Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2017 to Question 69687, on Motability, whether his Department plans to collect information on the numbers of people who have had to return a Motability vehicle when migrating between disability living allowance and personal independence payments.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Department does not hold information on how many people had Motability vehicles on DLA. Therefore, we are unable to collect information on the number of people who have had to return a Motability vehicle following reassessment from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payment.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many staff are seconded to his Department; and how many such staff are seconded from which companies and organisations.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Department does not hold a central register of staff seconded into the Department. The information requested is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of people in (a) Batley and Spen constituency, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) England who have had a Government-funded leased Motability car removed from their possession in each of the last seven years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Department does not routinely collect information on the numbers of people who have had to return a Motability vehicle. Also, the Department does not have data available on the numbers who have leased a vehicle under the Motability scheme by year and parliamentary constituency. As the information requested is not readily available, it could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Motability is an independent charitable organisation that is wholly responsible for the administration of the Motability scheme, including collating its own management information. Questions relating to this aspect of the scheme’s operation should be directed to Motability itself.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the average amount of maternity pay received in the (a) agriculture, forestry and fishing, (b) mining and quarrying, (c) electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, (d) manufacturing (e) water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities, (f) construction, (g) wholesale and retail trade, (h) repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, (i) transportation and storage, (j) accommodation and food service activities, (k) information and communication, (l) financial and insurance activities, (m) real estate activities, (n) professional scientific and technical activities, (o) administration and support service activities, (p) public administration and defence, (q) education, (r) human health and social work activities (s) arts, entertainment and recreation and (t) other service activities employment sector in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Women wishing to claim Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) do so directly to their employer and are paid SMP as part of their pay. DWP does not deal with these cases, and holds no information on the sector in which the woman works.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the potential savings to the public purse from the closure of Batley Jobcentre; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse incurred by moving the operations of that jobcentre to other centres.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department has always reviewed its offices to make sure it delivers value for money. However, the anticipated costs and savings for each individual Jobcentre is commercially sensitive information. The overall anticipated savings figure was published as part of the last Spending Review announcement.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the average amount of maternity pay received under (a) full-time, (b) part-time, (c) casual, (d) fixed-term and (e) zero hours employment contracts in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Women wishing to claim Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) do so directly to their employer and are paid SMP as part of their pay. DWP does not deal with these cases, and holds no information on the work patterns of the women wishing to claim.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on legal fees in all stages of legal proceedings related to Pandemrix.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Department has spent £33,255.39 on legal fees in all stages of legal proceedings related to Pandemrix. This figure represents the costs of external Counsel and services provided by the Government Legal Department’s Litigation team. In addition, the Department has received support from the Government Legal Department’s Advisory team but this was provided as part of a broader fee arrangement and it is therefore not possible to separately identify the fee element relating to any particular case or group of cases.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work coaches his Department has employed in each (a) region and (b) constituent part of the UK in each of the last three years; and how many work coaches his Department plans to employ in each such region and part of the UK in each of the next three years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The number of work coaches employed by the department in each of the last three years, shown by each nation within Great Britain and also by Jobcentre Plus district can be seen in the tables below.
By the end of March 2018 we plan to have around 2,500 more Work Coaches in Jobcentres across the nations and regions of Great Britain. However, the final allocation of work coaches will be based on funding, claimant activity and determined by need.
|
| March 2014 | March 2015 | March 2016 |
| National | 12,613 | 11,341 | 11,596 |
| England | 10,855 | 9,723 | 9,659 |
| Scotland | 1,136 | 997 | 1,186 |
| Wales | 622 | 620 | 750 |
| ||||
Jobcentre Plus Region | Jobcentre Plus District | March 2014 | March 2015 | March 2016 |
Central England | Birmingham & Solihull | 476 | 412 | 449 |
Central England | Black Country | 369 | 381 | 355 |
Central England | *Derbyshire | 192 | 0 | 0 |
Central England | East Anglia | 375 | 349 | 326 |
Central England | Leicestershire & Northamptonshire | 270 | 272 | 296 |
Central England | Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire & Rutland | 348 | 321 | 327 |
Central England | Mercia | 240 | 216 | 242 |
Central England | *Midland Shires | 0 | 406 | 409 |
Central England | *Staffordshire & Shropshire | 257 | 0 | 0 |
London and the Home Counties | Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire | 267 | 238 | 228 |
London and the Home Counties | East London | 555 | 445 | 374 |
London and the Home Counties | Essex | 314 | 288 | 238 |
London and the Home Counties | Kent | 293 | 249 | 246 |
London and the Home Counties | North London | 479 | 390 | 336 |
London and the Home Counties | South London | 624 | 555 | 464 |
London and the Home Counties | West London | 413 | 369 | 361 |
North East England | Durham & Tees Valley | 374 | 332 | 362 |
North East England | North East Yorkshire & Humber | 388 | 353 | 336 |
North East England | Northumberland Tyne & Wear | 372 | 352 | 377 |
North East England | South Yorkshire | 366 | 344 | 377 |
North East England | West Yorkshire | 548 | 573 | 523 |
North West England | Cumbria & Lancashire | 347 | 293 | 343 |
North West England | Greater Manchester Central & Cheshire | 404 | 344 | 370 |
North West England | Greater Manchester East & West | 390 | 372 | 371 |
North West England | Merseyside | 410 | 383 | 427 |
Scotland | East & South East Scotland | 314 | 289 | 315 |
Scotland | Glasgow Lanarkshire & East Dunbartonshire | 387 | 319 | 395 |
Scotland | North of Scotland | 188 | 180 | 205 |
Scotland | West of Scotland | 247 | 210 | 271 |
Southern England | Devon Cornwall & Somerset | 314 | 273 | 330 |
Southern England | *Avon Severn and Thames | 0 | 0 | 302 |
Southern England | *Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex | 0 | 0 | 363 |
Southern England | *Gloucestershire & West of England | 325 | 262 | 0 |
Southern England | Greater Wessex | 445 | 401 | 435 |
Southern England | *Surrey & Sussex | 348 | 282 | 0 |
Southern England | *Thames Valley | 338 | 267 | 0 |
Wales | North & Mid Wales | 129 | 141 | 172 |
Wales | South East Wales | 271 | 271 | 303 |
Wales | South West Wales | 222 | 207 | 275 |
Notes
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Oral Answer of 14 November 2016, Official Report, column 30, what the entire amount spent by his Department was on every stage of legal action defending the under-occupancy penalty; and how many hours, at what cost, officials spent working on that case.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The total legal costs of the proceedings in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in respect of MA & Others, Re A and Rutherford, which concerned the under-occupancy penalty, as of the 9 November 2016, when the Supreme Court judgement was handed down, was £484,077.94.
This figure includes the costs of the Supreme Court proceedings in respect of MA & Others, Re A and Rutherford, as of the 9 November 2016, which was £206,842.65. Previous references to this figure were made during an Urgent Question debate and also in a recent PQ answer.
These can be found at:
It should be noted that the above figures include Counsel’s fees, Government Legal Department litigation fees and other disbursements as well as VAT where payable.
Government Legal Department litigation have worked approximately 1365.9 hours in relation to these proceedings. Time spent by Government advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributed to individual cases. Time spent by policy officials supporting lawyers is also not recorded.
Asked by: Tracy Brabin (Labour (Co-op) - Batley and Spen)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of collating official statistics on (a) the number of foodbanks in the UK, (b) dependency on foodbanks, (c) use of foodbanks and (d) foodbank referral causes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Food banks range from small, local provision, through to national networks. It would not be possible to collect this information without placing unnecessary burdens on volunteers trying to help their communities.