The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average hourly earnings of (a) female, (b) male, (c) full-time and (d) part-time employees of her Department were in each of the last five years.
Karen Bradley
The average hourly pay for Civil Servants in the Home Office by gender and part and full time workers, for each of the last five years is in Table 1.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-03-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what security checks are in place to verify Tier 2 (Minister of Religion) visa applications.
James Brokenshire
All out of country entry clearance applications are subject to an extensive range of mandatory and discretionary checks.
These include, but are not limited to, identity, travel document verification, searches against national and international police records and against previous Immigration history. Biographic and biometric checks can also be made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2016-04-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an assessment of the number of UK merchant seamen, officers and men required to man the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and other merchant shipping taken up from trade in time of national emergency or war.
Earl Howe
Should extra capability or capacity be required at a time of national emergency or war, as has been the case in the past, the Ministry of Defence would charter suitable merchant ships from the commercial market. The extent of such a requirement would of course depend on the nature of the circumstances faced.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-05-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with which public and private sector stakeholders her Department has (a) engaged and (b) plans to engage in the implementation of the Government’s proposed improvements to the SARs IT infrastructure.
Mr John Hayes
The Home Office ran a Call for Information on the operation of the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regime between 25 February and 25 March 2015. We received more than 60 responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, the financial sector, and the legal and accountancy sectors. Subsequently, further discussions were held with private and public sector bodies through a series of workshops.
The Government published the Action Plan for Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist finance on 21 April 2016. The Action Plan sets out the Government’s programme to deliver a significantly improved anti-money laundering regime for the UK. This includes the replacement of the SARs IT infrastructure. A summary of the submissions received following the Call for Information is set out in the Action Plan at Annex B.
In the Action Plan, we announced our commitment to develop a stronger public private partnership to tackle money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and as part of that we will engage with public and private stakeholders to develop the replacement.
The stakeholders will include law enforcement agencies, government departments, and businesses in the ‘regulated sector’ including banks, the legal and accountancy sectors, and estate agents. We will also include regulatory and supervisory bodies, and public bodies for whom SARs are of value.
This engagement will enable us to ensure that the replacement of the SARs IT architecture will deliver significant benefits for all of the sectors involved in the SARs regime. As we set out in the Action Plan, we will reform the SARs regime, making the necessary legislative, operational and technical changes, by October 2018.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2016-06-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the press release of the Department for Education of 4 January 2016, entitled Parents to get greater say in the school admissions process, what assessment she has made of the potential effect that ensuring only local parents and councils can object to school admissions arrangements will have on overall levels of compliance with the School Admissions Code.
Nick Gibb
Our proposed changes are intended to ensure that the Adjudicator is able to focus on the concerns parents may have about the fairness of the admission arrangements of their local school, and is not held up by the need to consider objections referred by interest groups from outside the area.
We do not believe that limiting who is able to refer objections to the Adjudicator will have a detrimental impact.
Any changes will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-09-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the proposal for all African lion populations to be transferred to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix I at the forthcoming CITES Convention in Johannesburg.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government’s current assessment of the lion uplisting proposal against the biological and other listing criteria under CITES is that the entire lion population of Africa does not meet the criteria for inclusion in Appendix I. This is notably the case for Southern African lion populations, which have an increasing population trend. Assessment and discussions are ongoing in advance of the CITES Conference, which is to be held in Johannesburg from 24 September to 5 October 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with his ministerial colleagues on the implementation of the family test throughout the Government.
Priti Patel
Officials from different Government Departments have had discussions with a view to aid the implementation of The Family Test across Government. Activity resulting from these discussions has included holding a series of seminars with key stakeholders and officials to raise awareness of the issues to consider when applying the Test and developing and disseminating relevant evidence, learning materials and best practice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to collect information centrally on how much local clinical commissioning groups spend on independent sector providers.
George Freeman
This information is already collected centrally by the Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-01-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the original date set for the publication of the impact assessment for the Trade Union Bill.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
The Government has published detailed Impact Assessments for the Bill – on the Trade Union Bill, on the Reporting of Facility Time in the Public Sector, and on the Prohibition on Deduction of Union Subscriptions from Wages in the Public Sector. At a meeting with Peers in December, Ministers committed to publishing prior to the Lords Committee stage of the Bill, and they were published in good time on 21 January.
The Trade Union Bill’s impact assessment has been subject to scrutiny by the independent Regulatory Policy Committee, and its opinion has been published alongside the impact assessment.
They were reviewed and approved by the relevant Ministers in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Cabinet Office. The Permanent Secretary has been kept informed of progress on all stages of the Bill.
Policy officials and analysts in both Departments have worked together to produce the impact assessments as quickly as possible while ensuring that the analysis was thorough.
We have not asked civil servants working on the Bill in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Cabinet Office to fill out time sheets.
We do not record which particular documents each special adviser reads. Special advisers have access to departmental papers in line with the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct and provide advice to Ministers.
I am placing copies of the relevant documentation in the Library.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Saville Roberts on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for Exceptional Case Funding there were in 2015; and how many of those applications were successful.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The Legal Aid Agency publishes this information as part of its official statistics, the most recent edition of which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2015.
Statistics covering the final quarter of 2015 will be published in due course.
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