Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much has been paid to social care workers by employers since HM Revenue and Customs introduced the self-correction process for recovering arrears for workers paid below the (a) national minimum wage and (b) national living wage.

Margot James

In the period 1^st April 2014 to 31^st March 2016 HMRC identified National Minimum Wage arrears totalling £981,514 as a result of investigations into social care employers.

The National Living Wage was introduced from April 2016. Data for 2016/17 is not yet available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people held in immigration detention are (a) foreign national offenders convicted of immigration related offences, (b) foreign national offenders convicted of other offences and (c) non-foreign nationals.

James Brokenshire

At the end of June 2015, the proportion of people held in immigration detention who were foreign national offenders was 25% (884).

It is not possible to provide a break-down of foreign national offenders convicted of immigration offences and foreign national offenders convicted of non-immigration offences. Such data is not aggregated in national reporting systems, which would mean these questions could only be answered through a disproportionately expensive manual case search to collate the data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in which (a) towns, (b) cities and (c) regions were the recorded locations of exploitation of potential victims of human trafficking referred to the UK National Referral Mechanism in 2014.

Karen Bradley

The table below shows the breakdown of the claimed location of exploitation for the 2,340 potential victims referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2014. The geographical location of exploitation is recorded by police force area only, for reporting and statistical purposes.

YEAR	2014
Police for area of exploitation (claimed)	Total
Avon & Somerset	16
Bedfordshire	12
Cambridgeshire	31
Cheshire	6
Cleveland	8
Derbyshire	6
Devon & Cornwall	8
Dorset	10
Durham	3
Dyfed-Powys	2
Essex	12
Gloucestershire	2
GMP	38
Gwent	5
Hampshire	21
Hertfordshire	4
Humberside	2
Kent	26
Lancashire	2
Leicestershire	7
Lincolnshire	8
Merseyside	7
Metropolitan	232
Multiple locations	83
Norfolk	7
North Yorkshire	13
Northamptonshire	2
Northumbria	12
Nottinghamshire	14
Police Scotland	44
PSNI	30
South Wales	7
South Yorkshire	14
Staffordshire	3
Suffolk	3
Surrey	1
Sussex	8
Thames Valley	17
Warwickshire	4
West Mercia	5
West Midlands	51
West Yorkshire	87
Wiltshire	19
Overseas	432
Unknown / Not recorded*	1016
Total	2340

* “Unknown/not-recorded” cases are ones where: • potential victims did not know the location of exploitation; and / or

• potential victims have been moved with the intention to exploit but have been identified before an act of exploitation has taken place; and / or

• frontline workers did not accurately record this data when initial referrals were made

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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 podiatrists 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, whether proposals for Northern Powerhouse Rail are based on city centre to city centre connectivity and on ensuring half-hour journeys between Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester.

Andrew Jones

Northern Powerhouse Rail is the government and Transport for the North’s shared vision to dramatically improve frequencies and journey times between the city centres of Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Hull, Newcastle, and Manchester Airport.

The aspiration for journey times between Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester is 30 minutes.

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 would need to be, by route, to deliver such transformational connectivity.

An updated Strategy will be published in the spring.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff in his Department have relocated (a) out of London and (b) into London in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills does not hold that information centrally. To gather and analyse this information would incur disproportionate costs.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 28094, on minimum wage: enforcement, if he will provide details of the assurance process used to make sure that employers who have been found to be non-compliant with the national minimum wage have fully self-corrected their pay system and paid all workers any national minimum wage arrears that they are owed.

Nick Boles

The assurance process involves Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) performing a sample check that arrears have been paid to workers under self-correction. Workers are selected and contacted by telephone and correspondence to confirm that they have received the arrears they are owed, and the amount that the employer has reported. If HMRC do not receive a self-correction report from the employer they will remind the company and then follow up with an unannounced visit, where appropriate. If HMRC has concerns following the above processes then an investigation is re-opened.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department spent on upgrading its IT systems in 2014-15.

Joseph Johnson

The Department spent £38m on upgrading IT systems in 2014-15, including both software and equipment development. This includes around £31m for internally developed software, predominantly within delivery bodies of the department such as the Student Loans Company. It also includes the Core Department roll out of a new ICT system, Evolve, for use by all staff. This replaced the previous IT service. The total cost of the Evolve rollout was £3.5 million.

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 policy staff (a) from his Department’s office at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield and (b) from his Department’s office at 1 Victoria Street, London travelling to Sheffield.

Joseph Johnson

The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

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, whether notice will be given to pregnant women who will be detained.

James Brokenshire

At present, detention is authorised by an officer of at least the rank of Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) or Higher Executive Officer (HEO). As stated in the Government’s Written Ministerial Statement of 14 January, the Government is developing a new approach to the case management of those detained. This is intended to replace the existing detention review process with a clear removal plan for all those in detention.

It will ensure that all detainees, including pregnant women, spend the minimum possible time in detention. Under the new policy in order for detention to be extended beyond 72 hours ministerial authorisation will be required and the maximum detention period will be one week.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons and Independent Monitoring Boards already provide independent oversight of detention facilities and conditions of detention. Individuals, including pregnant women, are given prior notification of their liability to removal from the UK by the Home Office and they would be detained only for the purposes of identification or removal.