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 grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1138177

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
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 information his Department holds on how much has been spent on investigating fraudulent universal credit claims that have been made by people using a loophole in the online application process to make an application and claim an advance using another person’s information.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	275666
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>The Department is committed to bringing fraudsters to justice. Last year we, working alongside local authorities, recovered more than £1.1bn in fraud and error across all benefits and brought almost 5,000 prosecutions in 2017/18.</p><p> </p><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates to less than 1 per cent of all Universal Credit claims.</p><p> </p><p>Our investigations are ongoing and we are therefore unable to provide details of how many may have used another person’s identity to make their claim, or to quantify the amount spent on investigations of this type. However, any cases in which this has occurred will be treated accordingly, with the continued use of both prosecutions and tough financial penalties to deter this fraudulent behaviour.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma grouped question UIN 275665 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:21:01 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138178

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
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 information her Department holds on the proportion of successful universal credit claims which are fraudulent; and how that figure compares to legacy benefits.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	275667
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Under Universal Credit (UC) claimants will only have one claim to benefit, whereas under Legacy, they may have made claims to multiple benefits. It is therefore not possible to draw a direct comparison between the caseloads of UC and Legacy benefits. UC will also incorporate Tax Credits which is currently administered by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, who record their overpayments differently.</p><p> </p><p>The Department is open and transparent about the cost of fraud and error in the benefit system, publishing our National “Fraud and Error in the Benefit System” statistics each year which detail the amount we estimate is lost to both fraud and error across all benefits.</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. 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.</p><p /><p>As of June 2019, the Department has received around 42,000 fraud referrals from staff relating to potential fraudulent advance claims, which equates 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 15/07/2019 15:11:50 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138179

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Dementia: Health Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it is policy to introduce a dedicated dementia fund as recommended by the Alzheimer's Society.
tabling member constituency	Bexleyheath and Crayford
tabling member printed	Sir David Evennett
uin	275693
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>We have noted the recent Alzheimer’s Society report. We are committed to publishing a Green Paper on adult social care at the earliest opportunity, setting out proposals for reform. One aspect of the dementia fund proposals was related to personal health budgets. Within Universal Personalised Care, we committed to exploring possible new rights to have personal health budgets in a further five areas across 2019-20, including dementia.</p><p>We continue to work with our partners to deliver in full the Challenge on Dementia 2020, which includes commitments to improve awareness of dementia. There are now more than 2.8 million people that are dementia friends and 365 areas in England have committed to become Dementia Friendly Communities.</p><p>The Challenge on Dementia 2020 sets out the ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis. This has been achieved nationally. Our focus now is on reducing the variation in local diagnosis rates, and NHS England have published guidance and put programmes in place to further improve the quality and timeliness of diagnosis across the country.</p><p>Information on how much funding was spent on dementia care in Bexley, London and England is not available centrally. NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which commission services on behalf of their local populations. It is for CCGs to decide how best to use the funding allocated to them in line with local healthcare needs and priorities, working with other local commissioners and organisations.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 275694 275695 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:18:25 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	1198 label Biography information for Sir David Evennett

1138180

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
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, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2019 to Question 272738, what recourse is available to a member of a joint claim whose partner has deliberately prevented them from being made aware of a universal credit advance; and in what circumstances a member of a joint claim who was unaware of an advance of universal credit is no longer liable for repaying that advance.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	275668
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2019 answer text <p>Both members of a couple are given individual notice at the time of taking out the advance, via their Universal Credit (UC) journal, which includes the amount of the advance and of their liability to repay the advance. They will also be alerted individually to this UC Journal entry via the contact details provided for each claimant.</p><p> </p><p>The Department will consider all reported cases on their own merits and decisions are made on the strength of any evidence provided.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 19/07/2019 12:06:59 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

1138181

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Dementia: Diagnosis and Health Education
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve (a) awareness and (b) diagnosis of dementia.
tabling member constituency	Bexleyheath and Crayford
tabling member printed	Sir David Evennett
uin	275694
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>We have noted the recent Alzheimer’s Society report. We are committed to publishing a Green Paper on adult social care at the earliest opportunity, setting out proposals for reform. One aspect of the dementia fund proposals was related to personal health budgets. Within Universal Personalised Care, we committed to exploring possible new rights to have personal health budgets in a further five areas across 2019-20, including dementia.</p><p>We continue to work with our partners to deliver in full the Challenge on Dementia 2020, which includes commitments to improve awareness of dementia. There are now more than 2.8 million people that are dementia friends and 365 areas in England have committed to become Dementia Friendly Communities.</p><p>The Challenge on Dementia 2020 sets out the ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis. This has been achieved nationally. Our focus now is on reducing the variation in local diagnosis rates, and NHS England have published guidance and put programmes in place to further improve the quality and timeliness of diagnosis across the country.</p><p>Information on how much funding was spent on dementia care in Bexley, London and England is not available centrally. NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which commission services on behalf of their local populations. It is for CCGs to decide how best to use the funding allocated to them in line with local healthcare needs and priorities, working with other local commissioners and organisations.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 275693 275695 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:18:25 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	1198 label Biography information for Sir David Evennett

1138182

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Dementia: Health Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much was spent on dementia care in (a) Bexley, (b) London and (c) England in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Bexleyheath and Crayford
tabling member printed	Sir David Evennett
uin	275695
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>We have noted the recent Alzheimer’s Society report. We are committed to publishing a Green Paper on adult social care at the earliest opportunity, setting out proposals for reform. One aspect of the dementia fund proposals was related to personal health budgets. Within Universal Personalised Care, we committed to exploring possible new rights to have personal health budgets in a further five areas across 2019-20, including dementia.</p><p>We continue to work with our partners to deliver in full the Challenge on Dementia 2020, which includes commitments to improve awareness of dementia. There are now more than 2.8 million people that are dementia friends and 365 areas in England have committed to become Dementia Friendly Communities.</p><p>The Challenge on Dementia 2020 sets out the ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis. This has been achieved nationally. Our focus now is on reducing the variation in local diagnosis rates, and NHS England have published guidance and put programmes in place to further improve the quality and timeliness of diagnosis across the country.</p><p>Information on how much funding was spent on dementia care in Bexley, London and England is not available centrally. NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which commission services on behalf of their local populations. It is for CCGs to decide how best to use the funding allocated to them in line with local healthcare needs and priorities, working with other local commissioners and organisations.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 275693 275694 question first answered 15/07/2019 15:18:25 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	1198 label Biography information for Sir David Evennett

1138183

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
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	USA: Detention Centres
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his counterpart in the US Administration on the treatment of (a) child and (b) other refugees and migrants being held at detention centres on the US-Mexico border.
tabling member constituency	Hove
tabling member printed	Peter Kyle
uin	275797
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>​We are aware of recent concerning reports describing conditions for children and other refugees and migrants in US detention facilities. The President signed a Bill on 1 July providing emergency funding, including humanitarian support, in part to help address those conditions. We will continue to monitor the situation, though immigration policy in the US is of course a matter for the US Government, just as immigration policy in the UK is decided by the British Government.</p> answering member constituency Rutland and Melton answering member printed Sir Alan Duncan question first answered 15/07/2019 14:53:58 answering member 343 label Biography information for Sir Alan Duncan
tabling member	4505 label Biography information for Peter Kyle

1138184

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Transport
answering dept id	27
answering dept short name	Transport
answering dept sort name	Transport
hansard heading	Roads: Safety
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the (a) finding in the July 2019 Highways England Strategic Road Network Star Rating Report that for the funding period 2015-2020 60 per cent of journeys on Highways England’s single carriageways are forecast to be below the three-star road safety benchmark under the EuroRAP/iRAP rating system for the safety of road infrastructure and (b) statement in the March 2015 Highways England 2015-2020 delivery plan that the organisation will ensure that by the end of 2020 more than 90 per cent of travel on the strategic road network will be on roads with a safety rating of EuroRAP3* (or equivalent).
tabling member constituency	Middlesbrough
tabling member printed	Andy McDonald
uin	275760
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2019 answer text <p>The Road Investment Strategy (RIS 1) 2015 - 2020 has enabled Highways England to deliver unprecedented levels of investment on the strategic road network in England and the star rating system is an assessment tool which Highways England continue to use to assist them in prioritising future investment opportunities.</p><p> </p><p>On single carriageways Highways England are committed to investing £77 million in improvement schemes by 2020, which is over and above enhancements through routine maintenance such as new road markings, signing and vegetation clearance. Highways England will review the star rating of the network when it is re-evaluated as part of RIS 2.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Northampton North answering member printed Michael Ellis question first answered 17/07/2019 14:18:25 answering member 4116 label Biography information for Sir Michael Ellis
tabling member	4269 label Biography information for Andy McDonald

1138185

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Optoelectronics
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated to the optoelectronics industry in the UK in each year for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	275690
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Our ambition is to increase total R&amp;D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, and 3% in the long term. Successive UK Governments have supported the principle that funding for basic research should be awarded through competitive processes on the basis of excellence and likely impact - as assessed through peer review.</p><p>UK Research and Innovation, a partner organisation of BEIS, primarily engages with industry through Innovate UK. The table below shows the amount committed by Innovate UK to projects involving optoelectronics in each of the last 5 years. These figures focus on funds to industry and, as such, exclude funding towards research-focused partners such as academics or charities.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Commitment Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Grant Offered (Commitment)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>£3,530,324</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>£1,944,112</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>£3,676,222</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>£5,225,330</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>£822,952</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><em>Note: as this is committed funding the 2018/19 figures do not include where an offer letter has been sent but no agreement has yet been reached. As such this will not reflect the full amount of funding committed in that year.</em></p><p> </p><p>Funding for research into optoelectronics is also provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.</p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 15/07/2019 15:47:28 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

1138186

registered interest
date	10/07/2019
answering body	Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept id	201
answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
answering dept sort name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
hansard heading	Optoelectronics
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the size of the optoelectronics industry in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	275691
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/07/2019 answer text <p>Official statistics are not published to a sufficient level of detail to identify the size of the optoelectronics sector in the UK.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does however work closely with both the Photonics Leadership Council and the Elect-Tech Council. The Council’s “UK Photonics: The Hidden Economic Engine” identifies the UK’s significant strengths in Photonics, including optoelectronics.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Kingswood answering member printed Chris Skidmore question first answered 15/07/2019 14:45:26 answering member 4021 label Biography information for Chris Skidmore
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane