Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cloud services contracts that were previously delivered by British cloud services providers for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are now delivered by multinational cloud service providers; what is the value of those contracts; and what are the names of the previous providers.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
MHCLG have not used any cloud services prior to current providers.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's data is hosted (1) in the UK, and (2) overseas.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
All of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data servers are located in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have issued any guidance on the circumstances in which an individual should be imprisoned for defaulting on their council tax.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
In June 2013, DCLG issued 'Guidance to Local Councils on Good Practice in the Collection of Council Tax Arrears'. The document (attached) provides guidance to local authorities on enforcement and clearly sets out the Government’s position. It is available at:
Collection and enforcement of unpaid council tax is a matter for local authorities. They are best placed to consider the circumstances of the taxpayer who has fallen into arrears and to decide what action to take.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are their latest estimates of the number of rough sleepers in the London area; and what was the equivalent figure five years ago.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Local authorities provide a snapshot of the number of rough sleepers on a single night each Autumn. Based on these figures, the number of rough sleepers in the London area in Autumn 2014 was 742. A corresponding figure for 2009 is not available because of a new more robust assessment methodology was introduced in 2010 to provide a more accurate picture of rough sleeping across England.
A copy of the latest Statistics Release on rough sleeping is attached and further, detail, including figures for individual local authority areas, is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/homelessness-statistics