Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's policy is on sanctioning claimants who miss appointments because of probationary commitments.
Answered by Esther McVey
Claimants are only asked to meet reasonable requirements in order to move off benefits and into work. Where claimants have good reason to miss an appointment, such as probationary commitments, then a sanction will not apply.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many new business start-ups there have been in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) Bradford (i) since 2010 and (ii) from 2005 to 2010.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Amazingly, data on start-ups is not available for years before 2008. The estimated number of business start-ups in a) the Bradford East constituency and b) Bradford local authority from 2008 and 2014 are shown in the table below.
Year | Business start-ups in the Bradford East constituency | Business start-ups in Bradford local authority |
2008 | 640 | 3,040 |
2009 | 590 | 3,050 |
2010 | 730 | 3,560 |
2011 | 760 | 3,580 |
2012 | 670 | 3,280 |
2013 | 620 | 3,050 |
2014 | 560 | 2,740 |
Total for period 2010 to 2014 | 3,330 | 16,220 |
Source: BankSearch: number of new business bank accounts opened. All figures rounded to the nearest 10.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) Bradford paid income tax in (i) 2010 and (ii) the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by David Gauke
Estimates of the number of income tax payers by borough, district or unitary authority, and Parliamentary Constituency are published in tables 3.14 and 3.15 of HMRC’s Personal Incomes Statistics’
These tables contain the following estimates of the number of taxpayers in Bradford East and Bradford for financial years 2009/10 and 2012/13. Figures are to the nearest thousand:
2009/10 | 2012/13 | |
Bradford | 206 | 197 |
Bradford East | 36 | 33 |
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what change there has been in the number of jobs in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) Bradford (i) since 2010 and (ii) between 2005 and 2010.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will ensure that women who worked in munitions factories during World War Two receive a medal to mark their contribution to the war effort.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Government fully appreciates the efforts and the often very dangerous conditions experienced by those who worked in munitions factories producing vital equipment for the armed forces that helped contribute to winning the Second World War.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has given careful consideration to possible formal recognition of the enormous contribution made by all those who manufactured munitions during the War. Given the disruption to employment in the War years and the time elapsed since, it would unfortunately be very difficult to identify all those involved. Many of companies no longer exist and the consequent lack of records for those they employed means that there would be difficulties in verifying any entitlement. It was concluded that it would not be practical to find a way to recognise the contributions of individual workers. However we are aware that an All Party Parliamentary Group on Recognition for Munitions Workers has been set up to explore ways to recognise the collective efforts of those who worked in munitions factories and we are open to working with them on any recommendations they bring forward.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many households have received support through the Green Deal in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) Bradford to date.
Answered by Amber Rudd
The Department has reported that there were 1,692 Green Deal Assessments in Bradford East constituency up to 30th September 2014. There were also eleven Green Deal Cashback vouchers and Green Deal Home Improvement Fund vouchers paid in Bradford East constituency up to 30th September 2014.
In Bradford Local Authority there were 5,048 Green Deal Assessments, 72 Green Deal Cashback vouchers paid and 33 Green Deal Home Improvement Fund vouchers paid up to 30th September 2014.
The statistics referred to can be found in the accompanying tables here:
Currently, the Department has not published any geographic breakdowns below region on Green Deal Finance Plans. These will be included in the next quarterly release planned for publication on 19th March 2015 covering the period up to the end of December 2014.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many wind turbines have been installed in the Yorkshire and Humber region between (a) 2005-10 and (b) 2010-15.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Department does not hold information on when and where individual wind turbines are installed.
Year | No. of turbines |
2005 | 302 |
2006 | 202 |
2007 | 280 |
2008 | 314 |
2009 | 229 |
2010 | 293 |
2011 | 245 |
2012 | 596 |
2013 | 671 |
2014 | 340 |
2015 | 6 |
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many households have received support through the Energy Companies Obligation in (a) Bradford East constituency and (b) Bradford to date.
Answered by Amber Rudd
The Department has reported that the provisional number of households in receipt of ECO measures in Bradford East constituency was 5,414, up to 30th September 2014 (the second highest number of households in receipt of ECO measures in all Parliamentary constituencies in Great Britain). In Bradford Local Authority there were 15,935 households in receipt of ECO measures, up to 30th September 2014.
The statistics referred to can be found in Tables 1.11e and 1.11d at:
The next quarterly release covering the period up to the end of December 2014 will be published on 19th March 2015.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that local authorities commission adult social care services at an hourly rate which provides for staff to receive the national minimum wage and includes travel time between clients.
Answered by Norman Lamb
High quality, compassionate care for the most vulnerable in society can only be delivered by a well-trained, motivated and appropriately remunerated workforce. The Government recognises that pay can be a particular concern for those with the responsibility for delivering those services.
Care providers are legally obliged to pay their workers at least the national minimum wage - relevant time spent travelling between care appointments should be treated as working time for national minimum wage purposes in accordance with HM Revenue and Custom (HMRC) guidance. This is the least that care workers deserve and should expect.
Responsibility for enforcement of the national minimum wage rests with HMRC rather than local authorities. However, the Care Act places duties on local authorities to have regard to fostering an effective workforce able to deliver high quality services.
The Government has recently published statutory guidance to support the implementation of the Care Act that describes how local authorities must meet these new duties when commissioning, which directs that local authorities should have evidence that care providers they contract with are paying at least the national minimum wage, including factoring into those calculations any time spent travelling between care appointments and that those providers found to be recently in breach of the law, should be excluded from the contract tendering process.
The Government has also worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association to co-produce a set of commissioning standards that were launched in October 2014. These standards amplify the good practice set out in the statutory guidance in regards to fostering an effective workforce.
Asked by: David Ward (Liberal Democrat - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school places were created in Bradford between 2005 and 2010.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The Department collects information from local authorities on the number of school places in state-funded primary and secondary schools as part of the annual School Capacity Collection.
Data for 2010 can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-2009-to-2010-final.
In 2005 this information was collected as part of the Surplus Places Survey, and data is available at:
A comparison of the position in 2005 and 2010, showing the net change in capacity in Bradford local authority, is given in the table below. Positive figures indicate an overall increase in places; negative figures indicate an overall decrease in places. A decrease in places can be the consequence of actions to address over-supply, remove unsuitable place provision, or if restructuring the school system. Bradford, like many LAs, reduced the number of available school places during the previous decade when the primary population was falling by removing surplus places, with the objective of improving efficiency.
Change in number of places in primary schools (including all through and middle-deemed primary schools) 2005 to 2010 | Change in number of places in secondary schools (including all-through and middle deemed secondary schools) 2005 to 2010 (1) | |
Bradford | -1,071 | 1,905 |
Source: Surplus Places Survey 2005 and School Capacity 2010 | ||
(1) Secondary capacity in 2010 used to calculate change in number of places includes places in academies | ||