Author: admin

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2016-03-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the new Cabinet Office guidelines that no government grants may be used to lobby for new regulation or more government funding would preclude Historic England from carrying out its statutory function as an adviser on the historic environment.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The new clause will not prevent recipients from performing activities that are part of the intended purpose of the grant. It makes sure that taxpayers’ money is not diverted from their intended purpose and wasted on political campaigning and political lobbying.
As indicated at the House of Lords Science Technology Committee, BIS and Cabinet Office are looking into how this new clause will apply to academic research.

01/01/2023
Baroness Kramer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kramer on 2016-03-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they expect to have balanced the structural deficit excluding capital expenditure.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The measure of the structural deficit that excludes capital is the ‘Cyclically-adjusted current budget’ (CACB). According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s November 2015 ‘Economic and fiscal outlook’, the CACB is forecast to reach a surplus by 2017-18 of 0.5 per cent of GDP.

01/01/2023
Lord Tebbit – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tebbit on 2016-03-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any (1) minister, (2) official, or (3) ministerial special adviser, have played any part in the drafting of letters subsequently signed by retired military officers or business people and published in national newspapers in the last year.

Lord Bridges of Headley

In carrying out government business, Ministers, officials and special advisers must abide by their respective Codes of Conduct.

01/01/2023
Lord Tebbit – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Tebbit on 2016-03-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any (1) minister, (2) official, or (3) ministerial special adviser, importuned any persons to sign letters concerning the European Referendum or the consequences of a national vote for leaving the EU in national newspapers; and if so, (a) how many were importuned, (b) how many signed, and (c) how many declined to do so.

Lord Bridges of Headley

I refer the Noble Lord to the Prime Minister’s oral response to the Hon Member for Mid Bedfordshire on 22 February 2016: Column 32.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will publish the impact assessment carried out by his Department’s board on the closure of St Paul’s Place, Sheffield; and what account his Department took of the diversity implications of that closure.

Joseph Johnson

The Department will shortly be publishing an Equality Impact Assessment on the proposal to close the office at St Paul’s Place, Sheffield, which will include an assessment of the diversity implications.

01/01/2023

Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department spent on salaries for (a) senior Civil Servants and (b) all other grades at (i) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield and (ii) 1 Victoria Street, London in (A) 2014-15 and (B) 2015-16 to date.

Joseph Johnson

The following tables show the basic salaries and allowances paid to Senior Civil Servants in:

2014-15

(i) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield	(ii) 1 Victoria Street, London
£587,842	£15,087,650

2015-16 to date

(i) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield	(ii) 1 Victoria Street, London
£436,059	£15,548,049

The following tables show the basic salaries and allowances paid to all other grades in:

2014-15

Grade	(i) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield	(ii) 1 Victoria Street, London
Grade 6	£861,385	£16,330,679
Grade 7	£3,448,242	£28,394,098
SEO	£2,134,433	£9,445,839
Faststream	The numbers in this grade and location would make it possible to identify personal information of individual employees. These costs have therefore not been included	£2,653,996
HEO	£1,823,162	£11,031,962
EO	£699,586	£6,365,262
AO	The numbers in this grade and location would make it possible to identify personal information of individual employees. These costs have therefore not been included	£2,045,520
AA	There are no AA grade staff based in St Paul’s Place	£197,447

2015-16 to date

Grade	(i) St Paul’s Place, Sheffield	(ii) 1 Victoria Street, London
Grade 6	£1,161,328	£16,419,099
Grade 7	£3,448,283	£28,186,571
SEO	£2,372,398	£9,529,413
Faststream	The numbers in this grade and location would make it possible to identify personal information of individual employees. These costs have therefore not been included	£2,538,015
HEO	£1,747,746	£11,194,382
EO	£769,613	£6,237,211
AO	The numbers in this grade and location would make it possible to identify personal information of individual employees. These costs have therefore not been included	£1,973,589
AA	There are no AA grade staff based in St Paul’s Place	The numbers in this grade and location would make it possible to identify personal information of individual employees. These costs have therefore not been included

01/01/2023

Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that companies with more than 250 employees pay their suppliers in a timely manner.

Anna Soubry

The Government recognises that late payment remains an important issue for small businesses in the UK and is taking significant steps to assist small businesses to recover late payment debts. This is part of a package of measures to tackle late payment. We have also legislated for new transparency measures in the private sector.

The Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 legislated for a new reporting requirement on the UK’s largest companies and Regulations which will be introduced this year. This will compel larger companies to report on payment practices and performance. This information will be published on a six-monthly basis and will be made publicly available.

Through the Enterprise Bill, currently before Parliament, we will legislate to establish a Small Business Commissioner to give general advice and to help small businesses resolve disputes relating to payment matters with larger businesses.

Tackling late payment is about creating a responsible payment culture where larger companies recognise the benefit of having a sustainable and robust supply chain, and smaller businesses feel able to challenge poor behaviour. Once implemented, the Government is confident that these measures will lead to significant changes in the UK’s payment culture.

01/01/2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March to Question 28299, on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, if he will estimate the cost to his Department of each of the 12 rounds of negotiations; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry

The European Commission conducts trade negotiations – including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – on behalf of the EU and, where appropriate, Member States. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not therefore incur the direct costs of the TTIP negotiating rounds.

It is rare that travel undertaken by Ministers and officials relates solely to TTIP, but will usually encompass other issues. Officials within the Transatlantic and International Unit in my Department have the lead policy responsibility for TTIP as well as certain other international matters. The total travel expenditure by these officials in 2014/15 was £25,081, in 2015/16 £14,269.

The cost to the Department of any travel undertaken in relation to TTIP is greatly offset by the economic prize that an ambitious agreement offers. Independent analysis shows that a comprehensive TTIP agreement could give an annual boost to the UK economy of as much as £10 billion each year.

01/01/2023

Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much the Government has invested into research and development of future car technologies in each of the last three years.

Anna Soubry

The Government is fully committed to the continuing success of the automotive sector and supports the development of future car technologies through a variety of mechanisms depending on the technology and stage of development. The most significant sources of funding are set out in the following table:

	13/14	14/15	15/16
BIS (incl. Innovate UK & Advanced Propulsion Centre)	10	40.5	27.7
Office for Low Emission Vehicles	17.5	8.9	10.5
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (BIS, DfT & HMT)		15.75	23.75
Total (£M)	27.5	65.15	61.95

In addition the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has invested £127M in research relevant to the automotive sector since FY 13/14.

In the last Spending Review my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed Government funding for the Advanced Propulsion Centre out to 2023 and announced additional support for automotive R&D of £225m from 2023 to 2026.

01/01/2023

David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress his Department has made in encouraging private companies to create or expand their apprenticeships programmes.

Nick Boles

There have been over 2.4 million apprenticeship starts over the previous parliament, and 153,100 between August and October 2015, demonstrating the continued expansion of the apprenticeships programme.

We are taking action to support and encourage the growth of apprenticeships in all sectors to meet our commitment to reaching 3 million starts by 2020. The UK-wide levy will be introduced in April 2017 for all employers in public and private sector with a pay bill of £3m or more, to help fund the increase in quantity and quality of apprenticeship training in England. All employers that hire apprentices will benefit from the levy.

Our apprenticeship reforms are giving employers the opportunity to create new apprenticeship standards. More than 1300 employers are involved with 204 new standards published (of which over 60 are Higher and Degree Apprenticeships) and more than 150 are in development. So far there have been over 1,000 starts on the new standards.

We are continuing to support small employers to hire apprentices through the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE), which provides eligible employers with a £1,500 grant per apprentice (aged 16 to 24) for up to five new apprentices currently. The AGE will continue to operate until the apprenticeships levy is introduced in April 2017. From April 2016, all employers will not be required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under age of 25 on earnings up to the upper earnings limit.

01/01/2023