Results 1-20 of 3,611 for speaker:Mark Harper

Business, Innovation and Skills: Topical Questions (12 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: May I ask the Minister for further education about the National Star college, which he will know is in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown) and on whose behalf he has been campaigning assiduously? The college has a national remit to help young disabled people, but its capital programme was not funded. It recognises the tough economic climate that we...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Departmental Manpower (12 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many full-time equivalent officials in her Department process claim forms for (a) disability living allowance, (b) attendance allowance, (c) carer's allowance, (d) incapacity benefit and (e) employment and support allowance; and how many such forms were processed on average each working day for each benefit in each of the last five...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Employment and Support Allowance (12 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of claimants of employment and support allowance had completed their work capability assessment within (a) one and four weeks, (b) five and eight weeks and (c) nine and 13 weeks of the start of their claim on the latest date for which figures are available; what the average waiting time has been for a work...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Social Security Benefits (12 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what estimate she has made of expected (a) on-flows, (b) off-flows and (c) stock claimant numbers for (i) incapacity benefit (credits only), (ii) incapacity benefit (benefits), (iii) severe disablement allowance and (iv) employment and support allowance in the (A) support and (B) work-related activity group in each of the next five...

[Mr. Edward O'Hara in the Chair] — Sex Discrimination (Religious Organisations) (11 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. O'Hara. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (Robert Key) on securing this important debate. It is a not debate about what instructions we should give to the Church of England, but a spirit of inquiry from my hon. Friend, who represents a part of the Church, just to test the matter and have the Minister be clear about...

[Mr. Edward O'Hara in the Chair] — Sex Discrimination (Religious Organisations) (11 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I think that really is the nub of what my hon. Friend is saying—that because the Church of England has said that there is not a specific requirement to be a man in order to become a priest or bishop, the specific exemption in equality law, current sex discrimination law and the Equality Bill is not triggered. For that exemption...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Employment Schemes: Disabled (11 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of the clients who have participated in the (a) Project Search and (b) Getting a Life programmes have achieved sustained employment; what estimate she has made of the average cost to each programme of each such job outcome; and what plans her Department has for the future operation of each such programme.

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Social Security Benefits (11 Nov 2009)

Mark Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate her Department has made of the average unit cost of (a) job broking and (b) benefit processing for (i) incapacity benefit, (ii) employment and support allowance and (c) jobseeker's allowance in each year since 2004-05.

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 31 — relevant services (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: The Minister will not be surprised to know that the amendments in the group have the support of the Opposition. I am pleased that the Government accepted them in the other place and worked closely with Baroness Campbell of Surbiton on co-producing them. The Government have effectively done what we urged them to do when we debated the issue in the Commons. The Minister will know, because he...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 31 — relevant services (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: Yes, I must call them trailblazers. That is an important use of language, because it suggests to those running the schemes that that is how we want things to happen—it is important to recognise that there is cross-party support for the initiative. The trailblazers are being introduced to work out how best to do that; they are not pilot schemes that may or may not be successful. For...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Report on operation of travel authorisation amendments (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: I will be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to discuss Lords amendment 50 in relation to the travel authorisation provisions. I welcome the amendment from the Government. It follows a similar amendment that was tabled by my noble Friends, Lord Freud and Lord Taylor, on Report. There was a good debate on that occasion, in which Ministers made a commitment to return with a Government...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 25 — Contracting out functions under Jobseekers Act 1995 (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: The Minister will know from reading the report of the debate in Committee that we were very supportive of the Government's proposals in this area and agreed that this is a significant problem. The Minister outlined the numbers—350,000 people on out-of-work benefits who are problem drug users for whom that is a barrier to moving into work. That is clearly a problem that people expect us...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 1 — Social security (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: I do not want there to be any lack of clarity. I understand why the Government needed an amendment. The Social Security Administration Act 1992 gives the Minister the power to lay an order only if there has been a general increase in prices. For the Minister to lay an order in the first place, there has to have been an increase, so if inflation is negative he does not have the power. The...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 1 — Social security (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: I was distinguishing between the pension increase, which, as the Government have lately set out, will be 2.5 per cent., which we welcome, and other social security benefits. They have been silent about how much social security benefits might be increased by if they use the same power. I wanted the Minister to lay out the sorts of things that they would take into account. Of course he will not...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 1 — Social security (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: For the avoidance of doubt, will the Minister confirm that what his predecessor, the right hon. Member for Harrow, East (Mr. McNulty), told the House when he made the benefits uprating statement in December 2008—that the power to uprate the basic state pension by at least 2.5 per cent., even if inflation was zero, was in the Pensions Act 2008—is not correct?

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 1 — Social security (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: I will not outline our excellent policies in great detail, because that would be straying away from the amendments, but the hon. Gentleman will know the impressive proposals that we have published in our work programme, such as getting people back to work and investing the savings that result. I am therefore confident that within the budgets that we have available, we will be able to fund...

Welfare Reform Bill (Programme) (No. 2): Clause 1 — Social security (10 Nov 2009) has video

Mark Harper: As the Minister said, this is a miscellaneous group of amendments—and I shall speak to a few of them. Lords amendments 1 and 24 deal with pilots. I agree with the Minister that the need for those pilots has been superseded by a change in legislation, but I want to press him in one area that may provide a lesson on how Ministers conduct pilots in future. The pilots were originally...