Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans the Government has to ensure funds of equivalent value to the UK's allocation from the European Social Fund are made available for the same purposes after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government has confirmed that it will guarantee funding for European Social Fund and other EU Structural and Investment Fund projects, even where they continue after we have left the EU. Funding for these projects will be honoured, if they provide good value for money and are in line with domestic spending priorities. As a result, stakeholder organisations will have certainty over future funding and should continue to bid for competitive EU funds while the UK remains a member of the EU. Each Government Department will take responsibility for the allocation of money to projects in line with these conditions and the wider rules on public spending.
In the longer term we will want to consider the future of all programmes that are currently EU funded. Leaving means we have the opportunity to make our own decisions about how best to deliver on the policy objectives, previously targeted by EU funding.
The full detail of the Government announcement can be found at the following website link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/further-certainty-on-eu-funding-for-hundreds-of-british-projects
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.
Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.
More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
Since 1998 the Department for Work and Pensions occupies space provided through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) known as the PRIME Contract which expires on 31 March 2018. Under the terms of this PFI Contract the Department leases fully serviced accommodation from our private sector partner Telereal Trillium. This Contract provides a variety of facility management services including the provision of cleaning, provided by Engie.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
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 effects on divorced partners of their exclusion from widowed parents' allowance; and what consultation his Department has undertaken on the potential financial effect on children of that policy.
Answered by Steve Webb
This is a long-standing position in bereavement benefits. It will continue under the new Bereavement Support Payment, the provisions of which were debated by this House during the passage of the Pensions Act 2014.
Those who are divorced have access to income-related benefits in the same way as other lone parents .
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what average time is taken to resolve those benefit cases subject to mandatory discrimination which are not resolved in the first 30 days.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
Information on mandatory reconsiderations of benefit decisions was released on 17th December 2014. This was an ad-hoc release of experimental statistics on MR requests made between 28thOctober 2013 and 31st October 2014.
The available data can be found here: