The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she received from the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner on changes to guidelines for police stop and search.
Damian Green
Essex Police have acknowledged receipt of the Home Secretary’s letter sent to Chief Constables on 30th April and have advised that they will submit a formal response in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much will have been spent on maintining the closed wings at HM Prison Hull and HM Prison Chelmsford by the time both will re-open.
Jeremy Wright
We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer
This Government has a long term strategy for managing the prison estate. We will have increased the adult male prison capacity so that we have more places than we inherited from the previous Government.
The retention of significant spare prison capacity over and above what is required is expensive and cannot be justified given the current financial climate. The mothballing of spare capacity at HM Prisons Chelmsford and Hull saved the taxpayer £3.6m in the financial year 2013-14. This compares to the significantly lower cost of maintaining this accommodation on a mothballed basis, so that it could be reactivated if necessary.
We have reviewed the refurbishment requirements at both sites and believe that, with minor investment, they can now be reopened on a contingency basis without carrying out a full refurbishment. These costs are anticipated to be around £132k by the time they have reopened. From the end of March to date, around £12k has been spent on Chelmsford, and around £107k has been spent on Hull.
The indicative additional staffing requirement to reactivate the places at Hull is around 65 members of staff – of which approximately 40 are uniformed. The indicative additional staffing requirement to reactivate the places at Chelmsford is around 30 members of staff – of which approximately 20 are uniformed grades. This means we are able to create additional places at an average cost of £7k per place (subject to final benchmarking review), as opposed to the average cost of a prison per place of £26,139.
The staffing requirement will initially be met by short term detached duty from other prisons, before looking to redeploy staff permanently where surpluses exist – and if necessary through external recruitment.
Subject to certification, Hull will create 282 places and Chelmsford 148 places, with prisoners due to start arriving this summer.
The reactivation of these places is a prudent and good value for money response to an increased prison population. Under the previous administration, police and court cells were turned into temporary prisons, with over 50,000 prisoners held in these cells in 2007-08 alone.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of an offence under Sections 141, 142, 146, 147A and 149 (1, 3 and 4), 151, 152 or 153 of the Licensing Act 2003 in the last 12 months; and how many of those convicted were fined the maximum amount stipulated in that Act for those offences.
Jeremy Wright
The number of offenders found guilty at all courts of the listed offences related to the Licensing Act 2003, in England and Wales, from 2009 to 2013, alongside the number of offenders given the maximum allowable sentence, can be viewed in the table.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prisoners and (b) young adult prisoners were on suicide watch in HM Prison High Down on (i) 1 September 2013 and (ii) 1 April 2014.
Jeremy Wright
Prisoners who are identified as being at-risk of suicide or self-harm will be placed on an Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) Plan. ACCT is a prisoner focused care planning system which is used by prisons to manage and support at risk prisoners. The ACCT plan will include what level of observations are required for each prisoner which will be decided on a case by case basis.
At HMP High Down
(i) there were 62 prisoners on an open ACCT on the 1st September 2013, of which 6 were young adult prisoners
(ii) there were 33 prisoners on an open ACCT on the 1st April 2014, of which 2 were young adult prisoners.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Duddridge on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish (a) details and (b) results of focus groups with parents, young people and employers about the behaviour and attitudes of novice drivers.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The number of young people being killed on our roads is far too high and we are determined to tackle this issue. It is an issue which, understandably, features prominently in the range of representations which we receive about road safety generally.
As part of our consideration of the way forward, we met the insurance industry on 27 January 2014 to discuss novice drivers and, in particular, our proposed research into the role which telematics can play in changing the behaviours and attitudes of new drivers. My officials regularly talk to the insurance industry and current discussions are aimed at encouraging participation in the research project before we can get it underway. We will publish the results of the research when they are available.
We will also publish the findings of the focus groups comprising parents, young people and employers which we undertook in order to get a better understanding of the issues from their perspective.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will commission an assessment of the causes of work-related stress.
Mike Penning
There is already a considerable amount of academic research – national and international – that has evidenced the primary causes of work–related stress. The Health and Safety Executive website provides details of a wide range of research commissioned over the past decade http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/research.htm
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2014-06-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been paid in consolatory payments for claimants in (a) Preston and (b) the rest of the UK in each of the last three years.
Mike Penning
Information regarding the amount paid in consolatory payments to claimants in Preston is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The amount paid in consolatory payments to GB claimants in each of the last three years is in the table.
|
Year |
Total paid in consolatory payments £ |
|
2011-2012 |
673,000 |
|
2012-2013 |
700,000 |
|
2013-2014 |
552,000 |
Notes
1. The amounts are rounded to the nearest thousand
2. The information provided is for GB. Information regarding Northern Ireland is a matter for the Northern Ireland Office.
3. The information covers payments made by the following DWP business areas: Jobcentre Plus, Child Support Agency, Disability and Carers Service, The Pensions Service and Debt Management.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Oral Answer of 3 April 2014, Official Report, column 990, on energy bills, how many households are forecast to receive assistance under the Energy Company Obligation (a) in each year between 2013 and 2017 and (b) in total.
Gregory Barker
Our analysis published in the Assessment of Impacts document accompanying the ECO consultation suggested that 8900,000 households would be supported to the end of March 1015 and an additional 930,000 households would be supported to the end of March 2017. This leads to a total number of households supported of 1,820,000
We will be publishing our projections of the number of households supported under ECO in the forthcoming Impact Assessment alongside the government response to ECO.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Dan Jarvis on Work and Pensions.
1
Esther McVey
The estimated benefit savings from Help to Work, which includes community work placement and the mandatory intervention regime, is £25 million in 2013-14, £130 million in 2014-15 and £140 million in 2015-16.
|
2013-14 |
2014-15 |
2015-16. |
|
£25 million |
£130 million |
£140 million |
This information is publicly available at:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Sawford on 2014-04-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department made of the prevalence of grade down-banding of podiatrists employed within the NHS.
Dr Daniel Poulter
There has been no assessment made by the Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt) of the prevalence of grade down-banding of podiatrists employed within the National Health Service.
NHS Employers are responsible for their workforce structure. Grade down-banding or changing the pay structure of the role to a lower grade, is a measure undertaken by some NHS organisations due to re-organisation and restructure.