The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects to publish her Department’s review of Sharia courts; and if she will make a statement.
Karen Bradley
The Home Secretary has commissioned a full, independent review to enhance our understanding of any misuse of Sharia law. The review will report to the Home Secretary before the end of this year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-01-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has produced to assist police forces in apprehending foreign-born minors and their transfer into the care of local authorities; and if she will make a statement.
Karen Bradley
Guidance to the police on the identification and support of unaccompanied minors from overseas currently exists in two complementary guidance documents, both produced by the then Association of Chief Police Officers and currently supported by the National Policing Lead and the College of Policing: Guidance on the Management, Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons (2010) and Interim Guidance on the Management, Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons (2013). Advice to practitioners, including the police, is also contained within two pieces of statutory guidance from the Department for Education: Care of unaccompanied and trafficked children (2014) and Safeguarding Children who may have been trafficked (2011).
The College of Policing ran a public consultation in 2015 on revisions to the Authorised Professional Practice (APP) guidance to the police on the handling of missing persons investigations. This is currently being developed following consultation. The APP is expected to contain reference to unaccompanied foreign children, highlighting their vulnerabilities and the potential danger of exploitation, and re-affirm the need to investigate these cases effectively, considering the risks to the child, particularly from adults who may purport to be relatives.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Jackson on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department is making in reducing welfare dependency and increasing wages in Peterborough; and if he will make a statement.
Priti Patel
The government is making good progress in moving to a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy. In Peterborough the number of people claiming one of the main out-of-work benefits has fallen by over 3,400 (21%) since 2010. Average gross weekly earnings in Peterborough have risen by 12% since 2010, to £487 per week.
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 his Department has made of the effectiveness of round 2 of the Build to Rent scheme in delivering new homes; and if he will make a statement.
Brandon Lewis
The Build-to-Rent programme has helped to catalyse funding from other sources. Developers are now proceeding with schemes that will deliver over 3,000 homes using alternative finance after having originally made an application to the Fund.
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.