The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost to his Department was of commissioning and publishing the report, entitled Research to explore public views about the BBC, published in May 2016.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The cost for this piece of independent research was £108,085 excluding VAT.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2016 to Question 39897, how many full-time equivalent officials of her Department are responsible for identifying, verifying and processing all asylum cases.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Asylum Operations in UK Visas and Immigration currently have 73 full time equivalent (FTE) staff who are responsible for screening asylum claims. Staff in Border Force and Immigration Enforcement will also encounter new asylum claimants in the course of their duties.
Asylum Operations have 271 (FTE) decision makers responsible for interviewing and deciding asylum
claims. Over 100 additional decision makers are currently being recruited and trained, and we continually review our staffing levels to ensure that we can deal with levels of intake. The figures quoted have been derived from management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has any plans to extend her Department’s policy of free school transport for children between eight and 16 years old living over three miles from their school to match the compulsory school leaving age of 18 years old.
Caroline Dinenage
The government has no current plans to extend the home to school statutory entitlement beyond the age of 16.
It is helpful to be clear initially that young people do not need to be in school beyond the age of 16. There are a range of ways that young people can fulfil their duty to participate in education and training until they are 18, as well as staying at school. Options include apprenticeships or part-time paid work together with study.
The statutory responsibility for transport to education and training for 16 to 19 year olds remains with local authorities, enabling them to make decisions and arrangements which best match local needs and circumstances. Arrangements do not have to include free or subsidised travel; however, local authorities are expected to make reasonable decisions based on the needs of their population, the local transport infrastructure and the resources they have available.
Most 16 to 19 year olds have access to a discount or concession on local travel, from their local transport provider, their local authority, or from their education or training provider. Providers can also use the 16-19 Bursary Fund to support young people with the costs associated with attending education or training. This is often used to support transport for disadvantaged young people.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations his Department has made to the Israeli government on the Children in Military Custody report, funded by his Department, which was published in June 2012.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have held roundtable meetings with Israeli officials to discuss the Children in Military Custody report, most recently on 19 May. Since the publication of the report, there has been some progress on the issue of children held in military detention. This includes piloting of sending summons instead of carrying out night-time arrests, changes to standard operating procedures on methods of restraint, and steps to reduce the amount of time a child can be detained before seeing a judge. There has also been a reduction in the use of solitary confinement and an increase in the use of Arabic to give notifications of arrest. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv continue to push for further progress with Israeli officials. On 27 August, our Ambassador to Tel Aviv lobbied the Israeli Military Advocate General on Children in Detention where the issue of child detention was discussed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bruce of Bennachie on 2015-12-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the recent violence in Burundi.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The UK is deeply concerned by the recent violence in Burundi and supports the East African Community mandated dialogue, facilitated by Uganda, as the only route to a sustainable and inclusive solution. The UK has been active in its response, working alongside our international partners. Under the UK’s Presidency the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2248 which provided for the deployment of a UN team to Burundi. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (Mr Duddridge), visited the region between 15 – 17 December with a focus on Burundi. Mr Duddridge discussed the recent violence with the Burundian Foreign Minister Alain Nyamitwe, and Major General Prime Niyongabo, Army Chief Of Staff. In Uganda, Mr Duddridge had separate meetings with President Museveni and Foreign Minister Kutesa. Additionally, he spoke by phone with Defence Minister Kiyonga. Mr Duddridge also met Rwandan Foreign Minister Mushikiwabo to underline the need for constructive engagement to solve the Burundi crisis. We have intensified our coordination with African Union (AU) countries alongside international partners. We welcome the AU’s Peace and Security Committee communiqué of 18 December which authorised a deployment of AU troops to Burundi to stabilise the security situation. We are exploring what more we can do to support the AU’s leadership at the UN and with our EU partners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-01-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training on UK child trafficking patterns has been provided to French border officials at St Pancras International and Ashford International to help identify vulnerable children being trafficked out of the UK, and by whom.
Lord Bates
The UK Government takes child trafficking extremely seriously. All Border Force officers at the Eurostar ports in the UK France and Belgium have received training in keeping children safe and all operational processes involving children comply with requirements as set out in the Children and Young Persons Act. Border Force and Eurostar have daily contact on operational matters. When passengers are identified by Border Force officers as potential victims of trafficking, immediate action is taken to safeguard the individual by following Home Office guidance on the treatment of the victims of trafficking. Border Force collects data on these cases in order to notify the Human Trafficking Centre. Contact is also made with Camden Social Services Safeguarding Team as soon as possible in order to establish safe care of the child. Eurostar has its own policy on unaccompanied children travelling on its services which can be found on the internet at: http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/accessibility#unaccompanied_children
Border Force has not provided training to French border officials on UK child trafficking patterns. All cases of suspected trafficking detected by the French border officials at St Pancras are handed to the BTP to action. In France and Belgium any concerns Border Force officers have about vulnerable children attempting to travel to the UK would be referred to the French and Belgian frontier control authorities. The Home Office has not had any discussions with Patina Rail about a proposed new routing between St Pancras and Ashford.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing a fiduciary duty for the governance committees of pension funds to their members.
Justin Tomlinson
Under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules introduced in April 2015, independent governance committees (IGCs) have a clear duty to challenge providers on the value for money of their workplace pension schemes, acting in members’ interests, raising concerns and making recommendations as appropriate. The provider must also make arrangements for member views to be directly represented to the IGC.
The provider’s board has a “comply or explain” duty in response to recommendations from the IGC and if the IGC is not content with the board’s response it can escalate to the FCA, to members of the scheme and to the public. When coupled with the IGC’s duty to act in members’ interests, this provides a practical and direct way of ensuring good member outcomes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will review the way in which the shared accommodation rate is calculated to mitigate the effect of the housing benefit cap in the social sector.
Justin Tomlinson
There are no current plans to review how the shared accommodation rate is calculated within the Local Housing Allowance scheme.
For those under 35, not in supported housing, the existing exemptions that already apply to the shared accommodation rate for private rented sector tenants will be applied to the social sector as a minimum.
In addition, for those in supported housing, we are working closely with the supported housing sector to ensure appropriate protections are in place. For this reason we are awaiting the outcome of a Support Accommodation research project and subsequent policy review, to ensure support is focused on the most vulnerable, and appropriate safeguards are in place.
In addition, an enhanced package of Discretionary Housing Payment funding (£870 million over 5 years) will enable Local Authorities to provide support to the most vulnerable claimants.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what records the Government holds on how many job opportunities have been lost due to the time taken for Disclosure and Barring Service checks to be made.
Karen Bradley
The Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body which provides access to appropriate criminal record information for employers through its disclosure service for England and Wales. It also makes independent barring decisions about people who have harmed, or where there is considered to be a risk of harm to, a child or vulnerable person within the workplace. Given the sensitive nature of this work and the reliance on police forces to provide locally held intelligence, it would not be appropriate to introduce competition.
Whilst no assessment has been made of the affect of timeliness on the number of job opportunities which may have been lost, the impact which delays may have on applicants is recognised. The DBS is reliant on police forces completing their checks in a timely manner and is working closely with those forces whose performance does not meet turnaround time targets. In very exceptional cases, where it is apparent that a delay is likely to cause undue hardship to an applicant, the DBS will do all it can to expedite the process by raising an escalation with the relevant police force.
The average end to end time taken to complete a DBS check, including the time taken by police forces, is listed in following table.
|
Financial Year |
Average calendar days for a disclosure to be processed |
|
13/14 |
11.5 |
|
14/15 |
14.4 |
|
15/16 |
14.5 |
The proportion of checks which took longer than (a) eight weeks (b) 12 weeks and (c) six months is listed in the following table.
|
Financial Year |
Disclosures which took longer than 8 weeks |
Disclosures which took longer than 12 weeks |
Disclosures which took longer than 6 Months |
|
% of Disclosures |
% of Disclosures |
% of Disclosures |
|
|
13/14 |
2.6% |
0.8% |
0.0% |
|
14/15 |
4.9% |
2.1% |
0.1% |
|
15/16 |
5.2% |
3.5% |
0.3% |
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of staffing levels for Ofcom in each year up to 2028.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Ofcom decides resource allocation and staffing levels based on the activities identified in its annual planning process. For 2014/15 the average resource cost was £63.8m and average number of staff was 787. The 2015/16 figures will be published and laid before Parliament in July.