Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce poverty among (a) adults and (b) children in Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to our goal of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.
The 2014-17 Child Poverty Strategy outlines our plans to tackle the root causes of poverty, including worklessness, low earnings and educational failure. This approach reflects the reality of child poverty in the UK today and is the only way to achieve lasting change to protect the poorest in society.
Under this Government, 300,000 fewer children are in relative income poverty, around 390,000 fewer children are growing up in workless families, the attainment gap for deprived pupils has narrowed, and we have recently seen the largest annual fall in unemployment on record.[1]
But central Government cannot, by itself, end child poverty. Where people live matters. This Government has taken action to give local areas more freedom to do what people want and need locally including by providing local data that helps users identify specific local challenges. Local Authorities are required to have their own local child poverty strategies.
Further information is outlined in the Child Poverty Strategy. Local data is also published in the child poverty basket of indicators.
Child Poverty Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-strategy-2014-to-2017
Child Poverty basket of indicators: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-basket-of-local-indicators
Our strategy is not just focussed on children; Universal Credit will reduce poverty by making work pay and providing an effective route out of poverty.
This Government’s welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities by promoting work and helping people to lift themselves out of poverty.
The Government recognises the immediate pressure on households and has responded with a range of policy interventions including:
· Providing funding for successive Council Tax freezes, saving the average household £1,100 during this Parliament.
· Increasing the National Minimum Wage rate to £6.50 from October 2014, the first real terms increase since 2007.
· The largest ever increases in the income tax personal allowance, to £10,500 by April 2015, will save a typical taxpayer £805 per year compared to 2010, and will lift 3.2 million individuals out of income tax altogether by 2015/16.
[1] Based on Labour Market Statistics published in October 2014. In June-August 2014, there were 538,000 fewer unemployed people compared to a year earlier.
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 steps his Department is taking to reduce child poverty in Bradford.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to our goal of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.
The 2014-17 Child Poverty Strategy outlines our plans to tackle the root causes of poverty, including worklessness, low earnings and educational failure. This approach reflects the reality of child poverty in the UK today and is the only way to achieve lasting change to protect the poorest in society.
Under this Government, 300,000 fewer children are in relative income poverty, around 390,000 fewer children are growing up in workless families, the attainment gap for deprived pupils has narrowed, and we have recently seen the largest annual fall in unemployment on record.[1]
But central Government cannot, by itself, end child poverty. Where people live matters. This Government has taken action to give local areas more freedom to do what people want and need locally including by providing local data that helps users identify specific local challenges. Local Authorities are required to have their own local child poverty strategies.
Further information is outlined in the Child Poverty Strategy. Local data is also published in the child poverty basket of indicators.
Child Poverty Strategy: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-strategy-2014-to-2017
Child Poverty basket of indicators: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-poverty-basket-of-local-indicators
[1] Based on Labour Market Statistics published in October 2014. In June-August 2014, there were 538,000 fewer unemployed people compared to a year earlier.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Freedom of Information requests his Department has declined to answer in full since 2010.
Answered by Steve Webb
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual reports containing statistical information on Freedom of Information requests received by monitored bodies, including central Government Departments. The annual reports for the period 2010 to 2013 and the first two quarters of 2014 can be found at the following web address:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics
These annual reports include statistics on the number of non-routine requests received by this Department since 2010 to 30 June 2014 and include the volumes and proportions which were granted in full or withheld in full.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on legal fees over prevention of release of information requested by Freedom of Information requests since 2010.
Answered by Steve Webb
Legal costs relating to Freedom of Information litigation are not held centrally by the Department. Determining these costs since 2010 would exceed the disproportionate limit.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what subscriptions to (a) magazines and (b) television channels his Department funds.
Answered by Mark Harper - Secretary of State for Transport
(a) Subscriptions to magazines are included within the Department's contracts for journals and newspapers. The Department receives the following titles via these contracts:
.Net
Able Magazine
Adviser
BMJ - British Medical Journal - General Practice Edition - Internet
Bookseller - Internet
Business Transfers and Employee Rights
Butterworths Civil Court Precedents
Civil Service World
Community Care
Common Market Law Review - Print & Internet
Community Care Law Reports
Credit Collections and Risk
Credit Today
Current Law Complete Service A
Daily Express
Daily Mail
Daily Mirror
Daily Star
Daily Telegraph
Disability and Rehabilitation - Full Set - Internet & Print
Disability and Society - Internet
Economist - Internet & Print
Encyclopedia of Data Protection and Privacy - Including CD ROM
Equal Opportunities Review
Equality Law Reports - E-Mail & Internet & Optional Print
EU Public Procurement - Law and Practice
European Journal of Social Security - Internet
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology - Print & Internet
Financial Times
Freedom of Information Journal - E-Mail
Gazette - Law Society London
Guardian
Health and Safety Bulletin
Health Service Journal
Housing Studies - Internet
Housing Theory and Society - Online Archive Incl Current Year - Internet
Human Rights Practice
IDS Pensions Law Reports
In House Lawyer
Independent
Independent on Sunday
Inside Housing
International & United Kingdom Report - Privacy Laws and Business
International Journal of Housing Policy - Internet
Journal of Community Care Law
Journal of Social Security Law
Journal of Welfare Benefits Law and Practice
Judicial Review
Juncture - Internet
Kemp and Kemp - Quantum of Damages
Legal Action - Legal Action Group
Mail on Sunday
Medical Law Reports - Academic - Internet & Print & Bound Volume
Mental Health Law Review
Modern Law Review - Print & Internet
Money Marketing - London
NAPF Pension Legislation Service - including CD ROM
National Institute Economic Review - Internet
New Law Journal
New Statesman
Newsweek
Observer
Occupational Pensions
Oxford Economic Papers – Internet
Pensions Management
Pensions Expert
Pensions World
Private Eye
Professional Pensions - Print & Internet
Public Private Partnership and PFI
Records Management Journal - Print & Internet
Renton and Brown - Criminal Procedure
Renton and Brown - Criminal Procedure Legislation
SEN Magazine
Social Care Law Today
Social Policy and Society & Journal of Social Policy - Print & Internet
Solicitors' Journal
Spectator
Sun
Sun on Sunday
Sunday Express
Sunday Mirror
Sunday People
Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Times
Sweet and Maxwell's Law of Pension Schemes
Time Magazine
Times
Tolley's Pensions Law Service
Tolley's Social Security and State Benefits
Transfer of Undertaking
Vacher's Quarterly
Welfare Rights Bulletin
Work and Stress - Internet
Work Employment and Society - Print & Backfile Lease - Internet
Working Brief - PDF - E-Mail
(b) This information is not centrally collated and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department spent on legal fees in cases relating to the release of information requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Penning
It has not been possible to verify and disaggregate the legal fee spend into each individual year. To do so would require an analysis of each individual file and electronic records and analysing the work undertaken during each year and the costs raised against this work. Verifying and disaggregating the data in this manner would take the costs of responding to the question over the disproportionate cost threshold.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Freedom of Information request made by Frank Zola to his Department on 28 April 2014, on community work placements, when his Department plans to publish the names of the 70 placement providers under the Help to Work scheme; how many current placement providers there are; if he will publish the names of all such organisations providing such placements under the Help to Work scheme in (a) Brighton and Hove local authority area and (b) in the UK; and if he will publish job descriptions for those placements (i) provided to date and (ii) planned to be provided.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The department can confirm that it holds the names of the 70 sub-contractors under the Help to Work scheme as referenced in the Freedom of Information request made by Frank Zola. However, the department cannot disclose their names as the information is intended for publication at a future date.
In terms of names of organisations that are work placement hosts, the department wishes not to disclose the information as we believe that the public balance weighs in favour of witholding the information.