The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether Atos staff have been offered any additional retention or performance-related payments since the decision to terminate the contract to carry out work capability assessments was announced.
Mike Penning
The detail of any remuneration of their own staff is an issue for Atos Healthcare and not the Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Thomas of Winchester on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training is provided on disability awareness to staff in Jobcentre Plus offices as part of the public sector equality duty; and what steps are being taken to ensure that awareness by staff of obligations under the duty is improving.
Lord Freud
DWP, in partnership with Civil Service Learning, provides a wide range of diversity and disability learning opportunities for staff.
The ‘Equality and Diversity Essentials’ package provides an overview of the Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality Duty and covers disability for customers and employees. The learning is targeted at all new employees as part of induction and as a refresher for other staff.
DWP offers a follow up ‘Disability Awareness’ course. This aims to build the confidence of managers to give effective support to disabled employees.
DWP customer facing staff are trained in the skills required to support a range of claimants and to respect their individual needs. This approach ensures they are skilled to deal with a diverse set of circumstances, whilst treating everyone as individuals. Jobcentre Advisers, in particular, have access to a comprehensive training programme which focuses on raising awareness of the individual’s personal circumstances, including disabilities, and also recognises that those circumstances can affect individuals in different ways.
The Department regularly participates in external benchmarking activity to measure and improve performance for disabled staff, customers and service users. 2013 results showed a significant improvement in performance from 2012.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
Baroness Warsi
The British Government still sees negotiations towards a two state solution as the best way to meet the national aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians and lead to a sovereign, viable and contiguous Palestinian state, living in peace and security alongside a safe and secure Israel.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Quirk on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many pupils were excluded from (1) primary, and (2) secondary, schools in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and during the latest year for which figures are available.
Lord Nash
The requested information for the 2009/10[1] and 2011/12[2] academic years is published in the permanent and fixed period exclusions statistical first releases for each year.
Information on permanent exclusions for the 1999/2000[3] academic year is publicly available in the 1999/2000 permanent exclusions statistical first release. Information on exclusion rates prior to 2005/06 was collected via the Termly Exclusions Survey rather than the School Census.
Information on permanent and fixed period exclusions for the 1979/80 and 1989/90 academic years is not held by the Department for Education.
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-from-schools-in-england-academic-year-2009-to-2010 (table 1 and 6)
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-from-schools-in-england-2011-to-2012-academic-year (table 1 and 8)
[3]http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120504203418/http://education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000275/index.shtml (table 1)
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Goudie on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to work with the Global Partnership for Education to ensure that an ambitious goal and targets are agreed for education for all after 2015.
Baroness Northover
DFID is working across Her Majesty’s Government and with its international partners in education including the Global Partnership for Education to aim to ensure that, by 2030, all girls and boys completing primary education are able to read, write and count. We are also looking to be more ambitious by increasing the proportion of young women and young men with the technical and transferable skills to get decent jobs.
The main process to define a new goal for education is being led by UNESCO through its Education For All Steering Committee. The UK is represented by Norway and working closely with Norwegian counterparts to further our priorities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Addington on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the preparedness of institutes of higher education to fulfil their duties to students under the Equality Act 2010 following changes to the Disabled Students Allowance.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Discussions are underway with the higher education sector to ensure they are ready to meet their legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 by 2015.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) is currently undertaking a review of provision and support for disabled students in higher education.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tracey Crouch on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people have been awarded a war disablement pension for mesothelioma since 1996.
Anna Soubry
I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 7 May 2014 (Official Report, columns 165w-166w). The Ministry of Defence are unable to provide the number of individuals awarded a War Disablement Pension (WDP) for Mesothelioma since 1996 in the time scale requested. However, as at 31 March 2013, 50 individuals were in receipt of a WDP for a recorded condition of Mesothelioma.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what assessment he has made of how many and what proportion of electoral registration officers (EROs) conducted data matching activities for the purpose of improving individual electoral registration; and what steps he can take against EROs who did not conduct such data matching activities.
Greg Clark
As Individual Electoral Registration (IER) will be introduced from 10 June 2014 an assessment has not yet been made.
In line with current practice, once IER is in place the performance of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will be monitored through the performance standards of the Electoral Commission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, how much was spent by the Government on encouraging people to register to vote in each year since 2010.
Greg Clark
The Government spent £54,708 in 2010/11 on promoting electoral registration, voting and awareness of election processes through the Participation Fund. The Fund was subsequently abolished because of lack of demand from local authorities.
The Government announced a new approach on 5 February 2014, making £4.2 million available to all 363 local authorities and valuation joint boards in Great Britain and five national organisations to support the costs of activities for maximising registration as part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many and what proportion of electoral registration officers conducted data matching of local government databases for the purposes of the dry run for individual electoral registration; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that 137 electoral registration officers (EROs) reported results of the local data matching activities they had undertaken following the confirmation dry run in 2013. However, there may have been other EROs that undertook the work but did not report on their findings.
A survey of EROs, issued by the Commission at the time of the dry run, found that 91% of the 316 respondents said that local data matching would be important in their area during the live run of confirmation. The Commission will report on the full results of the live run of confirmation later in 2014 and this will include the results of local data matching, where available.