Tag: Parliamentary Question

Christina Rees – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve awareness of available legal advice for the general public.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The legal profession in England and Wales is independent from government. We want to see an innovative and competitive market that provides people with affordable legal services that they want and need, with regulation that supports the public and consumer interest.

We welcome the Law Society’s survey and will take account of the findings as part of the development of legal services policy.

The legal services regulators have a duty to promote the regulatory objectives set out in the Legal Services Act 2007, including improving access to justice and increasing public understanding of the citizen’s legal rights and duties. The regulators have established the “Legal Choices” website, which provides people with information to help them in deciding whether and how to seek legal advice and the available services they might choose from. The Advicenow website, established by Law for Life, provides information on rights and the law.

01/01/2023
Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 25 July (HL1340), what date has been agreed by NICE for a full technology appraisal of lenvatinib.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Ministers asked the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop technology appraisal guidance on the use of lenvatinb for the treatment of thyroid cancer on 22 July 2016. NICE plans to develop guidance on lenvatinib and sorafenib through the same technology appraisal and currently expects to publish draft guidance in October 2017.

In the absence of NICE guidance, it is for commissioners to make funding decisions based on the available evidence and on the patient’s individual clinical circumstances.

01/01/2023
Henry Bellingham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Bellingham on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the (a) names and (b) salaries of the 10 most senior officials in the Iraq Historical Allegations Team.

Mike Penning

In accordance with normal practice we only provide the names of officials at Senior Civil Service level and their military equivalents. The Iraq Historic Allegations Team’s most senior officials comprise a mix of civilian and military personnel as follows:

Director, Mr Mark Warwick – Senior Civil Service Band 1, £63,000 – £117,000

Royal Navy OF5 (Captain), £84,000 – £93,000

Royal Navy Police OF4 (Commander), £70,000 – £81,000

Royal Navy Police OF3 (Lieutenant Commander), £49,000 – £59,000

Civil Service Band B1, £59,000 – £70,000

2 x Civil Service Band C1, £37,000 – £42,000

4 x Civil Service Band C2, 30,000 – £35,000

01/01/2023
Diana Johnson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-10-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects new rolling stock to be introduced on the forthcoming Transpennine Express franchise; and whether that rolling stock is planned to be diesel or electric powered.

Andrew Jones

Bids are currently being evaluated for the TransPennine Express (TPE) franchise and we expect to announce the winning bidder and its rolling stock plans by the end of the year. When the detailed plans for TransPennine electrification are confirmed, the Department will work with the TPE franchisee to ensure that the necessary rolling stock is put into place; this is expected to take place during the franchise term.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employees were identified as being paid less than the national minimum wage following HM Revenue and Customs enforcement activity in each of the last five years; and how many of those employees were compensated in full.

Mr David Gauke

In 2014/15, HM Revenue and Customs identified 735 incidences of non-compliance and issued penalties of £934,660. They recovered arrears for 26,318 workers.

I refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 218083 for numbers of workers for the previous years, to the answer provided to her on 6 May 2014 at Hansard Column 110W for information on arrears, and to the answer provided to her at UIN 205613 with regard to penalties.

I further refer the honourable member to the answer provided at UIN 211605 for information on recovery of arrears.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s report, Universal Credit Extended Gateway Evaluation, published on 6 December 2015, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the report’s finding on page 39, that participants in the study who were claiming universal credit were more flexible regarding the type of work they would consider at the outset than people claiming jobseeker’s allowance.

Priti Patel

The research finding that Universal Credit claimants appeared to be more flexible regarding the type of work they would consider is broadly consistent with other findings from the same research report that indicate that UC claimants are more engaged with the labour market than their JSA counterparts. UC claimants are spending longer on job search per week, and Universal Credit appears to be driving more active labour market behaviour, resulting in better labour market outcomes.

The key finding from another recently published report entitled, ‘Estimating the Early Labour Market Impacts of Universal Credit’, is that UC has a substantial impact on the chances of people moving into work after they make a new claim. UC claimants were 8 percentage points more likely to get a job within 270 days of claiming than equivalent new claims to JSA made at the same time in similar areas by similar individuals.

01/01/2023
Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will raise with the government of Bulgaria the issue of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community being denied the right to register as a religious organisation in Bulgaria.

Mr David Lidington

We are aware of the concerns of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Bulgaria. The UK supports the right to freedom of religion or belief for every individual. We would expect the Bulgarian Government to meet its international obligations to ensure freedom of religion or belief for all its citizens.

01/01/2023

Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was levied in respect of service credits in each key performance indicator designated met in respect of each Compass region in each year from 2012-13 to 2015-16 to date.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office has a rigorous contract compliance regime in place to ensure that the required performance standards expected of all providers, as defined in the contracts, are met. This includes monthly contract management and quarterly strategic review meetings, as well as regular daily discussions with COMPASS providers’ operational delivery managers about day to day issues. The Home Office investigates complaints it receives from service users and third parties and works with contractors to ensure that any issues raised are addressed promptly.

Performance against each key performance indicator (KPI) is measured and may, dependent upon the level of non-conformance, lead to the application of a KPI score. The overall/total score across all KPIs is then used to determine the value of Service Credit (rebate) which should be deducted from the monthly invoice. If an individual KPI is met, no score is accrued and no service credit applies. The following table indicates the amount of service credits recovered following KPI non-conformance for each of the COMPASS contracts from the start of the contracts.

	2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016 (YTD)	TOTAL
Serco SNI	£773, 792	£156,156	£443, 545	£1,373,493
Serco NW	£3,137, 017	£1,974	0	£3,138,991
G4S MEE	£1,349, 475	0	0	£1,349, 475
G4S NEYH	£368, 107	0	0	£368, 107
CRH WSW	0	0	0	0
CRH LSE	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	£5,628, 391	£158,130	£443, 545	£6,230,066

01/01/2023

Douglas Chapman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what (a) support and (b) subsidy her Department makes available for new nuclear power production.

Andrea Leadsom

Our electricity market reforms have set the right conditions for necessary investment in our energy market, and support low-carbon generation in nuclear as well as in other generating sectors through Contracts for Difference.

01/01/2023
Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the reasons are for the government policy not to support the progress of the European Commission’s proposed reforms to (a) trade and defence instruments and (b) the lesser duty rule.

Anna Soubry

The UK fully supports modernisation of the European Union’s/Commission’s trade defence instruments but believes that effective trade defence measures should be proportionate, not protectionist, and set tariffs only as high as necessary to remove the injury inflicted on EU industry without being punitive, which would hurt users of products, including downstream manufacturers, and consumers.

The Government’s response to the Commission’s public consultation on the modernisation of trade defence instruments (TDI), in June 2012, stated:

“The strongly held UK view is that the EU’s use of the lesser duty rule is one of the elements of the TDI regime which contributes to its being recognised as one of the most progressive global trade defence systems. Furthermore, it enhances the economic coherence of European TD actions as imposing tariffs no higher than that level needed to offset the injury caused by dumping / subsidy is entirely consistent with restoring fair competition. We have fully supported the Commission’s efforts to encourage FTA partners to adopt the lesser duty rule in their regimes. It would be a retrograde step to remove its position as a central part of the EU regime (2.3.3).”

01/01/2023