commission will recommend any proposed changes for consideration and agreement with the member states.

01/01/2023