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776267

	registered interest
	date	23/10/2017
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Letting Agents
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's call for evidence on protecting consumers in the letting and managing agent market, published in October 2017, for what reasons extending rights to freeholders was not included in that publication.
	tabling member constituency	Sittingbourne and Sheppey
	tabling member printed	Gordon Henderson
	uin	109012
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/10/2017 answer text <p>My Department's consultation ‘Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market’, which closed on 19 September, sought views on whether the Government should promote solutions to provide freeholders equivalent rights to leaseholders, to challenge the suitability of service charges for the maintenance of communal areas and facilities on a private estate. The Government will respond in due course.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 31/10/2017 14:59:34 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4050 label Biography information for Gordon Henderson

805270

	registered interest
	date	12/12/2017
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Private Rented Housing: Natural Gas
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions has he had with the Health and Safety Executive on the efficacy of landlords' gas safety checks being conducted without equipment to test for carbon monoxide.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	118942
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/12/2017 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive is part of a Cross Government Group including the Department for Communities and Local Government, which promotes a joined up approach across Government on carbon monoxide safety policy.</p><p>The Health and Safety Executive’s Approved Code of Practice (L56) sets out the minimum requirements for a gas safety check. This focuses on ensuring the appliance burns properly, that there is adequate ventilation and the effectiveness of the flue associated with the appliance rather than specifying the use of equipment to test for carbon monoxide.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 21/12/2017 15:52:04 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

722494

	registered interest
	date	19/04/2017
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Embassies: Cider
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK embassies serve cider at functions.
	tabling member constituency	North Herefordshire
	tabling member printed	Bill Wiggin
	uin	71283
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2017 answer text <p>A number of our High Commissions and Embassies serve cider at functions. We do not centrally hold details of the occasions and the cider that is served. The Foreign &amp; Commonwealth Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs work closely with partners across Government and the private sector, including the National Association of Cider Makers, to promote Britain's world class offer in this area, including through the GREAT campaign. Our High Commissions and Embassies are uniquely positioned to showcase British food and drink across the world.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 26/04/2017 08:51:00 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	1428 label Biography information for Sir Bill Wiggin

1000260

	registered interest
	date	02/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the taper that is applied to wages is not applied to pensions in relation to universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
	tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
	uin	187333
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>The taper is the rate at which Universal Credit is reduced to take account of earnings. It is specifically for in work claimants and linked to earnings to incentivise work, and those in work to earn more. Universal Credit has a single taper of 63 per cent so payments reduce in a transparent and predictable way as earnings increase. Universal Credit is a means tested benefit, and income other than earnings, such as pensions, is taken fully into account in the assessment of Universal Credit. This is consistent with how legacy means tested benefits such as Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support treat pension income. Therefore it would not be consistent to extend the earnings taper to pensions income and doing so would also undermine the incentives to work for people of working age.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 18:05:06 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

1002759

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with representatives of staff working in job centres and service centres on difficulties experienced by such staff in (a) applying for and (b) receiving payment as claimants of universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188874
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>My officials regularly meet with trade union representatives to discuss areas of concerns that staff may have.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 17:51:28 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1002760

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Telephone Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what process is used by her Department to estimate the (a) average call duration and (b) amount of calls taken by case managers working on universal credit; and if she will publish the results of such estimates for each year for which information is available.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188875
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>Data can be extracted from the Universal Credit Full Service system to establish the average number of calls per day and the average duration.</p><p> </p><p>We have no plans to collect or publish this data routinely given the costs involved in maintaining it to official statistics standards.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 18:05:10 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1002761

	registered interest
	date	06/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Telephone Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of case managers working on universal credit who are seconded to the national telephony team for each shift; and if she will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
	tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
	uin	188876
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/11/2018 answer text <p>We currently have 400 colleagues assigned to Universal Credit national tier telephony. We retain the flexibility to adjust the number of colleagues working on some of the core functions within Universal Credit to accommodate fluctuations in demand and the number of colleagues deployed to National Tier telephony will vary month on month as required.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 12/11/2018 18:02:05 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1007135

	registered interest
	date	14/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Zero Hours Contracts: Young People
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Youth unemployment down 50% since 2010, published on gov.uk on 16 October 2018, what proportion of recorded employment was under a zero-hours contract.
	tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
	tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
	uin	191422
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2018 answer text <p>The Office for National Statistics (ONS) use the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to provide estimates for the number of people employed on zero hours’ contracts.</p><p> </p><p>The ONS figures for people in employment on zero hours’ contracts broken down by age, do not go back to 2010 and are only currently available up to April-June 2018. Therefore no directly comparable figures to the youth unemployment statistics cited are available.</p><p> </p><p>The majority of young people are not employed on zero hours’ contracts. In 2018 (Apr-Jun) there were 261,000 16-24 year olds on a zero hours’ contracts – representing only 6.9% of employed 16-24 year olds.</p><p> </p><p>This is down from 299,000 young people (7.8% of employed young people) in 2017 (Apr-Jun), but a slight increase from the first comparable data available, which shows in 2014 (Apr-Jun) there were 235,000 young people on a zero hours’ contract (or 6.3% of employed young people).</p><p> </p><p>Many people in full-time education are employed on zero hours’ contracts, in part because of the flexibility they provide. 18.5% of all people in 2018 (Apr-Jun) on zero hours’ contracts were in full-time education – compared to 2.3% of people not on a zero hours’ contract.</p><p> </p><p>The ONS data shows that the majority of people on zero hours’ contracts are happy with the hours provided by their zero hours’ contract.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 20/11/2018 16:24:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma previous answer version 85857 answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

1010366

	registered interest
	date	19/11/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Self-employed
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the calculation of universal credit for self-employed people (a) accurately reflects (i) the amount that they allocate to expenses to maintain their business and (ii) their take-home earnings and (b) leaves those people in a better financial position as a result of being in work.
	tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
	tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
	uin	192922
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2018 answer text <p>Claimants with earnings from self-employment are required to report them to DWP on a monthly basis. These earnings are reported on a simplified 'cash accounting' basis, which asks for the total income from receipts into the business and details of payments out of the business under defined categories during the assessment period. We assess net earnings after deducting business expenses. The requirements were designed to be as simple as possible in order for self-employed claimants to easily report their earnings and monthly reporting allows Universal Credit to be adjusted on a monthly basis.</p><p> </p><p>Where claimants are in the 12-month grace period or are gainfully self-employed and earning above the Minimum Income Floor (MIF), the single taper rate acts to ensure that they are better off working and earning more under Universal Credit, removing the cliff edges from the old legacy benefits system.</p><p>We announced at Autumn Budget 2018 that all new gainfully self-employed claimants can, from September 2020, access a 12-month exemption period from the MIF. This change will assist all gainfully self-employed claimants to grow their earnings, prepare and adjust for the application of the MIF. In 2022/23 it will allow 130,000 self-employed people the space to grow a successful business when moving on to Universal Credit.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 22/11/2018 16:20:35 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

935249

	registered interest
	date	06/07/2018
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the online journal for universal credit; and whether her Department has plans to improve the journals for benefits claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
	tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
	uin	161553
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/07/2018 answer text <p>The recently published Claimant Survey shows claimants are largely very positive about key aspects of the digital service, such as the journal. Overall, eight in ten (79 per cent) claimants said they found the journal easy to use, while three quarters (75 per cent) said it was a useful way to keep a record of their progress. A similar proportion (74 per cent) said the journal was a useful way to communicate with their work coach, while 68 per cent said they use it to keep evidence of their job seeking or work preparation activity.</p><p> </p><p>As part of our test and learn approach to Universal Credit, we update and improve the full service every two weeks, for example, a recent update gave claimants the ability to apply for an advance through their online account. These updates can include changes to the journal, adding functionality and improving ease of use.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 11/07/2018 16:46:16 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis