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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Charlie Elphicke – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Charlie Elphicke – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlie Elphicke on 2014-06-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 197W, on Mapeley, whether HM Revenue and Customs reviewed these commercial provisions following the raising of financial concerns by Mapeley in November 2001.

    Mr David Gauke

    There have been no material changes to the relevant commercial provisions in the STEPS contract. A copy of the contract can be viewed on the National Archive website at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/freedom/steps-contract.htm

    “

  • Mark Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Mark Williams – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Williams on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to help the tourism industry retain its role as a key provider of skills and training for the UK workforce.

    Mrs Helen Grant

    The Government has recently launched a new Tourism Council, whose remit is jobs, skills and enterprise. The Council is a partnership between Government and industry and will be jointly chaired by myself, Matthew Hancock MP, the Minister for Skills and Enterprise, and Simon Vincent, Chair of the Hospitality Guild and Hilton President, Europe, Middle East and East Africa. In March, the Prime Minister announced that there will be two new apprenticeship Trailblazers for Tourism and Hospitality.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what mechanisms his Department has put in place to monitor the amount of available capacity in the UKOP, GPSS and MLP UK pipeline systems.

    Michael Fallon

    Both the UKOP and MLP pipeline systems are privately owned and operated. Currently there are no statutory provisions that require private pipeline owners and operators to make available commercial information on spare capacity.

    The GPSS is a government owned pipeline and DECC is able to obtain information regarding available capacity on request.

    Following the recent cross- government review of the role of both the UK refining and import sectors in UK, and in recognition of pipe-line access being cited as an issue by some stakeholders, the new independently chaired Midstream Oil Government and Industry Task Force will take forward further work on this issue.

  • Tom Greatrex – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Tom Greatrex – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Greatrex on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of his Department’s consumption in kWh of (a) gas and (b) electricity in each month since June 2010; and what the cost of such consumption has been in each such month.

    Mr David Lidington

    I attach a table which shows the monthly consumption and the annual cost of electricity and gas for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s UK estate. To provide a breakdown of monthly utility costs from June 2010 would incur a disproportionate cost.

  • Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Bryant on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers and vitamins to all claimants of universal credit once universal credit has been fully rolled out.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    We plan to provide access to Healthy Start for pregnant women, new mothers, and children under four in the lowest earning families receiving Universal Credit. Our intention is to ensure that a broadly similar number, and range, of Universal Credit families will qualify as currently do so through income based benefits and tax credits.

    The current annual delivery cost of Healthy Start throughout the United Kingdom (vouchers, vitamins and administration) is approximately £100 million. We estimate that if eligibility were extended to pregnant women, new mothers, and children under four in all families claiming Universal Credit it would increase the total spent annually to around £290 million.

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial provision her Department has made to cover the (a) ongoing legal costs of and (b) costs of a potential settlement resulting from the binding arbitration process brought by Raytheon Systems Ltd.

    Karen Bradley

    Ongoing legal costs will be met from departmental resources, although no
    specific financial provision has been made for this or for the costs of a
    potential settlement. The costs of a potential settlement have been recognised as a
    contingent liability in the Home Office accounts since 2011-12.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of each (a) prison place and (b) prisoner in the case of (i) male and (ii) female prisoners in the latest period for which figures are available.

    Jeremy Wright

    The Department routinely publishes average costs per prisoner and prison place, based on actual net resource expenditure for each private and public sector prison and in summary form for the whole of the prison estate in England and Wales on an annual basis after the end of each financial year. This includes a breakdown of these costs by prison category and individual prison within each category, and separately by prisoner gender.

    The most recently published figures are for financial year 2012-13 which give an average annual Overall cost per place of £36,808 and average annual Overall cost per prisoner of £34,766. An average annual cost per male prisoner of £34,306 and £44,746 per female prisoner, based on Overall resource costs, is also published.

    The information for financial year 2012-13 is available in the Cost per Place and Prisoner and Supplementary Information files on the Department’s website at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics-201213

    Figures for 2013-14 will be published alongside the Management Information Addendums to the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts in October 2014.

    Continuing to reduce prison unit costs is one of the key targets for the Department. Between 2009/10 and 2012/13 prison unit costs (based on Overall prison costs) have reduced in real terms by 16% per place and 13% per prisoner.

    “

  • Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Chris Bryant – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Bryant on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending entitlement to repayment of children’s welfare loans to all claimants of universal credit once universal credit has been fully rolled out in Scotland.

    David Mundell

    The Scottish Government is responsible for defining the entitlement criteria for these passported benefits. They will need to consider the current eligibility criteria and make arrangements to ensure that they can continue to deliver these benefits as Universal Credit is introduced.

    There is ongoing engagement between the Scottish Government and the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that any solution is simple, fair, easy to understand and affordable.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Electoral Commission will conduct research into the use of data matching of local and national databases to better identify people who are entitled to register to vote but who are not registered.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the Cabinet Office has previously conducted several pilots on this topic and the Commission has evaluated them. The full evaluation reports are available on the Commission’s website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/our-research/electoral-registration-research

    The Cabinet Office plans a further pilot for early 2015 and the Commission intends to evaluate this as well.

    “

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the statement of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on 26 June 2014, that ‘I want an analysis of the use of foodbanks that everybody can subscribe to’, whether his Department (a) is producing, (b) has commissioned or (c) plans to commission any new research into the use of foodbanks.

    Esther McVey

    The evidence David Mundell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland provided to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on the 26 June highlighted the underlying complexity to the use of foodbanks.

    The Government has already commissioned a report on food security by Warwick University, which was published in February 2014. The Government has no immediate plans to produce or commission further research, but will keep this under review.

    Benefit clearance times are steadily improving with 92% of benefits being processed on time (within 16 days) nationally which is 6 percentage points higher than in 2009/10.

    We have in place a robust system of safeguards that seek to ensure sanctions are only applied to those claimants who wilfully fail to meet their requirements. It remains the case that the vast majority of claimants do comply and are not sanctioned – each month only around 5% of JSA claimants are sanctioned and fewer than 1% of ESA claimants. Reduced payments are made where necessary to prevent hardship.