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Written Question
Travellers: Children
Tuesday 12th December 2017

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons his Department will not share the contact details of Traveller families with local education authority welfare officers to increase school attendance and ensure proper safeguarding of Traveller children.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

Department for Work and Pensions officials are instructed to share personal data with local authorities where the welfare or safeguarding of vulnerable people including children is concerned, in accordance with the law. Officials will carefully consider departmental guidance and their duty of confidentiality to customers when responding to any request.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 29 Nov 2017
State Pension Age: Women

"Can the Minister tell us what specific help Jobcentre Plus is able to give older women to help them to retrain or to reskill to find age-appropriate work? That is a question that a number of older women often ask. What specific help is out there for them?..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: State Pension Age: Women
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 09 Oct 2017
Oral Answers to Questions

"May I warmly welcome advance payments within five days and immediate needs payments the same day as a definite step forward? Given the reasonably high levels of adult illiteracy and poor computer skills in some areas, can the Secretary of State say something about how volunteers might be able to …..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions
Written Question
Department for Work and Pensions: Recruitment
Tuesday 28th February 2017

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department operates a ban the box employment policy in respect of ex-offender job applicants with unspent convictions; and how many employees of his Department have unspent convictions.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

Ban the box encourages employers to remove the tick box asking about criminal convictions on application forms. The application form template used by Civil Service Resourcing for DWP recruitment does not ask about criminal convictions.

As part of the external recruitment process, successful candidates for DWP vacancies are required to undertake a pre-employment check which includes a Basic Criminal record check via Disclosure Scotland.

The check only highlights convictions which are classed as unspent.

If the check highlights an unspent conviction, a decision is made by the business in consultation with their HR Business Partner (HRBP) on whether to offer the candidate a post. If a post is offered, the pre-employment checks will simply be recorded as having been passed, or if a decision is made not to offer a post, the pre-employment checks will be recorded as being failed. It should be noted that the pre-employment checks can also be failed for a number of other reasons. The reason for the pre-employment check fail is not recorded.

As a result DWP, is unable to provide figures for the number of former prisoners that are currently employed within the department.

Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 01 Feb 2017
Marriage Week

"I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr Burrowes) for his tremendous speech, which I strongly support.

The most powerful statistic in this whole area is that, of all the parents who are still together when their children reach the age of 15, 93% are married. That …..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: Marriage Week
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 01 Feb 2017
Marriage Week

"I am very pleased that the last Prime Minister doubled the amount of spending on relationship support across Government, as my hon. Friend already mentioned, but there are real pressures on the sector and on the Relationships Alliance. I will meet the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions next …..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: Marriage Week
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 01 Feb 2017
Marriage Week

"I am a great supporter of cathedrals, as I am sure my hon. Friend is, but it should not be either/or. We need to take care of the living as well as the buildings in which people celebrate great events.

I will end my short contribution by stating the importance …..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: Marriage Week
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 01 Feb 2017
Marriage Week

"I just wonder whether the Minister could reflect on the statistic that 93% of couples who are still together when their children reach the age of 15 are married. Does that not speak very powerfully, notwithstanding what she said about the recent research by the Early Intervention Foundation?..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: Marriage Week
Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 31 Oct 2016
Improving Lives: Work, Health and Disability Green Paper

"What discussions has the Secretary of State had with business to help people who can only work flexibly and at variable times but do not want to let their employers down?..."
Andrew Selous - View Speech

View all Andrew Selous (Con - South West Bedfordshire) contributions to the debate on: Improving Lives: Work, Health and Disability Green Paper
Written Question
Employment and Support Allowance: South West Bedfordshire
Friday 21st October 2016

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employment and support allowance claimants there were in South West Bedfordshire constituency (a) on the latest date for which figures are available and (b) in each year since 2010.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt

The information available for the number of Employment and Support Allowance claimants, by Parliamentary Constituency, is published and can be found at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp

Guidance for users is available at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp