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166611

registered interest
date	27/11/2014
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	Public Health Funerals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of pauper's funerals in each of the last three years; and what steps his Department is taking to support families on low incomes with the costs of funerals.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Mr Frank Field
uin	216270
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>My department does not collect data on the number of Local Authority funerals.</p><p> </p><p>The Social Fund Funeral Payment scheme continues to provide help towards a simple, respectful, low-cost funeral and in 2013/14, over 33,000 awards were made worth £44.7 million, with an average award of £1,347.</p><p> </p><p>Social Fund Budgeting Loans are also available to those on income related benefits to cover costs relating to funeral expenses.</p> answering member constituency Thornbury and Yate answering member printed Steve Webb question first answered 02/12/2014 11:44:12 answering member 220 label Biography information for Steve Webb
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

166089

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
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	Workplace Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the basis on which projections of potential returns are used by the investment management industry in communications with pension holders.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL3147
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>Since 6 April 2003, certain money purchase pension arrangements have been required to provide members with Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations (SMPIs). Legislation requires that statutory illustrations are produced in accordance with guidance prepared by a prescribed body approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and by the Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland.</p><p>The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is the prescribed body and has been since 6 April 2007. The FRC fulfils its obligations through the publication of Actuarial Standard Technical Memorandum AS TM1: Statutory Money Purchase Illustrations (AS TM1). It reviews AS TM1 regularly and the last completed review was carried out in 2013 following the introduction of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/2734) which came into force on 6 April 2014. The AS TM1 specifies that the investment return should take into account the current and anticipated future investment strategy of the member’s funds over the period to retirement and be consistent from year to year, with the rationale documented and made available to members on request.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules require a projection at point of sale for contract based pensions. The investment return must reflect the investment potential of the (expected) underlying assets, subject to an overall cap of 5%pa. Flanking projections must be provided using returns which vary by +/- 3%. The FCA has a public commitment to review the basis every 4 years and the next review is due in 2015. The FCA do not require further projections during the lifetime of the contract as pension scheme members will receive statutory statements prepared under DWP legislation. However, where a provider chooses to provide additional projections, they must follow the same basis as point of sale projections.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 12:26:30 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

155623

registered interest
date	11/11/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Motherwell and Wishaw
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of applicants for personal independence payments in Motherwell and Wishaw constituency appealed their personal independence payment decision between June 2013 and June 2014; and how many appeals were submitted for disability living allowance between June 2012 and June 2013.
tabling member constituency	Motherwell and Wishaw
tabling member printed	Mr Frank Roy
uin	214354
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support), administered by HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decisions on a range of benefits, including a person’s entitlement to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA).</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The number of individuals living in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency who applied for PIP and the outcomes of those applications, between April 2013 and July 2014, can be found in published DWP statistics available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-july-2014.</p><p> </p><p>HMCTS does not keep data on the proportion of benefit claimants who choose to appeal the DWP’s final decision. In the period June 2013 to June 2014, 61 PIP appeals were lodged in the Tribunal venue in Hamilton which serves appellants living in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency and other nearby locations.</p><p> </p><p>Between June 2012 and June 2013 966 appeals against decisions made by DWP on claims for DLA were lodged at the Hamilton venue.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 12/01/2015 15:31:16 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	626 label Biography information for Mr Frank Roy

166639

registered interest
date	27/11/2014
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have carried out any forecasts of the level of child poverty between now and 2020; and if so, whether they will be made public.
tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
uin	HL3230
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty as the number of children in poverty is dependent on factors which cannot be reliably predicted, such as the median income.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does measure annual child poverty statistics through the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. Estimates of the number and proportion of children in relative and absolute low income in the UK have consistently been reported since 1998/99; these are available for each financial year up to 2012/13, the latest period for which estimates are available.</p><p> </p><p>There has been no assessment of the impact on child poverty of the combined tax and benefit changes announced since May 2010. Available survey data does not allow the Government to robustly assess the combined effects of tax and benefit policy on households with children.</p><p> </p><p>However, this Government has taken unprecedented steps to assess the effects of its policy decisions across the distribution of household income, by publishing analysis of the cumulative effects of the tax and welfare measures announced at each fiscal event since the June Budget 2010. The latest analysis can be found in Chapter 2 of the attached report.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL3231 question first answered 11/12/2014 16:55:04 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

166087

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
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	Workplace Pensions: Fees and Charges
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are measuring the impact of auto-enrolment on fees charged by the investment management industry; and what plans they have to track any changes.
tabling member printed	Lord Mendelsohn
uin	HL3145
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The Government’s Command Paper, ‘Better Workplace Pensions: Further measures for savers’, published in March, set out a range of measures including a cap on charges in default fund arrangements, a ban on inappropriate charges and proposals to introduce minimum governance standards and improve transparency across workplace defined contribution schemes.</p><p> </p><p>Following this, Government launched its consultation on draft regulations on governance and charges in occupational pension schemes in October 2014. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the majority of this legislation will come into force from April 2015, alongside Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules in relation to workplace personal pension schemes where appropriate. From April 2015, the Government intends to introduce a charge cap on the default funds of qualifying schemes, set at 0.75 per cent of funds under management and the first phase of enhanced transparency with trustees and Independent Governance Committees (IGCs) being required to report on costs and charges for the first time.</p><p> </p><p>In 2015 Government will consult on regulations under duties in the Pensions Act 2014 requiring information about transaction costs to be disclosed to members and others, and the publication of costs and charges information. The FCA also intends to consult on amending their own rules to introduce equivalent enhanced transparency provisions for workplace personal pension schemes during 2015. The Government has also set out its plans to review the level of the default fund charge cap, to see if it should be lowered, and also whether it should include some or all of the transaction costs that are ultimately borne by members within a cap. This review will take place in 2017.</p><p> </p><p>Taken together the combined effect of these measures on charges, governance and transparency and the Government’s commitment to a review should ensure that savers are being enrolled into workplace schemes that are well run and in members’ interests.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 08/12/2014 12:19:52 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4286 label Biography information for Lord Mendelsohn

155535

registered interest
date	11/11/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: LGBT+ People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the number of prisoners declaring themselves to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered.
tabling member constituency	Hackney North and Stoke Newington
tabling member printed	Ms Diane Abbott
uin	214231
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The number of prisoners in England and Wales broken down by sexual orientation as at 26 September 2014 is shown in the table below:</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table: Headcount of prisoners by Sexual Orientation as at 26 September 2014</strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Sexual Orientation</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Headcount</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Other</p></td><td><p>1779</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Heterosexual / Straight</p></td><td><p>63738</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Not Asked/Refused to State</p></td><td><p>20117</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Grand Total</p></td><td><p>85634</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Transgender Prisoners with a Gender Recognition Certificate are recorded on administrative systems as their legal gender. In accordance with the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and the Equality Act 2010, transgender individuals are not identified as being transgender on administrative systems.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 02/12/2014 10:20:51 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	172 label Biography information for Ms Diane Abbott

166640

registered interest
date	27/11/2014
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	Poverty: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have calculated the impact on child poverty of the combined tax and benefit policy changes announced to date since May 2010.
tabling member printed	The Lord Bishop of St Albans
uin	HL3231
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2014 answer text <p>The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty as the number of children in poverty is dependent on factors which cannot be reliably predicted, such as the median income.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does measure annual child poverty statistics through the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. Estimates of the number and proportion of children in relative and absolute low income in the UK have consistently been reported since 1998/99; these are available for each financial year up to 2012/13, the latest period for which estimates are available.</p><p> </p><p>There has been no assessment of the impact on child poverty of the combined tax and benefit changes announced since May 2010. Available survey data does not allow the Government to robustly assess the combined effects of tax and benefit policy on households with children.</p><p> </p><p>However, this Government has taken unprecedented steps to assess the effects of its policy decisions across the distribution of household income, by publishing analysis of the cumulative effects of the tax and welfare measures announced at each fiscal event since the June Budget 2010. The latest analysis can be found in Chapter 2 of the attached report.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud grouped question UIN HL3230 question first answered 11/12/2014 16:55:04 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4308 label Biography information for The Lord Bishop of St Albans

155549

registered interest
date	11/11/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Travel
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what total amount his Department spent on ministerial travel by (a) the Government Car and Despatch Agency and (b) other car hire in (i) 2007-08, (ii) 2008-09 and (iii) 2009-10.
tabling member constituency	Salisbury
tabling member printed	John Glen
uin	214279
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>(a) This information has already been published and can be found at:</p><p> </p><p>(i) <a title="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080722/wmstext/80722m0008.htm" href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080722/wmstext/80722m0008.htm" target="_blank">http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080722/wmstext/80722m0008.htm</a></p><p>(ii) <a title="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090716/wmstext/90716m0009.htm" href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090716/wmstext/90716m0009.htm" target="_blank">http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090716/wmstext/90716m0009.htm</a></p><p>(iii) <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101028/wmstext/101028m0001.htm#10102827000372" target="_blank">http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101028/wmstext/101028m0001.htm#10102827000372</a></p><p> </p><p>(b) To provide the ministerial spend for the other car hire will incur disproportionate costs.</p><p> </p><p>Under this Government the number of ministerial cars in the Department has fallen from four to one and the cost to the taxpayer reduced by 91%.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 10/02/2015 13:02:33 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	4051 label Biography information for John Glen

156058

registered interest
date	17/11/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Reoffenders
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of all recalls to prison have been fixed term recalls in each year since their introduction.
tabling member constituency	Shipley
tabling member printed	Philip Davies
uin	214735
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/01/2015 answer text <p /> <p>A fixed-term recall is one where an offender on licence is recalled for a 28 day period before being automatically re-released. It is available only to those offenders on licence who are not assessed as presenting a high risk of harm to the public. Offenders who are assessed as presenting a high risk of harm are not eligible to receive a fixed-term recall and will be given a standard recall, under which they can remain in custody, potentially, until the end of their sentence. They will be released before the end of their sentence only if the Parole Board or Secretary of State is satisfied they no longer need to be detained to protect the public.</p><p> </p><p>The statutory provisions for fixed-term recalls were included in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 and commenced in July 2008. The provisions were amended by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and commenced in December 2012. The amendments were designed to provide offender managers with additional flexibility to determine whether a fixed-term recall was the appropriate way to respond to an offender’s breach of his licence conditions, notwithstanding that he had been given a fixed-term recall on a previous occasion.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is introducing a new test, in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, which must be applied to determine the type of recall given to an offender and to decide whether to re-release a recalled offender. The new test will ensure that any offender who has abused a fixed-term recall previously and persistently and wilfully refused to comply with his licence conditions will not receive a further fixed-term recall. The test will guide offender managers, so that all relevant considerations are taken into account before a decision is taken on the type of recall appropriate to deal with the breach of licence conditions. It will also ensure that a fixed-term recall is given only where we can be satisfied that the offender can be effectively managed when released after 28 days.</p><p> </p><p>The proportion of all recalls to prison that were fixed term given in the calendar years from 2008 is as follows:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Calendar year</p></td><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>Fixed Term Recall (FTR)</p></td><td><p>Proportion of Total Recalls which were FTRs</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014 (to June)</p></td><td><p>8412</p></td><td><p>3569</p></td><td><p>42%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>17330</p></td><td><p>7280</p></td><td><p>42%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>16481</p></td><td><p>5124</p></td><td><p>31%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>16227</p></td><td><p>4532</p></td><td><p>28%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>15479<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>4293<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>28%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>14,719<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>3,979<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>27%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2008<sup>2</sup></p></td><td><p>13,554<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>1,722<sup>1</sup></p></td><td><p>13%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><sup>1</sup> denotes data that has not been published. It has been taken from a live database and as such, it is subject to change.</p><p> </p><p><sup>2</sup> the proportion of recalls which were FTRs in 2008 reflects that the FTR was available only from July 2008.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 19/01/2015 18:11:48 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

166104

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
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: Fraud
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government in how many localities, and at what cost, they have contracted with bus companies or public transport bodies to display advertisements on buses calling on people who know "benefit cheats" to inform the Department for Work and Pensions.
tabling member printed	Lord Beecham
uin	HL3162
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/12/2014 answer text <p /> <p>Advertising on buses was targeted in 25 local authority areas at a cost of £219,786.</p> answering member printed Lord Freud question first answered 09/12/2014 16:40:33 answering member 3893 label Biography information for Lord Freud
tabling member	4181 label Biography information for Lord Beecham