Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what analysis she plans to undertake of the data gathered from border exit checks; and whether those checks will provide accurate data on emigration disaggregated by route.

James Brokenshire

Exit checks were introduced in April 2015. They will, over a period of time, provide us with a range of insights into the behaviours of migrants and how they comply with restrictions placed upon their length of stay in the UK.

Data collected from exit checks is a record of cross border movement. It may in the future help inform but will not in itself answer questions on emigration.

The Home Office has announced that it is considering the use of exit checks data for statistical reporting and intends to publish an initial evaluation of the use of exit checks for this purpose. The evaluation will be a technical assessment of the analysis carried out thus far and of the further analysis necessary to better understand short, medium, and long term opportunities.

The initial evaluation of the use of exit checks will be published on 25 August to coincide with the next quarterly immigration statistics release.

Publication of the initial evaluation on the use of exit checks will be on the GOV.UK website

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Written Statement of 26 May 2016 on BIS consultation, HCWS30, how his Department plans to ensure organisational effectiveness in the operation of the proposed Business, Innovation and Skills regional presence.

Joseph Johnson

BIS2020 plans have always included a strong regional footprint as part of the Department’s location strategy. A regional presence will exist through the Department’s BIS Local offices, as well as where it is necessary to support service delivery at a local, rather than a national, level. Around 80% of the staff the Department pays for will continue to work outside of London, as part of the regional presence and in our business centres.

The operational effectiveness of our regional presence will continue, as now, to be managed through the Department’s business planning process and the sharing of best practice as well as through the strengthening of departmental governance by including partner CEOs on the Executive Board sub-committees.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make it her policy for the UK to reduce its actual greenhouse gas emissions by 61 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.

Andrea Leadsom

This Government remains firmly committed to the Climate Change Act, and to meeting our climate change target of an at least 80% emissions reduction by 2050. We are clear that this must be done while keeping our energy supply secure and low cost.

Discussions on the fifth carbon budget (2028-2032) are continuing and we will make an announcement as soon as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2016 to Question 39339, on his Department’s reorganisation, whether the projected £7.5 million saving includes the transitional costs arising from centralising policy functions in London.

Joseph Johnson

The saving projection of at least £7.5m per year by 2019-20 refers to the reduction in on-going operating costs. This on-going operating cost reduction does not include one-off, transitional costs incurred before 2019-20 which are estimated at between £9-£13m in total.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of using institutional visa refusal rates as a indicator of institutional compliance with Tier 4 visa regulations.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Home Office launched a Tier 4 visa pilot involving the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bath and Imperial College London on 25 July. The pilot has been introduced to test the benefits of a differentiated approach within the education sector on the basis of compliance with immigration sponsorship requirements.

The pilot is deliberately narrow in scope, with the institutions selected on the basis of their consistently low level of visa refusals. Visa refusal rates are part of the Basic Compliance Assessment, which requires all Tier 4 sponsors to meet three core requirements based on measures of visa refusals, enrolment and completion of studies.

The limited nature of the pilot is intended to ensure that the outcomes can be adequately monitored, whilst minimising the risk of unintended consequences, before considering rolling-out the scheme more widely.

The four selected institutions were consulted regarding its implementation. Should the pilot be successful and rolled out more widely, the Home Office will consult key stakeholders about its expansion.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many institutions in England (a) held and (b) were granted taught degree awarding powers in each year since 2006.

Joseph Johnson

Based on the information available to us, there were 103 institutions in England that held taught degree awarding powers in 2006. The number of such awards in each year since then is as follows:

2007 – 7

2008 – 2

2009 – 6

2010 – 0

2011 – 0

2012 – 3

2013 – 1

2014 – 2

2015 – 3

2016 – 3 (as of 5 September 2016)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to page 8 of the consultation document Tackling Exploitation in the Labour Market, published in October 2015, if she will publish research conducted by her Department that shows that there has been a shift from abuses of employment regulation towards increasingly organised criminal activity engaged in labour market exploitation over the last 10 years.

Karen Bradley

Operational information, which is not publically discloseable, received from the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority indicates that, since the Authority began operations in 2006, it has seen an increase in the number of vulnerable people being exploited by organised criminals and criminal networks for profit in the sectors it regulates.

Further information about the role of organised criminal activity would come from the proposed new role of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement who will have a role to gather information on worker exploitation and publish a strategic approach to tackling it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether part-time students applying for maintenance support from 2018-19 will continue to be eligible for benefits.

Joseph Johnson

Eligibility criteria and specific rules of the scheme will be set out as part of the consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 16853, how the additional £4 million allocated for national minimum wage enforcement was allocated within national minimum wage enforcement activity.

Greg Hands

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. A further increase in penalties will come into force in April 2016 and will increase the penalty percentage from 100% to 200% of the underpayments owed to each worker, up to the existing maximum.

The extra funding was allocated in two tranches. The first of £3 million has been used by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recruit additional staff primarily into front line compliance posts to increase the scope and coverage of interventions aimed at identifying employers who do not pay the minimum wage.

The second tranche of £1 million has been used to appoint staff into new roles specifically geared to promoting compliance with the National Minimum Wage, through education and support for employers, helping workers to understand their rights, and tackling serious non-compliance where deliberate behaviour is suspected.

Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing National Minimum Wage, including people who work in legal advice, debt management, technical support and criminal investigation. However, HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified in UIN 16853.

HMRC does not breakdown the overall budget allocated into specific activities. For details of the overall budget in 2015/16, I refer the honourable member back to the answer provided at UIN 16853. Funding allocations for 2016/17 onwards have yet to be confirmed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has made representations on anti-Muslim violence in India to the government of that country.

Mr Hugo Swire

The Prime Minister, my right hon Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) discussed religious tolerance in India with Prime Minister Modi on 12 November. Mr Modi reassured the British government that he remained committed to diversity and fundamental freedoms. Mr Modi was clear in his commitment to and respect for India’s core values of tolerance and fundamental rights, as well as reaffirming the importance of social harmony and inclusive development. I also discussed concerns about religious tolerance with the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on 5 November.