Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610, how many national minimum wage enquiries were made to (a) the Pay and Work Rights Helpline and (b) Acas between 2009-10 and 2014-15 by (i) domiciliary and (ii) residential care workers.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline or Acas by workers from the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sector is not available. The answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610 represents the most detailed breakdown of trade sector information available.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims of trafficking have brought civil claims against their traffickers in each of the last five years; how many such claims have resulted in awards for damages; and what the value of such awards was in such cases.

Mike Penning

The information requested is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.129 of Budget 2016, HC 901, from which part of his Department’s budget the £100 million allocated to deliver low-cost second stage accommodation for rough sleepers will come.

Mr Marcus Jones

One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness.

We announced at Budget an additional £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living. We will reprioritise money within our existing capital budgets to deliver this accommodation. This will not affect delivery of the Government’s Starter Homes and Shared Ownership programmes.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the annual cost is of policy staff from his Department’s office at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield travelling to 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 2016-05-18.

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)