Phil Woolas: The right hon. Gentleman may have had time to read the Law Commission report on the reform of ombudsmen. Will he tell the House his view of the MP filter, whereby referrals are made to the parliamentary ombudsman only through Members of Parliament? Does he support that situation?
Phil Woolas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 26 May 2010, Official Report, columns 51-52WS, on Equitable Life, what progress he has made on his plans to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policyholders, through an independently designed payment scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Phil Woolas: I sincerely welcome the hon. Gentleman to the Dispatch Box, and I wish him all the best in a very difficult job. In the light of the Minister's answer about the backlog, I was pleased to see recognition of the UK Border Agency's success but will he confirm the reasons behind the answer to the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart), at column 143W, on 22 June, about the...
Phil Woolas: The House would not want to be left with the suspicion that the Deputy Prime Minister says one thing to one group and quite another thing to another group. Will the Leader of the House ask the right hon. Gentleman if he will report to the House on his meeting, due to take place tomorrow, with Sheffield Forgemasters? This is an issue not just for Sheffield-important though it is there-but for...
Phil Woolas: I ask the right hon. Gentleman to look again at his decision on Sheffield Forgemasters. That £80 million, which is spread over some years, is in the form of a loan and has a huge multiplier effect for the nuclear industry, particularly in the north-west. Is he trying to make sure that if the expansion of the nuclear industry takes place, which I hope it does, the infrastructure for it will...
Phil Woolas: In opposition, the Leader of the House was always a supporter of enhanced post-legislative scrutiny and, in particular, of finding time for debates on Law Commission reports. Can he update the House on what plans he has in that respect, and does he think that there is too much legislation or too little?
Phil Woolas: The total monetary value of payments made by the Home Department to external IT contractors for each of the financial years 2005-06 to 2008-09 was as follows: Payments made to IT suppliers: Home Department including UKBA Financial year £ million 2005-06 150 2006-07 223 2007-08 336 2008-09 265 Note: Following their incorporation into the Ministry of Justice in...
Phil Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Phil Woolas: holding answer 30 March 2010 The Identity and Passport Service is not able to provide a breakdown of applications received to this level of postcode detail without contravening data protection principles.
Phil Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Phil Woolas: The information requested could be obtained by undertaking a detailed examination of individual records which would be only at disproportionate cost. Detainees are not routinely moved between centres without an operational reason. This is normally to ensure occupancy levels of the bed space is maximised, to re-position detainees close to airports in preparation for their removal from the UK,...
Phil Woolas: The delay in responding to my hon. Friend's letter was due to an internal organisational re-structuring which impacted temporarily on work allocation and, as a result, certain items of work were not actioned within the appropriate time scales.
Phil Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Phil Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Phil Woolas: It has not proved possible to respond in the time available before Prorogation.
Phil Woolas: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 6 April 2010, Official Report, column 1268W.
Phil Woolas: The Agency is unable to accurately report on the outstanding asylum cases being dealt with by the Case Resolution Directorate (CRD). As reported in February 2010 to the Home Affairs Select Committee, 52 per cent. of the concluded cases were data errors and required no further action. Therefore, any such report would be unable to accurately represent CRD cases with outstanding applications.
Phil Woolas: The Home Office has adjusted the transformers in its headquarters in 2 Marsham street to tap down the voltage levels thereby reducing energy consumption. The Border Agency building Vulcan house in Sheffield has highly efficient inductive lighting and inductive motor loads so voltage optimisation would be of little or no value. The Home Office, working with the Carbon Trust, has also...
Phil Woolas: With reference to the answer of 12 November 2009, Official Report, columns 937-8W, on departmental telephone services, the answer as to whether executive agencies of the Home Department let contracts for the provision of services relating to the helplines is as follows: (a) following procurement competition the operation of the Identity and Passport Service's helplines are contracted to...
Phil Woolas: holding answer 25 March 2010 Translation services specific to Ribble Valley, Lancashire and England can be extracted only at disproportionate cost from the overall Home Office expenditure data provided in the background to the question.