The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlie Elphicke on 2014-05-07.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, whether he has reviewed the efficacy of the guidance of the Electoral Commission on referendums; and if he will make a statement.
Greg Clark
The Government has not reviewed the efficacy of guidance produced by the independent Electoral Commission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many finished consultant episodes relating to liver disease there have been for patients aged (a) under and (b) over 18 years old in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency in England in each year since 1997-98.
Jane Ellison
The information is not collected centrally in the format requested. A count of finished consultant episodes with a primary diagnosis of liver disease for patients aged 0-17 and over 18 years old, by primary care trust of residence and England in total for the years 1997-98 to 2012-13 has been placed in the Library.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what comparative assessment he has made of the data matching levels of those electoral registration officers who (a) did and (b) did not use local government data matching in the Individual Electoral Registration dry run.
Greg Clark
All 380 EROs in England, Wales and Scotland took part in the Confirmation Dry Run in 2013 which involved matching their electoral registers against data held by the Department for Work and Pensions. The average match rate was approximately 78%.
Following this, 138 local authorities conducted data matching against locally held data sources, such as council tax records. On average this increased these local authorities’ match rates by approximately 7%.
The full evaluation of the Confirmation Dry Run, including local data matching activity, is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-confirming-electors-through-data-matching
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what recent assessment he has made of the compatability of software used by local authorities for electoral registration and that used by (a) the Electoral Commission and (b) his own Department.
Greg Clark
In developing the digital service which supports the implementation of Individual Electoral Registration (IER), the Government has ensured the compatibility of Election Management System (EMS) software used by local authorities and valuation joint boards with the mechanisms which will manage the transfer and matching of data. This has been achieved by developing an interface which standardises the communication of data between EMS software and the IER Digital Service. This has been fully and successfully tested.
The Electoral Commission has no direct responsibility for the processing or determination of registration applications and therefore has no requirement to interact with the digital service.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, with reference to the Answer of 13 June 2011, Official Report, column 586W, on electoral register, how many (a) written and (b) oral representations the Electoral Commission has received on electoral registration matters from hon. Members from the (i) Labour, (ii) Conservative and (iii) Liberal Democrat parties in each year since 2010.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that it no longer holds information in the format requested. However, the Commission answers parliamentary questions about all aspects of its work and meets regularly with a range of honourable members to discuss issues relevant to its work, including on registration matters. This includes meetings with Parliamentary parties, a range of meetings with individual MPs and meetings with its Parliamentary Advisory Group, minutes of whose meetings can be found on its website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/who-we-are/governance-and-decision-making/parliamentary-advisory-group.
Details of the Chair of the Commission’s external meetings are also published on an annual basis and can be found on its website here:
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/who-we-are/executive-and-management-team
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Maynard on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisations have received how much funding from his Department aimed at supporting access to short breaks and respite provision for children, young people and their families experiencing all types of disadvantage in each of the last five financial years.
Mike Penning
The Department has no schemes of this nature.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what average period of time is spent on bail by an offender whose case is dealt with in a (a) magistrates’ court and (b) Crown court where the offender (i) pleads guilty at the outset, (ii) changes their plea to guilty during the course of the proceedings and (iii) pleads not guilty.
Mr Shailesh Vara
Information on bail and remand collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice and held on the Court Proceedings Database does not include any information on the length of time defendants were held on bail or remand. This information could only be ascertained by reference to individual court files which could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many contracted staff there are carrying out functions for his Department who are paid less than the Living Wage by (a) occupation, (b) location and (c) contractor.
Mike Penning
DWP have discussed with contractors the payment of the London Living Wage. Telereal Trillium have worked with us so that from April 2014 all of their London based staff were paid at least the level of the living wage. Discussions are continuing with our other major contractor, Cofely.
We intend to have the same negotiations regarding staff based across the regions where the situation is currently:
|
REGION |
NUMBER OF STAFF |
|
Scotland |
539 |
|
North East |
309 |
|
North West |
885 |
|
Yorks & Humber |
529 |
|
East Midlands |
255 |
|
West Midlands |
770 |
|
East Of England |
252 |
|
Wales |
279 |
|
South East |
366 |
|
London |
2 |
|
South West |
307 |
|
TOTAL |
4,493 |
It is not possible to provide further breakdown of these figures as this information is commercially sensitive.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2014-05-06.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to reduce the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product to below 40 per cent; and, if so, in which year.
Lord Deighton
As set out in Budget 2014, given the costs and risks of high levels of debt, once the supplementary debt target has been met, any future government will need to ensure that debt continues to fall as a percentage of GDP. Even in the absence of future shocks sustained action will be needed to bring down debt.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Murphy on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many full time members of staff in her Department have responsibility for tuberculosis.
Justine Greening
There are 12 full-time staff in the Health Services Team and Global Funds Department whose roles include work on tuberculosis. In addition there are a wide range of staff across the Department, including research, press, policy, financial and corporate advisers and staff in country offices, whose roles include work on tuberculosis.