Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent communications he has had from each Gov.UK Verify provider on their continued participation in the scheme.
Answered by Simon Hart - Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people employed by (a) train operating companies and (b) outsourcing companies on zero-hours contracts.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Office of Rail and Road publish information on the total number of employees for each train operating company in Great Britain. The Department does not publish any official statistics on Train operating companies’ workforce.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of train operating companies’ workforce that is employed by outsourced companies.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Office of Rail and Road publish information on the total number of employees for each train operating company in Great Britain. The Department does not publish any official statistics on Train operating companies’ workforce.
Total number of employees, 2018-19
Train Operating Company | Number of Employees |
c2c | 690 |
Caledonian Sleeper | 174 |
Chiltern | 852 |
CrossCountry | 1,915 |
East Midlands Trains | 2,460 |
Govia Thameslink Railway | 7,276 |
Grand Central | 193 |
Great Western Railway | 6,343 |
Greater Anglia | 3,103 |
Hull Trains | 122 |
London North Eastern Railway | 3,012 |
London Overground | 1,451 |
Merseyrail | 1,206 |
Northern | 6,183 |
ScotRail | 5,168 |
Southeastern | 4,410 |
South Western Railway | 5,177 |
TfL Rail | 1,401 |
TfW Rail | 2,293 |
Transpennine Express | 1,258 |
Virgin Trains West Coast | 3,724 |
West Midlands Trains | 2,834 |
Additional years are available at the following link:
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/compendia/toc-key-statistics/
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the data he used as part of a workforce planning session referred to by the Under Secretary of State for Transport in his oral evidence to the Transport Select Committee on 8 May on Train Operating Companies’ staffing levels at stations.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department does not publish any official statistics on train operating companies’ workforces. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publish information on the total number of employees for each train operating company in Great Britain. The ORR’s website can be found at: https://orr.gov.uk/.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2019 to Question 277853, whether her Department has set a timeframe for the publication of guidance on the use of DNS over HTTPS.
Answered by Nigel Adams
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department's announcement entitled New boost to increase diversity in nation’s cyber security industry, published 14 August 2019, what target her Department has set on the number of individuals who will be assisted by the third round of funding from the Cyber Skills Immediate Impact Fund (CSIIF).
Answered by Nigel Adams
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether patients with pulmonary fibrosis are entitled to free prescriptions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Pulmonary fibrosis is currently not a medical condition that is covered by the National Health Service Medical Exemption Certificate, and therefore this condition does not automatically entitle people to free prescriptions.
However, extensive arrangements are in place to help people afford NHS prescriptions. These include a broad range of NHS prescription charge exemptions, such as free prescriptions for the individuals aged 60 and over, for which someone with pulmonary fibrosis may qualify.
People on a low income, who do not qualify for an exemption, may be eligible for full or partial help with prescription charges through application to the NHS Low Income Scheme.
To support those with greatest need who do not qualify for an exemption or the NHS Low Income Scheme, prescription prepayment certificates are available. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just £2 per week.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2019 to Question 278600, for what reason that Answer did not confirm whether the Government has requested an extension for Windows 7 support from Microsoft.
Answered by Simon Hart - Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Chief Whip)
The Government Digital Service (GDS) provides government departments with guidance on selecting technology through the Technology Code of Practice. Further details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technology-code-of-practice/technology-code-of-practice
Individual technology choices and volumes purchased rest with individual departments. As such, GDS does not provide guidance to departments on specific operating systems, such as Windows 7 and the Government does not hold information concerning departments choice to use Windows 7 machines centrally. Microsoft provides guidance for its operating systems should departments need specific information.
Additionally, the National Cyber Security Centre published information on their blog on the upcoming removal of Windows 7 Support. The blog post can be found here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/one-year-left-windows-7-support
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, which (a) Cabinet and (b) former Cabinet members have returned severance payments to the public purse in the last three years.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Severance payments for Ministers are a statutory entitlement under section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991. Information relating to Cabinet Ministers’ severance payments is held by individual departments, and is published in their departmental annual report and accounts. These are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what severance payment the rt hon. Member for South Staffordshire received after he left his position as Secretary of State for Defence.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 sets out Ministers' entitlement to severance payments. Any such payments are published in each department's audited annual accounts, and these accounts can be found in the Ministry of Defence Annual Report and Account Index where the severance pay for the right hon. Member for South Staffordshire will be published in 2020. As detailed in Section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991:
'the amount of the payment to which a person who has ceased to hold a relevant office is entitled under this section is an amount equal to one-quarter of the annual amount of the salary which was being paid to that person in respect of that office immediately before the material time.'