The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many (a) permanent and (b) non-permanent staff were employed in her Department on 1 June 2014.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
As of 1 June 2014, my Department employed 155 permanent members of staff made up of Home Civil Servants and Northern Ireland Civil Servants staff seconded to the Northern Ireland Office. Three part-time members of staff are engaged on an annual contract.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he expects High Speed 2 will require a separate ticket pricing structure from regular rail services.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The HS2 business case demonstrates that the project can deliver significant benefits for the country without any fares differential being required for journeys using the high speed line. It is too soon to know what fares will be set for travel on HS2 services. Government decisions about fares structures and regulation will be taken closer to the commencement of HS2 Phase One services in 2026.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2014-06-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many households with a below-average income have received support for comprehensive insulation of their homes in the last year.
Gregory Barker
The Coalition Government is committed to fighting fuel poverty through the installation of robust energy efficiency measures.
Statistics published this morning show that from the start of 2013 to the end of April 2014, 394,000 low-income and vulnerable consumers, or households in specified areas of low income, had benefitted from energy efficiency measures being installed under the new Energy Company Obligation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate his Department has made of the number of households that will receive cashback under the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16, (c) 2016-17 and (d) all further years for which funding has been allocated.
Gregory Barker
The total number of homes supported under the GDHIF scheme will be dependent on a number of factors. Given these are unknown factors currently, the number of homes potentially supported could vary significantly. Up to £120m has been allocated to this scheme for 2014/15. A decision on allocating funding for future years has yet to be taken.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many times she has visited Northern Ireland since 1 January 2014; and what the length was of each such visit.
Mrs Theresa Villiers
I have visited Northern Ireland 14 times since 1 January 2014. On two occasions the length of the visit was a day, on ten occasions the length of the visit was two days and on two occasions the length of the visit was 3 days.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to compensate people who have paid for an upgrade in their passport application as a result of delays in processing their original application.
James Brokenshire
Anyone who needs to travel within the next seven days and who has waited longer
than the standard processing time of three weeks, through no fault of their
own, will be able to upgrade their application without charge. After their
application has been through the proper checks, the processing, printing and
delivery of the new passport will be fast-tracked for free. This policy was
announced by the Home Secretary to the House of Commons on 12 June and will
not be applied retrospectively.
HM Passport Office’s policy on compensation is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/compensation-and-complaints-handling
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what formula is being used to distribute (a) the £185 million fund to help repair local roads damaged by severe weather announced and (b) the £200 million Challenge Fund announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2014 Budget Statement.
Mr Robert Goodwill
(a) The distribution of the £185 million provided to help repair local roads damaged by severe weather is described table below.
(b) Funding formula for the £200 million Challenge Fund announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 2014 Budget Statement.
£32 million is being provided directly to the devolved administrations as a result of the Barnett formula. It is a matter for the devolved administrations how their shares of the funds are used.
On 24 April 2014 English local highway authorities were in invited to bid for a share of a £168 million Pothole Fund to repair local roads.
Local authorities wishing to apply for a share of the funding are required to submit an application to the Department for Transport by 22 May 2014. Details of the application are available to view via:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pothole-fund-2014-to-2015-application
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2014-06-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recent report from Mind entitled Fulfilling Potential? ESA and the fate of the Work-Related Activity Group.
Esther McVey
The Government has put in place a comprehensive system of support for disabled people and those with health conditions. We keep all our policies under review and are committed to improving further the employment support offered.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graeme Morrice on 2014-04-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many days were lost due to illness among Jobcentre Plus staff in (a) the UK, (b) Scotland, (c) West Lothian local authority area and (d) Livingston constituency in each of the last five years.
Mike Penning
DWP has robust and effective measures in place for managing sickness absence and has succeeded in cutting sickness absence from an annual average of 11.1 days per employee in 2007 to 6.9 days per employee currently. To place this in context the Civil Service average is 7.6 days.
Jobcentre Plus was re-structured and absorbed into a revised Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Operations structure in October 2011. Since that point, it has no longer existed as a separate organisation. This means the information beyond September 2011 is not available.
In accordance with cross government arrangements; the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reports sick leave expressed as average working days lost (AWDL) per employee, over a rolling 12 month period
The following table shows Jobcentre Plus AWDL for 2009/10 and 2010/11. Information was not available for the period April to September 2011 because this was less than a 12 month period.
|
2009/10 |
2010/11 |
|
|
UK |
8.8 |
8.6 |
|
Scotland |
8.2 |
7.3 |
|
West Lothian LA Area |
9.6 |
7.4 |
|
Livingston Constituency* |
10.9 |
6.1 |
*Information by Parliamentary Constituency is not held directly but information is available by office, therefore we have created a combined figure for the two offices in the Constituency – Livingstone Jobcentre and Broxburn Jobcentre.
To put these reductions into context, if Average Working Days Lost in DWP was still at the level it was in 2007, the Department would be paying over £27.5m more in sick pay than it is at present.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Drake on 2014-06-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to lower the level of fees for access to employment tribunals.
Lord Faulks
The Justice Secretary is committed to reviewing the impact of the introduction of fees in the employment tribunal system. The Ministry of Justice is currently finalising arrangements for the timing and scope of the review to ensure that the impacts can be properly assessed. An announcement will be made when the review begins, and again when it has been completed, setting out the results.