Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 10 January (HL Deb, col 1856), what steps they are taking to enable more private, local authority and charity investment in social enterprises which support or employ ex-prisoners.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Charities and social enterprises play an important role in the government’s mission of building an economy that works for everyone. The government is building on its role as a world leader in soc`ial enterprise by championing procurement for social value, supporting social enterprise awareness campaigns, building the social investment market, using social enterprises to address issues at scale and expanding the social investment tax relief.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment has been made of reoffending rates for (1) ex-prisoners who have undertaken enterprise courses, and (2) those who have not.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Data published by my department on the impact of employment on reduced re-offending relies on data drawn together from across the Criminal Justice System, supplemented by data on the employment and benefit status of offenders from a data sharing agreement between MoJ, DWP and HMRC.
That data does not enable any comparative assessment of reoffending rates for ex-prisoners who have or have not undertaken enterprise courses.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to implement the meningitis B vaccine in 2015.
Answered by Jane Ellison
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 5 February 2015 to Question 222863.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the effect of domestic violence on children.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Domestic violence and abuse is sickening in any context and can have a particularly profound effect on children. The Government’s approach to tackling this appalling crime is laid out in the Violence Against Women and Girls Action Plan, refreshed in March 2014.
The Action Plan sets out our commitment to develop the Troubled Families Programme to help families deal with a range of issues, including domestic violence and abuse.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will publish an assessment of the likely effect of the change to pensions announced in the 2014 Budget on the budget for welfare payments over the next ten years.
Answered by Steve Webb
The impact on welfare spending will depend on how people choose to use their savings; the choices people make may increase or decrease the likelihood of them being eligible for means tested benefits at some point in their retirement. However we are talking about people who have saved for their future and therefore we would expect the numbers choosing to rely solely on welfare benefits to be small.
The introduction of the single-tier pension also means that the majority of people will have a state pension income above the basic means test.
The details of the policy and the guidance offer are being developed and we are consulting on this.
Asked by: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in (a) St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council area and (b) St Helens North constituency.
Answered by Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.
The ward results for St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council were as follows:
Ward | Green matches | Amber matches | Red matches |
Billinge & Seneley Green | 87.5% | 1.3% | 11.1% |
Blackbrook | 87.6% | 0.8% | 11.6% |
Bold | 82.8% | 1.6% | 15.6% |
Earlestown | 82.0% | 1.4% | 16.6% |
Eccleston | 87.9% | 1.1% | 11.0% |
Haydock | 86.2% | 1.1% | 12.6% |
Moss Bank | 86.5% | 0.9% | 12.7% |
Newton | 81.9% | 1.2% | 16.9% |
Parr | 80.7% | 1.3% | 18.0% |
Rainford | 86.7% | 1.9% | 11.4% |
Rainhill | 87.3% | 1.0% | 11.6% |
Sutton | 85.0% | 1.1% | 13.9% |
Thatto Heath | 82.1% | 1.5% | 16.4% |
Town Centre | 76.8% | 1.5% | 21.7% |
West Park | 82.1% | 1.0% | 16.9% |
Windle | 84.0% | 0.9% | 15.1% |
The ward results for the St Helens North constituency were as follows:
Ward | Green matches | Amber matches | Red matches |
Billinge & Seneley Green | 87.5% | 1.3% | 11.1% |
Blackbrook | 87.6% | 0.8% | 11.6% |
Earlestown | 82.0% | 1.4% | 16.6% |
Haydock | 86.2% | 1.1% | 12.6% |
Moss Bank | 86.5% | 0.9% | 12.7% |
Newton | 81.9% | 1.2% | 16.9% |
Parr | 80.7% | 1.3% | 18.0% |
Rainford | 86.7% | 1.9% | 11.4% |
Windle | 84.0% | 0.9% | 15.1% |
Results for all wards are available on the Commission's website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls