Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether all automatic replies acknowledging receipt of emails sent to government and ministerial accounts provide that a full response will be supplied; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Cabinet Office publishes guidance for departments on how to handle correspondence including emails. Departments will make their own arrangements for acknowledging receipt of emails.
Departments are required to provide substantive responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers promptly, and no later than 20 days after receipt. In specific circumstances, Ministers may decide that a response is not necessary.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government who decides whether a substantive response to an email to a Minister or Government department from a member of the House of Lords should be provided; and whether such a decision is made by the relevant Secretary of State or a departmental official.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Cabinet Office publishes guidance for departments on how to handle correspondence including emails. Departments will make their own arrangements for acknowledging receipt of emails.
Departments are required to provide substantive responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers promptly, and no later than 20 days after receipt. In specific circumstances, Ministers may decide that a response is not necessary.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Common Purpose receives financial support from (1) the EU, and (2) any external sources; and if so, how much.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The Government does not hold this information.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been the total sum they have spent buying places on Common Purpose courses during each of the last 20 years; and to detail exactly (1) how, and (2) where, such expenditure is recorded.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
No centrally held record of expenditure on training or learning is maintained covering the entirety of the period specified.
Common Purpose is not a provider of training through Civil Service Learning.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the average age of the population of the United Kingdom in (1) 1990, (2) 2000, (3) 2010, (4) what is the current 2020 figure, and (5) the projected figure for 2050.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Dear Lord Maginnis,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the average age of the population of the United Kingdom was in (1) 1990, (2) 2000, (3) 2010, (4) what is the current 2020 figure, and (5) the projected figure for 2050 (HL5312).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the latest (30 June 2019) mid-year population estimates on 6 May 2020[1]. Table MYE6 contains the median age for the years from 2001 to 2019. Median age is that at which half the population is above that age and half below. For 1990, 2000 and 2010, the ONS have used the already published median age, and, for 2020 and 2050, have taken the median age from the latest 2018-based Principal Population Projections, UK Summary[2] published on 21 October 2019. Table 1 shows the median ages for the requested years.
Table 1: UK median ages
Year | Median age (years) |
1990 | 35.8 |
2000 | 37.6 |
2010 | 39.5 |
2020 | 40.4 |
2050 | 43.7 |
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates and 2018-based population projections
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 3 July 2017 (HL3), 15 September 2017 (HL1448), and 13 October 2017 (HL1671), and by Lord Duncan of Springbank on 21 December 2017 (HL3975), 16 March 2018 (HL6045), 20 November 2018 (HL11393 and HL11394), and 17 May (HL15556), what assessment they have made of whether there was any abuse of the electoral system in the conduct of the by-election for Peterborough on 6 June; and if there was any such abuse, what assessment they have made of whether this is part of a wider pattern of abuse of the electoral system.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
We take the security and integrity of our democratic processes very seriously.
The running of polls is a matter for independent returning officers, not the Government. The Electoral Commission engage with the returning officers, electoral staff and registered parties providing assistance in disseminating information and advice to individuals delivering or participating in elections.
We have processes in place to defend against electoral fraud. There is ongoing work with electoral administrators to ensure our elections remain secure and robust, both now and in the future. Measures like voter ID are the latest in our efforts to respect, protect and promote our democracy.
Where abuse of the electoral system is alleged, it is for the Electoral Commission or Police to investigate such claims.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the number of (1) electors, (2) postal votes cast, and (3) proxy votes applied for, in the Peterborough constituency for (a) the general election in 2010 and (b) the by-election on 6 June.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Data on the number of electors, postal votes cast, and proxy votes applied for in general elections or by-elections are not collected by the Government.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 3 July 2017 (HL3), 15 September 2017 (HL1448), and 13 October 2017 (HL1671), and by Lord Duncan of Springbank on 21 December 2017 (HL3975), 16 March 2018 (HL6045), 20 November 2018 (HL11393 and HL11394), and 17 May (HL15556), what plans they have to introduce legislation to prevent any abuse of the electoral system in the UK.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
On 5th May the Minister for the Constitution announced a range of new measures to safeguard UK elections by cracking down on intimidation, influence and disinformation.
As part of that, the Government has committed to: legislating for a new electoral offence of intimidation; clarifying the electoral offence of undue influence of a voter; implementing an imprints regime for digital election material; and launching a consultation on electoral integrity. Before formally launching the consultation, the Government will be inviting the views of interested groups to establish what the consultation could seek to address, and also see what scope there is for broad cross-party agreement.
Any legislative changes relating to issues or specific cases in Northern Ireland would, however, be a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Young of Cookham on 30 April (HL6934), when the Office for National Statistics expects to be able to produce regional price indices, including for Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger CB, National Statistician, to Lord Maginnis of Drumglas , dated 3 May 2018.
Dear Lord Maginnis,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Lord Young of Cookham on 30 April (HL6934), when the Office for National Statistics expects to be able to produce regional price indices, including for Northern Ireland (HL7465).
The Office for National Statisitcs (ONS) commissioned the University of Southampton to produce a feasibility study into producing price indices for all the Government Office Regions, including Northern Ireland, using current price and expenditure data. The results of this research were published in November 2017[1]. Following this publication, we have further commissioned University of Southampton to continue the study. While still underway, initial findings of the study suggest that we will be unable to produce reliable regional price indices without a significant increase in the price sample for this area, which would be costly. We expect the study to be completed by December 2018.
We are actively pursuing access to retailers' transactional databases as part of our work exploring alternative data sources for consumer price statistics under the Digital Economy Act’s framework to access data for statistical purposes. At such a time as we receive access to these data we will have a sufficiently detailed data source to explore more reliable regional consumer price statistics; however, our timescales are dependent on when retailers might provide us with such data.
Yours sincerely,
John Pullinger
[1] Feasibility study into producing CPIH consistent inflation rates for UK regions
Asked by: Lord Maginnis of Drumglass (Independent Ulster Unionist - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the percentage cost-of-living increases nationally during each of the last five years; and what was the annual percentage increase in rates in Northern Ireland over the same period.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger CB, National Statistician, to Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, dated 20 April 2018
Dear Lord Maginnis,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what was the percentage cost-of-living increases nationally during each of the last five years; and what was the annual percentage increase in rates in Northern Ireland over the same period (HL6934).
The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) is our most comprehensive measure of inflation, and measures the change in price of a fixed basket of goods and services. The 12-month percentage change in the index is published on a monthly basis. The table below summarises the average 12-month percentage change for each of the last five years.
Table 1: Annual average percentage 12-month change, CPIH, UK, 2013 to 2017
Year | Annual average 12-m change (%) |
2013 | 2.3 |
2014 | 1.5 |
2015 | 0.4 |
2016 | 1.0 |
2017 | 2.6 |
These data are taken from Table 10 of our Consumer Price Inflation bulletin[1]. In this publication you will also find the 12-month CPIH inflation rates, and similar figures for the Consumer Prices Index (CPI, the Monetary Policy Committee’s current inflation target). CPIH is the same as CPI but includes Council Tax and a measure of owner occupiers’ housing costs, which are not included in CPI. CPIH and CPI are both National Statistics.
Unfortunately, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not currently produce an inflation measure for Northern Ireland. This is because the price sample is optimised at the national level and therefore regional price samples are small. Nevertheless, I do recognise that there is an important user need for regional measures of inflation, and to address this ONS have asked the University of Southampton to carry out a feasibility study into calculating regional price indices[2].
You may also be interested to know that ONS analysis suggests that prices in Northern Ireland were on average 2.3% lower than the UK average for 2016. (Note that this analysis refers to the relative difference in price between regions, which is distinct from the rate at which prices change over time). This is taken from our Relative Regional Consumer Price Levels of Goods and Services, UK: 2016 publication[3], which is based on estimates produced for Eurostat once every 6 years.
Yours sincerely John Pullinger |
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/ukconsumerpriceinflationmar2018
[2] See our Consumer Prices Development Plan, section 3.3.5