Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many and what proportion of his Department's Answers to Written Parliamentary Questions in the 2017-18 Session to date have referred to the information requested not being (a) collected or (b) collated centrally.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Northern Ireland Office have answered 2 written parliamentary questions explaining that the requested information was not available on the grounds of it not being collected or held centrally. This is out of a total of 184 parliamentary questions that have been answered (as at 20 December).
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what estimate he has made of the change in the level of voter registration in Northern Ireland in the period for which data is most recently available; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Voter registration in Northern Ireland is an operational matter for the Chief Electoral Officer and details of annual registration activity for Northern Ireland are contained in the annual Report of the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland. The report for 2016/17 was laid before Parliament on 19 October 2017 and can be accessed at:
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) physical and (b) mental wellbeing of staff employed in his Department.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Civil Service has set out five priorities for the health and wellbeing of its employees, including priorities in relation to physical and mental wellbeing. In addition, the Civil Service has also committed to being a leading employer on mental health support, in line with the recommendations set out in the recently published independent review Thriving At Work.
The Northern Ireland Office is able to access a number of services, including welfare support and employee assistance programmes, through our links with the Ministry of Justice. Specific support for staff who have mental health issues include:
In addition, more recently, the Northern Ireland Office ran Resilience Workshops in the summer of 2017, launched Wellbeing pages on the departmental Intranet in October 2017 signposting resources to support wellbeing, offered stress awareness sessions for all staff in November 2017 and currently operates walking groups in both Belfast and London locations.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much her Department spent on (a) television advertising, (b) radio advertising, (c) national newspaper advertisements, (d) local newspaper advertisements, (e) social media advertising and (f) other types of advertising in each year since 2010.
Answered by Theresa Villiers
During this period my Department has incurred expenditure on public notices and recruitment for public office. While the Department does not hold details of the amounts spent split by the categories requested, the expenditure solely relates to advertisements in the local and national press; the totals are set out below:
| 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 (to 31-12-14) |
Expenditure | £50,772 | £37,928 | £10,626 | £18,015 | £8,881 |
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2014, Official Report, columns 269-74W, on electoral register, what the registration rates were in each ward listed.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The Electoral Office has provided me with the attached table listing the estimated registration rates for the 100 wards in Northern Ireland with the highest electoral registration rates. These are based on population estimates based on the 2011 census and may under or overstate the true population from area to area. Because of these inaccuracies, some percentages exceed 100% and actual registration figures* are therefore included alongside estimated population totals** for these wards.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, which 100 wards in Northern Ireland had the (a) highest and (b) lowest electoral registration rate in the latest period for which figures are available; and which town, county and parliamentary constituency each such ward was located in.
Answered by Lord Robathan
The information is contained in the enclosed tables.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to the Answer from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Constitutional and Political Reform of 11 October 2011, Official Report, column 344W, on electoral register: standards, what assessment she has made of the effects of the visits of electoral registration officers in Northern Ireland to schools with 10 or more pupils between the ages of 16 and 17 on electoral registration for that age group in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Robathan
Concerns about under-representation of attainers were raised following the introduction of individual registration in Northern Ireland in 2002. The registration of attainers improved significantly with the introduction of the Chief Electoral Officer's Schools Initiative. The Electoral Commission's 2012 report on continuous electoral registration in Northern Ireland estimated that 66% of attainers were registered.
Although the number of attainers registered in December 2013 fell to 9,945 from 11,477 in December 2012, the Electoral Commission's recent report on the electoral registration canvass suggests that this can be partially explained by the fact that the Electoral Office did not conduct any activity with schools to register attainers in autumn 2013 due to canvass activity. The Electoral Office will commence school visits in September 2014 for the academic year 2014-15 and will also take applications from those pupils not visited last year.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what her Department's policy is on allowing officials to appear before all-party parliamentary groups.
Answered by Theresa Villiers
I refer the hon Gentleman to the answer given by my Rt hon Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General on 26 March, Official Report, Column 300W.