Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2017 to Question 133491, what guidance her Department has issued to jobcentre staff to ensure that access to toilet facilities is available for customers with a disability.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Guidance is available to all staff on the support they should provide to customers with a disability who need access to toilet facilities in our jobcentres. This ensures that we meet our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. As each jobcentre is different, the approach we take is dependent on the facilities available at each site and we continually monitor and assess our services to ensure the needs of all our customers are met. Guidance states that each jobcentre must have clear plans in place for their particular office and this information is shared with all staff at the site.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2017 to Question 133491 on Government Departments: Disability, how many and what proportion of job centres have dedicated toilet facilities for customers with a disability.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There are 197 job centres that have dedicated toilet facilities for customers with a disability, this represents 30.64% of the total number of job centres.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much money her Department has spent on hospitality in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department’s guidance on hospitality is in accordance with financial procedures and propriety, based on the principles set out in Government Accounting.
Given the nature of this type of expenditure, it is likely that there will be some variation in the levels incurred year on year but in the context of the overall budget managed by the Department, the amounts incurred shown in the table below are less than 0.0001% of overall expenditure.
Expenditure on hospitality in each of the last five years is set out in the table below.
| 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
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Hospitality | £868 | £4,220 | £4,826 | £3,081 | £7,164 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether (a) her Department and (b) any of her Department's agencies entered into contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories in each year since 2010.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The department’s e-procurement system does not hold any created/active/archived/terminated contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether (a) her Department and (b) any of its agencies has entered into contracts with Cambridge Analytica since 2012.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are not aware of the Department or its agencies having entered in to any contracts with Cambridge Analytica.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in his Department with responsibility for social media are employed on an (a) full and (b) part-time basis.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Social media plays an important role in both our communications and delivery and therefore responsibility is shared by several teams across the Department, including DWP Strategic Communications, DWP Digital Group and across the Jobcentre Plus network overseen by the Operational Excellence Division.
Area | Number of people |
Strategic Communications | 2 Full time, 1 Part time |
DWP Digital Group | 5 Full time |
Jobcentre Plus Network | 3 Full time and 1 Part time |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many public engagements for which a media calling notice was issued were attended by a departmental Minister in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
DWP does not issue media calling notices. However, if the question relates to media operational notes, DWP has issued three media operational notes for public engagements attended by Ministers in the last 12 months.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 82 of the 14th Report of the Work and Pensions Committee of 2016-17, Child Maintenance Service, HC 587, whether he plans to implement the recommendation on reinstating provisions for parents to challenge child maintenance awards on the grounds of assets and lifestyle inconsistent with income.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government welcomes the Work and Pensions Select Committee report and is carefully considering its recommendations. We will submit the Government response in due course.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times in each year of their operation the Child Maintenance Service and its predecessor bodies have paid a consolatory payment to a resident parent.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Figures for consolatory payments to resident parents for the Child Maintenance Service and for the Child Support Agency are provided below:
Financial Reporting Year | Consolatory Payments Made to Resident Parent |
(Child Maintenance Service) | |
*Dec 2014 to March 2015 | 130 |
2015/2016 | 595 |
2016/2017 | 835 |
April to June 2017 | 250 |
| |
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|
Financial Reporting Year | Consolatory Payments Made |
(Child Support Agency) | |
2009/2010 | 7,920 |
2010/2011 | 5,405 |
2011/2012 | 4,130 |
2012/2013 | 4,670 |
2013/2014 | 4,245 |
2014/2015 | 2,835 |
2015/2016 | 1,725 |
2016/2017 | 910 |
April to June 2017 | 130 |
Notes:
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on advertising on social media in each month since January 2016.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
DWP Corporate Services has a contract with CARAT LTD for Media Buying services which covers Social Media advertising. The amount spent for the period stated amounts to an average of £21k per month.
A more precise and detailed response could only be extracted at disproportionate cost.