Tag: Parliamentary Question

Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many cases the Schools Adjudicator has investigated in connection with the provisions of the Armed Forces Covenant since 2011.

Nick Gibb

In response to the Armed Forces Covenant, the School Admissions Code (the code) contains various provisions to ensure that children of UK service personnel are not disadvantaged when applying for a school place. Admission authorities are required to comply with the code. Objections citing provisions relating to the Armed Forces Covenant would not be within the Office of the School Adjudicator’s jurisdiction (excluding those relating to service premium admission).

The Office of the School’s Adjudicator has not received any objections relating to this issue.

01/01/2023

Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the signatories to the Corporate Covenant are (a) educational establishments, (b) public health bodies, including NHS foundation trusts, (c) ambulance trusts and (d) private sector limited companies.

Mark Lancaster

As at 8 March 2016 a total of 891 organisations had signed a Corporate Pledge to the Armed Forces Covenant. The requested breakdown is provided below:

Educational establishments (including training companies)	79
of which, schools, colleges and universities	41

Public Health Bodies (excluding Ambulance Trusts)	25
of which, NHS Foundation Trusts	12

Ambulance Trusts	5

Private companies	763
of which, private companies with ‘Limited’ in their name	355

01/01/2023

Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-04-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People on 13 April 2016, Official Report, column 151WH, on personal independence payments, what the statistical evidential basis is for the statement that more often than not decisions are overturned at reconsideration and appeal because of additional evidence that has been provided.

Justin Tomlinson

The Department gathers information on the reasons why PIP decisions have been overturned from its Presenting Officers and the summary reasons it gets back from the Tribunal hearing. Internal Management Information for 2015/16 indicates that either new oral or documentary evidence supplied at the hearing are the leading reasons for PIP decisions being overturned in 75% of overturns recorded.

These figures are from internal DWP systems, where only one of possible multiple reasons can be recorded, and are derived from unpublished information and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics standard.

This is consistent with findings from a pilot held in 2012 which published statistics on why benefit decisions by DWP decision makers were overturned at Tribunal. Early analysis of appeals allowed from pilot data based on pilot data from July to October 2012 is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223139/sscs_appeals.pdf

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01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many civil servants in his Department are paid through limited companies.

Mr Mark Francois

No civil servants in my Department are paid through limited companies.

01/01/2023
Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the West Yorkshire police force has made on piloting and evaluating the use by police officers of body-worn cameras.

Brandon Lewis

We know that the majority of forces in England and Wales use Body Worn Video (BWV) to some extent. The deployment of BWV is an operational decision for chief officers. However, we are aware that West Yorkshire Police are operating a phased rollout of body worn video cameras to frontline officers following an initial pilot, with officers in the Bradford and Calderdale districts already equipped.

01/01/2023
Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-10-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they ensure that funds spent by the British Embassy in Pyongyang or funds dispersed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for North Korea activities are not diverted by the government of North Korea for use in its nuclear programme or human rights abuses.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) projects in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are usually delivered through international Non-Governmental Organisations who operate in-country and are aimed at assisting some of the most vulnerable groups in North Korean society. Before selecting an implementing partner relevant due diligence checks are carried out which include, but are not limited to, obtaining assurances about: training provided to staff in relation to reporting bribery and corruption; how those concerns are shared with donors; and what policies, principles and procedures the organisation has in place to regulate its own conduct.

In line with standard FCO project requirements detailed budgets are required for all projects and these are carefully checked to ensure both in-country and other costs are reasonable. Project implementers are required to provide financial reports and originals or copies of all invoices and receipts, as well as a Project Completion Report containing a detailed breakdown of all expenditure during the project period. The final payment on any project is only released after submission of a satisfactory Project Completion Report.

01/01/2023
Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made by the Emerging Industry Action Group.

Anna Soubry

The Emerging Industry Action Group for the sharing economy held its first meeting on 12th November 2015. Businesses from across the sector have agreed to participate in the group and attended the meeting to set out their views on the key challenges and opportunities for both businesses and the Government in making the UK one of the best places to start and grow a sharing economy business.

01/01/2023
Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many appeals were heard in the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) relating to immigration decisions made by her Department in each of the last five years; for how many of those cases her Department did not appoint a legal representative; and in how many of those cases where no legal representative was appointed the appeal was upheld.

James Brokenshire

The Ministry of Justice publishes data at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics on the total number of appeals disposed at the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) which includes all types of immigration appeal. Due to the way that data is recorded on Home Office systems, overseas appeals have been excluded from the data set included in the table attachment. The data also excludes paper cases at which a Home Office representative is not required.

The Home Office is usually represented at appeal hearings by a Home Office Presenting Officer acting as a Crown representative on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) in immigration appeals pursuant to s84 (6) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Section 84 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 covers who can act as legal representatives in immigration appeals. Subsection 6 specifies that persons acting on behalf of the Crown or relevant Government Department can represent the SSHD at immigration appeals and do not need to be a legally qualified person. However in some cases barristers have also been used.

The proportion of oral appeals not represented increased between January – September 2015 in comparison to the previous 2 years. This was the result of the availability of Presenting resource in the Home Office to match court listing schedules which varied from forecasts used for planning purposes to a significant extent. Resources were put in place to ensure that representation rates increased in the final three months of the calendar year.

01/01/2023

Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs brought into the UK under the Pet Travel Scheme were found to be non-compliant with that scheme’s requirements in each year since 2012.

George Eustice

The requirement to ensure that pet dogs travel to Great Britain on approved routes is the responsibility of the relevant transport companies. It is a condition of their approval that the transport companies check 100% of pets declared by their owners for compliance with the EU Pet Travel Scheme.

The table below lists the number of audits completed by APHA staff on pet checkers and the number of fails identified during the audits.

Year	No of Pets travelling to GB under PETS	No. of QA checks on Pet animals	No. of non-compliances
2012	184,338	6070	74
2013	167,507	4894	58
2014	170,659	5978	54
2015	267,613	4863	69

The data on the number of pets travelling from 2012/2014 was taken from the PETS database. We rely upon Pet checkers who operate upon behalf of APHA to complete the database and so cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. A different system of recording the number of pets entering Great Britain in 2015 was implemented in Jan 2015. However, we still rely on pet checkers to provide this info and so cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data.

Of the pets found not to be in compliance with the entry rules, these pets were either detained until their compliance could be established, re-exported or placed into quarantine.

01/01/2023

Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of fair access protocols on pupil referral units.

Nick Gibb

Fair access protocols exist to ensure that, outside the normal admissions round, unplaced children, especially the most vulnerable, are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible and that no school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children with challenging behaviour or children excluded from other schools.

Fair access protocols do not have a direct impact on pupil referral units.

It is for local authorities, together with the schools in their area, to decide on which children should be eligible for consideration under their fair access protocol, which as a minimum must include children from pupil referral units who need to be integrated back into mainstream education.

01/01/2023