House of Lords
Parliament

Labour peer Lord Harris of Haringey asks how much people are charged when applying for a UK visa from outside the country via telephone or email.

Home Office Minister Baroness Manzoor says there is a chargable call rate of £1.37 per minute and a £5.48 email charge.

She adds that it is "not possible" to say how how much money has been collected by the service since 2017.

Branding the costs "absurd", Lord Harris asks where the liability lies in the event of bad advice being given on this matter.

Baroness Manzoor says the government believes those who use the immigration system should contribute to running costs, along with general taxation.

Liberal Peer Baroness Hamwee asks for the difference in the cost to collect this visa and immigration information, and the amount that is charged for the service.

The minister says she cannot provide figures, but says the new system provides "a streamlined service for customers."

Conservative peer Lord Geddes says applicants should be able to apply for UK visas via FaceTime, "saving them from any cost at all".

The minister says "it is an excellent idea, but I do not know how to respond".

Select Committee
Parliament

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Conservative MP Nigel Mills asks what the "biggest challenges" are with managed migration of claimants onto Universal Credit.

Work and Pensions Minister Alok Sharma replies that there is a "need to get this right" for claimants that are vulnerable, and he wants to make sure "systems and processes work".

Mr Mills says Alok Sharma's head is on the "ministerial block". He asks if there aspects of the migration the minister considers a risk.

Alok Sharma says the department needs to do testing and then learn and adapt. He tells the committee the department will "take the stakeholders with us" before "get to any kind of volume".

He adds there will be an independent review of the work "before we push forward".

House of Commons
Parliament

Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom is now delivering the business statement.

Next week will see the remaining stages of the Offensive Weapons Bill debated on Monday, and the remaining stages of the Civil Liability Bill [Lords] on Tuesday.

MPs will consider all stages of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Bill on Wednesday.

Two general debates will take place on Thursday, with private members bills considered on Friday.

The following Monday the Budget statement will be delivered, with debates taking place on the Budget for the rest of that week. She also announces dates for the February recess.

She adds that the Restoration and Renewal Bill, which concerns the restoration of parliament, has been published in draft today.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Labour peer Baroness Quin asks the first question, which is on the regional economic effects of Brexit.

In response, Minister for International Development Lord Bates says it would not be "practical or appropriate at this stage to analyse how the government will finalise the Brexit deal".

Baroness Quin asks for an assurance that final impact assessments will be available to both parliamentarians and the public so "the full consequences can be taken into account".

Lord Bates says pledges that there will be an "appropriate level of analysis" before a "meaningful vote" on the final deal with the EU.

He adds that employment in the North East of England is falling, and "will continue to fall" after Brexit.

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SNP spokesman David Linden says that this was allowed to happen should be "absolutely shocking," but actually it's not.

He says he and other MPs see the "ineptitude" of the Department of Work and Pensions "every single week".

He criticises the minister for praising "good housekeeping" within the department for dealing with a "catastrophic error".

Sarah Newton says the department is working to "strengthen procedures" to make sure it doesn't happen again, with "much deeper" opportunities for stakeholders to raise concerns.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Mike Penning, who was a minister in the department "for part of the time when the migration was taking place", apologises and says "in all governments, mistakes happen...it's how we handle this."

He asks for an assurance that there are necessary compensation payments, "because there would be people that have suffered."

Work and Pensions Minister Sarah Newton says her "absolute focus...is to fix the problem as soon as possible".

Select Committee
Parliament

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The benefits theme to business this morning continues at the Work and Pensions Committee, which is hearing evidence from pensions minister Alok Sharma on the rollout of universal credit.

They will also question the senior official responsible for the programme.

The new benefits system will merge six working-age benefits into one payment.

The benefit is being rolled out across the UK but concerns are being raised that 3.2m working families will lose £48 a week, about £2,500 a year, compared with the old system.

Leaked documents seen by the BBC reveal plans to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to prevent claimants suffering hardship as they move onto it.

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow pensions minister Marsha de Cordova says it has taken the government six years to acknowledge its mistakes.

She says it raises concerns about the migration of people onto Universal Credit (UC), and asks for an apology to disabled people, who have been "denied this vital social security support."

Work and Pensions Minister Sarah Newton says she has already apologised, adding: "it should not have happened."

She says a "very paternalistic approach" was taken when moving people onto ESA.

She adds however that people missed out on additional support rather than having "anything taken away from them".

She claims that the errors were spotted thanks to "good house-keeping" at the Department for Work and Pensions, adding that lessons will be learned for migrating people onto UC.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Work and Pensions Minister Sarah Newton says ministers realise how import it is to fix the matter "as quickly as possible".

Ms Newton says the department expects to review around 320,000 cases, of which around 105,000 are likely to be due backpayments.

She adds a team of 400 staff are working on these cases.

She tell MPs the department expects to review the "vast majority" of cases by April 2019 and has completed all cases where the individual is terminally ill and has responded to the review.

Sarah Newton says an additional 400 members of staff will join the team through this month and next to enable the department to "complete this very important task at pace".

MPs are now debating yesterday's news that tens of thousands of people on sickness benefits will receive backdated payments averaging £5,000 following government errors.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has revealed it is paying more than £1.5bn due to the mistakes.

Some people have already received payouts of more than £10,000.

The mistaken calculations were made when people were moved on to the main sickness benefit, the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

The errors were first revealed by BBC News in November, but the scale of the underpayments has now emerged.

House of Commons
Parliament

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The SNP's Alan Brown asks Labour MP Bridget Phillipson, who is representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, about the potential merits of increasing fines for breaches of electoral rules.

Ms Phillipson says there is ongoing dialogue with the constitution minister on the matter and "has raised the issue about the ability to raise the cap on proportionate fines."

She adds that they would like to see the maximum fine increased to a level "that provides a genuine deterrent."

She warns that the commission has repeatedly warned that a £20,000 cap on fines means well-funded campaigns could see it as as "cost of doing business".

She says the government has said they would "carefully consider recommendations" on digital campaigning, but the commission continues to appeal for more powers.

House of Commons
Parliament

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The first question to commissioners is on the purchase of the Wonga loan book.

Second Church Estates Commissioner Caroline Spelman says the Archbishop of Canterbury has been in discussions about how to "minimise the potential harm" to former Wonga customers who cannot pay back their loans.

She adds that she is hopeful that "best practice debt collection" will be applied.

House of Lords
Parliament

Today's sitting begins with oral questions, including one on the regional effects of Brexit and another on charges for visa applications made by phone or email from outside the UK.

After this, crossbench peer Viscount Waverley will introduce a debate on the scale and complexity of cyber threats facing the UK.

This will be followed by a debate led by Conservative peer Lord Black of Brentwood on the state of music education in schools.

An oral question on this topic earlier in the week resulted in a heated discussion on the strengths and weakness of the controversial English Baccalaureate.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Lib Dem Alistair Carmichael says environment secretary Michael Gove has previously said that the government will be negotiating fishing opportunities as an "independent state" by December 2020.

He asks, given the comments from the prime minister and cabinet secretary this morning - which suggest the Brexit transition period could be extended, how confident is Mr Gove that this will still be the case.

"Invincibly so", the environment secretary replies.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Conservative MP Alex Chalk asks when a plastic bottle deposit scheme will be announced.

Therese Coffey says it will not be a straightforward scheme to introduce, explaining that "the front end is very simple, it's the back end that is more challenging".

The government, she adds, wants to create a system that works across the United Kingdom.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour's Roberta Blackman Woods says the National Audit Office has criticised the export of plastic waste abroad, adding that China says it will no longer take this waste from the UK.

Environment Minister Therese Coffey says other countries have taken on China's role, but adds that "we do want to see more recycled in UK".

Shadow environment minister Luke Pollard says the amount of plastic going into oceans is a "scandal". He asks when there will be legislation matching ministers' "warm words on the issue."

Ms Coffey says 80% of plastic of the plastic that goes into UK waters is land-based rubbish and the government is trying to change that.

She adds that this will be addressed in the environment bill introduced in the next parliamentary session.

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Labour MP Mary Creagh, asks what recent steps have been taken to increase the level of recycling.

Minister Therese Coffey says recycling has been increasing since 2010, but "we need to do more and we'll be publishing our Resources and Waste Strategy shortly."

"Fashion shouldn't cost the earth," says Mary Creagh, but points out that "300,000 tonnes of garments are disposed into landfill each year".

She calls for something to be done to force clothing producers to take this into account.

The minister says the government is aware of the issue and is working with the Ellen MacArthur foundation to find a solution.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Questions to environment ministers kicks off, with SNP MP David Linden asking how food and drink standards will be maintained after the UK has left the EU.

Minister David Rutley says the department is working with Foods Standards Authority (FSA) to ensure food and drink standards remain "robust".

Mr Linden raises the issue of border checks in the event of no deal being reached with the EU.

Mr Rutley says there is a "high degree of readiness" within the environment department for that scenario.

Labour MP Meg Hillier says businesses are concerned that they don't know what to do to prepare for Brexit.

Mr Rutley says the government has sent out technical notices and is working to "improve awareness" among businesses.

House of Commons
Parliament

The Commons begins today with questions to environment ministers.

After this MPs will put questions to Church Commissioners, the House of Commons and Public Accounts Commissions, and the Committee on the Electoral Commission.

After that, there's an urgent question on the news yesterday that the government will pay £1.5bn to correct underpayments of employment and support allowance (ESA).

There will then be two backbench business debates: one on ending exploitation in supermarket supply chains and another to mark World Menopause Day.

Tory MP Crispin Blunt leads the adjournment debate, on rail services to Redhill, Reigate and District.

Ministers suggest MPs will have a straight choice between whatever deal is on the table and no deal.