Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the merits of bringing forward proposals to amend universal credit regulations to allow her Department to apply discretion on the recovery of advance loans taken out by domestic abuse victims under duress.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is fully committed to the prevention of abuse and the Department for Work and Pensions has a range of measures designed to support people who flee violent and abusive households.
If a Universal Credit claimant has been forced into claiming an advance through domestic abuse, we would urge the claimant to talk to the Department about this. If the advance was taken whilst part of a couple claim, 50% of the outstanding balance would be apportioned upon pursuing a single claim. Additionally, the Department offers deferrals of advance repayments by up to 3 months in exceptional circumstances and will apply discretion wherever possible with the rates of repaying other government debts. A range of other support is available across the Department for those impacted by domestic abuse.
The Department will continue to look at ways to further support the victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment criteria the Health and Safety Executive plans to apply in deciding whether its inspections of hydraulic fracturing sites will be unannounced.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
Decisions on whether an inspection is announced or unannounced are made on a case by case basis by the HSE inspector. For example, it may be beneficial to inform the duty holder of the inspection prior to arrival to ensure that the relevant people, documents and materials are present on site to inform the inspection. Conversely there may be occasions where it may be more appropriate for the visit to be unannounced to observe the “normal” conditions of the site.
Information gathered by HSE during site inspections, meetings with the well operators and through the assessment of data contained in well notifications enables HSE to assure itself that the operator is managing risks appropriately in relation to the well operations.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is a requirement that the Health and Safety Executive assess all hydraulic fracturing sites during (a) the exploration phase and (b) all further phases, including decommissioning.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) regulatory regime for oil and gas operations onshore including hydraulic fracturing is long-established.
The approach has two main elements:
1. Specialist well engineers (working with the industry association) help develop best practice standards for the oil and gas industry as a whole.
2. This is supplemented by risk-based interventions to assess if well integrity risks are managed appropriately.
An oil or gas well is a complex engineered construction, most of which is below ground and not accessible to visual inspection. Consequently HSE seeks to ensure that the well design (which is approved by an independent well examiner) conforms to the relevant standards. A pre-construction well notification report is submitted to HSE for assessment and approval before any work commences.
During construction or decommissioning of the well HSE receives weekly well operations reports from the operator. These reports and the supporting detailed technical data obtained from readouts during the well operations are assessed by HSE specialist inspectors to ensure the well is being constructed, operated or decommissioned in accordance with the approved design parameters or decommissioning process.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
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 number of full-time equivalent staff required by the Health and Safety Executive in order for it to perform its role as a regulator of hydraulic fracturing in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16, (c) 2016-17, (d) 2017-18, (e) 2018-19 and (f) 2019-2020.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has sufficient resource to regulate the development of shale gas in the current exploratory stage. HSE continues to review its level of staffing to ensure the level of resourcing is appropriate relevant to the volume of hydraulic fracturing activity being undertaken.