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1136764

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2019
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 25 June (HL Deb, col 1004), what sources they used to inform their statements that the UK (1) delivers the fourth most generous level of welfare support in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), (2) spends more on family benefits than any other country in the G7, and (3) spends the second highest amount on family benefits as a share of GDP, in the OECD.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
	uin	HL16914
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>(1) This statement was due to official error. We are the fourth most generous country according to the UN 2019 World Happiness Report. The UK spends £220bn on welfare each year, providing vital financial support for the most vulnerable in society.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>(2) and (3) These two statements come from OECD 2015 data (<a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=SOCX_AGG" target="_blank">https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=SOCX_AGG</a>). 2015 data is used as it is the most recent full data set. Please note that OECD definitions do not always match UK definitions, but insure data is comparable across OECD countries.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 17/07/2019 14:09:48 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
	publisher	25277 pref label House of Lords
	tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

1138693

	registered interest
	date	12/07/2019
	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: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps he is taking to tackle universal credit fraud.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	276511
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department takes its obligation to prevent, detect and investigate fraud very seriously and will investigate all claims where fraud may have been committed. We have recently set up a dedicated team to investigate a specific type of emergent fraud, and we are also committed to the use of penalties such as prosecutions and tough financial penalties to discourage fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has also recently been working to further improve knowledge and awareness of Universal Credit (UC) fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that all staff are aware how to quickly refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>Most welfare losses, across Government, arise from claimants failing to report changes of circumstances. UC provides a single, digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. UC also allows us to adjust benefit entitlement in line with changing circumstances in real time. Internal and external data matches are increasingly helping to inform benefit payments and alerting staff to check for any undeclared changes in people’s circumstances. Once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error and overpayments to be reduced by around £1 billion per year</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, potential fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/07/2019 12:58:00 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1138694

	registered interest
	date	12/07/2019
	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: Proof of Identity
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to ensure accurate verification of universal credit claimants who request an advance.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	276512
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>As of June 2019, potential fraudulent advance claims equate to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has been working to improve knowledge and awareness of advances fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that staff are aware how to refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>We are developing our service iteratively and improving any areas in the service that may currently be presenting issues, to minimise the risk of fraud while ensuring that we can continue to provide financial support to those claimants who need it.</p><p>We cannot share advance detail of the specific security improvements we are making but this includes improving our process for verifying a claimant’s circumstances.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/07/2019 12:46:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1138699

	registered interest
	date	12/07/2019
	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: Fraud
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support victims of universal credit scams.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Mr Jim Cunningham
	uin	276513
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department takes benefit fraud very seriously and is committed to taking appropriate action when it is detected.</p><p> </p><p>If a claimant has been the victim of fraud, and has not benefitted financially in any way, they will not be asked to repay the money. The Department considers all cases on their individual merits and decisions are made on the strength of the evidence provided.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has been working to improve knowledge and awareness of advances fraud amongst Jobcentre and Service Centre staff. Guidance has also been issued to ensure that staff are aware how to refer cases of suspected fraud to the Department’s Counter-fraud team.</p><p> </p><p>Most welfare losses, across Government, arise from claimants failing to report changes of circumstances, Universal Credit (UC) provides a single, digital interface through which claimants can more easily report these changes. As such, once UC is fully rolled out, we expect cross-welfare losses to fraud, error and overpayments to be reduced by around £1 billion per year.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 17/07/2019 13:47:42 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	308 label Biography information for Mr Jim Cunningham

1136767

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Roads: Repairs and Maintenance
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to transfer maintenance and litter collection on all-purpose trunk roads to the Highways Agency.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Randerson
	uin	HL16917
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>As outlined in the Government’s Litter Strategy published in 2017, we proposed to consider, if needed, additional powers for the Secretary of State to make this transfer of responsibility and funding to Highways England, and consider how to provide a mechanism to recover the cost of these activities from local authorities.</p> answering member printed Baroness Vere of Norbiton question first answered 12/07/2019 10:43:40 answering member 4580 label Biography information for Baroness Vere of Norbiton
	publisher	25277 pref label House of Lords
	tabling member	4230 label Biography information for Baroness Randerson

1136768

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Connect Plus
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the decision by Highways England not to impose financial penalties on Connect Plus M25 Ltd for failing to meet contractual maintenance standards in the four-year period to June 2018.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Randerson
	uin	HL16918
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>Highways England’s contract with Connect Plus M25 Ltd allows payment deductions to be made based on the measured condition of the road surface and the rectification of certain types of defects. During the four-year period to June 2018, payment deductions relating to the condition of the network and rectification of defects have been fully applied in accordance with the terms of the contract.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Vere of Norbiton question first answered 12/07/2019 10:43:56 answering member 4580 label Biography information for Baroness Vere of Norbiton
	publisher	25277 pref label House of Lords
	tabling member	4230 label Biography information for Baroness Randerson

1136769

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Roads: Litter
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what sanctions have been applied to service providers by Highways England for failure to collect litter in 2018.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Randerson
	uin	HL16919
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/07/2019 answer text <p>The performance of Highways England service providers in relation to litter is measured against the grades of cleanliness defined within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.</p><p>Each Highways England region manages its own maintenance contract and any failure to meet contractual obligations would trigger sanctions under the contract.</p><p> </p><p>In 2018 there have been no reported incidents of sanctions being applied in relation to litter, apart from the East Midlands, where payments to a service provider were withheld until evidence was provided that cleanliness had been brought up to standard.</p> answering member printed Baroness Vere of Norbiton question first answered 12/07/2019 10:44:17 answering member 4580 label Biography information for Baroness Vere of Norbiton
	publisher	25277 pref label House of Lords
	tabling member	4230 label Biography information for Baroness Randerson

1136770

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Roads: Accidents
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what statistics they have on accidents caused by litter or debris on roads in the UK.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Randerson
	uin	HL16920
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The department does not collect data specifically on litter and debris causing road accidents. The department collects data on personal injury road accidents reported to the police, including contributory factors which the police select when they attend the scene. This does not assign blame for the accident but gives an indication of factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident. This includes the contributory factors of ‘Deposit on road’ and ‘Animal or object in carriageway’, which might be used to record litter and debris.</p><p> </p><p>‘Deposit on road’ includes any deposit arising from human (or animal) activity which has made sections of the road surface slippery or which has caused traction control problems for a vehicle. ‘Animal or object in carriageway’ includes any object which the driver would not expect to find in the carriageway (e.g. dislodged vehicle load, fallen tree) and which caused or contributed to the accident.</p><p> </p><p>There were 1,058 road accidents with a contributory factor of ‘Deposit on road’ and 802 road accidents with a contributory factor of ‘Animal or object in carriageway’ in Great Britain in 2017.</p><p> </p><p>Statistics on the number and proportion of accidents by contributory factor reported are available online in table RAS50001. All published tables on contributory factors are available in the RAS50 series on gov.uk.</p><p> </p><p>The data we hold only covers reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain, we do not have data for Northern Ireland.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Vere of Norbiton question first answered 15/07/2019 10:58:09 answering member 4580 label Biography information for Baroness Vere of Norbiton
	publisher	25277 pref label House of Lords
	tabling member	4230 label Biography information for Baroness Randerson

1138615

	registered interest
	date	12/07/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	High Speed Two: Freedom of Information
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of freedom of information requests received by HS2 Limited were resolvable requests withheld in full for (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017, (d) 2018 and (e) the first quarter of 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
	tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
	uin	276515
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>From 2015 up to the end of first quarter of 2019, HS2 Ltd received 1,224 Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests. Where an exemption (FOI) or an exception (EIR) applied, all of the requested information was withheld on 239 occasions. The proportion of resolvable requests withheld in full for each period is as follows: (a) 2015, 12% (b) 2016, 19% (c) 2017, 25% (d) 2018, 19% and (e) first quarter of 2019, 24%.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Wealden answering member printed Ms Nusrat Ghani question first answered 17/07/2019 13:18:11 answering member 4460 label Biography information for Ms Nusrat Ghani
	publisher	25259 pref label House of Commons
	tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

1136763

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2019
	answering body	Northern Ireland Office
	answering dept id	21
	answering dept short name	Northern Ireland
	answering dept sort name	Northern Ireland
	hansard heading	Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when the report of the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive Inquiry will be published.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL16913
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/07/2019 answer text <p>Sir Patrick Coghlin is leading the report into the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme and has stated that no date has yet been set for publication. As the inquiry was established and is being supported by the Department of Finance, my Noble Friend should direct further queries about the inquiry to the Permanent Secretary of that Department.</p> answering member printed Lord Duncan of Springbank question first answered 09/07/2019 11:24:36 answering member 4686 label Biography information for Lord Duncan of Springbank
	publisher	25277 pref label House of Lords
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden