Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Richard Fuller – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many settlement visas granted on appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) have been issued by UK Visas and Immigration (a) within one month, (b) between one to three months, (c) between three to six months, (d) between six to 12 months and (e) more than 12 months after that tribunal’s judgement in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    The information is not readily available or held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of freedom of information requirements in the British Virgin Islands; and what plans he has to promote transparency in that territory.

    James Duddridge

    Freedom of information policy in the Virgin Islands is the responsibility of the government of the Virgin Islands. As such, the Governor announced the Virgin Islands Government’s intention to introduce a Freedom of Information Bill and a Data Protection Bill in the Speech from the Throne of 10 November 2014.

    The Governor again underlined the importance of Open Government as the ‘foundation stone to a modern democracy’ at the swearing-in ceremony of the new Government on 10 June 2015. Discussion between the Governor and the elected Government continues on a range of Open Government and transparency initiatives.

    The 2012 White Paper states our commitments on working with the governments of the Overseas Territories on improving transparency and accountability. We are supporting these governments in moving towards systems of open government through sharing best practice and capacity building. This is a devolved area of competence and it is for Territory governments to develop a system that meets their particular requirements and circumstances.

  • Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of investment in psychiatric services for children.

    Alistair Burt

    The Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce was established in September 2014 to consider ways to improve how children and young people’s mental health (CYPMH) services are organised, commissioned and provided. Evidence presented to and discussions in the Taskforce underlined the complexity and severity of the current set of challenges facing child and adolescent mental health services, including investment and funding arrangements. The work of the Taskforce resulted in the publication of the Government report, Future in Mind, which established a clear and powerful consensus about system-wide transformation to improve CYPMH.

    This Government is committed to delivering this. An additional £1.4 billion has been made available over the course of this parliament to support this transformation programme, which includes investment in a range of mental health services for children and young people services, including psychiatric services. This includes £150 million to improve eating disorders and £75 million for perinatal mental health services.

    Most of the additional funding is going direct to local areas to invest in transforming their services, but we need to balance this with investment nationally for workforce and system development, which sets the foundations for transformation. As this work progresses at national level, the amount going to local areas to support direct service delivery will gradually increase over the course of the five years.

    Local Transformation Plans developed by clinical commissioning groups, covering all local areas, have been successfully assured by NHS England and funding was released in December 2015 to implement the Plans. These plans must cover the whole spectrum of CYPMH needs.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) his Department and (b) Highways England are improving their assessments of user satisfaction in relation to the strategic road network.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department appointed Transport Focus (TF) as the road user watchdog and the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) as the Highways Monitor on the formation of Highways England on 1 April 2015. In addition to reporting from TF and ORR, officials regularly meet with Highways England to discuss all aspects of their performance, including customer satisfaction.

    TF is developing a new Strategic Roads User Survey to measure satisfaction among those using Highways England’s network with input from the Department. It is intended to pilot this throughout 2016 and then launch the new survey during 2017. This will run in parallel with Highways England’s existing National Road User Satisfaction Survey until that ceases in March 2018.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many successful applicants to the Schools Direct scheme there were in each of the last five years; and what the cost of that scheme was to her Department in each such year.

    Nick Gibb

    The School Direct scheme began as a pilot tuition fee based programme in the 2012/13 academic year. The programme was extended to include School Direct (salaried) programmes from the 2013/14 academic year.

    The number of successful applicants (trainees who secured and took up a place) on School Direct programmes, and the associated cost (where available), from 2012/13 to 2014/15 are given in table 1:

    Academic year

    Number of School Direct (tuition fee) trainees

    Number of School Direct (salaried) trainees

    Cost of training bursaries for SD (fee) trainees

    Cost of salary grants for SD (salaried) trainees

    2012/13

    349

    N/A

    Unavailable

    N/A

    2013/14

    4,203

    2,473

    Unavailable

    £40,320,214

    2014/15

    6,311[1]

    2,759

    £36,539,000

    £43,031,709

    Table 1: Number of School Direct trainees and associated costs from 2012/13 to 2014/15.

    We are unable to provide the training bursary costs specific to School Direct only for trainees for 2012/13 and 2013/14, as the data captured did not make a distinction between core and school direct tuition fee places for the purpose of bursary funding.

    Data for the 2015/16 academic year will not be available until after the end of the academic year when data submissions will be finalised and subsequently validated.

    [1] Of the 6,311 tuition fee trainees in AY 2014/15, 4,264 received a bursary.

  • Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachael Maskell on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effect of the outcome of the EU referendum on future levels of migrant labour from other EU countries in the farming industry.

    George Eustice

    Workers from other EU countries are an important and valued part of our workforce. Over the next two years whilst we negotiate a new relationship with the EU, nothing changes.

    This will be one of the issues that will have to be resolved as part of our exit negotiation and future relationship with the EU.

  • Jessica Morden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Jessica Morden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the current value is of Farepak unclaimed funds.

    Margot James

    The current value of Farepak unclaimed funds is £1,007,267.41.

    The agency will hold the funds for the next six years, people can however continue to claim indefinitely. The Insolvency Service has liaised with media outlets and the matter has been covered by BBC Moneybox, MoneySaving Expert and BBC Watchdog, to draw attention to any unpaid creditor or has yet to come forward.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed merger of O2 and Three on the competitive functioning of the mobile telecommunications industry.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The assessment of the impact of mergers on competition is a matter for the independent competition regulators. In the case of the takeover ofTelefónica UK (O2)byCKHutchison Holdings Ltd. (CKHH), which owns Three, the competent authority is the European Commission, due to the international scope of the deal, although the UK Competition and Markets Authority has applied for jurisdiction.

    Any authority ruling on this merger will take advice from Ofcom, the UK’s independent communications regulator, on competition in the mobile communications sector in the UK.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what HM Revenue and Customs’ plans are for jobs in Northern Ireland in the next five years.

    Mr David Gauke

    HMRC has a long-established presence in Northern Ireland. HMRC intends to increase the number of people it employs in the Province, opening a new Regional Centre in Belfast, from 2017-18, accommodating between 1,300 and 1,600 posts across a range of disciplines.

  • Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mary Glindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Glindon on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy that employees in (a) his Department, (b) National Offender Management Service and (c) all relevant contractors are paid the living wage as determined by the Living Wage Foundation.

    Mike Penning

    In line with the Government’s commitment given in the budget, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will continue to ensure staff are paid at or above the National Living Wage of £7.20 per hour which will be introduced in April 2016. The MoJ’s third party suppliers are responsible for determining the pay of their employees and from April 2016 they will be legally obliged to conform to the National Living Wage.