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

790156

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were charged with benefit fraud in each year from 2010 to date; and how many of those people served a custodial sentence as a result of that benefit fraud.
tabling member constituency	Oldham West and Royton
tabling member printed	Jim McMahon
uin	113173
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>The Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate (CFCD), part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for the prevention, detection and where appropriate, investigation of Fraud and Error against all benefits administered by and on behalf of DWP.</p><p>DWP does not hold these data requested. However, Ministry of Justice has said The number of defendants proceeded against for benefit fraud offences and offenders sentenced to immediate custody for these offences in England and Wales 2010 – 2016 can be found by going to the ‘outcomes by offence’ tool at –</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/614418/cjs-outcomes-by-offence-tool-2016.xlsx" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/614418/cjs-outcomes-by-offence-tool-2016.xlsx</a></p><p>and selecting the following offences from the Offence filter:</p><ul><li>53.3 Benefit fraud offences - triable either way, and</li><li>151 Benefit fraud offences – summary.</li></ul> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage question first answered 22/11/2017 10:26:05 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	4569 label Biography information for Jim McMahon

790184

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
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	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question HL5729, if his Department will discuss with representatives of local highway authorities the Government's recommendation that those authorities consider scanning any deceased cats or dogs found on the highway for which they are responsible as a matter of standard practice.
tabling member constituency	Caerphilly
tabling member printed	Wayne David
uin	113225
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/11/2017 answer text <p>The Department for Transport has already highlighted to local highway authorities the importance of scanning deceased dogs and cats found on the highway as part of standard practice. This advice was included in a letter sent in March 2015 to highway authorities in England, outside London. It is the responsibility of each highway authority to determine whether to do so or not based on their own policies and procedures. However, the Department for Transport will look for opportunities to highlight the issue to local authorities.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 20/11/2017 16:29:08 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	1398 label Biography information for Wayne David

790974

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Alcoholic Drinks: Minimum Unit Prices
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will assess the potential merits of introducing minimum unit pricing on alcoholic drinks sold in England.
tabling member constituency	Birkenhead
tabling member printed	Frank Field
uin	113464
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>Public Health England's evidence review of the public health burden of alcohol and the cost-effectiveness of alcohol control policies presents strong international evidence to show that price-based interventions can be effective in reducing levels of consumption and the harms associated with alcohol.</p><p>We have noted the ruling of the UK Supreme Court in favour of the Scottish Government. Minimum unit pricing will continue to remain under review pending the impact of its implementation in Scotland.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 22/11/2017 10:25:51 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	478 label Biography information for Lord Field of Birkenhead

791027

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Drugs: Misuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many telephone calls the service Talk to FRANK received in the most recent year for which data is available.
tabling member constituency	South Thanet
tabling member printed	Craig Mackinlay
uin	113466
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>During the financial year April 2016 to March 2017 Talk to FRANK received 94,760 calls. It should be noted that the Talk to FRANK service offers a range of contact methods and its customer support team also answered 39,163 emails, texts and webchat messages. The FRANK website also received five million web visits in 2016/17.</p><p> </p><p>During the current financial year (April 2017 to March 2018) we are planning to spend £978,000 on the Talk to FRANK service.</p><p> </p><p>Since the Talk to FRANK service was established in 2003 (but excluding the period April 2010 to March 2013) £9,117,242 has been spent on the service (including the current year’s £978,000 budget).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Winchester answering member printed Steve Brine grouped question UIN 113472 question first answered 22/11/2017 07:44:13 answering member 4067 label Biography information for Steve Brine
tabling member	4529 label Biography information for Craig Mackinlay

791028

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Drugs: Misuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much money was spent from the public purse on the drug information service FRANK in (a) the most recent year for which information is available and (b) total since FRANK was established.
tabling member constituency	South Thanet
tabling member printed	Craig Mackinlay
uin	113472
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>During the financial year April 2016 to March 2017 Talk to FRANK received 94,760 calls. It should be noted that the Talk to FRANK service offers a range of contact methods and its customer support team also answered 39,163 emails, texts and webchat messages. The FRANK website also received five million web visits in 2016/17.</p><p> </p><p>During the current financial year (April 2017 to March 2018) we are planning to spend £978,000 on the Talk to FRANK service.</p><p> </p><p>Since the Talk to FRANK service was established in 2003 (but excluding the period April 2010 to March 2013) £9,117,242 has been spent on the service (including the current year’s £978,000 budget).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Winchester answering member printed Steve Brine grouped question UIN 113466 question first answered 22/11/2017 07:44:14 answering member 4067 label Biography information for Steve Brine
tabling member	4529 label Biography information for Craig Mackinlay

791035

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Asylum: Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial assistance her Department provides to local authorities to support (a) unaccompanied asylum seeking children and (b) looked after children (LAC) in the care of the authority.
tabling member constituency	Shrewsbury and Atcham
tabling member printed	Daniel Kawczynski
uin	113643
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2017 answer text <p>The Home Office provides funding to all local authorities who look after unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). The national rate is £41,610 per annum for under 16s and £33,215 per annum for 16 and 17 year olds. We also provide funding for former unaccompanied asylum seeking who turn 18 need leaving care support. This equates to £200 a week. These rates were increased significantly in July 2016 by 20%, 28% and 33% respectively.</p><p> </p><p>The current rates are based on a detailed analysis of financial information send to the Home Office by local authorities about their costs of caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children.</p><p> </p><p>In August 2017 a review of funding for UASC was launched and all local authorities who currently look after unaccompanied children have been invited to submit evidence.</p><p> </p><p>Funding for children’s services, including looked after children services, is non-ring-fenced and part of the wider local government finance settlement to give local authorities the flexibility to focus on locally determined priorities. It is for local authorities to determine how to spend their non-ring fenced income on the services they provide, including services for looked after children. They do so taking account local need, priorities, and of course their statutory responsibilities.</p> answering member constituency Great Yarmouth answering member printed Brandon Lewis question first answered 21/11/2017 17:16:32 answering member 4009 label Biography information for Sir Brandon Lewis
tabling member	1566 label Biography information for Daniel Kawczynski

791175

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
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	Employment and Support Allowance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how his Department monitors waiting times for employment and support allowance claimants from their initial submission to the decision on whether they require a work capability assessment or will be placed in the support group.
tabling member constituency	Oldham East and Saddleworth
tabling member printed	Debbie Abrahams
uin	114502
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>From a client statistics point of view, DWP does not produce regular official statistics to monitor the time taken to decide whether an individual will have a face-to-face Work Capability Assessment (WCA), or a paper-based WCA that may lead to them being assigned to the Support Group without a face-to-face WCA. However, information on the volume of paper-based versus face-to-face WCAs between October 2008 and May 2015 was previously published and can be found here</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-wca-by-decision-outcome-and-paper-based-assessment-oct-2008-to-mar-2015" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-wca-by-decision-outcome-and-paper-based-assessment-oct-2008-to-mar-2015</a></p><p> </p><p>DWP monitors performance and times in the HCP supplier place by measuring the time it takes from submission to the supplier, to recommendation. This is published data, and was 16 weeks in March 2017. DWP works closely with the supplier to improve the time taken.</p><p> </p><p>We follow each element of the journey our customers experience, to inform the setting of appropriate and robust measures to monitor performance and waiting times. We continually review our processes in order to make them as efficient as possible, while maintaining a high quality service. Latest published statistics show that the median end to end clearance time has reduced by nearly half and now stands at 21 weeks, since reaching a peak of 38 weeks in August 2014.</p> answering member constituency Truro and Falmouth answering member printed Sarah Newton question first answered 22/11/2017 15:40:53 answering member 4071 label Biography information for Sarah Newton
tabling member	4212 label Biography information for Debbie Abrahams

791177

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
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	Green Belt
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to protect green belt land.
tabling member constituency	Sevenoaks
tabling member printed	Sir Michael Fallon
uin	114504
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>The National Planning Policy Framework sets out strong protections for the Green Belt and states that inappropriate development there should be refused planning permission unless in very special circumstances. The Framework also makes clear that a local authority may alter the shape of its Green Belt only in exceptional circumstances, using the Local Plan process. The Framework does not define these ‘exceptional circumstances’. However, in the Housing White Paper, <em>Fixing our broken housing market</em>, we proposed that a local authority should be able to alter a Green Belt boundary only when it demonstrates that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development needs, including:</p><ul><li>effective use of suitable brownfield and estate regeneration;</li><li>the potential offered by under-used land (including surplus public sector land);</li><li>optimising the density of development; and</li><li>exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some of the identified development requirement.</li></ul><p>We have been analysing the consultation responses on this proposed clarification, and will announce our conclusions as soon as possible in 2018.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 22/11/2017 16:40:16 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
tabling member	88 label Biography information for Sir Michael Fallon

791178

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
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, when the universal support framework will be published; and whether face-to-face debt advice will be included in that framework.
tabling member constituency	Wirral West
tabling member printed	Margaret Greenwood
uin	114505
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2017 answer text <p>We published the Local Support Services Framework on 11 February 2013. The evidence from the Universal Support trials around joint working to support the needs of our disadvantaged customers informed the DWP Improving Lives policy paper (April 2017).</p><p> </p><p>Funding has been made available to Local Authorities to put in place Universal Support delivered locally to help claimants who struggle with the transition to Universal Credit-in particular using online self-service and managing their UC award/managing their money. Universal Support does not cover debt advice however we expect DWP and our partners to identify claimant need and signpost them to available support.</p><p> </p><p>We are clear that partnership working is fundamental to the successful implementation of Universal Credit. That is why we have announced that we are exploring with Citizen’s Advice and Citizen’s Advice Scotland the scope for greater collaborative working to help claimants locally as they move to Universal Credit, within the Universal Support framework.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 27/11/2017 15:44:49 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4400 label Biography information for Margaret Greenwood

791179

registered interest
date	17/11/2017
answering body	HM Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	CaTreasury
hansard heading	Fossil Fuels: Tax Allowances
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the fossil fuel extraction technologies that are eligible for 100 per cent first-year capital allowances.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Pavilion
tabling member printed	Caroline Lucas
uin	114506
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/11/2017 answer text <p>There is no specific first-year capital allowance for fossil fuel extraction technologies. However, there are various first-year allowances available for investment in fuel-efficient technologies, including for low-carbon and zero-emissions vehicles.</p> answering member constituency Central Devon answering member printed Mel Stride question first answered 24/11/2017 10:02:36 answering member 3935 label Biography information for Mel Stride
tabling member	3930 label Biography information for Caroline Lucas