Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate his Department has made of the number of suicides among students of further and higher education in the 2017-18 academic year.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data-gathering methodologies his Department uses to count the number of people arriving in the UK from (a) the EU, (b) the EEA and (c) other countries.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of directly employed civil servants in his Department earn under £50,000 per annum.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
At 30th September 2018, the number of directly employed civil servants in my Department who earn under £50,000 per annum was 3,811 or 66% of directly employed civil servants in my Department.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the number of people turned away from polling booths during the Voter ID pilot at the Local Elections was in comparison to the number of people charged with voter ID fraud over the last five years.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government is committed to making sure that our electoral system is fit for the future. Vulnerabilities cannot be allowed to undermine the integrity of our democracy.
The Electoral Commission collates and publishes information on allegations of electoral fraud at elections each year. Reports for 2014 - 2017 polls are available on the Electoral Commission website and a report covering polls held in 2018 will be published in due course.
The success of the voter ID pilots proves that this is a reasonable and proportionate measure and voters were fully aware of the changes on polling day. The overwhelming majority of electors who turned up to vote did so with the right documents and had confidence in knowing how to cast their vote.
The evaluations of the voter ID pilots which include data on the number of people turned away from polling stations can be found at:
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost to the public purse was of the Boundary Commission Review.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information is not yet available. Figures for expenditure over each previous financial year are published by the separate Boundary Commissions for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as part of their annual reports.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many criminal incidents which included the use of a bladed weapon were reported to the police in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply and I would be depositing a copy in the Library of both Houses.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has made an assessment of the geographical and socio-economic distribution of voters new to the electoral register since the last Boundary Review was conducted.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Government has made no such assessment. The Electoral Commission conducts accuracy and completeness assessments of the electoral registers. The Electoral Commission’s most recent research was on the December 2015 electoral registers and can be found on its website.
The boundary review is currently being carried out by the four Boundary Commissions, which are statutorily independent bodies, using the December 2015 electoral registers, as set out in primary legislation passed by Parliament.
Registers used for a boundary review are necessarily a snapshot and the registers have always continued to change while a review takes place.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate his Department has made of the total cost to local authorities of advertising voter ID changes in the five local authorities which trialled those changes in the 2018 local government elections.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The British public deserves to have confidence in our democracy and the Government is committed to making sure that our electoral system is fit for the future.
Voter ID was successfully tested at the local elections on 3 May by five local authorities: Bromley, Gosport, Swindon, Watford and Woking. Proxy voters in Peterborough were also required to show ID before they could vote. The overwhelming majority of people cast their vote without a problem.
Local authorities were responsible for the delivery of any adverts, literature or paid content relating to the pilots in their respective areas. The additional costs of the voter ID pilots have yet to be collated. Funding for the additional cost of piloting voter ID will be provided by the Cabinet Office. The Electoral Commission is responsible for carrying out an independent, statutory evaluation of the pilot schemes and will publish its findings in the summer of 2018.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the difference is between the number of voters on the electoral register compared to the electoral register data used for the current parliamentary boundary review.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Parliament previously agreed legislation that requires the 2018 Boundary Review to be based on the December 2015 electoral registers. Data published by ONS shows that the number of electors on these registers was 44,722,004. ONS has recently published data showing that there were 46,148,035 electors on the December 2017 electoral registers.
Registers used for a boundary review are necessarily a snapshot and the registers have always continued to change while a review takes place.
Without the current parliamentary boundary reviews, MPs could end up representing constituencies based on data that is over 20 years’ old, disregarding significant changes in demographics, house building and migration.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who do not have photo identification in the local authority areas which are piloting photo ID to vote in the elections on 3 May 2018.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The British public deserves to have confidence in our democracy. There is clearly the potential for electoral fraud in the systems we have and that undermines confidence and promotes perceptions of vulnerability.
The volunteer local authorities who will pilot voter identification at the local elections in May 2018 chose the forms of photographic and non photographic identification that they believe best suit the needs of their electors. Those local authorities have worked collaboratively with Cabinet Office to design pilots that will support the evaluation of a range of identification options. Information regarding the number of people with photo identification in the piloting local authority areas is not held by the Government.
No-one will need to purchase identification documents to be able to vote and the identification requirements will not be limited to a passport or driving licence. Voters will be able to use a wide variety of ID, from marriage certificates and passports to bus passes and bank cards, depending on where they live. If voters do not have the required ID local authorities are providing alternative or replacement methods, free of charge, to ensure that no one is disenfranchised. Local authorities have notified every eligible voter by including information of the ID requirement on their poll card.