Tag: Stewart Jackson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the progress made by the Troubled Families initiative in the Peterborough City Council area since 2011; and if he will make a statement.

Greg Clark

The Troubled Families Programme in the Peterborough City Council area helped produce successful outcomes with 450 troubled families. This was assessed according to whether children were attending school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour had been reduced, and adults from troubled families were helped off out-of-work benefits and into continuous employment.

Under the provisions of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, I will be reporting on the progress of the Troubled Families Programme annually.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what response she has made to the recent letter from the Chair of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire and Rescue Authority detailing improvements in that Authority’s pay and recruitment arrangements following Ministerial intervention; and if she will make a statement.

Mike Penning

Melanie Dawes, the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer for the Department for Communities and Local Government, replied to Sir Peter Brown the chairman of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority, on 30 December. That letter reiterated the Government’s position that all parts of the public sector should continue to demonstrate restraint in the pay and reward offered to senior staff, and should ensure that the way that their workforces are managed is truly in the interests of taxpayers.

While fire and rescue authorities are independent employers and it is for their leadership to make local decisions about the pay, reward and appointment of their staff, the Government has taken a number of steps to increase the transparency and accountability of these local decisions, not least through the Localism Act 2011 and its associated guidance.

These measures have helped create the conditions in which decisions on senior remuneration are rightfully subject to significantly greater scrutiny, ensuring the public have the information they need to hold councillors to account at the ballot box.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what legal costs have been incurred by NHS England in respect of the use of the NHS logo by the Vote Leave group; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

NHS England has not incurred any legal costs regarding this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2015-10-28.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps the Electoral Commission is taking to tackle electoral fraud in (a) Peterborough and (b) England; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission provides advice to those who are involved on the frontline in identifying, investigating and prosecuting cases of electoral fraud. Before each set of elections the Commission provides advice to the police, electoral administrators and others on ways to prevent and detect electoral fraud, based on the best practice it has identified through working with partners across electoral administration and the justice system. Each year the Commission publishes data on allegations of electoral fraud that are reported to the police.

The Commission targets additional support for those on the front line in 18 areas in England where there is a higher risk of allegations of electoral fraud. This includes Peterborough and the Commission will be working again with these areas before the elections in May 2016 to build on what was done prior to the General Election. The Commission issued briefings to all honourable members in the last parliament on the work it was undertaking prior to the General Election to help tackle electoral fraud and will do so again before the elections in May 2016.

In its 2014 review of electoral fraud, the Commission recommended that voters in Great Britain should be required to produce ID at polling stations, although it is yet to receive a response to this recommendation from the Government. The Commission has submitted evidence to the review being undertaken by Sir Eric Pickles and hopes that he agrees with it and that the Government accepts the Commission’s recommendation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on its report into the collapse of the Uniting Care Partnership contract; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

No such discussions have taken place. NHS England advises that the draft report is currently being finalised and will be published in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2015-10-27.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12792, for what reason the nationality of EU citizens in receipt of working tax credits is not recorded; and if he will make a statement.

Damian Hinds

Nationality is not a condition of entitlement to tax credits. The information requested is, therefore, not available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to approve the draft selective licensing scheme for landlords for Peterborough City Council; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis

My department is reviewing the evidence submitted by Peterborough City Council in support of their proposed selective licensing scheme and will make a decision on this in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2015-11-03.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what assessment the Electoral Commission has made of the efficacy of removing the current policy of absent votes on demand in favour of the previous absent votes criteria for the purpose of preventing electoral fraud; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Gary Streeter

In January 2014, the Electoral Commission published its review of electoral fraud in the UK, which followed research and wide public consultation on a number of proposals for reducing absent voting vulnerabilities, including reversing the current availability of postal voting on demand without a reason or attestation in Great Britain.

While some respondents to the Commission’s consultation supported restricting the availability of postal voting on demand to address the risk of electoral fraud, others expressed concern that it would reduce convenience and could mean that some electors would be unable to vote. Respondents also suggested that restricting the availability of postal voting on demand would be disproportionate to the number and scale of proven cases of postal voting fraud.

The Commission’s review concluded that restricting the availability of postal voting would remove the freedom for electors to choose a convenient and, for the vast majority, secure, method of voting and on balance did not support changing the availability of postal voting in Great Britain. At the May 2015 UK Parliamentary general election postal votes were issued to around 7.6 million electors in Great Britain, representing nearly 17% of the total electorate. At present, the Commission is aware of 22 cases of alleged electoral fraud at the May 2015 polls involving postal votes. The Commission continues to monitor data about cases of alleged postal voting fraud, and will keep its assessment of the impact of restricting the availability of postal voting under review in light of any new evidence which becomes available.

The Commission’s review also considered whether there was a case for further restricting the availability of proxy voting by requiring all proxy applications to be attested; limiting proxy voting to a smaller range of categories of need, such as special category electors; or imposing further limits on the number of electors for whom an individual could be appointed to act as a proxy. Respondents to the Commission’s consultation expressed concern that such restrictions could have an impact on voter participation, especially for disabled voters or those outside the country at the time of the election for whom proxy voting might be the only way in which they are able to vote. On balance, the Commission did not support placing further restrictions on the availability of proxy voting.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to improve the timely conclusion of investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission; and if she will make a statement.

Mike Penning

In March 2013, the Home Secretary announced that increased resources would be transferred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to enable it to expand and undertake many more independent investigations, including all serious and sensitive matters involving the police. This change programme is under way. The IPCC has more than doubled the number of independent investigations opened (from 241 in 2014-15 to over 500 in 2015/16). The average duration of investigations reduced from 294 working days in 2014/15 to 225 working days in 2015/16.

This Government is legislating via the Policing and Crime Bill to increase the IPCC’s powers and to reform its governance structures. The reforms are designed to deliver a more capable, resilient IPCC with clearer lines of responsibility and decision making. They will further ensure that complaints and investigations are handled in a way that builds public trust and confidence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2015-11-16.

To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, for what reason the Church Commissioners have not released land for the construction of a primary school, in accordance with previous legal undertakings, at the Paston Reserve urban extension in Peterborough; and if she will make a statement.

Mrs Caroline Spelman

The Church Commissioners are involved in the development of Paston Reserve in Peterborough. Within the development there is provision for a site and financial contributions towards the delivery of a primary school site as outlined within the agreed Section 106 legal agreement that accompanied the planning permission, and that was varied by agreement with the Council in 2010. The Section 106 agreement provides that the primary school site must be delivered prior to any house occupation on the third phase of development on the site and also outlines the trigger points at which the financial contributions for the school will be provided.

Based on these legal requirements, the land for the primary school site at Paston Reserve has not been provided yet, because the site has not progressed to a third phase of development. The first phase on the site is still under construction, and as outlined in our response to the hon. Gentleman’s question [3389] answered on the 29 June 2015, the second phase of development is likely to commence at some point in 2016. The development remains in accordance with the legal provisions of the Section 106 agreed with Peterborough Council.