Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when MOD driving instructors will be deployed to driving test centres across the UK.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has accepted the resource of Defence Driving Examiners (DDEs), to be based at the driving test centres with the highest demand near their MOD base or home location.
Before DDEs can start testing they will require familiarisation training. DVSA will provide further information when they will start testing, as soon as it is able.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to help provide (a) atrocity prevention and (b) civilian protection support in El Fasher, Darfur.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the response provided to the Urgent Question on Sudan: Protection of Civilians on 30 October.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the potential impact of the time taken for his Department to make decisions on the finances of applicants.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department endeavours to process new claims for benefits and changes of circumstances as quickly as possible after customers have provided all relevant information and evidence relating to their claim.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on reducing the time taken for Access to Work applications to be allocated to a case manager.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As set out in the Green Paper, we are reforming Access to Work to improve the scheme so that it helps more disabled people into and on in work.
We are committed to reducing waiting times for claims to the Access to Work Scheme. We also prioritise customers starting a job in four weeks. To support our customers several measures have already been put in place, including streamlining our delivery processes and recruiting additional staff.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what priority his Department gives to responding to MPs' enquiries.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department treats enquiries from Members of Parliament as a high priority and has issued clear guidance to staff members.
We are committed to improving response times and have taken a number of steps, such as deploying additional resource, to improve the timeliness of responses to MP enquiries. The Department has also published guidance on the W4MP website to ensure MP offices have clear visibility of appropriate contact numbers for each DWP benefit product line.
Data on responses to correspondence from MPs is regularly published and can be found here: Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has issued guidance to staff on the timeframe in which they should respond to MP enquiries.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department treats enquiries from Members of Parliament as a high priority and has issued clear guidance to staff members.
We are committed to improving response times and have taken a number of steps, such as deploying additional resource, to improve the timeliness of responses to MP enquiries. The Department has also published guidance on the W4MP website to ensure MP offices have clear visibility of appropriate contact numbers for each DWP benefit product line.
Data on responses to correspondence from MPs is regularly published and can be found here: Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to monitor the (a) number of, (b) time taken to respond to and (c) urgency of MPs' enquiries to his Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department treats enquiries from Members of Parliament as a high priority and has issued clear guidance to staff members.
We are committed to improving response times and have taken a number of steps, such as deploying additional resource, to improve the timeliness of responses to MP enquiries. The Department has also published guidance on the W4MP website to ensure MP offices have clear visibility of appropriate contact numbers for each DWP benefit product line.
Data on responses to correspondence from MPs is regularly published and can be found here: Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the length of time taken by his Department to resolve MPs' enquiries.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department treats enquiries from Members of Parliament as a high priority and has issued clear guidance to staff members.
We are committed to improving response times and have taken a number of steps, such as deploying additional resource, to improve the timeliness of responses to MP enquiries. The Department has also published guidance on the W4MP website to ensure MP offices have clear visibility of appropriate contact numbers for each DWP benefit product line.
Data on responses to correspondence from MPs is regularly published and can be found here: Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was for his Department to resolve MPs' enquiries in the last year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department treats enquiries from Members of Parliament as a high priority and has issued clear guidance to staff members.
We are committed to improving response times and have taken a number of steps, such as deploying additional resource, to improve the timeliness of responses to MP enquiries. The Department has also published guidance on the W4MP website to ensure MP offices have clear visibility of appropriate contact numbers for each DWP benefit product line.
Data on responses to correspondence from MPs is regularly published and can be found here: Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the the potential impact of the contract to supply Norway with Type 26 frigates on Scotland's economy.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
This is the biggest British warship export deal in history and is a huge vote of confidence in the strength of our defence industry and in Scotland’s shipbuilding capability.
This strategic partnership with Norway will sustain more than 4,000 jobs, of which more than 2,000 are in Scotland, for at least 15 years. It is expected to benefit many UK suppliers, including Scottish small and medium enterprises.