Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on the Help to Work scheme in the 2014-15 financial year; and how much of the budget for that scheme for the 2015-16 financial year has been spent to date.

    Priti Patel

    The Help to Work scheme contains a number of initiatives and programmes, delivered through Jobcentre Plus and Contracted Employment Provision.

    It is not possible to identify the costs of Help to Work activities separately from the total expenditure in Jobcentre Plus. The relevant data is not held in a form which allows it to be clearly identified and separated from other Jobcentre Plus activities.

    The two elements delivered through Contracted Employment Programmes are Community Work Placements and the Supervised Jobsearch Pilot. Expenditure on Community Work Placements was £1.8m in 2014-15. Expenditure on Supervised Jobsearch Pilot in 2014-15 was £6.3m. This is funded by income from the European Social Fund

  • Neil Gray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Neil Gray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Gray on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many employees working on the Trident submarine are paid (a) the National Minimum Wage, (b) above £26,500 and (c) above £40,000.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

  • Lord Clement-Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Clement-Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Clement-Jones on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cancer medicines launched since June 2015 are available via the Cancer Drugs Fund.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    No new cancer medicines have been added to the national Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) list since June 2015. As part of its work to reprioritise the Fund in 2015-16, NHS England took the decision not to consider new drugs for inclusion on the national CDF list.

    NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently consulted on draft proposals for the future direction of the Fund. The consultation outlines a new system, fully integrated into the NICE appraisal process, where the CDF becomes a transitional fund – with clear criteria for entry and exit.

    Clinicians continue to be able to apply for cancer drugs not on the national CDF list through the Individual Cancer Drugs Funding Request procedure.

  • David Crausby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Crausby – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-03-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the consolidated local transport budget for Greater Manchester after implementation of the devolution deal (a) in total and (b) per capita.

    Andrew Jones

    The Budget 2016 document set out that a total of £2.86bn would be provided to the places that had agreed devolution deals as unringfenced single pots. This includes the consolidated transport grants. A detailed breakdown of the grant for Greater Manchester will be set out by Ministers shortly.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his Department’s current projections are for Government annual spending on the (a) Cycle City Ambition Grant, (b) Bikeability cycle training, (c) Highways England Funding, (d) Access Funds and (e) any other under the cycling and walking strategy programmes for each of the next five years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The projected budgets for the next five years for the (a) Cycle City Ambition Grant, (b) Bikeability cycle training, (c) Highways England Funding and (d) Access Funds are as follows:

    Programme

    Total

    Cycle Cities Ambition grant

    £99m

    Bikeability cycle training grant

    £50m

    Highways England Fund

    £85m

    Sustainable Travel Transition Year / Access Fund

    £80m

    Much more widely, however, other Government funding streams will also contribute to projects which will deliver improved cycling and walking. Through the Local Growth Fund, an investment of at least £476m is planned by local enterprise partnerships for cycling infrastructure.

    From the Integrated Transport Block funding, local authorities will use £194m to invest in cycling and walking.

    Regarding highways maintenance, from 2018/19 the plan is to change the formula used to allocate local highways maintenance capital funding so that it also takes into account footways and cycleways as well as the roads, bridges and street lighting, which it is currently based on. Once implemented, around 9% of the funding for local highways maintenance will be based on footway and cycleway lengths and equates to £196m.

    In addition, a record £6bn will be spent on tackling potholes and improving local roads between 2015 and 2021, which will benefit all road users, including cyclists.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many free schools are in temporary accommodation.

    Edward Timpson

    As at 23 May 2016, 110 free schools were in some form of temporary accommodation. Some of these schools will be open in temporary accommodation on their permanent site as part of a phased transition.

    Opening free schools in temporary accommodation has ensured that we have been able to meet a need for places and support free school trusts to open much needed new schools at the earliest opportunity.

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-07-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the (a) provisional overall pass rate was for key stage 2 reading in 2016 and (b) overall pass rate for key stage 2 reading was in each of the preceding four years.

    Nick Gibb

    The percentage of pupils who achieved the expected standard (a scaled score of 100 or above) in reading at Key Stage 2 (KS2) in 2016 is 66%. This is published as part of the “National curriculum assessments at KS2 in England, 2016 (interim)”[1] statistical first release (SFR).

    Children sitting KS2 tests in 2016 were the first to be taught and assessed under the new National Curriculum, tests and teacher assessments. The expected standard has also been raised. The Head of Profession for Statistics has made clear that due to these changes the expected standard this year is not comparable with the expected standard used in previous years’ statistics; it would be incorrect and misleading to make direct comparisons showing changes over time.

    The expected standard under the previous system was the percentage of pupils achieving level 4 or above. Performance against this standard for previous years is published in table 1 of the “National curriculum assessments: key stage 2, 2015 (revised)”[2] SFR.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/534573/SFR30_2016_text.pdf

    [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-2015-revised

    “

  • Andrew Selous – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andrew Selous – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Selous on 2016-09-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department makes of whether an adult should continue to have a benefit appointee.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Secretary of State confirms that a claimant requires an appointee if we receive unequivocal medical evidence as to the claimant’s capacity to manage their benefit claim or if, as in the vast majority of cases, the visiting officer, through a series of questions relating to the comprehension of claiming and managing a benefit award, will reach a conclusion as to their capacity to act for themselves. This is specifically a benefit-related capacity assessment and not a mental capacity assessment.

    Once someone has been appointed, they will remain in that role until (a) they wish to relinquish it (b) they themselves lose capacity (c) the claimant regains capacity or (d) they abuse their position by not acting in the best interests of the claimant and the appointment is revoked. This latter requirement is stressed to the prospective appointee when the appointment is being considered and they are required to sign form BF56 to confirm that they understand their responsibilities. The Department also has a review system in place.

    The vast majority of revocations of an appointeeship occur because of information received from a third party alleging financial abuse which is subsequently confirmed on investigation.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the role of the Free Syrian Army in the conflict in Syria.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Free Syrian Army is a collective term used by a range of moderate opposition groups in Syria who are fighting the regime and ISIL. The Free Syrian Army call for a pluralistic system that respects the rights of all Syrians. They reject terrorism and terrorist tactics, and have condemned Islamic extremism. They have been fighting both the regime and ISIL in Syria for over two years with success in a number of areas, in particular in Idlib and Aleppo in Northwest Syria and in Dera’a Province in the South.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.123 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect of uprating the individual threshold in the minimum income floor for self-employed people on the household income of a tax credit claimant family with two children and one self-employed earner under the age of 25 earning £12,194 over the course of a year.

    Priti Patel

    There is no Minimum Income Floor (MIF) in the tax credit system.

    In Universal Credit the MIF is designed to address issues in the current system which enable self-employed claimants to receive full State support while declaring low or zero earnings indefinitely.