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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress he has made in implementing the Simple Payment initiative; how many people use it; and what steps he has taken to ensure its resilience.

    Mike Penning

    The Simple Payment service is continuously monitored to ensure satisfactory performance. As a result 99.82% of transactions over the past 6 months have completed successfully at the first attempt.

    There are in total 137,617 customers registered to use the service.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what underspend there has been on the Youth Contract scheme; and how any such underspend has been used.

    Esther McVey

    The Government has announced a number of measures to reallocate the Youth Contract underspend.

    In July 2013, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that out of the £1 billion initially allocated to the Youth Contract, £50 million of underspend would be made available to City Deals to support local youth initiatives. Additionally £5m of funding was made available to the devolved administrations to support further youth schemes.

    Funding of £35 million was also allocated to extend the successful New Enterprise Allowance scheme. The scheme has already helped over 40,000 people start up their own business. A further £20m was allocated for start-up loans.

    Further funds were allocated to enable pilots for 18-21 year olds with low levels of skills including maths and English, and 16/17 year olds to receive help from Jobcentre Plus.

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the immigration status is of Tareque Rahman, Vice Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

    James Brokenshire

    For reasons of confidentiality, the Home Office does not routinely
    comment on individual cases.

  • Nick de Bois – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Nick de Bois – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick de Bois on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will invite the Sentencing Council to consult and report on the adequacy of current sentences available for killing with one punch.

    Jeremy Wright

    Manslaughter has a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Whilst sentence lengths for manslaughter have increased by almost 50% since 2008 there remains clear public concern about the sentences imposed in so called “one punch” manslaughter cases.

    Clarification of the sentencing of these difficult cases would assist the courts and be helpful to the public. The Secretary of State therefore wrote to Lord Justice Treacy, the Chair of the Sentencing Council on 8 May 2014, to make a formal request that the Council gives consideration to producing guidance on the sentencing of these cases.

  • Kate Green – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Kate Green – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of half-day sittings in the Youth Court by members of the Youth Court Bench was in the last year.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The Department does not keep this information centrally and it could only be collected at a disproportionate cost.

  • James Duddridge – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    James Duddridge – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Duddridge on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of (a) the economic effect on and (b) changes in tourism revenue in Southend as a result of the closure of East Beach in Shoeburyness for his Department to survey for unexploded ordnance.

    Anna Soubry

    East Beach is managed by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council under a licence agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The decision to close the beach was made by the Council and it will be for them to determine when to re-open it. As such, no estimates have been made by the MOD about the economic effect of the Council’s decision to the local economy.

    A MOD survey of East Beach will assist in the formulation of a risk management plan that will focus mitigation work on those areas of the beach at greatest risk. It is too early to say what mitigation work will be required, when it will be carried out, and how long it will take to complete.

  • Baroness Uddin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness Uddin – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Uddin on 2014-05-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what provisions exist to safeguard monies identified by the Independent Living Fund (ILF) as needed to meet the critical and substantial need of recipients; and whether such funds will be ring-fenced by local authorities to ensure monies are used exclusively for continuation of care when the ILF ceases.

    Lord Freud

    All the funding that would have been allocated to the ILF in 2015/16 to support its users from July 2015 onwards will be transferred to local authorities in England and to the devolved administrations in other parts of the UK. Local government social care funding is not ring-fenced, allowing local authorities the flexibility to manage their budgets locally in line with local needs and priorities. Local authorities have a statutory duty to assess and fund the eligible care needs of all disabled people, including former users of the Independent Living Fund. The Public Sector Equality Duty applies to local government in the same way as it does to central government.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-05-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they expect that an Organisation for Securityand Co-operation in Europe Summit meeting will discuss Ukraine and crisis management there in the immediate future.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has been at the forefront of the international response to the crisis in Ukraine over recent months. The crisis has been a regular topic of discussion on the Organisation’s agenda since the Permanent Council met to discuss it in special session on 3 March. Both the Permanent Council and the Forum for Security and Co-operation have discussed Ukraine on numerous occasions since then.

    The OSCE has launched a number of initiatives to contribute towards de-escalation of the crisis. On 21 March the Permanent Council agreed to the deployment of a Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine. That Mission, which includes a UK Deputy Chief Monitor and nine UK staff, swiftly deployed across the country with a mandate to gather information, report on the security situation and assess how best to meet the concerns of all parties. The Mission is providing regular reporting and recently played a key role in the negotiation of the safe release of the Vienna Document unarmed military inspectors who had been detained in Slavyansk. In Geneva on 17 April the US, the EU, Ukraine and the Russian Federation agreed that the Mission should have a role in verifying the implementation of agreed steps towards de-escalation. The Government fully supports this Mission’s work and is actively backing it with both finance and personnel. The UK has so far contributed over £1 million and is currently the second biggest contributor to the Mission’s core costs.

    In addition to the SMM, the OSCE has been active in Ukraine through the work of its autonomous institutions, the High Commissioner on National Minorities and the Representative on Freedom of the Media, while there has been a rolling programme of visits by unarmed military inspectors under the Vienna Document 2011. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is sending a large scale mission of 1000 observers to monitor the Ukrainian Presidential Elections on 25 May. The UK will be providing 10% of the total number of observers with 10 Long Term Observers and 90 Short Term Observers.

    There are no current plans for an OSCE Summit, while the next formal Ministerial Council is due to take place in Basel, Switzerland on 4-5 December 2014. However the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), has been in regular contact with OSCE Chairman and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, most recently when they met in Vienna on 6 May, while the Minister for Europe, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington), spoke by telephone to OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier on the same day.

  • Lord Judd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Judd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2014-05-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they envisage federation as a possible future constitutional settlement in Ukraine; and, if so, under what conditions.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Ukrainian people will be voting in Presidential elections on 25 May. The outcome will determine the future direction of their country. It is crucial that Ukraine is able to deliver these elections in a successful, free and fair manner, without external pressures. It is not for the rest of the world to negotiate away the constitution nor the freedom or democracy of Ukraine.

    The British Government will continue to support Ukraine’s democratic and constitutional reform process as the best means of overcoming this crisis and helping the people of Ukraine to choose their own future. We stand with them in their efforts to create a better Ukraine.

  • Lord Jopling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Jopling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Jopling on 2014-05-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Newby on 6 May (WA 365), whether they will now answer the question which was put.

    Lord Faulks

    Further to the information given by my Noble Friend on 6 May (WA 365) I can add that the Ministry of Justice does not operate a strict percentage based escalation process for financial issues. The Departmental Board receive a routine update on the Ministry’s financial position at every meeting. This provides a summary of the overall position and, where necessary, highlights any significant variations from, or changes to, budget forecasts.