Tag: Philip Davies

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial rewards her Department makes available to kinship carers.

Mr Edward Timpson

Children placed in a kinship care arrangement by a local authority are looked after children, in which case their carer must be approved as a foster carer. In these circumstances, kinship carers must receive the same support, including financial support, as all other foster carers.

The majority of kinship carers will be caring for children who are not looked after.

Relatives caring for a child in these circumstances are entitled to support, such as child benefit and any other benefits available to parents, subject to the usual eligibility criteria.

In 2011, the Department for Education issued ‘Family and Friends Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’ which sets out a requirement on local authorities to develop clear, publically accessible policies to describe how they will assess and support children cared for by kinship carers. Such support could include financial help for carers of children who are not looked after, where the local authority assesses this is appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much Bradford Metropolitan District Council received from central government in grants in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2014-15; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins

In 2014-15, Bradford Metropolitan District Council is forecast to receive £655 million in government grants, excluding mandatory housing benefits, equivalent to £3,112 per dwelling. Per dwelling, this is in the top 20 highest in England. Including mandatory housing benefits, the forecast is £838 million (source: Revenue Account budget returns).

In addition to this, Bradford Metropolitan District residents will also benefit from government grant funding to the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, to the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority and to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

We do not hold detailed information on all the individual grants paid out across government departments over the time period.

However, leaving aside schools spending which has changed due to the funding shift from local authorities to academies, in 2014-15, Bradford Metropoliton District Council’s net current expenditure excluding education is forecast to be £596 million (source: Revenue Account budget returns). This compares with £548 million in 2009-10 (source: Revenue Outturn returns), and is thus an increase in cash terms.

Of course, every bit of the public sector needs to do its bit to pay off the deficit left by the last Administration, including local government which accounts for a quarter of all public spending. Yet these figures illustrate how claims in some parts of the local government sector about “cuts” are over-stated and mislead the public.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of police hunts for all prisoners who have absconded or escaped from prisons in each of the last five years.

Damian Green

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential for misuse of the kinship carer system.

Mr Edward Timpson

Children live with kinship carers for a wide range of reasons: parental difficulties, mental or physical ill health, divorce or separation, imprisonment or bereavement. The circumstances and legal statuses of children and carers in these arrangements vary widely. There is not, therefore, a single “kinship carer system” and for this reason the Government has not given consideration to making an assessment of the potential for any general misuse of kinship care arrangements

In 2011, the Department for Education issued ‘Family and Friends Care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities’,[1] this guidance is clear that children and young people unable to live with their parents should receive the support they and their carers need to safeguard and promote their welfare, whether or not they are looked after.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-act-1989-family-and-friends-care

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the extent of dog fighting in the UK.

George Eustice

We have not been provided with any recent estimate of the extent of dog fighting by either the police or animal welfare organisations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the police hunt for Michael Wheatley who absconded from HM Prison Standford Hill on 3 May 2014.

Damian Green

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of cases in which two or more babies born to the same mother were put into kinship care.

Mr Edward Timpson

The information requested is not collected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to encourage police forces to allocate adequate resources towards reducing the incidence of dog fighting.

Mike Penning

Whilst the government takes the issue of dog fighting seriously, the allocation of police resources to tackle this abhorrent practice is a matter for individual police forces, and we have introduced Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that police force priorities across England and Wales better reflect those of the communities they serve.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of each (a) prison place and (b) prisoner in each prison in England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.

Jeremy Wright

The Department routinely publishes average costs per prisoner and prison place, based on actual net resource expenditure for each private and public sector prison and in summary form for the whole of the prison estate in England and Wales on an annual basis after the end of each financial year. This includes a breakdown of these costs by prison category and individual prison within each category, and separately by prisoner gender.

The most recently published figures are for financial year 2012-13 which give an average annual Overall cost per place of £36,808 and average annual Overall cost per prisoner of £34,766. An average annual cost per male prisoner of £34,306 and £44,746 per female prisoner, based on Overall resource costs, is also published.

The information for financial year 2012-13 is available in the Cost per Place and Prisoner and Supplementary Information files on the Department’s website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics-201213

Figures for 2013-14 will be published alongside the Management Information Addendums to the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts in October 2014.

Continuing to reduce prison unit costs is one of the key targets for the Department. Between 2009/10 and 2012/13 prison unit costs (based on Overall prison costs) have reduced in real terms by 16% per place and 13% per prisoner.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the proportion of incidents marked as domestic violence cases which related to (a) male perpetrators against female partners, (b) female perpetrators against male partners and (c) other cases of domestic violence.

Lynne Featherstone

The Home Office does not hold this information centrally. The Home Office receives domestic abuse incident data from the police in England and Wales but these data do not contain information on the sex of the victim or the
perpetrator.