The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-01-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what funding his Department provides for local authorities to discharge their responsibilities for vulnerable adult transport.
Mr Marcus Jones
It is for local authorities to allocate funding to individual services from their overall budget.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to protect people living in the vicinity of (a) Heathrow and (b) RAF Northolt from (i) drones and (ii) unmanned aerial vehicles.
Mr Robert Goodwill
A cross government working group led by the Department for Transport is undertaking a detailed analysis of the range of risks posed by drones. This work is ongoing and kept under constant review. Further work is now proceeding to capture and evaluate potential mitigation measures and strategies. Initial guidance on tackling the risks has been provided to constabularies across the UK.
Work is also underway to qualify the specific level of risk posed by small drones to commercial air transport. We are talking to both the Civil Aviation Authority and airports to find technical solutions to the problems around airports, these include mandated geo-fencing or frequency jammers. The CAA has also worked with major drone manufacturers on the geo-fencing capabilities of their products, which has included providing a list of locations such as airport control zones.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-02-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many compensation claims against prison staff were made by prisoners in each of the last five years.
Andrew Selous
NOMS defend robustly all claims brought and successfully defend two thirds of claims brought by prisoners. It is not possible accurately to separate prisoner compensation claims against prison staff from other similar claims (e.g. assaults by other prisoners).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kramer on 2016-03-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much is being spent on advertising the Married Couple’s Allowance; when the campaign started; and for how long they intend it to run.
Lord O’Neill of Gatley
As of March 24 2016, 585,487 couples had successfully applied for Marriage Allowance, including apporoximately 181,00 who applied in March.
The campaign ran until 31 March and final figures are not yet available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-04-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of reforming (a) pension protection arrangements and (b) corporate pension schemes.
Justin Tomlinson
The pension protection arrangements for defined benefit occupational pension schemes have been robust and effective.
The Government keeps these arrangements under review, engaging relevant stakeholders, in order to ensure that members of pension schemes are properly protected, and considers long term as well as short term factors for the pension protection landscape.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of staff in his Department were (a) payroll and (b) non-payroll staff in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.
Justin Tomlinson
The information is provided in the following table:
|
Financial Year |
Proportion of payroll staff (%) |
Proportion of non-payroll staff (%) |
|
2015-16 |
99.4 |
0.6 |
|
2014-15 |
99.7 |
0.3 |
|
2013-14 |
99.9 |
0.1 |
|
2012-13 |
99.9 |
0.1 |
|
2011-12 |
99.9 |
0.1 |
|
2010-11 |
99.9 |
0.1 |
Of the 520 non-payroll staff in the latest year the majority were employed to develop the technology for our major welfare reforms.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the recommendations made by the UK Statistics Agency in August 2015, what plans his Department has to extend the range of benefit sanction data available by addressing gaps in information on repeat sanctions and hardship payments alongside the development of sanction data from the universal credit system.
Damian Hinds
The sanctions publication strategy which details the approach being taken by DWP statisticians to improve the sanctions statistics being developed, which include the addition of Universal Credit sanction statistics, can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-sanction-statistics-publication-strategy
The latest release of sanction statistics within the Quarterly Statistical Summary: August 2016 includes an experimental monthly rate of claimants sanctioned and can be found (on page12) at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-statistical-summaries-2016
The related background information to support this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monthly-rate-of-claimants-sanctioned-background-information-and-methodology
Management Information data on the number of applications and awards for hardship payments were published on 18th November 2015 and can be found at:
We will consider the regularity of future publications of hardship statistics alongside our routine prioritisation of our statistical work programme.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-10-17.
To ask the Attorney General, how many complaints have been received by each regional office of the Crown Prosecution Service regarding each of those regional offices in each of the last three years.
Robert Buckland
The following table shows the number of complaints received by the 13 CPS Areas in the past three years:
|
Area |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
2015/16 |
|
Cymru/Wales |
Not available* |
90 |
121 |
|
East Midlands |
Not available* |
168 |
163 |
|
East of England |
Not available* |
167 |
152 |
|
London |
Not available* |
219 |
245 |
|
Merseyside & Cheshire |
Not available* |
56 |
39 |
|
North East |
Not available* |
97 |
69 |
|
North West |
Not available* |
120 |
140 |
|
South East |
Not available* |
147 |
118 |
|
South West |
Not available* |
86 |
84 |
|
Thames & Chiltern |
Not available* |
189 |
166 |
|
Wessex |
Not available* |
80 |
47 |
|
West Midlands |
Not available* |
228 |
293 |
|
Yorkshire & Humberside |
Not available* |
149 |
146 |
|
CPS Direct |
Not available* |
118 |
66 |
* Due to a technical issue which the CPS is currently resolving, the Area breakdown of complaints received in 2013/14 is not available at this time. The CPS will write to the Honourable Member to provide these figures once the issue has been corrected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-10-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of provision of play opportunities for children with disabilities and complex needs.
Edward Timpson
Play has an important role in supporting all young children to develop and prepare for later learning. The importance of play is recognised in the Early Years Foundation Stage framework [1], which states: “Each area of learning and development must be implemented through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity. Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others. Children learn by leading their own play, and by taking part in play which is guided by adults.”
Early Years educators and Early Years teachers are required to have an understanding of different pedagogical approaches, including the role of play in supporting early learning and development. It is for individual schools and settings to provide opportunities for play for their children and pupils, including those with special educational needs.
We welcome the report published by Sense and their continuing efforts to support deafblind children and young people.
As the Spending Review is underway, we are unable to give details of which programmes will be funded. We have committed to protecting the core schools budget throughout this Parliament at flat cash per pupil. We will look carefully at the impact of changes in schools’ and early years settings’ costs when making plans for education spending as part of the spending review.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework–2
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what procedure his Department has for responding to whistle-blowing reports from staff at Jobcentre Plus.
Justin Tomlinson
DWP operates the standard Civil Service whistleblowing policy, but the Department’s procedures go further by also enabling staff to raise concerns via a dedicated hotline operated by an Internal Investigations team.
DWP is committed to ensuring high standards of conduct in all that it does. For civil servants, these standards are reinforced by the Civil Service Code and the Department’s Standards of Behaviour.