Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s expenditure was on the Joint Service Housing Advice Office in each year since 2010.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Joint Service Housing Advice Office has had eight posts since 2010.

    The total expenditure of individual departments, including the Joint Service Housing Advice Office, is not collated at a single point. For example, infrastructure costs (including utilities) are managed through Regional Prime Contracts which do not split out individual units. Similarly, equipment costs cannot be split out. For this reason, the total expenditure of the Joint Service Housing Advice Office cannot be provided.

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

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will review the affordability of public transport for people in full-time education; and if he will make a statement.

    Andrew Jones

    The legislation which regulates the bus industry does not require bus operators to offer reduced fares to young people. However, bus operators in most areas do offer discounted travel tickets to various groups of young people on a commercial basis. Government recognises the importance of accessible transport to all young people and we are working with the sector to encourage operators to continue to improve their offers.

    Whilst there is no requirement for local authorities to provide free transport for 16-19 year olds attending further education, some local authorities do also provide discretionary travel concession schemes for young people.

    Current estimates indicate that around 50% of young people aged 16 to 19 receive at least a third off standard bus fares.

    In terms of rail services, young rail passengers are able to purchase a 16 – 25 Railcard where they can save a third on most standard class rail fares.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when a final decision was made to close 15 HM Passport Office interview offices; and what discussions her Department has had with staff representatives on those closures.

    Karen Bradley

    The decision regarding the changes to the passport application interview estate was taken on 21 December 2015.

    Affected staff, and their trade union representatives, were informed of this decision on 28 January 2016. This launched a formal period of consultation about the impact upon staff following the changes to the passport application interview estate. This consultation is ongoing.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of his Department’s (a) Senior Civil Servants and (b) core policy civil servants are based in London.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    89% of Senior Civil Servants in the Department for Transport are based in London.

    Information on the profession of civil servants is not stored on the central system and therefore we are unable to confirm which civil servants who define themselves as a Policy professional are based in London.

  • Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2016-04-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that developmental play services, including Portage, are a statutory service for disabled children under the age of two.

    Lord Nash

    The Government recognises that play has an important role in supporting all young children to develop and prepare for later learning and a child’s experiences in their first five years have a major impact on their future life chances. This is covered in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework for children from birth to five years of age.

    The commissioning of support services for disabled children, such as Portage, is a decision for local authorities. Each local authority should consider the needs of its population, in collaboration with parent carers and early years providers, to ensure that support services in the area reflect local circumstances and need. The Children and Families Act requires all local authorities to publish a ‘local offer’, setting out in one place information about provision they expect to be available in their area across education, health and social care for children in their area who are disabled or have SEN, including those who do not have EHC plans. This should include details of any Portage services that are available for children aged 0 to 5 years.

    The Department recognises the importance of Portage and has provided £150,000 to the National Portage Association through the voluntary and community sector (VCS) grants for 2015-16. The National Portage Association has been using their funding to build on existing grant-funded work to support and develop Portage services.

  • William Cash – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    William Cash – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Cash on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with (a) Big Six and (b) other combined cycle gas turbine generators on the potential effect of an expansion of electricity interconnectors on (i) the capacity market and (ii) long-term investment in gas-fired electricity generation.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Ministers and officials routinely meet with all stakeholders including the vertically integrated energy companies, independent generators and other capacity providers to discuss the energy market, their views on the Capacity Market and new interconnection as well as prospects for any planned investment in new gas power stations.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding has been provided by her Department to WaterAid in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    WaterAid received over £24million of DFID funding from April 2013 to March 2016. We have so far committed £4.7million in funding for April 2016 to March 2018.

    DFID funding has contributed to WaterAid directly reaching more than 2 million people with safe water and over 3 million people with sanitation in the last year alone. In addition, our Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) funding, effective from 2011 until the end of 2016, enabled WaterAid to improve their overall organisational effectiveness by supporting them to develop stronger Monitoring and Evaluation systems; improve their Value for Money framework and supported growth and innovation throughout the organisation.

  • Lord Tebbit – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Tebbit – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tebbit on 2016-09-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Ragwort Control Act 2003 in preventing the spread of ragwort.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The effectiveness of this Act is assessed annually by recording details of complaints and enforcement cases. Research undertaken for Defra in 2013 concluded that ragwort is not becoming more widespread.

    The Ragwort Control Act 2003 contains provision for a Code of Practice for the management and control of ragwort.

    Common ragwort is one of the five, so called ‘injurious weeds’ and is toxic to grazing livestock including horses, so the priority is to protect them where there is a risk of them ingesting dead, dying or green ragwort. The Government recognises the impact that ragwort ingestion can have and we ask that landowners take all reasonable steps to ensure that ragwort does not spread from their land onto adjoining land, where it poses a risk to grazing livestock, land used for grazing or to produce hay/forage. Where complaints are received and there is a genuine risk to grazing livestock then action to ensure compliance is taken with private individuals or public bodies.

  • Jim Dowd – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Dowd – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dowd on 2015-11-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many students have enrolled at further education establishments in (a) London, (b) the London Borough of Lewisham, (c) the London Borough of Southwark and (d) the London Borough of Bromley in each of the last five years.

    Nick Boles

    Adult skills funding allocations to further education providers are published on the Skills Funding Agency website:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2015-to-2016

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2014-to-2015

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-funding-allocations-to-training-providers-2005-to-2013

    Funding to further education providers for learners aged 16-18 is provided by the Department for Education.

    Information on the number of learners participating in English and maths courses by geography from 2005/06 onwards is published in a supplementary table (first link) to a Statistical First Release at the FE Data Library (second link). Information on the number of learners participating in further education and skills by geography from 2005/06 onwards is published in a second supplementary table (third link).

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/382085/englishandmaths-participation-by-geography-learner-demographics.xlsc

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fe-data-library

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/378262/feandskills-participation-by-geography-learner-demographics.xls

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  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to reduce net migration from Europe, other than seeking reform of provision of welfare for non-British EU citizens.

    James Brokenshire

    Free movement is an important principle of the EU but it is not an unqualified right and it must be grounded in the freedom to take up work in another Member State, to contribute to the economy and to integrate into society.

    We have taken firm steps to restrict access to out of work benefits by EU jobseekers and we can remove them if they are not in a job within six months. We have removed access to Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for jobseekers and introduced a new test to check whether EU nationals who claim in-work benefits really have meaningful and effective employment here.

    We have toughened the Habitual Residence Test, the gateway test which all migrants have to satisfy to access benefits, and we have introduced tougher checks for the payment of child benefit and child tax credit to EU nationals. To tackle abuse, we have introduced new powers so that EU nationals who don’t meet the requirements for residence are removed and banned from coming back for 12 months, unless they have a valid reason to be here (for example an immediate job start).

    The Prime Minister set out in his speech on 10 November and in his letter to the President of the European Council the issues we are seeking to tackle through the EU reform negotiations to restore a sense of fairness to our immigration system and to reduce the current very high level of population flows from within the EU into the UK.