The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Coussins on 2015-11-05.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will continue to fund the Routes into Languages programme after the current funding expires in July 2016.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
This programme is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE). HEFCE will review its spending priorities (including for Routes into Languages) in the light of its grant settlement from Government, following the Spending Review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will establish an independent inquiry to consider the costs and benefits of frozen pensions.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Any independent inquiry to consider the costs and benefits of frozen pensions for the Civil Service Pension Scheme will be a matter for the Cabinet Office.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-01-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many press and public relations staff are employed by her Department; how many of those employees are paid more than (a) £50,000 and (b) £100,000; and what the total expenditure was on press and public relations by her Department in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
The Northern Ireland Office employs four communications officers who deal with press and public relations as part of their roles. One is paid more than (a) £50,000 and none are paid more than (b) £100,000 per year. Total expenditure for press and public relations for the current financial year is £255,230 which includes staff time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to make translarna available to boys who could benefit from it.
George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides guidance for the National Health Service on whether to fund selected drugs and treatments. NICE is currently evaluating Translarna (ataluren) for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy through its highly specialised technology programme. The publication date for NICE’s final guidance is to be confirmed.
The NHS in England is legally required to fund drugs and treatments recommended in NICE highly specialised technology guidance within three months of its final guidance being issued. In the absence of guidance from NICE, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund medicines based on an assessment of the available evidence.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Elliott on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on Wales of the UK leaving the EU.
Stephen Crabb
At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK – including Wales – will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-03-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much Network Rail has paid to Southern Rail in compensation for late running and skipped stopping in each of the last three years.
Claire Perry
This information is published on Network Rail’s website – http://www.networkrail.co.uk/transparency/datasets/ – covering the years 2012-13 to 2014-15. 2015-16 is not yet available.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Foulkes of Cumnock on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the corrected Written Answer by Lord Faulks on 13 April (HL5044), how many of those Writs were sent to Peers in (1) each region of England, (2) Scotland, (3) Wales, and (4) Northern Ireland.
Lord Faulks
A total of 808 Writs were sent to Life and Hereditary Peers across the regions of England and the counties of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as follows:
East of England 61; East Midlands 15; North East 19; North West 26; South East 108; South West 49; West Midlands 19; Yorkshire & Humber 27; Central London 164; Greater London 221; Scotland 61; Wales 18; Northern Ireland 20.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-06-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016 on access to housing for post-release offenders.
Justin Tomlinson
The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the welfare policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Act on 20th July 2015. It set out its assessment of the impacts of the social rents policies in the Act on 28th September 2015.
A link to the impact assessments is included:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/welfarereformandwork/documents.html
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what total reduction in government spending has been attributed to policies drawn up by the Behavioural Insights Team since 2010.
Ben Gummer
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) does not track the cumulative impact of all its work over time, only some of which focus on reducing spending or increasing revenue collection.
However, BIT has now run some 350 trials, each of which shows the impact of different policy interventions in different contexts. These show that the team has helped to save or bring forward hundreds of millions of pounds of revenue and has made efficiency improvements in many different areas of UK Government policy.
This includes:
-changing the messages in letters from HMRC to late tax payers was part of a group of trials that helped bring forward more than £200m of late tax debts;
-changing the messages in letters sent by Local Authorities to late payers of Council Tax is estimated to bring forward an extra £3m in one local authority alone;
-changing the way that Jobcentres support people back to work has been rolled out to some 25,000 Job Advisors and is expected to help hundreds of thousands of people back to work faster.
-informing GPs who overprescribe antibiotics that most practices prescribe fewer antibiotics than theirs reduces the number of unnecessary prescriptions by around 150,000 per year; and
-working with HMCTS to send personalised text messages to people who were delinquent in their court fines. This intervention, which significantly increased payment rates prior to a bailiff intervention, could raise £860,000 per week if rolled out nationally and prevent up to 150,000 bailiff interventions per year.
BIT also works with governments around the world and is seeing similar effects in its work in Australia, Singapore and with cities across the USA.
These findings, and many others, are published once a year in BIT’s Update Report. The next edition of this is due later this month [September 2016].
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-18.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the implications of online and mobile applications which require automated access to a user’s banking details for (a) accessibility of banking, (b) digital inclusion, (c) users’ banking security and (d) consumer rights.
Simon Kirby
The government is committed to increasing competition in banking to improve outcomes for consumers. This includes establishing a competitive and innovative environment where banks deliver greater choice and value to their customers. A key element of this vision is ensuring the UK remains the world-leader for financial technology (FinTech).
The Competition and Markets Authority recognised the potential of FinTech and open banking in its retail banking market investigation by requiring the nine largest UK banks to develop and adopt an open banking standard for application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow access to customer account information as set out in the revised Payment Services Directive (PSDII) which comes into force in January 2018.
This will deliver a common standard for technology that allows the sharing of bank data, allowing authorised third parties to access information such as customer banking details and usage, prices and service quality.
Harnessing the potential of open banking means that customers will be able to more easily access high quality, low cost banking services, and improve digital engagement with financial services by helping customers better understand where they could get a better deal. PSDII will set out requirements for enhanced security and consumer protections for online and mobile applications accessing users’ banking details from January 2018. The government will be consulting on the transposition of this directive shortly.