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90808

registered interest
date	05/09/2014
answering body	Attorney General
answering dept id	88
answering dept short name	Attorney General
answering dept sort name	Attorney General
hansard heading	Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of named day written questions were answered by the Law Officers' Departments within the prescribed period in the (a) 2012-13 session, (b) 2013-14 session and (c) 2014-15 session to date.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208417
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/09/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The information requested is contained in the following table.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Number</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Proportion answered on the named day </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>116</p></td><td><p>99%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>129</p></td><td><p>91%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15 (To date)</p></td><td><p>30</p></td><td><p>90%</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>Departmental performance information, for ordinary and named day Parliamentary Questions, is collated by the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons and submitted to the Procedure Committee. This is published on a sessional basis by the committee, and includes evidence regarding departmental performance. The monitoring report relating to the 2012-13 session was published on 13 February 2014 as HC1046. The report covering statistics relating to performance during the 2013-14 session will be published very shortly by the Procedure Committee.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Mr Robert Buckland question first answered 10/09/2014 13:34:33 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90809

registered interest
date	05/09/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of named day written questions were answered by his Department within the prescribed period in the (a) 2012-13 session, (b) 2013-14 session and (c) 2014-15 session to date.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208416
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2014 answer text <p>Departmental performance information, for ordinary and named day Parliamentary Questions, is collated by the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons and submitted to the Procedure Committee. This is published on a sessional basis by the committee, and includes evidence regarding departmental performance. The monitoring report relating to the 2012-13 session was published on 13 February 2014 as HC1046. The report covering statistics relating to performance during the 2013-14 session will be published very shortly by the Procedure Committee and will show that, for this Department, 938 of the 982 named day Parliamentary Questions (96%) received a substantive reply on the date stipulated by the Member.</p><p>The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills received 172 named day questions of which 151 (88%) were answered within the prescribed period during June – July 2014.</p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 11/09/2014 16:14:51 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90810

registered interest
date	05/09/2014
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Written Questions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of named day written questions were answered by his Department within the prescribed period in the (a) 2012-13 session, (b) 2013-14 session and (c) 2014-15 session to date.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208418
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/09/2014 answer text <p>Departmental performance information for ordinary and named day Parliamentary Questions is collated by the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons and submitted to the Procedure Committee. This is published on a sessional basis by the committee, and includes evidence regarding departmental performance. The monitoring report relating to the 2012-13 session was published on 13 February 2014 as HC1046. The report covering statistics relating to performance during the 2013-14 session will be published very shortly by the Procedure Committee.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Horsham answering member printed Mr Francis Maude question first answered 09/09/2014 15:28:29 answering member 115 label Biography information for Lord Maude of Horsham
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90620

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Property Searches: Fees and Charges
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost to local authorities to date of claims made by property search companies for refunds of local land charges search fees as a result of the implementation of the 2003 European Directive on public access to environmental information and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208276
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Ministry of Justice, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Communities and Local Government are considering a submission prepared by the Local Government Association that the new burden assessment carried out in 2010 in respect of the revocation of the fee payable for a personal search of the local land charges register should be re-opened.</p><p> </p><p>Any costs properly incurred by local authorities in England in dealing with claims for refunds of local land charge search fees will be taken into account by the departments should it be decided to re-open the assessment. No decision has yet been taken.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara grouped question UIN 208157 question first answered 11/09/2014 13:57:58 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90622

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
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	Enterprise Zones
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 the report by the National Audit Office, Funding and structures for local economic growth, HC 542, published on 6 December 2013, what steps he has taken to implement recommendation 22f on page 13 of the report.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208306
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2014 answer text <p>As Enterprise Zones are a long term intervention (25 years in total) and the programme is still at an early stage, an evaluation of impact at this point would be premature. This reflects the practice of the previous evaluation which was commissioned in 1995 to assess the performance of Enterprise Zones that had been designated between 1981 and 1984. <br><br>However, the Department is looking at options now for a robust evaluation in the future, taking into account recent National Audit Office work on evaluation of spatial programmes, and lessons that can be learnt from the evaluations that are underway on other local growth programmes such as the Regional Growth Fund.</p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 24/09/2014 15:19:18 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt previous answer version 19171 answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90623

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
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	Enterprise Zones
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of new jobs that will be created by enterprise zones by 2015.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208307
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/09/2014 answer text <p>Enterprise Zones are about delivering long term, locally-led, sustainable growth. Since they started in April 2012, they have laid down the foundations for their success and report that they have so far created over 10,000 jobs and attracted 377 businesses, bringing in £1.9 billion pounds of private sector investment.</p><p /> <p>We do not collect data on forecast job numbers by 2015, nor are we imposing Whitehall targets; the jobs to be created in each individual Enterprise Zone will reflect the type of commerce or industry supported on the sites (some sectors are more labour-intensive than others), the local priorities of the Enterprise Zone, the size and context of the zone’s sites and the broader local economy.</p><p /> <p> </p><p /> <p> </p><p /> <p> </p><p /> <p> </p><p /> <p> </p><p /> <p> </p><p /> <p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt question first answered 24/09/2014 15:16:00 answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt previous answer version 19172 answering member constituency Portsmouth North answering member printed Penny Mordaunt answering member 4017 label Biography information for Penny Mordaunt
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90628

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Property Searches: Fees and Charges
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to make further financial payments to local authorities in respect of claims made against them by property search companies for refunds of local land charges search fees as a result of the implementation of the 2003 EC directive on freedom of information and the 2004 environmental information regulations.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208157
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2014 answer text <p /> <p /> <p>The Ministry of Justice, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Communities and Local Government are considering a submission prepared by the Local Government Association that the new burden assessment carried out in 2010 in respect of the revocation of the fee payable for a personal search of the local land charges register should be re-opened.</p><p> </p><p>Any costs properly incurred by local authorities in England in dealing with claims for refunds of local land charge search fees will be taken into account by the departments should it be decided to re-open the assessment. No decision has yet been taken.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara grouped question UIN 208276 question first answered 11/09/2014 13:57:58 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90629

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
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	Parish and Town Councils: Kent
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to respond to the proposal submitted by Tenterden Town Council and Sevenoaks Town Council in February 2014 in relation to the Sustainable Communities Act 2007.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208158
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2014 answer text <p>I responded to the proposal on 1 September. Sevenoaks Town Council, and others, wished to receive a share of the tax revenue raised from business rates.</p><p> </p><p>This Government is committed to supporting local town and parish councils. However, it is a zero sum game. At present, town and parish councils do not receive central government funding. Under the local retention of business rates, half of the revenue raised from business rates is retained by local government and half by central government.</p><p> </p><p>If part of this local share was diverted to town and parish councils away from principal local authorities and major precepting authorities, this would result in less spending on local services or an increase in council tax, or potentially a combination of both.</p><p> </p><p>Similarly, a reduction in the national share would reduce the funding available to central government to fund revenue support grant for principal authorities, thereby impacting on service delivery or council tax; or it would require cuts to other central government spending outside local government; or it would necessitate increases in national taxation.</p><p> </p><p>For these reasons, the Government does not support the proposal; I would add that these issues were carefully considered earlier in this Parliament when the new regime of local retention was established through the Local Government Finance Act 2012.</p><p> </p><p>Notwithstanding, our broader reforms to local finance are already helping town and parish councils to benefit from local economic growth. Where a local planning authorities implements Community Infrastructure Levy, 15 per cent of Levy receipts from a development must be passed to the town or parish council where development has taken place. To encourage local communities to be proactive in planning for their area, this rises to 25 per cent where a neighbourhood plan is in place. Where there is no town or parish council, the local planning authority will retain these funds to spend in consultation with the community.</p> answering member constituency Bristol West answering member printed Stephen Williams question first answered 11/09/2014 16:02:37 answering member 1492 label Biography information for Stephen Williams
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90630

registered interest
date	04/09/2014
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	Trade Unions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the representations he has received on his proposal to end check-off for trade union subscriptions for staff working in his Department.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208160
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/09/2014 answer text <p>As was the case under previous Administrations, we do not publish internal correspondence with our trade unions.</p><p> </p><p>Notwithstanding, as my hon. Friend, the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis), stated in his answer to the rt. hon. Member of 13 September 2013, <em>Official Report</em>, Column 882W, the subsidies and support given to the trade unions by the public sector are poor value for money and represent an unhealthy relationship between the state and voluntary sector. Trade union activities and campaigning in local government, and indeed our Department, should be funded by members' subscriptions, not bankrolled by the taxpayer. Greater freedom from state dependency will help ensure that trade union bosses better reflect and respond to the wishes and views of the grassroots members who pay the bill.</p><p> </p><p>As the previous answer stated, our reforms to trade union facility time are estimated to save up to £400,000 a year of taxpayers’ money.</p><p> </p><p>In the age of direct debits, it is not appropriate or necessary for public resources to be used to support the collection and administration of trade union membership subscriptions. It is also unsatisfactory that trade unions like PCS continue to collect a political levy, but make no attempt to inform would-be members that the political levy exists, that it is optional or mention the right to opt out on their membership forms. This is a misleading and dubious marketing practice through omission.</p><p> </p><p>The decision by the last Labour Government to embed check-off in contracts has acted as an obstacle to ending this outdated practice. But I can confirm that my Department has ended the check off facility to new employees as the first step in phasing it out.</p><p> </p><p>We have also recently suspended check-off for all staff during the current industrial action by PCS. In turn, PCS have asked their union members to switch to Direct Debit noting in their literature “the process takes less than five minutes” and is “very simple”. This somewhat proves our point.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 12/09/2014 13:23:41 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn

90431

registered interest
date	03/09/2014
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	Council Tax
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many people in receipt of (a) war disablement pension, (b) war widows pension, (c) war widowers pension, (d) guaranteed income payments, (e) survivor's guaranteed income payments he estimates pay increased council tax bills as a result of recent changes to council tax support in England.
tabling member constituency	Leeds Central
tabling member printed	Hilary Benn
uin	208028
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/09/2014 answer text <p>The Department does not collect data about individual claimants and has no plans to do so. These are local schemes, and it is for local authorities to ensure that the effect on specific groups of council tax payers is proportionate and fair. We made a £100 million transition grant available in 2013-14 to help councils develop well-designed schemes and maintain incentives to work.</p><p> </p><p>Spending on council tax benefit doubled under the last Government, costing taxpayers £4 billion a year – equivalent to almost £180 a year per household. Welfare reform is vital to tackle the budget deficit left by the last Administration.</p><p> </p><p>Our reforms to localise council tax support now give councils stronger incentives to support local firms, cut fraud, promote local enterprise and get people to into work. We are ending the last Administration’s ‘something for nothing’ culture and making work pay.</p> answering member constituency Keighley answering member printed Kris Hopkins question first answered 08/09/2014 15:47:25 answering member 4043 label Biography information for Kris Hopkins
tabling member	413 label Biography information for Hilary Benn