Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Mrs Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mrs Sharon Hodgson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Sharon Hodgson on 2014-02-24.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil servants in his Department who were promoted in each of the last five years were (a) male and (b) female.

    Mr Francis Maude

    Promotion in the Cabinet Office is based on merit and suitability for the post in question.

    The requested statistics on promotion are not readily available. However, we estimate that male staff constituted 51% of all those promoted since April 2011. This closely reflects the overall proportion currently working in my Department.

    Figures for ethnicity and disability are not available. Cabinet Office does not compel staff to declare against workforce diversity indicators, including ethnicity and disability.

  • Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr David Hanson on 2014-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to investigate the English language test results of students who completed English language tests organised by ETS in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office has suspended acceptance of all ETS tests taken and used in the
    UK whist the scope of the issue is ascertained and to determine the number of people who
    have taken a test and been involved in fraud. We have specialist teams in place
    to undertake this analysis.

    We are looking at all current and past applications. Anyone who is found to
    have used or is currently trying to use evidence that they obtained dishonestly
    can expect to have their leave curtailed and be removed from the UK or have any
    outstanding application refused and leave the UK. We will also seek criminal
    prosecution where appropriate and use all of the measures that we have
    available.

    Our reforms have curbed abuse by closing bogus colleges, making the application
    process more rigorous and imposing more rules on colleges to improve course
    quality. However, as the recent BBC Panorama programme highlighted, much more
    needs to be done.
    The Government will take all necessary steps, but our approach also requires
    the education sector, particularly private or further education colleges and
    those providing secure English language testing, to take on their
    responsibility to tackle abuse.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-01-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many citizens of other EU member states currently living in the UK receive child benefit.

    Nicky Morgan

    HMRC are not able to provide the information in the manner requested. HMRC do not record the nationality of the claimant receiving Child Benefit for children living in another member state.

    Published Child Benefit statistics provide annual estimates of the number of families and children claiming. The latest available (August 2012) show that there were 7.92 million families, responsible for 13.77 million children and qualifying young people receiving Child Benefit.

    The main purpose of Child Benefit is to support families in the UK. Consequently, the rules generally do not provide for them to be paid in respect of children who live abroad.

    Nevertheless, Child Benefit is a family benefit under EC Regulation 883/2004. This regulation protects the social security rights of nationals of all member states of the European economic area, including the UK, and Switzerland when they exercise their rights of free movement under EU law.

    HMRC holds information on the number of Child Benefit awards under EC Regulation 883/2004. As at 31 December 2013, there were 20,400 ongoing Child Benefit awards under the EC Regulation in respect of 34.268 children living in another member state.

    This is a fall of 3,682 (15.3%) awards in respect of 5,903 (14.7%) fewer children since 31 December 2012.

    The breakdown by member state is as follows:

    *We have withheld the number where it is fewer than 5, as there is risk that the information could be attributed to an identifiable person, which would prejudice their right to privacy and would therefore be a breach of Principle 1 of the Data Protection Act.

    Child Benefit

    Country of residence of children

    Number of awards

    Number of children

    Austria

    23

    37

    Belgium

    75

    140

    Bulgaria

    186

    245

    Croatia

    *5

    *5

    Cyprus

    39

    61

    Czech Republic

    124

    203

    Denmark

    13

    23

    Estonia

    45

    65

    Finland

    12

    23

    France

    789

    1429

    Germany

    283

    495

    Greece

    44

    69

    Hungary

    136

    196

    Iceland

    *5

    *5

    Italy

    156

    273

    Latvia

    797

    1091

    Liechtenstein

    0

    0

    Lithuania

    1215

    1712

    Luxembourg

    7

    14

    Malta

    15

    22

    Norway

    30

    61

    Poland

    13174

    22093

    Portugal

    202

    309

    Republic of Ireland

    1231

    2505

    Romania

    230

    392

    Slovakia

    692

    1232

    Slovenia

    11

    21

    Spain

    600

    1019

    Sweden

    49

    95

    Switzerland

    77

    150

    The Netherlands

    142

    288

    Totals

    20400

    34268

    As announced in the 2014 Budget, to prevent EEA migrants claiming benefits they are not entitled to, the Government will increase compliance checks to establish whether EEA migrants meet the entitlement conditions to receive Child Benefit

    Under domestic law, in order to claim Child Benefit EEA Migrants must be present in the UK, ordinarily resident and have a right to reside in the UK and their children must live in the UK.

    The recent changes to migrants’ access to benefits announced by the Government sends a strong message that the UK benefit system is not open to abuse, as well as deterring those who may seek residence in the UK primarily to claim benefits.

    Strengthening compliance checks will help prevent EEA migrants from claiming, and continuing to claim, benefits they are not entitled to. Checks will be applied to both new claims and existing awards.

  • Mr Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mr Clive Betts – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Clive Betts on 2013-05-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to consult on eligibility for free school meals ahead of the introduction of universal credit.

    Mr David Laws

    We are working very closely with other departments, including the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions, to simplify free school meals criteria under universal credit, while ensuring that free lunches continue to be available to the families who need them most. These discussions, which include consideration of a phased implementation timetable, are in recognition of the significant number and complexity of passported benefits across Government, most of which have different eligibility criteria.

    We will allow good time to enable schools, local authorities and children’s charities to comment on our proposals before we introduce new entitlement criteria for free school meals under universal credit.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect small companies in the light of reports that Google’s recent update to its search algorithm reduced visitor numbers to websites owned by small United Kingdom firms.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Through the Government-funded Digital Business Academy, small businesses are provided with a free online learning tool with modules on digital marketing and search optimisation. The Government welcomes the Go On UK scheme, which works in with partnership with large businesses to help small businesses to do more online. This includes guidance on building a website and search optimisation. We encourage all businesses to keep pace with any change in the market, including search optimisation.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who drafted the terms of reference for the Review of the Secondary Ticketing Market; and how those terms of reference were decided upon.

    Nick Boles

    The Terms of Reference were decided upon by Ministers and the Chair following input from major stakeholders.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-19.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people in receipt of tax credits who will have their income reduced as a result of the proposed government changes to tax credits.

    Damian Hinds

    The government set out its assessment of the impacts of the Summer Budget policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July 2015. Taken together, the introduction of the National Living Wage, increases in the personal allowance and welfare changes mean that 8 out of 10 working households will be better off as a result of the Summer Budget.

    The Summer Budget offered a new deal for working people. It means Britain moving from a high welfare, high tax, low wage economy to a lower welfare, lower tax, higher wage society.

    A new National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and above, initially set at £7.20 per hour from April 2016, will directly benefit 2.7 million low wage workers, and up to 6 million could see a pay rise as a result of a ripple effect up the earnings distribution. The new National Living Wage will boost pay for those currently earning the National Minimum Wage by £4,800 a year by 2020 when the National Living Wage is expected to rise to over £9 per hour.

    To help working families keep more of what they earn, the personal allowance will increase to £11,000 in 2016-17 and £11,200 in 2017-18. The government has committed to increase the personal allowance to £12,500 by 2020 which will mean that a typical basic rate taxpayer will see their income tax cut by £1,205 a year compared to 2010.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has spent on marketing the Right to Buy scheme’s extension to housing associations since 8 May 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Department recently set up a ‘register of interest’ to promote extended Right to Buy using our existing Right to Buy website and we also signposted the register across other channels, resulting in over 2,000 expressions of interest to date from existing housing association tenants. As the set up costs have been borne from existing Right to Buy website hosting services, it would not be possible to disaggregate the costs of marketing extended Right to Buy alone but it is a very small proportion of the overall costs.

  • Andrew Griffiths – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Griffiths – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Griffiths on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children have been classified as in need (a) once, (b) twice, (c) three times and (d) four times (i) in the last 12 months and (ii) during their lifetimes.

    Edward Timpson

    The information requested is not available.

    The proportion of referrals to children’s social care which were within 12 months of a previous referral by local authority, however, is published in the characteristics of children in need statistical first release in table C1 here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2013-to-2014

    “

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential change in risk of flooding in South East England if Heathrow Airport expansion were to proceed.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government is currently considering the large amount of very detailed analysis contained in the Airports Commission’s final report before taking any decisions on next steps.

    The Government will carefully consider all the evidence set out, including that on flood risk, when making a decision on additional runway capacity.