The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2014-04-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, on which date authority was given for the closure of the Hull Official Receiver’s office; and who gave such authority.
Jenny Willott
The decision to close the Insolvency Service office in Hull was made by the Insolvency Service Board on 18 March 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness King of Bow on 2014-06-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much funding was provided to the London Borough of Croydon in 2010–11 to host Andy Gale as a homelessness advisor and what work was required under the terms of that contract.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
Under this and the last Administration, the Department for Communities and Local Government has provided grant funding to a number of local authorities to support the provision of advice on preventing homelessness to complement the funding we provide to the voluntary sector.
The London Borough of Croydon received £1,591,050 in grant in 2010-11 for homelessness prevention, which was intended to support a range of activities including a contribution to the costs of providing homelessness advice to local authorities in London. The payment to Croydon was made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 (the general power to pay grant to local authorities towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred). The grant was unring-fenced and not subject to any conditions.
As was the position with funding provided to Newham, as set out in the answers to the noble Lady on 13 February 2013, Official Report, column WA165 and of 27 March 2013, Official Report, column WA247, there was no contract either between the Department and the London Borough of Croydon or the Department and Andy Gale.
While departmental officials had discussions with Croydon about how the grant was to be spent, Ministers in this Administration had no involvement with local authorities on commissioning such services.
A copy of the The Homelessness Revenue Grant Determination 2011-12 (31/1974) dated 1 March 2012 which lists the amount of funding received by 47 local authorities in 2011-12 for homelessness prevention work has been placed in the Library of the House.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2014-04-10.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average cost is of recovery of £1 of debt by HM Revenue and Customs debt management staff.
Mr David Gauke
HMRC collects about £475 billion of tax revenue every year. 90% of this is collected by the due date; just 10% of it becomes overdue and a debt that HMRC has to recover/enforce.
It would be misleading to attribute the effect of enforcing tax that is not paid on time outside the context of collecting tax that is collected on time.
Accordingly, we do not routinely measure the ‘average’ cost of collecting £1 of debt.
HMRC uses a number of different methods to recover outstanding debts ranging from automated processes to more targeted enforcement tools as well as partnering initiatives with private sector companies. The application of specific interventions depends on a number of factors including customer behaviour, the economic climate, and our overall approach to maintaining the health of the tax system and tackling non-compliance.
In 2011 HMRC published the results of an international benchmarking study which compares HMRC’s operational performance to nine other international tax administrations. Results from this study showed HMRC had the lowest cost of all ten countries.
Over the long term 99% of taxes due are collected with only 1% being lost to the Exchequer, almost all of which is due to insolvency.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-06-12.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what visits each of the Ministers in his Department have made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
Andrea Leadsom
Details of Ministers’ visits overseas are published quarterly and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-04-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of his Department’s staff excluding non-departmental public bodies were (a) women in top management posts women, (b) women, (c) black and minority ethnic and (d) disabled.
Brandon Lewis
The current proportion of women in DCLG top management posts is 36.8%. Whilst there is more to do to ensure the Civil Service has the very best possible mix of existing and future talent, I would observe that this is an increase from 33.0% from 2009-10, and is higher than the Civil Service workforce target of 34.0%.
I also refer the rt. hon. Member to my answer of 17 March 2014, Official Report, Column 398-400W.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what advice or guidance his Department provides to employers in the media industry on equality monitoring.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Promoting greater equality of opportunity in the workforce is a matter the Government takes seriously. The Government is actively engaging with leading organisations in the media industry who are working together through the Creative Diversity Network to help address the under-representation of ethnic minorities in that sector. The industry will outline the steps it intends to take at a roundtable event in early July. Equality data monitoring is among a number of issues that will be discussed. In addition, Ofcom has a number of duties relating to equality of opportunity, as set out in the Communications Act 2003. These include requiring all UK licensed radio and television broadcasters’ licences to have in place arrangements for promoting equal opportunities in employment on the basis of gender, race and disability, and to review those arrangements with regard to any relevant guidance published by Ofcom.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-04-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of readiness to defend its Overseas Territories in the event of attack.
Mr Mark Francois
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) regularly consults with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other Government Departments and intelligence agencies, as well as our allies and partners, constantly to review or identify potential threats to UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs). In the first instance the MOD seeks to deter such attacks using deterrence measures including, where necessary, permanently based military garrisons or dedicated patrols, visits by deployed military forces, and more broadly the maintenance of world class deployable military forces. Should deterrence fail to prevent an attack, the Department remains confident that it has the necessary contingency plans and high readiness deployable forces in the UK and elsewhere to respond accordingly to any attack on a UKOT.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the National Audit Office report, Army 2020, HC 263, published on 11 June 2014, page eight, if he will provide a breakdown of the costings used to work out that reserves cost around 87 per cent of the costs of regulars when mobilised.
Anna Soubry
The figures used by the NAO in paragraph 11 of their report, Army 2020, HC 263, published on 11 June 2014, were taken from Future Reserves 2020: The Independent Commission to Review the United Kingdom’s Reserve Forces. I refer the hon. Member to paragraph 97. This involved considerable work to develop a Regular: Reserve Cost Comparison Model.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2014-04-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what levels of stock his Department holds of (a) stationery, (b) printer cartridges, (c) treasury tags and other fasteners and (d) other office consumables.
Gregory Barker
The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not keep a central record of stock levels for stationery, treasury tags or any other office consumables. This is because individual teams within the Department are responsible for their own particular needs (with weekly deliveries when required), negating the need for an overall ‘Departmental’ store.
However, printer cartridges are procured and stored by the Departmental IT team. The stock is regularly checked with an aim to ensure there are always approximately 80 cartridges on site (of varying types and colours) to cover four Central London buildings/offices.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the National Audit Office report, Army 2020, HC 263, published on 11 June 2014, page five, if he will provide a breakdown of the £5.3 billion savings that reductions in the army would save from 2012-13 to 2021-22.
Mr Mark Francois
The vast majority – approximately 85% – of the savings referred to in the National Audit Office report, Army 2020, are the direct result of the reduction in the size of the Regular Army from 94,000 to 82,500.
The remaining savings arise from associated cost reductions, such as the reduced requirement for civilian support.