Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what sanctions the HSE can place on companies breaching gas safety.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Sanctions that can be put in place by HSE range from verbal and written advice, improvement notices which require companies to take specified measures to achieve compliance and prohibition notices that stop companies from carrying out specified activities. Ultimately there is prosecution where unlimited fines are available in the Courts. (13083)
Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of complaints about gas safety to the HSE are (a) validated and (b) prosecuted.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Over five years 2010/2011 – 2014/15 the Health and Safety Executive has (a) investigated 99.17% of cases; (b) with 1.38% (166 cases) having led to a prosecution. (13084)
Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints the Pensions Regulator has received in each year since 2010.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Pensions Regulator publishes all its complaints statistics in its Annual Report and Accounts.
The figures for each year from 2010 are contained in the table.
Category | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
Stage 1 | 20 | 24 | 18 | 16 |
Stage 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
Notes:
1. A Stage 1 complaint is a first tier complaint which receives a response from the Corporate Secretary.
2. Stage 2 is where the complainant is not satisfied with the first response and requests a review of the complaint by the Chairman.
3. Further information about the Pensions Regulator’s complaints process can be found at http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/about-us/how-to-make-a-complaint.aspx
4. The Pensions Regulator’s Accounts are published at
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/about-us/annual-reports.aspx
Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to increase the Pension Protection Fund payment cap.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Pensions Act 2014 provides for an increase to the Pension Protection Fund compensation cap of 3 per cent for each year of pensionable service above 20 years, to a maximum of double the standard cap. Changes are needed to secondary legislation before the primary legislation comes into force and we are currently aiming for this work to be completed by Autumn this year.
Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has for reform of the Pensions Regulator.
Answered by Steve Webb
A report on the Triennial Review of pensions bodies was published by the Department on 9 January 2014. It concluded that the Pensions Regulator should continue in its current role and retain its status as a Non-Departmental Public Body. Accordingly there are no plans for reform of the Pensions Regulator.
Asked by: Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many parents are in arrears to the Child Support Agency in (a) Ribble Valley constituency, (b) Lancashire and (c) the UK.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Child Support Agency (CSA) administers the 1993 and 2003 Statutory Child Maintenance Schemes in Great Britain.
The latest area breakdown available for the number of CSA cases with arrears is available as at the end of the quarter to December 2013 and has been provided in the table below:
| Ribble Valley1 | Lancashire1,3 | GB2 |
Dec-13 | 1,700 | 36,000 | 1,277,000 |
Notes:
1. Figures rounded to nearest 10.
2. Figures rounded to nearest 100.
3. Lancashire consists of the following Local Authorities: Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, RibbleValley, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre.
4. Caseloads have been allocated to a Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency by matching the residential postcode of the parent with care for all cases administered on the CS2 and CSCS computer systems and cases managed off system, to the Office for National Statistics Postcode Directory.