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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, for what reasons the English Housing Survey Headline Report 2014 to 2015, published in February 2016, did not contain a breakdown of the nationality of the Households Representative Person by tenure; and if he will publish the data held on the nationality of the Households Representative Person by tenure for each of the last 10 years.

    Brandon Lewis

    The department collects details on the nationality of all household reference persons in the English Housing Survey. However, the sample size of the English Housing Survey does not permit us to report detailed nationality statistics.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many unanswered telephone calls the National Maritime Operations Centre has each day.

    Mr John Hayes

    Her Majesty’s Coastguard does not record the number of unanswered routine telephone calls at the National Maritime Operations Centre or at any of the Coastguard Operations Centres within the national network.

    It should be noted that there is a robust system, in line with the Public Emergency Call Service (PECS) Code of Practice, to ensure that ‘999’ calls to Centres within the network are answered. This is through a cascade system across the network and if necessary to other emergency services.

  • Lord Temple-Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Temple-Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Temple-Morris on 2016-10-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 11 October (HL1831), how many arrests of illegal immigrants, and how many arrests for immigration offences, there were in each of the last five years; and how many of those arrested in each year (1) were deported from the UK, (2) remained in custody, and (3) were released within the UK.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    It is not possible to provide information specific to the number of arrests for illegal immigrants because immigration offences cover a wide range of activities and the data specific to arrests for illegal immigration cannot be separated from arrests for other immigration offences. Additionally, an individual may be arrested for committing more than one offence, but as only one offence per arrest is recorded in a format that can be reported on centrally it is not possible to provide complete figures on arrests by individual offences type.

    Information on arrests – either by an Immigration Enforcement or Police Officer – for committing an immigration offence is available. For the period 2011/12 to 2015/16, our records indicate that there were 119,730 arrests.

    Data on the custody or detention status of those arrested cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost because checks of individual records would be required.

  • Barbara Keeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barbara Keeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barbara Keeley on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has spent on health and social care for people aged over 65 in each year since 2009-10.

    Alistair Burt

    The table below shows the current expenditure on healthcare for people aged over 65 since 2009/10. This covers total spend on secondary healthcare, primary medical services and prescribing services. Data for 2013/14 and 2014/15 is not available in the format requested.

    Gross Current Expenditure on health care for people aged 65 and over (£000s)

    2009/10

    78,414,543

    2010/11

    82,091,832

    2011/12

    84,768,874

    2012/13

    85,821,639

    Expenditure on social care for people aged over 65 since 2009/10 from local government funding sources is available on the Health and Social Care Information Centre(HSCIC) (in full) website at the following link. In addition, the National Health Service transferred almost £3.5 billion to local authorities for expenditure on social care, including a transfer worth £1.1 billion in 2014/15. Data is not collected to show how much of this spend is for the elderly compared to working age adults with social care needs.

    http://www.hscic.gov.uk/searchcatalogue?topics=2/Social+care/Social+care+expenditure/Personal+Social+Services+expenditure&sort=Most+recent&size=10&page=1#top

    For 2014/15 HSCIC published provisional data for social care expenditure on 16 September 2015. This can be found at the following link. This is not comparable to previous years because of a change in reporting requirements.

    http://www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/pssexpcosts1415

    “

  • Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Allen of Kensington – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Allen of Kensington on 2015-11-30.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of Innovate UK’s catapult networks.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    This Government is committed to the Catapult network and has prioritised core funding support for the network in the recent Spending Review. It has already expanded the network by announcing, in July, that a Medicines Technologies Catapult would be established and developed at Alderley Park in Cheshire.

    Innovate UK will be publishing its revised Strategy for 2016-20 in the spring and this will set out plans for evaluation of the Catapult network.

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a further review of the tunnel boring machine advance rates for the High Speed 2 Chiltern tunnel has yet taken place.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    HS2 Ltd have carried out an extensive reviews of tunnel boring rates for comparable forms of tunnel (looking at the size of tunnel and type of tunnel boring machine used) as part of the work for the hybrid Bill development, including tunnels both in this country and overseas. Particular attention has been made to ascertaining the ‘hard average rate’ achieved on these tunnels, which is much more appropriate in calculating the overall time to complete a particular tunnel drive for its entire length from "machine in to machine out". HS2 Ltd have provided evidence from these applicable tunnel projects in front of the Select Committee and explained on several occasions how the tunnel drive rates from these other projects support the current assumed drive rate for the HS2 Chiltern Tunnel. No further review is considered to be required as there is no further appropriate evidence available.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects of confidentiality agreements between employers not paying the national minimum wage and their employees challenging that non-payment on the numbers of people coming forward to make a complaint to ACAS.

    Nick Boles

    Final approved answer for 2016/02785

    No assessment has been made on the impact of confidentiality agreements on the identification of National Minimum Wage (NMW) non-compliance.

    Confidentiality is an important protection for workers who wish to make a NMW complaint. If any worker is concerned they have not received what they are entitled to they should contact the ACAS helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free and confidential advice. HMRC follow up every complaint referred to them by Acas and compliance officers can investigate without knowledge of the complainant’s identity. In addition to complaint-led work HMRC investigate employers using third-party intelligence and risk-based targeted enforcement in sectors and areas where there is a higher risk of workers being paid below the NMW.

    The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break NMW law. Between April 2015 and November 2015 HMRC took action against over 500 businesses, identifying over £8 million for 46,000 workers. This is already the largest amount of arrears identified in any single year since the introduction of the NMW.

    Building on existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW including higher penalties, a dedicated HMRC team to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance and additional funding for HMRC from April 2016. We have also increased communications so that working people can access support to make complaints in confidence if needed

    Table 1: NMW enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline by trade sector, 2009/10 to 2014/15.

    Trade Sector

    2009/103

    2010/11

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    Activities of households as employers

    20

    20

    40

    20

    20

    10

    Admin/Office work

    2,530

    4,410

    3,910

    2,950

    3,310

    2,390

    Agriculture and related activities

    140

    100

    120

    100

    110

    100

    Cleaning services

    440

    400

    350

    320

    420

    320

    Construction and related trades

    1,350

    1,290

    1,050

    760

    1,010

    810

    Education and teaching

    270

    370

    350

    300

    540

    450

    Food processing and packaging

    90

    40

    50

    20

    30

    30

    Hairdressing

    1,670

    1,520

    1,360

    930

    1,040

    730

    Health, social work and child care

    1,590

    1,750

    1,590

    1,430

    2,090

    1,930

    Hospitality

    1,880

    1,580

    1,560

    1,400

    1,780

    1,340

    Information technology and communication

    150

    170

    180

    120

    240

    150

    Modelling, entertainment, recreation

    90

    90

    110

    80

    160

    50

    Other manufacturing

    240

    200

    150

    140

    140

    120

    Security services

    240

    170

    140

    120

    150

    110

    Shellfish gathering

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    –

    Taxi/minicab services

    60

    40

    30

    30

    30

    20

    Textiles

    30

    10

    20

    20

    80

    30

    Training Provider

    –

    –

    –

    –

    70

    70

    Transport (other than Taxi/mini-cab)

    350

    380

    280

    270

    440

    260

    Warehousing, storage and distribution

    490

    440

    420

    340

    360

    310

    Wholesale and retail trade

    1,580

    1,560

    1,550

    1,150

    1,470

    930

    Other

    4,980

    3,880

    2,590

    1,980

    2,780

    2,210

    Not Known

    3,580

    2,190

    5,020

    5,350

    5,210

    7,180

    Total

    21,700

    20,600

    20,900

    17,800

    21,500

    19,500

    Source: Pay and Workers Rights Helpline and the Acas Helpline

    Notes:

    1. Calls to the helpline are in part driven by NMW policy announcements and communications activity.
    2. Sector level figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals are rounded to the nearest 100.
    3. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2009/10 as the Helpline opened in May 2009.

    Since the 1st April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.

    Provisional in-year data for 2015/16 show there have been 9,800 queries relating to NMW legislation to the Acas Helpline and 3,700 queries relating to non-payment/deductions from NMW. Information on the number of NMW enquiries by trade sector is not collected on a comparable basis as Acas do not ask callers to disclose information about the sector worked in. Therefore, Acas only record this information when a caller chooses to provide it.

    Table 1: The number of NMW related calls received by Acas, 2011/12 to 2015/16.

    Query topic

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/164

    NMW

    4,400

    3,800

    3,800

    4,400

    9,800

    Non-Payment/Deductions from NMW

    2,000

    2,500

    2,900

    3,100

    3,700

    Source: Acas

    Notes

    1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
    2. One call may be counted as both a ‘NMW’ and ‘Non-payment/Deductions from NMW’ issue. A caller may enquire about the NMW rates and then raise a NMW underpayment issue therefore these categories should not be added together as it will involve double counting.
    3. For years earlier than 2015/16, a proportion of calls would have been referred to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.
    4. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2015/16 which covers April 2015 to January 2016, the latest period for which information is available.
  • Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jo Stevens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Stevens on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with (a) NOMS and (b) the Prison Officers Association on evidence submitted to the Prison Service Pay Review Body on rates of pay for prison officers.

    Andrew Selous

    Each year the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) considers evidence from both NOMS and remit group trade unions (PCS, the POA and the PGA), then makes pay recommendations which are independent of all parties as well as wider Government. I have met with NOMS officials and POA officials separately and together on a number of occasions.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to promote trade between the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

    Anna Soubry

    Her Majesty’s Government is represented across the Commonwealth and, as one of its priorities, is committed to helping UK business succeed overseas. UK Trade & Investment itself is represented in around half of all Commonwealth countries. There is therefore a range of services that business can benefit from, dependent on the scale of the opportunities in each country.

    My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has recently made further appointments of designated Trade Envoys to Commonwealth countries which now include; Bangladesh, Ghana, Mozambique, Brunei, Malaysia, Nigeria, Canada, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

  • Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department (a) has allocated and (b) plans to allocate resources to study the potential threat posed by unmanned underwater vehicles to the SSBN fleet.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Government takes its responsibilities for maintaining the integrity of our submarine fleet extremely seriously and dedicates considerable resource to ensuring that the credibility and standards for operational effectiveness will continue to be met. Our submarine fleet will not be rendered obsolete by new technologies, including developments in unmanned underwater vehicle technology. I am withholding further details as publication would prejudice or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.