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Tag: Stephen Doughty

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what service level agreements his Department has with companies contracted to carry out the assessment process for the personal independence payment.

    Mike Penning

    The Personal Independence Payment service level agreements are published and available to view in Deposited Papers (House of Commons), deposited on 28 January 2013 – Deposit Reference DEP2013 – 0322. The service level agreements are set out in Annex 7.

    This information can be accessed from the link below:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/deposited-papers/?max=100&y=2013&search_term=Department+for+Work+and+Pensions&itemId=119004&sort=1&sortasc=False#toggle-322

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  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time is for applicants for personal independence payment in each region of the UK to be assessed by (a) Capita Health and Wellbeing and (b) Atos Healthcare in each region.

    Mike Penning

    Personal Independence Payment (PIP) started from April 2013 and although limited data has started to feed through, we need to wait until the Department has quality assured, meaningful figures for publication. The Department is working to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet high quality standards at the earliest opportunity. We intend to publish official statistics on PIP from spring 2014 in line with our publication strategy –https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284330/pip_stats_release_strategy_feb14.pdf

    An ad-hoc release of PIP information was published on Tuesday 11th February 2014.

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  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2014, Official Report, column 162W, on employment and support allowance, when his Department expects to publish data on mandatory reconsiderations of employment and support allowance.

    Mike Penning

    While data is being collected, it is not sufficiently robust and reliable to make available.

    The data will need to be validated in order to ensure that it satisfies the relevant standards. I will not publish this data until it is in a robust state to share.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-03-31.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June 2013, Official Report, column 419W, on employment and support allowance, whether his Department expects to complete the incapacity benefit reassessment process in April 2014.

    Mike Penning

    I refer the hon. Member to the written ministerial statement I made on 27 March 2014. Official Report col. 56-57WS.

    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140327/wmstext/140327m0002.htm#14032769000011

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  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-04-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth of 23 December 2013, regarding a review of a discharge from the British Army.

    Anna Soubry

    The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has no record of receiving the letter from the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth. The MOD requested a copy of the letter on 3 April 2014 and will respond shortly.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-04-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the proposal set out in Baroness Newlove’s report, Our Vision for Safe and Active Communities, for a Bling Back scheme where money made from selling local drug dealers’ assets is handed back to the neighbourhood.

    Karen Bradley

    There has been a scheme since 2004 whereby a proportion of the proceeds of
    crime recovered from drug dealers and other criminals are returned to law
    enforcement agencies. The money returned to law enforcement has been used to
    support a continued increase in the amounts recovered from criminals and can be
    invested in community projects.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many times the offence of possession of mobile telephones within a prison has been proceeded upon; and how many days were added to the offender’s sentence in each case.

    Jeremy Wright

    The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of mobile phones in prisons very seriously and is committed to addressing the risks they present to both the security of prisons and the safety of the public.

    NOMS has implemented a multi-layered approach: to minimise the number of mobile phones entering prisons, to find phones that do get in and to disrupt mobile phones that cannot be found. A range of technology has been rolled out to prisons to strengthen searching and security, including portable mobile phone signal detectors, Body Orifice Security Scanners (BOSS chairs), high sensitivity metal detecting wands and short range portable mobile phone blockers.

    The adjudication process exists to allow prison governors to deal with breaches of prison discipline, including possession of unauthorised items such as mobile telephones.

    From centrally held data, it is not possible to identify those offenders who breached prison discipline by possessing a mobile phone, were proceeded against and given the punishment of additional days. The prison adjudication offence details held centrally are not of sufficient detail to identify the specific breach item – mobile phone possession offences are grouped with other prohibited items.

    Determining if the requested information is held would require a manual search through all individual prison records where a breach of prison discipline led to adjudication in respect of possession of a prohibited item to see if any information is recorded on the type of item. Inspecting each record to ascertain if there was an adjudication for possession of a mobile phone and how many additional days were given as a punishment could only be done at disproportionate cost.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter dated 5 March 2014 from the Minister of State for Pensions to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to make national insurance credits available for past periods for service spouses; and if he will make a statement.

    Steve Webb

    Subject to Royal Assent of the Pensions Bill a duty will be placed on the Secretary of State to make regulations to allow service spouses and civil partners, due to reach State Pension age from 6 April 2016, to apply for National Insurance credits for periods during which they accompanied their husband, wife or civil partner on a posting outside the UK. The regulations will make provision to allow credits for periods between 1975/76 and 2010.

    We are working with the Ministry of Defence on the finer details of the scheme including the manner in which applications will need to be made and the precise date when the administrative arrangements will be in place.

    We estimate that up to 20,000 individuals could have a higher single-tier pension from these credits as some individuals may, at state pension age, already have sufficient qualifying years to gain a full single-tier pension.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-04-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter dated 5 March 2014 from the Minister of State for Pensions to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth, what estimate he has made of the number of service spouses who will be affected by his plans to bring forward legislative proposals to make national insurance credits available for past periods for service spouses.

    Steve Webb

    Subject to Royal Assent of the Pensions Bill a duty will be placed on the Secretary of State to make regulations to allow service spouses and civil partners, due to reach State Pension age from 6 April 2016, to apply for National Insurance credits for periods during which they accompanied their husband, wife or civil partner on a posting outside the UK. The regulations will make provision to allow credits for periods between 1975/76 and 2010.

    We are working with the Ministry of Defence on the finer details of the scheme including the manner in which applications will need to be made and the precise date when the administrative arrangements will be in place.

    We estimate that up to 20,000 individuals could have a higher single-tier pension from these credits as some individuals may, at state pension age, already have sufficient qualifying years to gain a full single-tier pension.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers left Prison Service employment within (a) six months, (b) one year and (c) two years of becoming an officer in each of the last five years.

    Jeremy Wright

    Information on the number of prison officers who left employment within the first two years of joining public sector prisons in England and Wales in 2009 – 2013 is contained in the table below.

    Table: Headcount of officers leaving public sector prison service in England and Wales within (a) 6 months, (b) 1 year, (c) 2 years 2009 – 2013

    Year

    Officers leaving Within 6 months

    Officers leaving within 1 year1

    Officers leaving within 2 year1

    2009

    40

    100

    190

    2010

    30

    60

    130

    2011

    20

    50

    90

    2012

    20

    40

    80

    2013

    ~

    20

    50

    1 Figures are cumulative i.e. the number leaving within 1 year includes those leaving within 6 months.

    Officer numbers, which are derived from a dynamic administrative system, have been rounded to the nearest 10 to reflect the level of uncertainty in the figures.

    It is not possible to provide figures for privately contracted prisons with the time available. This is because information on leavers is held not held centrally and is only available from the individual contractors. This information has been requested and I will write to you again when it is available.