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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to recognise women’s contribution during the Second World War as part of the 70th anniversary commemorations marking the end of the conflict.

    Lord Astor of Hever

    Following the highly successful events to mark the 70th anniversary of D Day, planning to mark the end of the second world war will be progressed in the coming months. The crucial contribution that women made to the War, both at home and overseas, will be a significant element of these commemorations.

  • Lord Empey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Empey – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so how much, money they have withheld from the Northern Ireland Executive because of its failure to implement welfare reform in Northern Ireland.

    Lord Deighton

    The Chief Secretary to the Treasury notified the Northern Ireland Minister for Finance and Personnel on 31 March that the Northern Ireland Executive’s funding allocations would be reduced by £13m, £87 m and £114 m in 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 respectively.

  • Lord Palmer – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Palmer – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Palmer on 2014-06-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 6 May (WA 447), whether they will now place in the Library of the House correspondence received by the Department of Health regarding the proposed introduction of standardised tobacco packaging from all other government departments and agencies including police forces.

    Earl Howe

    The Government’s position has not changed since the answer that has been referred to was provided.

  • Lord Birt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Birt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the time taken for the United Kingdom economy to return to recovery in comparison to other leading countries; and what they consider to be the reasons for the differences in those timescales.

    Lord Deighton

    UK GDP fell 7.2% between the first quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009. Of the G7 economies Japan was the only one that had a deeper recession, and the depth of UK recession was almost twice that of the US.

    Thanks to the government’s long term economic plan, since the trough of the recession the UK has grown faster than France, Italy, Spain and the euro area as a whole. In the year to the first quarter of 2014 the UK grew faster than any other G7 economy, the deficit has fallen by over a third as a share of GDP since 2009-10 and there are more people in work than ever before. But the job is not yet done and the biggest risk now to the recovery would be abandoning the plan that is delivering a brighter economic future.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking in respect of the proposed reduction in service at the Cannock Chase Minor Injuries Unit.

    Earl Howe

    The reconfiguration of local health services is a matter for the National Health Service. All service changes should be led by clinicians and be in the best interests of patients, not driven from the top down.

    We are aware that local general practitioners in Cannock Chase Clinical Commissioning Group are currently developing proposals for the future configuration of the Cannock Chase Minor Injuries Unit. Any proposed service redesign would be subject to public consultation in due course. No decisions on the future of the unit have been made yet.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to support elderly people who live secluded lives.

    Earl Howe

    The Department is raising awareness of the issue and helping local health and wellbeing boards and commissioners to get better at measuring the issue in their local communities. This will help them come up with the right targeted solutions, and drive local improvements that really make a difference.

    A measure of social isolation will be published this year as part of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework to raise visibility and to support local authorities to address the issue of social isolation in their local communities. This measure will be shared with the Public Health Outcomes Framework.

    The Department is also working with a number of organisations including the Campaign to End Loneliness and the Royal Voluntary Service to promote ways to tackle loneliness, and the Silverline who provide a helpline offering support to older people.

  • Lord Temple-Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Temple-Morris – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Temple-Morris on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken over the last year to move their accounts from foreign-owned to state-owned banks .

    Lord Deighton

    The policy is to hold exchequer funds safe and secure at the Bank of England and minimise balances held with commercial banks. This policy has not changed and HM Treasury has been working with departments to minimise balances held in commercial accounts in recent years.

    Government Departments and most public bodies bank with the Government Banking Service. The Government Banking Service is a directorate within HM Revenue & Customs. It is a shared service which manages contracts and supports banking services to Government departments using cost efficient and modern commercial banking platforms. The balances held by the Government Banking Service are utilised to reduce the Government’s daily borrowing requirement and in turn its financing costs.

    The Government Banking Service undertook an EU Procurement exercise for government transactional banking services in March 2008 following the decision by the Bank of England to exit from retail services. This resulted in the award of contracts to the two most economically advantageous tenders, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBSG) and Citigroup (Citi).

    A procurement exercise is currently under way to replace these contracts at expiry and again will comply fully with relevant EU regulation. Contract notices in this respect were issued on 9th June 2014 and Invitations to Tender will be made in early October with expectation of contract award in early 2015.

    In the rare circumstance where banking is required outside of the contract then the Department concerned must seek Treasury approval to open separate commercial accounts. This will normally be where third party funds are being managed or the banking service required is complex. The Treasury provides an annual update to the Public Accounts Committee on monies held outside the Exchequer/Government Banking Service. The most recent update published in 13 January 2014 and a link to the publication is

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/treasury-minutes-january-2013

    “

  • Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, columns 113-4W, on taxation, how much is owed in penalties and interest for failure to meet the deadline set for self assessment returns in the year ending 31 March 2014.

    Mr David Gauke

    This information is only available at a disproportionate cost.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in open prisons were returned to closed prisons in each of the last three years by (a) reason for their return and (b) type of offence originally committed.

    Jeremy Wright

    We do not centrally hold data on the individual reasons for determinate sentence prisoner transfers, including transfers following re-categorisation and when prisoners have been returned to closed conditions from open prisons. Where this is available, the information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual trawl through the records of every prisoner to identify if they have ever been held in open conditions and subsequently returned to closed conditions.

    However, the information, in part, is centrally available in respect of indeterminate sentence prisoners.

    Table 1 provides the number of indeterminate sentence prisoners who have been returned from open conditions to closed conditions and where the transfer occurred between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2014, grouped by year and by reason for transfer. The data has been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

    We are unable to provide a breakdown of this information by index offence as this information is not held centrally; to obtain it would require a manual trawl through every case and this would incur disproportionate cost.

    REASON FOR RETURN TO CLOSED PRISON

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    Grand Total

    Abscond

    117

    161

    170

    448

    Antisocial Behaviour

    48

    96

    74

    218

    Breach of Licence Conditions

    30

    33

    56

    120

    Drink/Drugs

    139

    171

    256

    568

    FNP

    3

    3

    Healthcare issues

    5

    5

    New charges/offences

    2

    2

    Non compliance

    1

    28

    29

    Other

    135

    235

    298

    668

    Prisoner request

    2

    2

    Psychology concerns/issues

    6

    6

    Serious breach of prison rules

    1

    21

    22

    Grand Total

    469

    698

    921

    2,087

    The main purpose of open conditions is to test prisoners in conditions more similar to those that they will face in the community. Time spent in open prisons affords prisoners the opportunity to find work, re-establish family ties, reintegrate into the community and ensure housing needs are met. For many prisoners who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody; these can assist in their successful reintegration in the community and protecting the public.

    We make no apologies for taking a firm approach in returning prisoners to closed conditions wherever we need to do so.

    The number of temporary release failures remains very low; less that one failure in every 1,000 releases and about five in every 100,000 releases involving alleged offending, but we take each and every incident seriously. The Government has already ordered immediate changes to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. With immediate effect, prisoners will no longer be transferred to open conditions if they have previously absconded from open prisons; or if they have failed to return or reoffended whilst released on temporary licence.

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) computers, (b) job-search stations and (c) telephones were available for jobseekers to use in Jobcentre Plus offices in the United Kingdom in each financial year since 2008-09; and whether these will be available in every Jobcentre Plus in 2015-16.

    Esther McVey

    We are changing the way we provide our service, moving from a telephone and Jobpoint based service to one which is making use of the latest technologies.From now until the end of October, we will be installing WIFI and new Web Access Devices across the Jobcentre network. This will enable claimants to access Universal Jobmatch and other job sites, as well as allowing them to apply directly for vacancies that they find.

    Equipment Available for Jobseekers to use in Jobcentres in Great Britain* from 2008 to 2016

    a) Computers

    b) Jobsearch stations (Jobpoints)

    c) telephones (Customer Access Phones)

    2008-09

    0

    6860

    3790

    2009-10

    0

    6967

    3790

    2010-11

    0

    6933

    3790

    2011-12

    0

    6647

    3790

    2012-13

    2176

    6079

    3730

    2013-14

    2411

    6079

    2384

    2014-15

    8307

    0

    0**

    2015-16***

    8307

    0

    0**

    All figures are as of financial year end

    *Figures for Northern Ireland not available.

    **Assisted service available to vulnerable claimants who are unable to access DWP services without our help. The Assisted Service is face-to-face and includes use of a telephone for claimants who need support to resolve their enquiry. Support is tailored to the individual’s needs.

    ***Estimated figures

    The figures for 2013-14 were provided by Operations to the Digital Jobcentre Project as part of an audit undertaken at the start of the Project and have not been properly checked and verified.