Tag: Parliamentary Question

Ian Lavery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2014-04-29.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the performance of the Tax Credit Error and Fraud Adding Capacity trial involving the private company Transactis in 2013.

Nicky Morgan

From April to July 2013, HMRC carried out a trial to test whether it would be feasible to increase the number of compliance checks on tax credits claims, through the use of private sector resource. HMRC will publish the evaluation of the trial and the customer research report in due course.

It is not appropriate to place the business case in the public domain given the commercial sensitivities and the risk of prejudice to HMRC’s ability to tackle tax credits error and fraud.

In terms of the external costs of the trial, I refer the Hon Member to the Thirty-Fourth Report of the Committee of Public Accounts [2013/14] into HMRC Tax Collection: Annual Report & Accounts 2012–13, which may be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpubacc/666/66602.htm. All internal HMRC operating costs are published annually in the HMRC Annual Report and Accounts.

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01/11/2022
Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to extend pilot treatments for motor neurone disease; and what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the devolved adminstrations on those pilots.

Norman Lamb

The Department is not managing any pilot treatments for motor neurone disease (MND) and no recent discussions have taken place between the Department’s Ministers and the devolved administrations about pilots for MND.

01/11/2022
Charlotte Leslie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the number of surgical care practitioners on the training of junior doctors in surgery.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Government has mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service.

HEE supports the delivery of excellent healthcare and health improvement to the patients and public of England, by ensuring that our workforce has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours, at the right time and in the right place. A key part of that role is a continuing responsibility for ensuring the provision of an appropriate number of surgical trainees. Assurance of the quality of surgical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council.

01/11/2022
Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the deportation order served on Didier Pierre Paulet on 19 November 2007 pursuant to a recommendation by a Crown Court Judge for deportation has been implemented; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office does not comment on individual cases.

01/11/2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what items prisoners are barred from purchasing with earned income.

Jeremy Wright

Prisoners are barred from purchasing those items which could compromise good order, security and safety, or which is otherwise unlawful. Prisoners are also not permitted to purchase items that are prohibited for reasons of Public Protection.

Under the incentives and Earned privileges national policy framework, prisoners can purchase those items that the Governor has selected from the standardised facilities list, which identifies and limits the property that prisoners can retain in their cells.

01/11/2022
Jim Murphy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Murphy on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in Pakistan and neighbouring countries about honour killings.

Justine Greening

Following the brutal murder of Farzana Parveen in Lahore on 27 May, I raised this issue at various levels in the Government of Pakistan. The Foreign Secretary and senior HMG officials in Pakistan have also publically and privately condemned the appalling crime of ‘honour killings’ and called for immediate action to bring the culprits of the 27 May attack to justice.

HMG regularly engages with the government and civil society in Pakistan on women’s rights and violence against women, including so-called ‘honour killings’. Across DFID’s programmes in Pakistan we are helping women and girls to live healthy and secure lives.

01/11/2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the proven re-offending rate was of (a) those released from prison and (b) those released from prison who self-identified as Muslim in each year since 2010.

Jeremy Wright

The latest proven re-offending rates for those offenders released from prison can be found in tables 1 and 2 below. Table 1 provides overall proven re-offending rates for offenders released from prison and has been taken from the Proven Re-offending Statistics Quarterly Bulletin series. Table 2 provides proven re-offending rates for Muslim offenders released from prison.

A proven re-offence is defined as any offence committed in a one year follow-up period resulting in a court conviction, caution, reprimand or warning in the one year follow-up. Following this one year follow-up, a further six month waiting period is allowed for the offence to be proven in court.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. A prisoner’s religion is self declared and prisoners are under no obligation to declare.

1. A certain proportion of offenders could not be matched to the Police National Computer (PNC) and are, therefore, not included. Therefore, this number does not represent all proven offenders

1. A certain proportion of offenders could not be matched to the Police National Computer (PNC) and are, therefore, not included. Therefore, this number does not represent all proven offenders.

2. Data on offenders’ religious beliefs are not available for 2010 due to data quality issues following the introduction of a new prison IT system.

01/11/2022
Yasmin Qureshi – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Yasmin Qureshi on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provisions available to support child victims and witnesses within the courts system; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Green

We do everything we can to support child witnesses and help them give their best possible evidence to bring offenders to justice.We are piloting recorded pre-trial cross-examination, allowing vulnerable witnesses for the first time to give evidence in advance of trial.

In ‘Transforming the Criminal Justice System: Strategy and Action Plan’ (June 2013), the Ministry of Justice committed to improving the consistency and take-up of special measures for vulnerable and intimidated victims and witnesses, such as the use of live-link, screens in court and the use of an intermediary (communication specialist). We are working with other criminal justice agencies to deliver this.

Child victims and witnesses are automatically eligible for special measures when giving evidence in court. The presumption in most cases is that they should give their evidence by video-recorded statement, and that any subsequent cross-examination is conducted by live-link with a supporter present who has been approved by the court.

The pre-trial cross-examination pilot ends in October 2014 and the evaluation of the pilot will inform plans for any future rollout of the measure.

01/11/2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many prisoners did not have (a) Key Stage 1, (b) Key Stage 2 and (c) Key Stage 3 qualifications in (i) English and (ii) mathematics when they entered prison in each of the last five years.

Matthew Hancock

We do not centrally hold information on prior attainment.

Work is under way to introduce, this summer, mandatory education assessment by the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) provider for all newly-received prisoners. This will ensure that all offenders, not just those that go on to learning, receive a learning assessment (focused around English and maths, but also covering learning difficulties and disabilities).

Table 1 shows Offender Learner English and Maths Achievements for the 2012/13 academic year. The data are broken down by Level rather than Key Stage as this is the appropriate measure for further education qualifications.

Table 1: Offender Learners – English and Maths Achievements by level, 2012/13

Level

English

Maths

Entry level

5,100

5,250

Level 1

3,550

4,020

Level 2

1,280

1,930

Total

9,300

10,100

Notes

1) The data source is the Individualised Learner Record.

2) Volumes are rounded to the nearest ten except for the Grand Totals which are rounded to the nearest hundred.

3) Learners undertaking courses at more than one level will be counted once for each applicable level, but once only in the Total.

4) Offender learners are defined as offenders aged 18 or over that participated in Skills Funding Agency funded learning while in the prison system. These offenders were funded via the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) budget.

Information on Offender Learner English and maths achievements by level for 2010/11 and 2011/12 is published as a Supplementary Table to a Statistical First Release. Data for earlier years are not available on a comparable basis.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284253/January2013_OLASS_Participation_Achievement.xls

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-further-education-and-skills

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01/11/2022
Madeleine Moon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Madeleine Moon on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve the personal independence claims and decision making process.

Mike Penning

We are committed to driving up PIP performance, and I am in regular contact with providers to do this – as you would expect. Unlike DLA, PIP involves a face to face consultation for most applicants. Around 80% of claimants will see a health professional instead of around 6% of DLA.

We acknowledge that claims are currently taking too long and we have taken steps to improve performance. So far we have introduced:
- A dedicated phone service;
- An electronic transfer of information between claimant’s health professional, DWP and assessment providers.
- A new process to enable SRTI decisions to be made in-house with support from health care professionals.
- A streamlined Assessment Report form.
01/11/2022

Level	English	Maths
Entry level	5,100	5,250
Level 1	3,550	4,020
Level 2	1,280	1,930
Total	9,300	10,100