Tag: Paul Blomfield

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the annual cost is of hotel stays in (a) London by policy staff from his Department’s office at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield and (b) Sheffield by policy staff from his Department’s office at 1 Victoria Street, London.

Joseph Johnson

The Permanent Secretary has recently written to the Chairs of the Public Accounts Committee and the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee. His letter contains details of the potential maximum savings from a closure of the Department’s Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place, and can be seen at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/518244/letter-martin-donnelly-sheffield-office.pdf.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Written Statement of 18 April 2016, on immigration detention, HCWS679, how many pregnant women (a) are detained and (b) have been detained for immigration purposes in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire

Management information for 19 April showed that two pregnant women were held at the border and there was one pregnant woman held in an IRC. Information on those held at the border and in IRCs in each of the last five years is not held centrally and providing it would incur disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate the Student Loans Company has provided to his Department of the costs of the preparation, introduction and administration of the amendments to the fees and student support system in England arising from the (a) replacement of maintenance grants by maintenance loans, (b) introduction of the postgraduate loan scheme, (c) extension of maintenance loans to part-time students, (d) extension of advanced learner loans to those aged 19 years and above and (e) Teaching Excellence Framework.

Joseph Johnson

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) fully funds the cost to the Student Loans Company (SLC) of implementing Higher and Further Education student finance policy in England. Funding is allocated on a demand-led basis whereby BIS requests services, SLC estimates the cost of delivery and then BIS pays the costs in full.

As set out in the SLC’s public Annual Performance and Resource Agreement (APRA) for financial year 2015-16, BIS made approximately £8.8m available to SLC to meet the estimated costs of implementing all new policies related to student support for Higher and Further Education in England, including (but not exclusively) the implementation of policies a, b and d above.

Overall implementation costs for individual policies are usually spread over a number of financial years reflecting the different stages of the implementation process. The amount of funding to be made available to SLC for financial year 2016-17, including for delivery of policies a-e above, will be confirmed in this year’s APRA and published on SLC’s website shortly.

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

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on his Department’s plans to diversify the civil service.

Matthew Hancock

The Civil Service is committed to becoming representative of the modern Britain it serves and our aim is to be the most inclusive employer in the UK. This ambition is set out in our Talent Action Plan, refreshed in March 2016. This plan commits the Civil Service to actions that aim to remove barriers to success faced by underrepresented groups. All government departments are committed to the delivery of this plan. Permanent Secretaries have clear accountability for the diversity agenda and progress within their departments is measured through their personal diversity objectives. The plan is being delivered as part of the wider Civil Service Workforce Strategy.