To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Debts
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on trends in the number of people with problem debt; and if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of those trends.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP Debt Management holds information on people owing monies to DWP (benefit debt recovery) but does not hold data on general, personal/household indebtedness.

Problem debt statistics are published by the Office for National Statistics.


Written Question
Home Office: Standards
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many investigations have been undertaken by his Department's professional standards unit in each year since 2015, broken down into the categories of (a) immigration, borders and citizenship, (b) policing and (c) counter-terrorism.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Corruption
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2024 to Question 15819 on UK Border Force: Corruption, if he will provide a breakdown of the allegations and referrals received by the Border Force Joint Anti-Corruption Intelligence Team by type in 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

As the public rightly expect, we demand the highest standards from our Border Force officers and have measures in place to prevent and tackle corruption. There were 204 allegations and referrals received by Border Force Joint Anti-Corruption Intelligence Team in 2023, broken down as follows:

Type of allegation/referral

Number of allegations/referrals

Conspiracy Cross Border Offences

54

Crime

42

Vulnerable

22

Risk from associates

21

Local management issues

44

Not Border Force

6

Assist key partner

15


Written Question
Universal Credit
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the maximum benefit deduction rate for people on Universal Credit.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The primary aim of the deductions in Universal Credit is to protect claimants by providing a last resort repayment method for arrears of essential services.

Making deductions from a claimant’s benefit is a cost effective and efficient mechanism to recover third party debt and benefit debt. Regulations protect claimants from excessive deductions. There are limits set for individual deduction items, there is also an overall deduction cap set at 25% of standard allowance, although where necessary to support the claimant, this can be exceeded for rent and fuel debts.


Written Question
Debts: Standard of Living
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the findings in the Christians Against Poverty report entitled Pushed under, pushed out, published on 12 March 2024, relating to the impact of high debt repayments on people's living standards.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

No formal assessment has been made.


Written Question
Debts: Standard of Living
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report entitled Pushed Under, Pushed Out, published by Christians Against Poverty on 12 March 2024.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

No formal assessment has been made.


Written Question
Community Orders: Suspended Sentences
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of unpaid work handed down as part of suspended sentences were cancelled as a result of not having been completed within 12 months of the sentence being handed down, in each of the last five years.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The disruption caused by the pandemic added to a backlog of Unpaid Work hours. The Government is investing an additional £93m in Community Payback over three years. This will allow us to increase delivery of Community Payback back to pre-covid levels of delivery.

We have launched a national campaign to recruit more than 500 additional Community Payback staff to bolster resources in every probation region and new staff are arriving in post. The additional staffing will enable us to boost delivery of Community Payback to pre-covid levels.

There will be a particular focus on delivering more outdoor projects that improve local areas, sustainability focussed and allow the public to see justice being done.

Suspended Sentence Orders cannot legally be extended beyond the length of the operational period of the order which is set by the judiciary. A Suspended Sentence Order ceases the moment the operational period expires, regardless of any outstanding requirements such as unpaid work. Robust processes have been developed to ensure unpaid work requirements are completed in a timely manner, including prompt enforcement action where required.

It is important to note that these hours have not been “cancelled” but due to the legal limitations of a Suspended Sentence Order, the Probation Service is unable to apply for an extension in order to work hours once the operational period has expired.

Calendar Year

Hours remaining on Expired Suspended Sentence Orders

2019

91,588.2

2020

171,124.4

2021

386,845.2

2022

405,800.8

2023

279,639.8

Data as at 27/02/2024

The expired Suspended Sentence Orders detailed here should be viewed in context of the total completed hours delivered as detailed in PQ 171423.

By way of comparison, in 2023, 279,640 hours remained on expired Suspended Sentence Orders, while during the twelve months 01/04/2022 to 31/03/2023, over 4.7 million hours of Unpaid Work were delivered.

A number of these expired orders will be as a result of persons being remanded in custody or otherwise unable to complete their hours within the operational period. Additionally, others may have expired due to delays in enforcement, particularly as a result of Covid.

Data are sourced from nDelius and while these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.


Written Question
Ministry of Justice: Procurement
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a contract and schedule of requirements for the contract with procurement reference tender_422492/1326965.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The contract and schedule of requirements for reference tender_422492/1326965 was published on 20 March 2024 and can be found via the following link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/d08dc21c-90ec-4912-bc7b-766b17bf266b.

HMPPS does not tolerate violence under any circumstance, therefore it is vital we do everything in our power to eradicate dangerous behaviour behind bars. This information relates directly to an early-stage trial of equipment, which alongside wider investments into prison security measures such as body warn cameras and x-ray body scanners, will ensure we enhance prison safety and security for our hardworking staff and prisoners.


Written Question
Living Wage
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to encourage businesses to pay the real living wage.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The National Living Wage (NLW) will increase to £11.44 on 1 April and be extended to workers over 21. It is reaching two-thirds of median earnings, meeting our commitment to end low hourly pay for those eligible.

The Government commends employers who are able to go beyond the legal minimum. However, the ability to do so varies across sector and region.

Unlike other voluntary rates of pay, the statutory NLW is based on the advice of the Low Pay Commission, which takes into account the impact on business and the wider economy, as well as the living standards of workers.


Written Question
Community Orders
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of people given Community Payback as a community sentence did not complete the work assigned to them in each year since 2014.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is investing an additional £93m in Community Payback over three years. This will allow us to increase delivery of Community Payback back to pre-covid levels of delivery.

We have launched a national campaign to recruit more than 500 additional Community Payback staff to bolster resources in every probation region and new staff are arriving in post. The additional staffing will enable us to boost delivery of Community Payback to pre-covid levels.

There will be a particular focus on delivering more outdoor projects that improve local areas, sustainability focussed and allow the public to see justice being done.

The table below shows how many Community Payback requirements and the proportion that were not completed in each year since 2014. The data covers all reasons why Community Payback requirements may not have been completed including offender deaths, deportation, orders revoked and resentenced, successful appeals and Suspended Sentence Order (SSO) activated (i.e. offender imprisoned for the remainder of their sentence).

Year

Community Payback Requirements Not Completed

Proportion of Community Payback Requirements Not Completed

2014

13,521

42.5%

2015

14,384

34.6%

2016

14,535

32.5%

2017

16,417

39.8%

2018

16,088

45.1%

2019

16,541

43.3%

2020

14,154

52.2%

2021

15,776

44.4%

2022

17,949

35.4%

2023

19,135

34.1%

Data as of 7 March 2024.

Please note these data relate to Community Payback requirements, not individuals or hours. An individual may have had multiple Community Payback requirements across the time period and all of these have been counted separately. It is important to note that some of those incomplete Community Payback requirements may have a number of hours completed.

Owing to the amalgamation of multiple legacy IT systems, with the introduction of Transforming Rehabilitation back in 2014, a slightly different methodology has been utilised to identify those cases where Community Payback had not been completed, in the years 2014 and 2015. This has been utilised to ensure that data are accurate, representative and consistent across the period shown.

The year listed is when the Community Payback requirement was terminated.

Data are sourced from nDelius and while these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.