Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the cost of establishing the Green Deal Finance Company in (a) payments to consultants and (b) other costs.

    Andrea Leadsom

    DECC has made no payments to consultants in establishing the Green Deal Finance Company, but in other costs payments of £10,294.26 in legal support were made in 2014/15.

    The Green Deal Finance Company has not been closed. It is not currently issuing new loans, but continues to collect repayments from its existing loan book. In July 2015, DECC took the decision that the case for further investment was not strong enough in terms of value for money. This decision has no impact on existing Green Deal Finance Plans or existing Green Deal Home Improvement Fund applications and vouchers.

    The Green Deal Finance Company is a private company and has its own internal costs which are not included in this estimate.

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when NHS England plans to publish its response to its consultation on developing a method to assist investment decisions in specialised services.

    George Freeman

    The proposed prioritisation methodology which went out to consultation was signed off by the Specialised Commissioning Committee at its meeting on 31 May 2016 – for use in 2016/17.

    The consultation outcome document will now be published on the website imminently.

    There will be further work undertaken on the methodology in due course to refine and improve it for use in future years.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what account his Department takes of the short and long-term economic effect of the number of births in a household in setting the level of welfare benefits.

    Damian Hinds

    The law relating to the annual increases to certain social security benefits, known as up-rating, is set out in the Social Security Administration Act 1992.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-10-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many civil servants who work for his Department work in each EU member state other than the UK; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Jones

    All departments are equipping themselves with the resources they need to get the best deal for the UK. The Department for Exiting the European Union now has over 250 staff all based in the UK plus the expertise of over 120 officials in Brussels, and we are still growing rapidly.

  • Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-10-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will publish an updated evaluation of the operation of the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Homelessness prevention grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010 and assisted 220,800 in 2014-15 alone.

    The Government does not evaluate the effectiveness of local authority grants including the Homelessness Prevention Grant. As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent from Central Government and are responsible for managing their budgets in line with local priorities. Since 2010, local councils have had more flexibility over how they spend the money they receive from central government. Together with the money raised through council tax and other local sources, they have considerable freedom to work with their residents to decide how best to spend available resources on local priorities.

    My Department regularly engages with a wide range of partners on homelessness prevention. We have received five written representations directly from local authorities on the future of the grant since April 2015.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to increase racial diversity in the workplace in the light of the Business in the Community report Race at Work 2015, which found that ethnic minority Britons are struggling against bias at work.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Equality Act 2010 protects all individuals against racial and other forms of discrimination in the workplace. The Prime Minister has underlined the Government’s commitments to increasing racial diversity in the workplace in his 2020 Vision in which he made a commitment to increase BAME employment by 20% by 2020. Her Majesty’s Government welcomes the publication of the Race at Work report and will study its recommendations carefully,.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to its Saudi Arabian counterpart on the case of Ali Al-Nimr, Dawood Al-Marhoon and Abdallah Al-Zaher.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    We are very concerned about the cases of Ali Al-Nimr, Dawood Al-Marhoon and Abdallah Al-Zaher and we have raised these cases with the Saudi Arabian authorities, on many occasions – most recently on 3 January, at a very senior level. We continue to make representations on these cases and others like it, whenever the opportunity to do so arises.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the criteria are by which his Department measures the level of service provided by rail franchises operating.

    Claire Perry

    Depending on the franchise, we measure the level of services provided by the performance against the set benchmarks (capacity, cancellations and delay minutes), and/or the Public Performance Measure. Some franchises are also measured against the National Passenger Survey results.

  • Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what the (a) policy and (b) other responsibilities are of each special adviser in his Department.

    David Mundell

    I refer the hon Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 29 February 2016.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what definition his Department uses for cyber warfare.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Ministry of Defence (MOD) (through its Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre) does not seek to define terms or elements of terms, particularly those applied in compound form, that are already in common use (i.e. "warfare").

    The MOD defines cyber activity as: "To operate and project power in and from cyberspace to influence the behaviour of people". The OECD defines "warfare" as: "engagement in or the activities involved in war or conflict".

    The MOD describes the active engagement in the conduct of "cyber operations" within our lexicon as being: "the planning and synchronisation of activities in and through cyberspace to enable freedom of manoeuvre and to achieve military objectives." This term applies to activities that include those conducted in war or conflict.