Tag: Tulip Siddiq

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Government has to ensure that all EU citizens living in the UK will receive proof of their right to remain in the UK before any restrictions on new EU citizens are introduced; and how it will ensure there is sufficient operational capacity for such plans.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The government has been clear that it wants to protect the rights of EU nationals already living in the UK and the only circumstances in which that would not be possible are if British citizens’ rights in other EU Member States were not protected in return. The government will seek to address this issue as part of the wider negotiations on the UK’s exit from the EU to ensure fair treatment of British citizens living in the EU.

EU nationals currently in the UK do not need to apply for any additional documentation in support of their status exercising treaty rights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on forcing local authorities to offer flexible business rates for private nurseries.

Caroline Dinenage

The Government does not collect data on particular types of premises that might have benefited from local discretionary relief.

Central Government has given local authorities wide-ranging, discretionary powers to grant business rates discounts as they see fit – they are best placed to serve the needs of their community. All local authorities which grant a local discount will receive 50% of the cost from central Government funds.

The Minister for Childcare wrote to all local authorities in November 2014 to encourage them to apply business rates relief to nurseries and reminded them that central Government will meet 50% of the costs involved. He also encouraged nurseries to follow up with their local authorities themselves. The Department for Communities and Local Government wrote to local authorities in January 2015, reinforcing this message. This letter is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/395333/BRIL_1__-_2015__-__General_-_14_Jan.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many complaints were heard by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline regarding employment issues; and how many of these complaints were from (a) interns and (b) apprentices in each of the last five years.

Nick Boles

Table 1 shows the total number of complaints made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) and then referred to the relevant enforcement agency. It also includes a breakdown of the number of complaints from interns and apprentices for 2013/14 and 2014/15; the only years for which this data is available. Data for 2014/15 is the latest year for which full year data are available

Table 1: Complaints made to the PWRH by caller type, 2009/10 to 2014/15

2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15
Total Complaints	4,420	2,820	3,110	3,300	4,290	4,160
Of which
Apprentices	–	–	–	–	170	140
Interns	–	–	–	–	70	20

Source: Pay and Works Rights Helpline

Notes

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest ten.
2. A breakdown of complaints from Apprentice and Interns is not available prior to 2013/14 as these callers types were not considered a prioritised group and were therefore not recorded separately.
3. The PWRH ‘soft launched’ in May 2009, all other years are on a full financial year basis (April to March).
4. Enforcement agencies who investigate complaints include HM Revenue and Customs, Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate, Health and Safety Executive, Gangmasters Licensing Authority and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (until Oct 2013).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many tribunal cases there were related to (a) section 17 of the Equalities Act 2010, non-work pregnancy and maternity discrimination and (b) section 18 of the Equalities Act 2010, workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination in each of the last five years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Cases relating to Section 17 of the Equality Act 2010, non-work pregnancy and maternity discrimination, are dealt with in the civil courts. This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The number of cases relating to Section 18 of the Equality Act 2010, workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination, which have been received by the Employment Tribunal can be found in the statistics published at

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2015.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for how many asylum applications initially rejected by UK Visas and Immigration did applicants subsequently make further submissions which were more than 12 months old; how many such applicants submitted a request to be allowed to work in the UK; how many of those requests to work were rejected; and how long, on average, did it take for those accepted to be given documents confirming their right to work in each year since 2009-10.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office holds reportable information on the number of failed asylum seekers who submit a further submission and how long their case remained outstanding. Permission to work requests are documented on the immigration casework database, but the information is not extractable without interrogating thousands of individual records. Therefore, the information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Skills Funding Agency has provided for ESOL Plus Mandation courses in each year since 2009-10.

Nick Boles

ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding was introduced in 2014 in order to support the English Language Requirement policy to mandate new Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants with poor spoken English to ESOL training. ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding was additional to the Adult Skills Budget, which providers use to fund ESOL.

The Skills Funding Agency provided £30m in 2014-15 and £10m in 2015-16 of ESOL Plus (Mandation) funding.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will amend its A&E waiting times target to set a target time for patients to wait from their arrival at hospital to admission.

Jane Ellison

NHS England’s urgent and emergency care review is supporting the delivery of new ways of delivering urgent and emergency care to provide highly responsive, effective and personalised care as close to patients’ homes as possible and ensure people with more serious or life threatening emergency care needs are treated in centres with the very best expertise and facilities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will announce a public consultation to determine the level of support for including mothers’ names on marriage certificates.

James Brokenshire

There is agreement that the names of both parents should be included in the marriage entry. The Home Office has, therefore, been working with all interested parties to consider the most efficient and effective way to achieve this. Doing so is likely to require additional funding and changes to legislation, IT systems and administrative processes. A timetable will be confirmed for changes as soon as there is an opportunity to legislate on this matter.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many assessments for disabled students’ allowance (DSA) were carried out by an independent needs assessor in each year since 2009-10; what the average such award was in each of those years; and who was contracted to carry out each of those assessments in each of those years.

Joseph Johnson

Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) are available to help pay the extra essential costs they may have whilst studying on an HE course as a direct result of their disability. The Government recently announced reforms to DSAs to ensure that the limited public funding available for DSAs is targeted in the best way and to achieve value for money, whilst ensuring those disabled students most in need continue to get the help they require. The changes also aim to ensure that Higher Education providers all properly adhere to their Equalities Act 2010 duties, for the benefit of all disabled students.

All disabled higher education students who are eligible for DSAs are referred to an independent assessment centre so as to identify the type and level of support they require.

Information in Table 1 sets out the number of study needs assessments carried out by independent assessment centres in England and Wales for English domiciled undergraduate and postgraduate higher education students applying for Student Finance England administered DSAs. Information for numbers of assessments carried out by each assessment centre is not held centrally. Information is not available at individual assessor level. Information for the period prior to 1 April 2011 is not held centrally.

Table 2 sets out the average award of DSAs in each financial year. A list of currently accredited assessment centres is below.

Government does not contract with assessment centres. Assessment centres who wish to work in this area are accredited through the DSA Quality Assurance Group, a not-for-profit membership organisation.

Table 1 –

Timeframe	Number of assessments
1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014	34,355
1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013	32,410
1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012	35,073

Source: DSA Quality Assurance Group management information. Information for the period 1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015 will be available in April 2016.

Table 2 –

Average DSA payments to full-time English domiciled students

Academic years 2009/10 to 2013/14

Academic year	Average payment (£)
2009/10	2,110
2010/11	2,300
2011/12	2,350
2012/13	2,250
2013/14	2,230

Source: SLC, Student Support for Higher Education in England

Note: 2013/14 final figures are the latest available

List of assessment centres in England and Wales

AbilityNet DSA Assessment Centre

Access 1^st Assessment Centre

Access Birmingham Assessment Centre

Access Bristol Assessment Centre

Access Central Ltd

Access Centre Coventry

Access Centre Ealing

Access Centre Hereford

Access Independence Ltd

Access South West

Access SUMMIT

Access West of England

Access@SW15

Action for Blind People Pan Disability Assessment Centre

Aim Assessments

Anglia Access Centre

Assessment Centre Cardiff

Assessment Centre Cardiff Metropolitan University

Assessment Centre on Teesside

ATOP Chester

Bangor Access Centre

Bradford Assessment Centre

Bridgend Assessment Centre

Broadbent & Co

Cambridge Access Centre

Carmarthenshire Access Centre

Central London Assessment Services

Cheltenham Assessment Centre

Durham University Assessment Centre

Exeter Access Centre

Glyndwr University Assessment Centre

Hertfordshire Access Centre

Higher York Access Centre

Hull Assessment Centre

IONA – Kent and SE Assessment Centre

Kent Assessors

Kingston Assessment Services

Lancaster University Assessment Centre

Leeds Assessment Centre

Leeds Metropolitan Disability Assessment Centre

Leicester Assessment Centre

Lincoln Assessment Centre

Lincoln University Assessment Centre

Loughborough Regional Assessment Centre

Maritime Assessment Centre

Midlands Assessment Centre

Needs Assessment Centre

Newport Assessment Centre

North East Regional Assessment Centre

North London Regional Assessment Centre

Nottingham Trent University Access Centre

Nottingham University Access Centre

Open University Access Centre

Oxford Access Centre

Oxford University Assessment Centre

Pennine Lancashire Access Centre

Plymouth Assessment Centre

Portsmouth Assessment Centre

Reading Assessment Centre

Regional Access Centre East London

Sheffield Regional Assessment Centre

South London Access Centre

Southampton Assessment and Study Services

Staffordshire Regional Access Centre

Surrey Assessment Centre

Sussex Regional Access Centre

Swansea Assessment and Training Centre

Taunton Assessment Centre

Technical Assessment and Support Centre

University Centre for Assessments Newcastle

University of Derby Assessment Centre

Wessex Needs Assessment Centre

West London Assessment Centre

Wolverhampton Assessment Centre

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions in each year since 2009-10 he has directed that a planning application appeal which would otherwise be determined by a person appointed by the Secretary of State will instead be determined by the Secretary of State, using his powers under Schedule 6, Paragraph 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

Brandon Lewis

The attached table shows the number of S78 planning appeals that have been recovered over the last decade.