The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-03-22.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 15 March (HL6859), whether the number of Home Office officials seconded to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit in Paris will increase.
Lord Keen of Elie
The case for seconding UK experts to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit is under review.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department’s agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.
Robert Buckland
Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. This would include some senior civil servants, such as ambassadors and chargés d’affaires. The Government’s view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed. The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.
The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. The Treasury regularly raises these issues with financial institutions and the regulator, and encourages financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the number of jobs supported by the Scotch whisky industry.
George Eustice
The Scotch whisky industry estimates that 10,800 people are directly employed in the industry in Scotland and the sector supports more than 40,000 jobs in total across the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Principle G of the Cabinet Office Consultation Principles 2016, what steps he took to (a) consider how the summer holiday period would affect consultation with stakeholders and (b) mitigate such effects when deciding on the consultation period on proposals relating to exit payments in the public sector.
Greg Hands
The consultation on a public sector exit payment cap ran from 31 July to 27 August 2015. These dates ensured that the consultation concluded in advance of the Enterprise Bill’s introduction on 16 September 2015, to inform the content of the ‘public sector employment: restrictions on exit payments’ clause.
In addition, this policy was a clear manifesto commitment made in April 2015 and the intention to legislate was announced in May. The Government also considered responses received after the official consultation deadline.
The consultation received over 4000 responses, which is a good indication that there was sufficient time to comment and demonstrates that stakeholders were able to effectively engage with the proposals. The measure has also undergone full Parliamentary scrutiny during the passage of the Enterprise Bill.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department owed in late payments to small and medium-sized enterprises in each year for which data is available.
Anna Soubry
When making payments, the core Department does not differentiate between small, medium and large enterprises as many small and medium sized businesses can be found at various tiers of the procurement chain.
The Department takes prompt payment very seriously and records show that in the current financial year to the end of February 2016, 96.4% of all valid invoices (by volume) were paid within 5 working days. When looking at the overall value, this equates to 99.8% paid within 5 working days and 99.99% of invoices were paid within the 30 day standard contractual terms.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much central government infrastructure investment was in each region of the UK since 2010.
Greg Hands
Historic data for regional infrastructure investment by government is not currently available. However historical capital expenditure figures including government’s infrastructure investment can be obtained from the following link :
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2015
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the claims relating to national minimum wage have fallen under section 2 of the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 since their entry into force.
Nick Boles
No estimate has been made of the number of National Minimum Wage claims falling under section 2 of the Deduction from Wages (Limitation) Regulations 2014 since they came into force.
The Regulations introduced a two year limit on claims for unlawful deductions made to an Employment Tribunal, including claims for the National Minimum Wage. Alternative options remain for workers who are concerned that they have been underpaid the National Minimum Wage over a longer time period. This includes making a complaint to HMRC, who can investigate and issue a Notice of Underpayment on the worker’s behalf, going back up to six years. Claims can also be brought to the county court for breach of contract, where arrears can be claimed going back six years (five years in Scotland).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Johnson on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when the Government plans to implement its policy of providing three days’ paid volunteering leave for employees of large organisations.
Nick Boles
The Government will be setting out plans for taking this policy forward in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2016 to Question 30689, when his Department plans to publish the declaration of actual or potential conflicts of interest made by Paul Newby for the role of Pubs Code Adjudicator.
Anna Soubry
The appointment panel satisfied itself there were no conflicts of interest when they made recommendations to ministers in relation to the appointment of the Pubs Code Adjudicator.
The Department does not intend to publish any information provided by candidates during this appointment process.
In due course and as is usual practice, the Adjudicator’s office will publish a register of interests.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-03-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2016 to Question 30698, whether the person appointed as Pubs Code Adjudicator was the recommended choice of the panel.
Anna Soubry
In line with the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies, at the end of the process the Minister is given a choice of candidates assessed by the interview panel as appointable. Mr Newby was assessed as appointable by the panel,