Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1127504

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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: Disqualification
	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 potential merits of a moratorium on benefit sanctions for (a) low-income and (b) single-unit families during the school summer holidays.
	tabling member constituency	Bermondsey and Old Southwark
	tabling member printed	Neil Coyle
	uin	256326
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department works to design and deliver a compassionate approach that supports claimants on Universal Credit and other benefits.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has not made an assessment of the potential merits of a moratorium on benefit sanctions during the school summer holidays for a) low-income and (b) single-unit families, as we are in the process of reviewing the effect of sanctions on work incentives.</p><p> </p><p>There are a number of measures designed to help the claimant’s financial situation. Hardship payments are available to eligible claimants who will face hardship as a result of a sanction. Additionally, we have recently announced that the length of the maximum single sanction any benefit claimant could face will be reduced from three years to six months.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 29/05/2019 11:06:30 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4368 label Biography information for Neil Coyle

1127548

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the timeframe for fixing problems with GOV.UK Verify in respect of universal credit claims.
	tabling member constituency	Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport
	tabling member printed	Luke Pollard
	uin	256351
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/05/2019 answer text <p>Design and delivery of the GOV.UK Verify platform is the responsibility of the Government Digital Service (GDS) and its partners. The Department for Work and Pensions, along with other government departments is a user of this service, and provides feedback to GDS about its operation, recognising that people wanting to claim Universal Credit, or check their State Pension, can choose to use it to confirm their identity. The Department has no access to this information and claimants have direct contact with identity providers (also called ‘certified companies’).</p><p> </p><p>The Department will continue to consider options to provide the easiest and most secure digital services for our claimants.</p><p /><p>There are various ways in which a claimant can verify their identity for Universal Credit purposes: in person using primary and secondary ID verification or; by using biographical questions, for those who do not have identity documents.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 29/05/2019 11:54:13 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4682 label Biography information for Luke Pollard

1127549

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will change the rules on universal credit joint applications to enable couples to verify their ID in person at separate times.
	tabling member constituency	Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport
	tabling member printed	Luke Pollard
	uin	256352
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/05/2019 answer text <p>At present, there are various ways in which a claimant can verify their identity for Universal Credit purposes: online using the gov.uk verify service; in person using primary and secondary ID verification or; by using biographical questions, for those who do not have identity documents.</p><p> </p><p>If an appointment is needed to verify a claimant’s ID in person, both members of a “couple claim” are not required to attend at the same time. The current process is that separate appointments will be arranged for each partner, at a time that is convenient for them.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 29/05/2019 12:04:15 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4682 label Biography information for Luke Pollard

1127562

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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: West Midlands
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of the introduction of universal credit on trends in the level of household debt in the West Midlands.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Ladywood
	tabling member printed	Shabana Mahmood
	uin	256280
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/05/2019 answer text <p>We do not hold data on the levels of household debt.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to ensuring that people, especially those who are experiencing financial difficulties, have access to the information and guidance they need to make effective financial decisions throughout their lives.</p><p> </p><p>Once fully rolled out, Universal Credit is forecast to be £2 billion per year more generous than the legacy system it replaces.</p><p> </p><p>The Money and Pension Service has replaced three providers of government-sponsored financial guidance – the Money Advice Service, the Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise – which has brought together the provision of debt advice, money guidance and pension guidance for the first time, streamlining the services offered and reducing confusion for members of the public on who they should contact.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 29/05/2019 12:05:36 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	3914 label Biography information for Shabana Mahmood

1127662

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	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: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many three year sanctions were issued by her Department to social security benefit recipients in each of the last 10 years.
	tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
	tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
	uin	256249
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/06/2019 answer text <p>Information on the number of three years’ sanctions is recorded on our systems and we centrally collate some Management Information. However, the total number cannot be calculated as it is collected across different benefits on different systems and is not centrally collated in a way that allows analysis to be undertaken easily. An extensive interrogation of our systems would be required in order to provide the information requested, which would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>Nevertheless, from the Department’s quarterly sanctions publication, in table 1.7 of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-sanctions-statistics-to-january-2019" target="_blank">supporting data tables</a>, 2,904 individuals have received three (or more) high level JSA sanction failures, from October 2012 to January 2019. It is not possible to readily unpick how many of these were 3 year sanctions (if two high level sanctions received by an individual were more than a year apart then that would mean they would not have been escalated up to a 3 year sanction duration after their 3rd high level failure). The published data on individuals that received a third high level JSA sanction cannot be split by year. This is because the data is not structured in a way to readily analyse this.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 03/06/2019 12:46:47 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1127457

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Railways: Devon
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans the Government has to reopen the Okehampton to Exeter train route.
	tabling member constituency	North Cornwall
	tabling member printed	Scott Mann
	uin	256430
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2019 answer text <p>Currently, Great Western Railway only operates train services to Okehampton on summer Sundays. In <em>Investing in the South West</em> published on 15 February 2019, the Secretary of State said he wanted to bring regular train services back to Okehampton. <em>A Strategic Vision for Rail </em>published on 29 November 2017 made clear that all schemes for reopening railway lines would need to demonstrate a strong business case where they are seeking any available Government funding</p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 23/05/2019 14:45:25 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	4496 label Biography information for Scott Mann

1127558

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Transport: West Midlands
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to increase spending on transport infrastructure in the West Midlands.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Ladywood
	tabling member printed	Shabana Mahmood
	uin	256278
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government is investing heavily in better transport infrastructure for the West Midlands.</p><p> </p><p>We have committed around £115 million to two ‘large local major’ schemes, which are now under construction – the A4440 Worcester Southern Relief Road (Carrington Bridge) and the Birmingham Centenary Square tram extension - with more than £400m committed to a further nine road and public transport schemes in the West Midlands.</p><p>HS2 is already playing a huge part of the Midlands’ success story, with work well under way at over 60 sites including major development at Curzon Street and Washwood Heath. It will put Birmingham at the heart of Britain’s new high speed network, including two stations within the Birmingham area.</p><p> </p><p>We have allocated £321.5m from the Transforming Cities Fund to West Midlands Combined Authority who are using it to build the Brierley Hill tram extension.</p><p> </p><p>On the strategic road network, Highways England has just started construction on widening the A500 Etruria Valley, a £17.5m investment.</p><p>In Rail Control Period 5, we funded a number of schemes in the West Midlands, including the redevelopment of Birmingham New Street, upgrade and electrification of the Chase Line, and extension of the Cross City Line from Longbridge to Bromsgrove.</p><p> </p><p>We also provided £5m to Midlands Connect to develop a strategic outline business case for the Midlands Rail Hub programme. We expect this to be submitted to the Department in June 2019.</p><p> </p><p>In November 2018, the Infrastructure and Pipeline Authority published their Analysis of the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline. The regional analysis of the pipeline shows that over the period of 2018/19 - 2020/21, the West Midlands will receive £255 per person on average each year of planned central government transport investment, which is the 4th highest of the 9 regions and ahead of London.</p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 28/05/2019 10:12:10 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	3914 label Biography information for Shabana Mahmood

1127574

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Railways: Standards
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the number of train cancellations in 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill
	tabling member printed	Hugh Gaffney
	uin	256365
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2019 answer text <p>The industry definition for cancellations includes those trains which did not complete their full journey or failed to call at one or more stations. Around 4% of planned services met this criteria between 7 January 2018 and 5 January 2019.</p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 23/05/2019 15:54:27 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	4614 label Biography information for Hugh Gaffney

1127603

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	Motor Vehicles: Exhaust Emissions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 125528, Motor Vehicles: Carbon Emissions, for what reasons different systems are in place for tackling smoky and excessive exhaust emissions from (a) lorries and buses and (b) private cars and motorcycles.
	tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
	tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
	uin	256295
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/05/2019 answer text <p>The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) reporting system outlined in the answer of 5 February to Question 125528 applies to lorries and buses, because some of DVSA’s powers and responsibilities are specific to lorries and buses. For example; the DVSA has powers in respect of the enforcement of commercial road transport offences but does not have the same enforcement powers in respect of private cars or motorcycles. In all cases it remains the user’s responsibility to ensure the vehicle continues to meet these emissions standards at all times while in use.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 28/05/2019 11:23:03 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas

1127628

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2019
	answering body	Department for Transport
	answering dept id	27
	answering dept short name	Transport
	answering dept sort name	Transport
	hansard heading	East Midlands Rail Franchise
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department was responsible for conducting the East Midlands Trains franchise competition; and if this administration of the process includes the (a) scoping, (b) evaluation of compliance and (c) award of franchise bids.
	tabling member constituency	Middlesbrough
	tabling member printed	Andy McDonald
	uin	256391
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2019 answer text <p>The Department for Transport conducted the East Midlands franchise competition as per the usual process for franchising: specifying the minimum requirements for bids, evaluating bidders’ proposals against those requirements, reviewing bids to check whether they were compliant with the rules of the competition and awarding the franchise contract.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Harrogate and Knaresborough answering member printed Andrew Jones question first answered 23/05/2019 14:59:45 answering member 3996 label Biography information for Andrew Jones
	tabling member	4269 label Biography information for Andy McDonald