Tag: Parliamentary Question

Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-01-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of any correlation between the non-enforcement of low-level road user penalties and the rate of serious offences.

Lord Bates

No assessment has been made of any correlation between the non-enforcement of low-level road user penalties and the rate of serious offences. It is an operational matter for the police to decide how they enforce road traffic legislation and what action may be appropriate in any particular case.

01/01/2023
Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans he has to review the governance arrangements of pension funds.

Justin Tomlinson

The draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 laid before Parliament on 1 February, include a review provision as required by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which will oblige the Secretary of State to carry out reviews at least every 5 years of all the governance requirements for occupational pension schemes covered in Part V of the Occupational Pension Schemes (Scheme Administration) Regulations 1996 as amended by this instrument. Subject to Parliamentary approval the draft 2016 Regulations will come into force on 6 April 2016. We will consider in due course how this review would work in practice.

On the governance of workplace personal pension schemes, the Financial Conduct Authority propose to carry out a review of the effectiveness of independent governance committees in 2017.

01/01/2023
Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure that Work Programme providers are alert to the mental health needs of clients.

Priti Patel

Work Programme providers have the freedom to deliver tailored support appropriate to the individual needs of all participants. This includes participants with health conditions for whom many providers employ advisers with the relevant skills and knowledge to provide specialist support or otherwise engage specialist sub-contractors.

The Department operates a robust performance management and checking regime to ensure all providers deliver the standards and performance we expect.

To the end of December 2015, around 17,000 participants who were claiming Employment and Support Allowance at the time of referral and have declared a mental or behavioural disorder as their primary health condition have been supported into sustained employment through the Work Programme

01/01/2023
Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32506, how many (a) unaccompanied children and (b) partners of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK were granted asylum in the UK in each year since 2010.

James Brokenshire

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer I gave on 15 March 2015 to his question 30648.

The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum claims from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in the Immigration Statistics release. This includes information on applications received, decisions made by sex, age and country of nationality.

The Home Office does not centrally record the number of people that apply for asylum who have a partner in the UK who has already been granted. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) helicopters, (b) Royal Navy ships and (c) Royal Air Force aircraft are stationed in the Falkland Islands.

Penny Mordaunt

Four contractor-owned and operated helicopters are currently stationed in the Falkland Islands. Two AW-189 helicopters deliver search and rescue services and two S-61 helicopters deliver a medium lift capability. One River Class patrol ship (HMS CLYDE), one C-130, one Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft, and four Typhoon aircraft are also currently stationed in the Falklands.

In accordance with the Secretary of State’s announcement to the House on 24 March 2015 (Official Report, column 1302), two Chinook helicopters are due to return to the Falkland Islands. The first of these will begin operations in July 2016.

01/01/2023

Alan Meale – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Meale on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many posthumous claims for compensation under the (a) Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 and (b) Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 were successful in each of the last 30 years.

Jesse Norman

With regards to the Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers Compensation) Act 1979, the Department for Work and Pensions have advised that the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

For the Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis Scheme 1974 (CWPS) the figures for posthumous claims received and paid, and the reasons for the difference between the two are shown in the table below:

Year	Deceased Claims Received	Dec’d Claims Paid	Denials & Work In Progress (WIP)
Duplicate Claim Denial	Deceased Claims Received	Dec’d Claims Paid	Failed Eligibility Denial	Nil Offer*	Work In Progress/Withdrawn/ Other Denial
2011	41	17	5	15	3	1
2012	104	65	20	6	3	10
2013	160	103	18	13	14	12
2014	153	96	19	13	18	7
2015	169	101	20	20	24	4
2016	70	33	6	7	7	17

* Nil Offer – a claim under the 1979 Act resulted in a higher award than would have been payable under the CWPS

N.B. Figures only available from July 2011 onwards when current claims handler took on the contract.

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01/01/2023

Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that GMB is able to negotiate on behalf of 200 workers at the Lidl warehouse in Bridgend.

Alun Cairns

The Government has put in place a robust legal framework to ensure workers can be represented by unions if that is their clear, democratic choice. The Government cannot get involved in individual cases such as this one. However, the law states that for a trade union to have the right to negotiate collectively and for its workplace representatives to be eligible for time off to carry out union duties, the union must be recognised by the employer.

Statutory recognition (achieved through the Central Arbitration Committee – CAC) requires that a majority of the workforce support union recognition for collective bargaining with the employer.

01/01/2023
Norman Lamb – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2015-11-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure parity between the regulation of nurses and midwives and other regulated health professions.

Ben Gummer

The Law Commissions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have completed a review of the regulation of all health and (in England) social care professionals including nurses and midwives and published their report on 2 April 2014. One of the key recommendations made by the Law Commissions was to introduce much greater consistency between the professional regulators as well as simplifying the legislation.

The joint four UK country response to the Law Commissions was published on 29 January 2015 which accepted wholly or in part the vast majority of its recommendations.

The Department is currently reviewing how best to take forward the work of the Law Commissions. We hope to be able to provide an update on this work soon.

01/01/2023
Steve Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Reed on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to conduct a revaluation of council tax bands in 2016.

Mr Marcus Jones

There are no plans to carry out a revaluation of council tax bands in 2016.

01/01/2023
The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-01-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what specific goals they wish to achieve from the Syria Donors Conference taking place in London in February.

Baroness Verma

The "Supporting Syria and the Region London 2016" Conference was held on 4 February last week, and more than US$11 billion was pledged to support people in Syria and the region affected by the conflict, the largest amount raised in one day for a humanitarian crisis.

Commitments made at the Conference will help to create 1.1 million jobs and provide education to an additional 1 million children. The UK remains at the forefront of the response to the crisis in Syria and the region. We have doubled our commitment and have now pledged a total of over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. The outcomes of the conference are reflected in the Co-hosts’ statement available on the Conference website.

01/01/2023