The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much has been spent on courier services for passports outside the DX contract since 1 January 2014.
James Brokenshire
Her Majesty’s Passport Office has incurred no costs outside contractual
arrangements with DX since 1 Januar
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by HM Passport Office on (a) 1 January, (b) 1 February, (c) 1 March, (d) 1 April, (e) 1 May and (f) 1 June 2014.
James Brokenshire
The formal record for workforce data is made on the last day of each calendar
month.
Her Majesty’s Passport Office has employed the following numbers of full-time
equivalents
(FTEs).
(a) On 31 December 2013: 3,333
(b) On 31 January 2014: 3,390
(c) On 28 February 2014: 3,434
(d) On 31 March 2014: 3,469
(e) On 30 April 2014: 3,489
(f) On 31 May 2014: 3,506
In order to ensure that the data is reported on a consistent basis, figures for
April and May figures include 196 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) corporate services
staff that transferred to the Home Office on 1 April 2014. This was part of a restructure
of the Home Office Corporate Services function.
Figures are for permanent civil servants employed by Her Majesty’s Passport
Office, including Part Year Appointments and permanent members of staff
employed on contracts for 9 months of the year. This excludes staff on secondment
or loan, and agency and temporary staff – with these staff included, the March 2014
figure is 3,444.
Please note, Her Majesty’s Passport Office records migrated to the Department’s
strategic record system during this period and are subject to enhanced validation
checks. Several months in this time series have a variance of +/- 2 FTE.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Leader of the House, what visits each of the Ministers in his Office have made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.
Mr Andrew Lansley
In February 2013, I visited the Scottish Parliament to examine Parliamentary procedures and practices.
In May 2013, the Deputy Leader of the House and I undertook an overseas visit to the European Institutions in Brussels. This visit provided an opportunity to consider and promote the role of national parliaments, including the House of Commons, in the processes of European legislation.
In December 2013, the Deputy Leader of the House visited Northern Ireland to engage with various Northern Irish charities and campaign groups on the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill.
In February 2014, I and the Deputy Leader of the House visited the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff to examine Parliamentary procedures and the work of the Petitions Committee.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the (a) availability and (b) effectiveness of scrubber technology on maritime vessels.
Stephen Hammond
In October 2012, and again in March 2013, I chaired ‘round table’ meetings of industry stakeholders (from the shipping, ports, exhaust gas cleaning system technology, oil refining and logistics sectors) to consider the best way forward for compliance with the new international and EU sulphur requirements. The potential for reverse modal shift, the maturity and efficacy of scrubber technology and the scope for financial assistance to industry were all key to those discussions. The report commissioned by the UK Chamber of Shipping was produced as a result of those meetings, and officials have taken it into account in producing the Government’s Impact Assessment on the draft UK Regulations to implement the sulphur limits in national law.
The Government went out to an eight-week public consultation on 29 April 2014 on those draft UK Regulations. Meanwhile, Government officials continue to work closely with the industry and to explore the scope for securing EU finance, possibly under the Trans-European Network (commonly known as TEN-T) programme and affordable capital from the European Investment Bank, for shipowners and ports who wish to invest in scrubber technology or in technology associated with the use of an alternative fuel, such as liquefied natural gas, to comply with the new limits.
The UK Regulations will be reviewed in accordance with normal Government practice and consistent with the principles of better regulation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of jobseeker’s allowance claims processed within (a) 10, (b) 20, (c) 30, (d) 40, (e) 60 and (f) more than 60 working days.
Esther McVey
The information requested is not available.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he intends to respond to the recommendations made by the Social Security Advisory Committee in Occasional Paper 12 published in April 2014; and if he will make a statement.
Steve Webb
The Department is currently considering its response to the Social Security Advisory Committee’s recent study “The Cumulative Impact of Welfare Reform: a Commentary“. A response will be published in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which GP practices have been identified by NHS England as potentially losing more than £3 per patient in 2014-15 following the withdrawal of the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee.
Dr Daniel Poulter
NHS England has published an anonymised list of ‘outliers’ which can be found at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gp-gms-practices.pdf
Because the information is commercially sensitive, details that could identify individual practices have not been released.
The Minimum Practice Income Guarantee is being phased out over a period of seven years because it is inequitable, and the money released will be reinvested into basic payments made to all General Medical Services practices.
NHS England is supporting the most affected practices.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has given local authorities on ensuring that road safety is not compromised by street lighting being switched off; and if he will make a statement.
Brandon Lewis
Street lighting plays an important role in road safety, as well as ensuring the personal safety of pedestrians.
As I stated in my answer to the rt. hon. Member for Leeds Central, (Hilary Benn), on 13 May 2014, Official Report, Column 535-536W, there is no prescriptive Whitehall guidance on street lighting, and any assessment will depend on local circumstances and local views. In addition, Manual for Streets, while out of date in certain areas (e.g. on parking and density), contains some useful guidance on getting the balance right when providing street lighting, taking into account the different issues around safety, crime prevention, street clutter and light pollution. It can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/manual-for-streets.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jason McCartney on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have not received homecare medicines and products on time for treatment of (a) cystic fibrosis, (b) HIV and (c) rheumatoid arthritis in the last year.
Norman Lamb
This information is not collected by the Department or NHS England.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2014-06-11.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the ability of Thames Water to service the costs of building the proposed Thames Tideway Tunnel.
Danny Alexander
The Government’s Reasons for Specification Notice, published on 5 June 2014, explains in detail why the Government believes that the project is of a scale and complexity that would threaten Thames Water’s ability to provide services to its customers. Paragraphs 21 to 35 provide this explanation.
The Reasons Notice is available from the following link:
“