The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2015-11-25.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, who the special advisers to his Department are; what the salary is of each of those advisers; and which of those advisers are on the Council of Economic Advisers.
Harriett Baldwin
Information on Special Adviser numbers and remuneration across Government departments will be published in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to make an assessment of the humaneness of hunting with dogs.
Rory Stewart
The Government has no plans to make an assessment of the humaneness of hunting with dogs. However, in 1999 a Government Committee (the Burns Inquiry) was set up to examine the facts in the debate about hunting with dogs, including whether hunting with dogs is cruel. The findings of the inquiry were published on 9 June 2000 (www.huntinginquiry.gov.uk/mainsections/huntingframe.htm).
On 12 March 2001 Lord Burns stated: “… There was not sufficient verifiable evidence or data safely to reach views about cruelty. It is a complex area …". [Hansard 12 March 2001; col. 533
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/2001/mar/12/hunting-bill].
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23665, how many (a) Arabic speakers with an Operational level (C1) examination pass and (b) Mandarin/Cantonese speakers there were employed in his Department in each year since 2006.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Records from the last five years show that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has 51 officers who have a current Operational Level (C1) Arabic pass and 44 officers with a C1 pass in Mandarin/ Cantonese. We only record current C1 passes, valid for five years after the date of the exam, and therefore do not have pre-2010 data.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in his Department.
Justin Tomlinson
I refer the hon.Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, my Rt.Hon. Friend Matthew Hancock, Question UIN 27946.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the claims relating to national minimum wage have fallen under section 2 of the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 since their entry into force.
Nick Boles
No estimate has been made of the number of National Minimum Wage claims falling under section 2 of the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 since they came into force.
The Regulations introduced a two year limit on claims for unlawful deductions made to an Employment Tribunal, including claims for the National Minimum Wage. Alternative options remain for workers who are concerned that they have been underpaid the National Minimum Wage over a longer time period. This includes making a complaint to HMRC, who can investigate and issue a Notice of Underpayment on the worker’s behalf, going back up to six years. Claims can also be brought to the county court for breach of contract, where arrears can be claimed going back six years (five years in Scotland).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Attorney General, if he will place in the Library data gathered by Crown Prosecution Service Business Area of prosecutions and convictions for (a) rape-flagged offences, (b) domestic violence, (c) child abuse and (d) human trafficking for each year since 2013.
Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of prosecutions and convictions in each CPS business area flagged as rape, domestic violence, child abuse and human trafficking.
The attached tables show the volume of defendants prosecuted and convicted in flagged cases for each CPS business area over the last three financial years for which data is available. These also include a number of caveats and explanatory notes which should be observed when reviewing the data. Data for 2015/16 will be published later this year and will be placed in the House of Commons library.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Hart on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the dairy crisis on (a) jobs in the industry, (b) local economies, (c) supply chains and (d) the environment.
George Eustice
The dairy industry in Britain has had a very tough year. A slowdown in global markets, low farm-gate prices, and a strong pound increasing imports, have all contributed to this. The UK average farm gate milk price for March 2016 is 22.38p per litre. This represents a 10.5% decrease on March 2015 and continues the downward trend seen since November 2013.
There were 281 fewer registered dairy producers in England and Wales in April 2016 compared with April 2015 (a 2.8% reduction). This continues the long-term trend which has resulted in dairy producer numbers falling while the average herd size and annual yields per cow have increased. In the year ending February 2016, forecasts suggest that incomes on dairy farms in England fell by 45% to an average of £45,000 per farm. Average incomes on Welsh dairy farms fell by around 40% to £42,000 in the same period. Expert commentators such as Rabobank expect the current cycle of low prices to be maintained through most of 2016.
The Government continues to work closely with the UK farming unions, Dairy UK and Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) to assess the difficult market situation and what we can do to help the industry to recover. For example, we are currently drawing up practical options for creating new derivatives markets, co-operating closely with the AHDB’s volatility forum, farmers, processors and the finance sector.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the value was of the cash commission paid to companies for clients’ completion of the Work Programme in each year from 2011 to 2016.
Priti Patel
Work Programme providers are not paid cash commissions and are not paid for individuals completing the programme. Providers are paid by results on the basis of a job outcome fee for supporting an individual into sustained employment and additional sustainment payments for keeping them in work longer.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Siobhain McDonagh on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on community cohesion of the presence of (a) Mufti Hanif Qureshi, (b) Muhammad Naquib ur Rehman and (c) Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman in the UK in 2016.
Sarah Newton
The Home Office does not routinely comment on assessments of foreign visitors to the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Altmann on 2016-10-17.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Freud on 15 September (HL1460, HL1461 and HL1462), what assessment they have made of (1) the proportion of addresses held by the Department for Work and Pensions that are incorrect, and (2) the number of people who will not have received a letter informing them of the change in their state pension age.
Lord Freud
This information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.