Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people (a) successfully made an application for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) and (b) were unsuccessful in an application for JSA following a Genuine Prospect of Work assessment in the last two years.
Answered by Priti Patel
The Department does not record statistics on applications for Jobseeker’s Allowance following a genuine prospect of work assessment.
To collate the information requested would take the costs of responding to the question over the disproportionate cost threshold.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what account he plans to take of dietary inequality and food insecurity in the planned childhood obesity strategy.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Our Childhood Obesity Strategy, which will be launched in the summer, will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unplanned Health and Safety Executive inspections were conducted at construction sites in (a) Scotland, (b) England, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
HSE does not carry out unplanned inspections, but targets its proactive visits (the majority of which are unannounced) based on intelligence about industry risk profiles and duty holder performance. The following table provides the available data for the last 5 years (HSE does not hold data for inspections in Northern Ireland):
Inspections1 | Scotland | England | Wales | Region not recorded3 | |
2011/12 | HSE | 2215 | 18010 | 1289 | 200 |
Construction2 | 1290 | 9883 | 942 | 173 | |
2012/13 | HSE | 2787 | 18177 | 1125 | 151 |
Construction2 | 1283 | 9009 | 627 | 128 | |
2013/14 | HSE | 2124 | 19869 | 1448 | 157 |
Construction2 | 958 | 10384 | 541 | 136 | |
2014/15 | HSE | 1700 | 16980 | 1320 | 120 |
Construction2 | 649 | 8987 | 526 | 110 | |
2015/16 | HSE | 2082 | 14774 | 1170 | 105 |
Construction2 | 873 | 7794 | 453 | 97 | |
Notes:
1 – The data provided is based on live, operational records as at 25 May 2016.
2 – This represents inspections of construction activities carried out by inspectors in Construction Division and by inspectors in other HSE divisions at sites with the Standard Industrial Classifications 41-43.
3 –The regional location is determined by local authority area, which may not have been confirmed at the time of recording.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unplanned Health and Safety Executive inspections took place in (a) Scotland, (b) England, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
HSE does not carry out unplanned inspections, but targets its proactive visits (the majority of which are unannounced) based on intelligence about industry risk profiles and duty holder performance. The following table provides the available data for the last 5 years (HSE does not hold data for inspections in Northern Ireland):
Inspections1 | Scotland | England | Wales | Region not recorded3 | |
2011/12 | HSE | 2215 | 18010 | 1289 | 200 |
Construction2 | 1290 | 9883 | 942 | 173 | |
2012/13 | HSE | 2787 | 18177 | 1125 | 151 |
Construction2 | 1283 | 9009 | 627 | 128 | |
2013/14 | HSE | 2124 | 19869 | 1448 | 157 |
Construction2 | 958 | 10384 | 541 | 136 | |
2014/15 | HSE | 1700 | 16980 | 1320 | 120 |
Construction2 | 649 | 8987 | 526 | 110 | |
2015/16 | HSE | 2082 | 14774 | 1170 | 105 |
Construction2 | 873 | 7794 | 453 | 97 | |
Notes:
1 – The data provided is based on live, operational records as at 25 May 2016.
2 – This represents inspections of construction activities carried out by inspectors in Construction Division and by inspectors in other HSE divisions at sites with the Standard Industrial Classifications 41-43.
3 –The regional location is determined by local authority area, which may not have been confirmed at the time of recording.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government plans to take to reduce the number of occupation illnesses.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Tackling ill health is one of six strategic themes in the new strategy for the health and safety system, ‘Helping Great Britain work well’. The strategy is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/index.htm
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have been awarded employment and support allowance (ESA) under regulation (a) 29 and (b) 35 of the Employment and Support Allowance Regulations 2008; and how many such claimants were originally in the ESA support group.
Answered by Priti Patel
Information on the outcomes of initial Employment and Support Allowance claims awarded under regulation 35 of the ESA Regulations 2008 can be found in Table 5 of the published statistics:
The rest of the information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department provides to health care professionals on applying the power in regulation 35 of the Employment Allowance Regulations 2008 to award employment and support allowance to claimants in the support group in exceptional circumstances.
Answered by Priti Patel
Healthcare professionals who carry out the Work Capability Assessment are trained in all aspects of their role including the application of Regulation 35. They are also issued with written guidance on all aspects of the Work Capability Assessment including the application of Regulation 35.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Health and Safety Executive is taking to ensure there is timely reduction in the backlog of safety-critical maintenance in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The responsibility for any backlog in safety-critical maintenance in the offshore oil and gas industry lies with the operators of the offshore installations. The Health and Safety Executive is in dialogue with OGUK, the principal industry representative body, regarding how best industry can track, report and improve upon its performance in this area.
The Health and Safety Executive has a programme of inspections of offshore installations. Examination of the standards of maintenance is a key part of the inspection programme and inspectors are empowered to require improvements where standards fall below legal requirements.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on women with a mental function problem of the different assessment recommended for them in its Work Capability Assessment handbook on risk of self-harm, suicide or other risk.
Answered by Priti Patel
The Department took its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 into account when making changes to the WCA handbook and recognises it has an on-going equality duty under the Act and is committed to complying with this duty.
Asked by: Eilidh Whiteford (Scottish National Party - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people sanctioned since 2012 have not gained employment and are no longer in receipt of the relevant benefit following the sanction period.
Answered by Priti Patel
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The information that is available, on the number of sanction referrals and adverse sanction decisions, in respect of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), is published and available at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/:
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started---SuperWEB2.html