Tag: Paul Blomfield

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) who holds responsibility for training magistrates and (b) how many magistrates have received training on the use of (i) slavery and trafficking risk orders and (ii) slavery and trafficking prevention orders.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Judicial training is the responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice and is exercised through the Judicial College.

To fulfil their judicial decision making responsibilities magistrates, their legal advisers and District Judges (Magistrates’ Courts) receive comprehensive induction and continuation training in across the jurisdictions, which includes new legislation.

It is not however possible to identify where magistrates have received standalone or direct training on the use of slavery and trafficking risk orders or slavery and trafficking prevention orders.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consultation her Department has held on the draft Adults at Risk policy for vulnerable people detained under immigration powers.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Stephen Shaw carried out a comprehensive consultation in preparing his report of his review of the welfare of vulnerable people in immigration detention, and the draft adults at risk policy forms part of the Government’s response to Mr Shaw’s review. The Government saw no reason to duplicate this in developing the adults at risk policy. However, when the draft policy was published on 26 May, the Government wrote to a wide range of relevant non-Governmental organisations and offered them the opportunity to discuss it. Subsequently, Home Office officials have held meetings with a number of interested organisations, and the views of these organisations have been taken into account as the policy has been developed further.

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, with reference to the press release of 11 August 2016 entitled Largest ever list of National Minimum Wage offenders published, what checks HM Revenue and Customs conducted at those social care employers where workers were found to be owed arrears to ensure that all workers at those employers were not paid below the national living and minimum wage.

Margot James

HM Revenue and Customs respond to 100% of worker complaints, and where applicable open an investigation to ensure that the National Minimum Wage has been paid. The aim of enforcement is to ensure all arrears owed to workers are paid back.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government has taken to reduce hate crime since the EU referendum.

Sarah Newton

We have been working closely with the police at national and regional levels to monitor hate crime since the EU Referendum and to ensure that local forces have the necessary assistance and guidance to respond.

Police forces are responding robustly to recent incidents, and victims can be reassured that their concerns about hate crime will be taken seriously by the police and courts.

On 26 July we published a comprehensive new cross-Government Hate Crime Action plan to drive forward action against hate crime. This includes education programmes to prevent hate incidents and measures to improve the police response and recording of hate crime. It also includes £2.4million for security at places of worship which are vulnerable to hate crime and £300,000 funding for community groups to tackle hate crime at local level.

Ministers and officials have also met Ambassadors and High Commissioners from all EU states and offered reassurance and a single point of contact for them to raise concerns over hate crime on behalf of their citizens.