Oral Answers to Questions

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Wilson]

As I said, the key issue for the Brethren was to prove public benefit in what they were doing. That is the defining element of charity status, and the Charity Commission accepted that.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

2. What progress he has made on implementing his Department's transparency agenda.

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

In January this year, the UK was ranked top of a list of 86 countries on the World Wide Web Foundation’s open data barometer for the second year running. In addition, last year the 2014 Global Open Data Index again ranked the UK No. 1 out of 97 countries. There are now 19,000 data sets published on data.gov.uk and our national information infrastructure sets the framework for how we manage hugely valuable open data.

[Diana Johnson]

I have a local issue to which I would like the Minister to respond. In Hull, 1,000 people applied for the first 14 jobs that Siemens recently advertised. Until 2013, MPs got constituency-based figures on the number of jobseekers going after each job vacancy. I would like to know why this was stopped under his Government. I have never had a clear explanation, and I do not think it is aiding transparency in this country.

[Mr Maude]

That sounds like an issue for the Office for National Statistics, which, as the hon. Lady knows, is independent of Ministers, but I will ensure that this issue is looked at and that she gets a proper answer.