Tag: Paul Blomfield

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 14 June 2016 to Question 39322, on his Department’s vacancies, how many internal policy vacancies his Department has.

Joseph Johnson

The current number of internal policy vacancies being advertised in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills HQ is 21.

The number of advertised vacancies can vary depending on recruitment timelines. All vacancies are advertised online via Civil Service Jobs.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions the Government has had with EU member state representatives on Horizon 2020 grant applications continuing to be evaluated on merit alone during the period for which the UK remains a member of the EU.

Joseph Johnson

The application process for Horizon 2020 is administered by the European Commission. UK participants can continue to bid for competitive Horizon 2020 EU research funding while we remain a member of the EU. We will work with the Commission to ensure payment when funds are awarded. The Treasury will underwrite the payment of such awards, even when specific projects continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU. This applies to all UK participants with direct agreements with the Commission who meet the terms of the grant.

The Commission has made it clear that proposals from, or including, UK applicants must be treated in the same way as applications from other Member States while the UK remains a member of the EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 43629, what plans he has to review the aspects of the BIS 2020 programme that do not relate to staff posts and office locations in the light of the restructuring of government departments.

Joseph Johnson

As part of the recent Machinery of Government changes, over the coming months we will be considering how to bring together the reform agendas of BEIS’s two predecessor Departments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will re-introduce feed-in tariff preaccreditation for community renewable energy schemes.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government proposed changes to the feed-in tariff scheme (FITs) as part of the FIT review, on which we consulted widely between 27^th August and 23^rd October.

We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the consultation and intend to publish a Government response as soon as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will assess the need for any changes to the budget of the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority as part of in consideration of the responses to its consultation, Labour market exploitation: improving enforcement, published in October 2015.

Mike Penning

The consultation closed on 7 December. The Government is considering its response and, as part of that, the funding necessary for the GLA to operate effectively in the context of the departmental financial allocations following the recent Spending Review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the average period of time which (a) male and (b) female student radiographers who enter training at the age of (i) 19, (ii) 25 and (iii) 30 in 2017-18 will take to pay off their student loans taking into account changes to the student support system from 2016-17.

Joseph Johnson

The changes announced at the Spending Review will enable us to lift the cap on the number of students on nursing courses and will provide nursing students with access to around 25% additional financial support. We expect this reform will enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional nursing, midwifery and allied health training places over this Parliament.

The average repayment term on student loans is calculated for the total full time student population, rather than separately for students taking certain courses or their age on starting their course. On this basis, we estimate that the average repayment term for a full time student entering Higher Education in 2017-18 is around 20 to 25 years.

This estimate includes both borrowers who fully repay their loans and those who have loans written off due to death, disability leading to permanent inability to work, or reaching the end of the repayment term. The estimate takes into account the changes to student finance announced at Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on the estimated difference between the current and original cost estimates of (a) locating the Sheffield High Speed 2 station in the city centre and (b) locating it in Meadowhall.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Analysis of the Sheffield City Region station options was published in the ‘Engineering options report; West Midlands to Leeds’ dated March 2012. This included analysis of several station sites around the city centre.

The current estimated difference in cost between locating a High Speed station at Victoria and Meadowhall is £680m. Previous work on the cost of options at Victoria and other city centre sites are not comparable to the current estimate given above. With regards to the Meadowhall station, following the 2013 public consultation, no significant changes have been made to the original station design therefore there have not been any changes in cost.

When recommending a station location HS2 Ltd. uses a number of criteria, including;

1. engineering and construction feasibility;
2. sustainability;
3. demand considerations, including journey times;
4. cost; and
5. wider impacts

Potential options were sifted by HS2 Ltd. according to these criteria. To support and challenge this approach, external stakeholders and advisors from the Department’s Project Representative Team were involved in reviewing the process and outcomes where appropriate. Further information about the appraisal process can be found in the 2012 ‘Options for phase two of the high speed rail network’ report and 2013 ‘Appraisal of Sustainability’ report. Both of these documents are available on the government website.

Analysis undertaken by HS2 shows that the introduction of the Sheffield Meadowhall HS2 station could support up to 5,400 jobs and up to 300 residential units, while a HS2 station at Victoria could support an estimated 9,000 jobs and 900 housing units.

Finally, I can confirm that Department for Transport officials have received a copy of Sheffield City Region’s study into connectivity for a city centre High Speed 2 station at Victoria which Network Rail was involved in.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what investment his Department has made in video-conferencing facilities in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson

My Department has a total of 45 extant video conferencing facilities in place in 12 of its locations in England, Scotland and Wales. The investment costs of those facilities are as detailed below:

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	Total for 5 years
Investment costs		£599,144	£213,752	£82,887	£85,821	£981,604

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25609, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the average time taken for national minimum wage cases in employment tribunals between 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Mr Shailesh Vara

In 2014-15 HM Courts &Tribunals Service reviewed outstanding cases in employment tribunals and removed a backlog of very old cases which had settled or were completed from the case management system. The overall trend in average clearance time for single cases continues to improve and this can be seen in the Published Statistics at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with staff at his Department’s office at 2 St Paul’s Place, Sheffield, since the announcement of the proposed closure of that office.

Joseph Johnson

The responsibility for running the Department, including personnel issues lies with the Permanent Secretary and the BIS Executive Board. The Permanent Secretary went to Sheffield in January to inform staff of the intention to close the Sheffield office and to answer questions. Since then, many of the Department’s Directors and Directors-General have visited the Sheffield office to discuss the proposals, answer questions and provide support to affected staff.