Tag: Parliamentary Question

Stephen Gethins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect that climate change is having on (a) clean water and (b) adequate sanitation facilities in developing countries.

Grant Shapps

Through the UK Government’s International Climate Fund DFID has worked with the World Health Organisation to assess the effect that climate change will have on water and sanitation facilities and has produced a joint report titled ‘Vision 2030’. This outlines the evidence, and sets out what can be done to optimise the resilience of water and sanitation technologies, infrastructure and services. DFID has also funded the Overseas Development Institute to produce a report assessing the risks that climate change poses to the delivery of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes. All of DFID’s WASH programmes require sustainability and climate risks to be taken into account in design and delivery.

01/12/2022
Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2015 to Question 12620, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the level of public subsidy for train operators in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

The level of public subsidy paid to (or premiums paid by) train operators is determined by the franchising process, in which bidders compete for the right to run passenger services franchises. Franchise competitions are designed to allow train operators an adequate financial return while at the same time ensuring they can fulfil their franchise commitments and obligations in full. Last year the Department received net £1.2bn premium from franchised train operators. Further information can be found on the Gov.uk website

(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rail-subsidy-per-passenger-mile).

“

01/12/2022
Meg Hillier – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Meg Hillier on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average time taken to secure appeal hearings for people whose entry clearance applications have been refused.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Published figures can be found at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2015.

“

01/12/2022
Lord Paddick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Paddick on 2015-10-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Airwave Solutions about the transition of emergency services communications as part of the emergency services mobile communications programme.

Lord Bates

The Home Office meets senior managers from Airwave Solutions Ltd regularly to discuss the service that ASL provides. The Home Office’s plans for transition from the existing Airwave service to the future ESN service is regularly discussed at these meetings.

01/12/2022

Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-10-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of patents granted in the UK with other (a) EU, (b) OECD and (c) developed economies in each of the last three years for which data is available; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Figures for patents applied for and granted in different jurisdictions can be obtained from the website of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (www.wipo.int), which collates the figures from intellectual property offices around the world.

The table shows the number of patents granted by national offices and by the European Patent Office (EPO) as recorded by WIPO, for both resident and non-resident applicants.

Many applicants choose to apply for patent protection in the UK and other European states via the EPO. However these are not recorded as grants for the individual countries in the table. According to the EPO around 75% of granted EPs take effect in the UK.

The number of granted patents in any one jurisdiction is dependent on many factors including applicants’ business models, local market structure, and the legal requirements of the jurisdiction, since patent law varies. It also reflects the capacity of patent offices to process applications.

Office	2011	2012	2013
Australia	17877	17724	17112
Austria	1198	1439	1256
Belgium	541	795	745
Bulgaria	128	101	125
Canada	20762	21819	23833
Chile	1013	770	898
Croatia	184	155	159
Cyprus	1	5	1
Czech Republic	687	668	611
Denmark	110	190	309
Estonia	129	116	78
European Patent Office	62112	65665	66696
Finland	841	836	711
France	10213	12913	11405
Germany	11719	11332	13858
Greece	364	291	282
Hungary	445	477	1351
Iceland	67	47	43
Ireland	250	190	214
Israel	5104	3386	1988
Italy	6380	5625	8114
Japan	238323	274791	277079
Luxembourg	65	112
Malta	1	11	15
Mexico	11485	12358	10368
Netherlands	2042	1895	2029
New Zealand	4710	6152	4752
Norway	1612	1310	1430
Poland	3112	2484	2804
Portugal	145	112	130
Republic of Korea	94720	113467	127330
Romania	430	384	451
Singapore	5949	5633	5575
Slovakia	317	161	115
Slovenia	318
Spain	2812	2720	3004
Sweden	1039	999	685
Switzerland	368	455	534
Turkey	893	1004	1211
United Kingdom	7173	6864	5235
United States of America	224505	253155	277835

Source: WIPO statistics database. Last updated: March 2015

01/12/2022

Andy Sawford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Sawford on 2014-02-25.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Government contracts of what value have been awarded to companies or projects based in (a) Corby and East Northamptonshire and (b) Northamptonshire since May 2010.

Mr Nick Hurd

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Livingston on 16 December 2013 (Official Report) Column Ref: 453W.

Information on government suppliers within a specific constituency or local authority area is not held centrally

01/12/2022
Mr Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Frank Field on 2014-02-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in prison in the latest period for which data is available served a time longer than their full sentence.

James Brokenshire

[holding answer 26 February 2014]

For the for week commencing 24 February 2014, there were 821 immigration detainees in prisons.

Please note that the data includes a small number of individuals who have never served a custodial sentence. These individuals present specific risk factors that indicate they pose a serious risk of harm to the public or to the good order of an Immigration Removal Centre, including the safety of staff and other detainees, which cannot be managed within the regime applied in IRCs.

To extract this small number of cases who have not served a custodial sentence would incur a disproportionate cost as this would involve looking at individual records.

01/12/2022
John Woodcock – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Woodcock on 2014-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received on the decision to withdraw the local welfare provision grant in 2015-16; and what consultation he undertook prior to making that decision.

Kris Hopkins

[Holding Reply: Thursday 30 January 2014]

DCLG Ministers and officials talk regularly to elected members and officers of local authorities about a range of issues.

The nationally run Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans were poorly targeted and failed to help those most in need. So, in 2012 as part of wider welfare reform, the Department for Work and Pensions abolished these national discretionary schemes and transferred responsibility to local authorities so they could deliver and tailor new local support as part of their existing services to their communities.

Councils can continue to provide support to those in their community who face financial difficulties or who find themselves in unavoidable circumstances, but there is no requirement to replicate the previous approach adopted by central government.

In contrast to a centralised grant system that was poorly targeted, under the Department for Work and Pensions’ reforms, councils can now choose how best to support local welfare needs within their areas – what is right for, say, Barrow and Furness may not be for other authorities. Some councils have already chosen to wind down their dedicated schemes following underspends.

In the next Spending Round period, from April 2015, central government continues to provide support to local authorities through general funds as part of the Coalition Government’s commitment to reducing ring-fencing and ending top-down Whitehall control.

The Department for Work and Pensions provided a separate fund for 2013-2015 and are carrying out a review of the provision to date.

01/12/2022

Chris Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2013-11-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many overseas trips, and at what total cost, his Department has made in each year since 2010; and what the costs of (a) flights, (b) internal travel, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence were of each trip.

Brandon Lewis

Role of the Department

Reflecting our responsibilities for local government, housing, planning and communities across England, the work of the Department involves staff travelling to different parts of the country.

Improved procurement has reduced our average domestic hotel rate in the UK by 8% between 2009-10 and 2012-13. Moreover, domestic flights for longer journeys can avoid the need for paying for staff to stay in a hotel overnight.

Since 2011-12, the Department accepted responsibility for some new functions outside of London, including residual functions following the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions and then oversight of the European Regional Development Fund following the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies. As these business functions relate to work in areas outside of London and to the European Commission, this has therefore increased our travel spend compared to the base of 2010-11. However, this is far more than offset by the very significant savings to taxpayers of the abolition of these regional bodies.

Based on current estimates (which reflect accounting consequences from machinery of government changes) the DCLG Group is reducing its annual running costs by around 40% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15. This equates to net savings of at least £532 million over this spending review period and includes savings of around £420 million from the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions.

In addition to this, I note that the Regional Development Agencies were spending in the region of £246 million a year on administration (as cited in 11 March 2009, Official Report, Column 592W).

Spending data

The tables below list spending on travel by financial year. Figures for 2009-10 are from July 2009, as this is when the department’s current approved travel agent contract commenced; those figures are therefore only for three-quarters of the financial year, and the full year is likely to be proportionately higher.

	Overseas Travel	Overseas Accommodation	Overseas Subsistence	Total
July 2009 – March 10	£408,621	£19,847	£79,574	£508,042 (part-year)
2010-11	£56,304	£21,759	£27,798	£105,861
2011-12	£69,463	£21,204	£19,946	£110,613
2012-13	£78,474	£29,224	£21,911	£129,609

	UK Travel	UK Accommodation	UK Subsistence	Total
July 2009 – March 10	£621,028	£309,260	£174,888	£1,105,176 (part-year)
2010-11	£434,467	£199,563	£81,315	£715,345
2011-12	£980,307	£162,544	£71,913	£1,214,764
2012-13	£1,030,710	£166,149	£74,424	£1,271,283

Explanatory notes:

– Overseas subsistence costs can include accommodation, meals and travel tickets purchased locally.

– The costs of internal travel abroad are not routinely recorded in the form requested and this information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

– Data on cost per trip is not centrally held in the form requested.

– For car hire, the data from our finance systems do not separate out expenditure for domestic and international car hire and this could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

– For helicopter hire, our records show that the Department has incurred no expenditure on this since 2010-11.

– Figures contained in this answer may differ from previous answers to Parliamentary Questions, as the data extracts have been re-run and reflect ongoing accruals and data. Delays in billing or crediting transactions can sometimes have an effect on the spend data between the financial years.

Taken in the whole, we have reduced overall travel spending compared to the last Administration, and delivered substantive savings for taxpayers’ from the abolition of regional government in England.

01/12/2022

Stephen Doughty – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many times in the past 12 months (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have raised the issue of state aid clearance for the steel sector with the European Commission.

Anna Soubry

The state aid rules on giving rescue and restructuring aid to steel companies are clear and all such interventions are prohibited. Officials have been in regular communication with the Commission to progress our application for the broader support package for energy-intensive industries including steel, and the Secretary of State will be raising this with the Competition Commissioner at the earliest opportunity.

01/12/2022