Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of tax credit recipients had their credits withdrawn when their children progressed into post-16 education in each of the last five financial years.

Damian Hinds

No Child Tax Credit (CTC) claimants should have had their award ended as a consequence of their child progressing into post-16 education provided they continue to meet the qualifying conditions for CTC and their child is in full-time, non-advanced education, as prescribed in the relevant regulations.

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 midwives who enter training at the age of (i) 19, (ii) 25, (iii) 30 and (iv) 40 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, if he will publish the independent costings of linking High Speed 2 to the Northern Powerhouse Rail work for both Manchester and Sheffield city centre station locations.

Andrew Jones

Since the publication of the March 2015 Northern Transport Strategy, the government and Transport for the North have undertaken significant work to understand what the capability of the rail infrastructure – between and within cities – would need to be to deliver the Northern Powerhouse Rail vision.

Network Rail and HS2 Ltd. are currently working to establish the scale of investment required. We expect to have an understanding of the relative scale of costs by autumn 2016.

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 assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of his Department’s Sheffield office on the delivery of his Department’s policies.

Joseph Johnson

Subject to consultation, the Department intends to close the Sheffield office at St. Paul’s Place by January 2018. This intention is based on the strategic vision for the Department that seeks to save 30-40% of its operating costs, reduce the number of locations it operates from (from currently around 80 to 7 centres and a regional footprint for the provision of local services), and halve the number of its Partner Organisations by 2020.

Intention is subject to consultation, to close the Sheffield office by January 2018. This gives us time to transition the policy roles affected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2015 to Question 13645, whether she plans to include young people in her Department’s direct consultation with stakeholders on PSHE and SRE.

Edward Timpson

The Department regularly speaks to a wide range of interested parties and will continue to do so regarding personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and sex and relationship education (SRE), including those who represent the views of young people.

The Secretary of State wrote to the ESC in February 2016 stating that the Department will continue to keep the status of PSHE in the curriculum under review. We will continue to work with headteachers, PSHE practitioners and other experts to identify further action the Government can take to ensure that all pupils receive high quality, appropriate PSHE and SRE.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 29835, and with reference to the Answer of 10 June 2013 to Question 158962, for what reasons information on the number of national minimum wage inquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights and Acas helplines relating to the domiciliary care and residential care sectors is not being collected at the previously available level of disaggregation.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of National Minimum Wage enquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) and Acas Helpline for the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sectors has never been systematically collected.

However, additional information about a complaint is collected after it is referred to HMRC and investigated further. This can include more detailed information on the sector in which the employer in question operates.

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 rent, rates and maintenance for his Department’s office at (a) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield and (b) 1 Victoria Street, London.

Joseph Johnson

The annual cost of rent, rates and maintenance at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield is £891,694 and at 1 Victoria Street, London is £21,363,694.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he plans to make a final decision on the proposed closure of his Department’s Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place.

Joseph Johnson

The Executive Board’s plan is to communicate its decision to staff, together with its response to the consultation on the proposal, during the week beginning 23 May.

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, what the evidential basis is for the decision to reduce the number of policy roles from 2,000 to 1,500 in his Department; and how many of those 1,500 staff will be allocated to which policy areas.

Anna Soubry

The decision was taken as part of our commitment to creating a department which is simpler, smaller, and better by 2020, including changing our business model and reducing our operating costs and associated headcount by 30 – 40%.

The policy landscape will evolve over time and so we are unable to determine now exactly how the 1,500 policy staff we will have in 2020 will be deployed. What we do know is that as we get smaller, we need to become more flexible, more agile and more easily re-deployable to emerging priorities. Specifically, we will need to be able to move policy staff more flexibly between different policy areas (reflecting business demands) and to create more flexible responses to short term pressures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will publish a plan setting out how all government departments plan to contribute to reducing the UK’s carbon emissions.

Andrea Leadsom

In preparation for our new emissions reduction plan we are working with colleagues across government to identify action that will cut emissions cost effectively. Our new plan will set out our proposals for meeting our carbon budgets and decarbonising through the 2020s. It will be published in due course.