Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to housing benefit eligibility in respect of under-occupancy in the social rented sector on low-income families.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
This measure puts social sector tenants on a par with their counterparts in the private rented sector who receive Housing Benefit based on household need rather than the full rental costs. Affected claimants can mitigate the impact by entering work, increasing their working hours or downsizing to a smaller property.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was between a fatal accident in construction and a conviction on the latest date for which data is available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
For fatalities in construction (Standard Industrial Classification, section F) reported to HSE between 2006/07 and 2014/15, the average time between the date of the incident and the date of the first hearing where a conviction is recorded is 1208 days. The time between the incident and conviction dates by yearly time bands is as follows:
Date of Conviction | Average number of days between incident date and conviction date |
2006/2007 | 985 |
2007/2008 | 1234 |
2008/2009 | 1153 |
2009/2010 | 1214 |
2010/2011 | 1251 |
2011/2012 | 1251 |
2012/2013 | 1336 |
2013/2014 | 1185 |
2014/2015 | 1267 |
Within the overall time frame from fatal incident to conviction a number of discrete stages may be involved and these are performed by different agencies largely out of HSE’s control:
Recognising the importance to victims of ensuring all stages of the process are concluded as quickly as possible, the WRDP National Liaison Committee recently agreed that any decision to prosecute should be made within 3 years of the date of death other than in exceptional circumstances – currently approximately 85% of investigations are completed within this timescale.
For its part HSE has an internal target of completing 95% of fatal accident investigations within 12 months of assuming primacy – attainment is now at 70% and the trend is improving.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what change there has been in the length of time between a fatal accident and a prosecution over the last five years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
For fatalities in construction (Standard Industrial Classification Section F) resulting in a prosecution approval by HSE between 2010/11 and 2014/15, the average time between the date of incident and the date prosecution action was approved in each year is as follows:
Year of approval | Average number of days between incident and prosecution approval by HSE |
2010/11 | 877 |
2011/12 | 841 |
2012/13 | 783 |
2013/14 | 851 |
2014/15 | 879 |
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was between a fatal accident occurring in construction and the start of a prosecution on the latest date for which data is available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
For fatalities in construction (Standard Industrial Classification, section F) reported to HSE between 2005/06 and 2014/15, the average time between the date of incident and the date prosecution action was approved is 751 days. This number does not include some more recent or complex incidents, which remain under investigation. The time between the incident and prosecution approved to date by yearly time bands is as follows:
Time between incident and approval | Number | Percentage |
0 - 1 year | 43 | 23 |
1-2 years | 51 | 27 |
2-3 years | 56 | 30 |
3-4 years | 28 | 15 |
4-5 years | 9 | 5 |
5 years + | 2 | 1 |
| 189 |
|
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of construction prosecutions has resulted in a conviction in each of the last five years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The percentage of construction (Standard Industrial Classification, section F) prosecutions completed in the relevant year and resulting in a conviction in each of the last five years, is as follows:
Year | Cases for which legal proceedings have been instituted | Convictions | Percentage resulting in conviction |
2010/11 | 218 | 201 | 92% |
2011/12 | 241 | 220 | 91% |
2012/13 | 220 | 209 | 95% |
2013/14r | 225 | 209 | 93% |
2014/15p | 258 | 243 | 94% |
p - provisional | |||
r - revised |
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of construction fatalities has resulted in at least one prosecution in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The percentage of construction (Standard Industrial Classification, section F) fatalities resulting in at least one prosecution being approved to date in each of the last eight years is as follows:
Year | Number of Fatalities in Construction reported to HSE | Number of fatalities with approved prosecution action* | Percentage* | |
2007/2008 | 74 | 38 | 51% | |
2008/2009 | 57 | 28 | 49% | |
2009/2010 | 44 | 20 | 45% | |
2010/2011 | 52 | 16 | 31% | |
2011/2012 | 49 | 22 | 45% | |
2012/2013 | 46 | 16 | 35% | |
2013/2014 | 47 | 15 | 32% | |
2014/2015 | 39p | 7 | 18% | |
| ||||
p - Data published for the most recent year is given a 'p' status (provisional), and a year later is released as final.
*Investigations of some recent and more complex incidents are continuing.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of jobseeker's allowance in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK who have disputed the sanction of their benefit have had that sanction overturned after reconsideration in each of the past five years.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The latest available information on Jobseeker’s Allowance sanctions, including the number of Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals, is published at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/:
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started---SuperWEB2.html
Please note Mandatory reconsiderations were introduced in 28th October 2013.
Information for Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of jobseeker's allowance in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have received a sanction of their benefit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
The latest available information on Jobseeker’s Allowance sanctions, including the number of Mandatory Reconsiderations and Appeals, is published at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/:
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started---SuperWEB2.html
Please note Mandatory reconsiderations were introduced in 28th October 2013.
Information for Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the Department for Social Development. Northern Ireland statistics can be found at:
http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/stats_and_research/benefit_publications.htm