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  • David Mowat – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    David Mowat – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mowat on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Attorney General, what steps the CPS is taking to improve the conviction rate for hate crimes involving disabled people.

    Robert Buckland

    The CPS treats all allegations of hate crime, including those involving disabled people, extremely seriously and continues to place priority on this work. Legal guidance on disability hate crime was refreshed in 2015 and a supporting training package was delivered to all CPS lawyers by January 2016. This equips prosecutors with up to date knowledge to inform their decision making and approach to building the strongest cases possible. In addition, a National Scrutiny Panel on disability is assisting with the development of further refinements to policy guidance on crimes against disabled people and the preparation of a joint CPS/Police/HMCTS statement concerning support to disabled victims of crime.

  • Gerald Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Gerald Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gerald Jones on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Attorney General, what recent discussions he has had with his Cabinet colleagues on the UK’s domestic and international human rights obligations.

    Jeremy Wright

    I meet regularly with Ministerial colleagues to discuss important issues of common interest, including on domestic and international human rights law. I am not able to talk about any legal content of those discussions because, by convention, whether the Law Officers have given advice or not is not disclosed outside Government.

  • Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31332, if he will estimate the cost of collecting information on the nationality of offenders referred to the court.

    Robert Buckland

    The nationality of offenders referred to the court is not collated centrally.

    The Ministry of Justice hold data on foreign nationals held in prisons in England and Wales and publish statistics quarterly. The data does not include those offenders who receive non-custodial sentences.

    To obtain even the limited data which is held would require the consideration of the files in all cases over the past three years where the Court of Appeal increased a sentence of imprisonment previously imposed to ascertain if they contained sufficient information for the data to be requested from the Ministry of Justice.

    The process that would have to be undertaken would incur costs above the current disproportionate cost threshold and would in any event only provide the nationality for a limited number of offenders referred to the court.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he was made aware of the decision by Air Products to exit its energy-from-waste business.

    Anna Soubry

    The Government engages with Air Products in relation to their Tees Valley energy-from-waste plant at both Official and Ministerial level. My Department was first made aware of this decision on 4th April and will be working with the Local Enterprise Partnership to explore the impacts of this announcement.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what support has been provided by the Government for the growth of the energy-from-waste industry.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government has provided a range of support for energy from waste technologies through the Renewables Obligation (RO), the Renewable Incentive (RHI), the Feed-In Tariff and the Contracts for Difference (CfD). The technologies supported include: Landfill Gas, Sewage Gas, Energy from Waste with CHP, Anaerobic Digestion and Advanced Conversion Technologies.

    As of the end of 2015, our support has brought forward just over 2.4 GWh of capacity in these technologies, delivering just under 9.4TWh of renewable electricity.

    The Green Investment Bank (GIB) has provided support to 20 projects using energy from waste technologies. Direct commitments by the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to date total £334m with additional indirect commitments of £130m to Foresight Group LLP through the Foresight-managed Recycling and Waste LP (RAW) fund, in which GIB is a cornerstone investor, and Greensphere Capital LLP which manages the UK Green and Sustainable Waste and Energy Investment Limited Partnership (UKGSWEI) fund on behalf of the GIB.

  • Iain Stewart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Iain Stewart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Iain Stewart on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the fund to increase the number of degree apprenticeships that he announced on 24 March 2016 will also apply to masters-level apprenticeships.

    Nick Boles

    The fund to increase the number of degree apprenticeships announced on 24 March 2016 applies to developing degree apprenticeships at both level 6 (bachelor’s) and level 7 (master’s).

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will amend the remit of the taskforce created to respond to the closure of SSI in Redcar to include the Teesside economy as a whole.

    Anna Soubry

    Where there are redundancies within the Tees Valley, the Government will work with local partners, including the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the Local Enterprise Partnership and the SSI Task Force to determine how support can be most effectively targeted to affected individuals. The SSI Task Force is already supporting the Tees Valley economy more broadly, for example through the £16m Support for Businesses Schemes, which the Task Force reports has created 186 jobs, safeguarded 326 jobs and committed £4.1m funding, attracting £6m in private sector match.

  • Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the National Living Wage on (a) costs to businesses and (b) employee pay.

    Nick Boles

    The Government’s Impact Assessment for the introduction of the National Living Wage estimates the total cost to businesses at around £1.1 billion, consisting of direct wage costs, associated non-wage labour costs, maintaining pay differentials and transition costs.

    Direct costs to employers contribute just under £700 million to the total cost to raise employees’ wages to the initial rate of £7.20. This will be a direct benefit to employees from receiving higher wages.

    On current OBR forecasts, a full-time National Minimum Wage worker will earn over £4,200 more by 2020 from the National Living Wage in cash terms.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs attributable to the arms export industry in 2014.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not hold this information.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of young people from Dartford who went to university in the last five years.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publishes data on the entry rates for full-time undergraduate courses by parliamentary constituency. UCAS does not publish data on the number of entrants by parliamentary constituency, only entry rates.

    Latest statistics from the 2015 UCAS End of Cycle Report for the Dartford constituency are provided in the table. The entry rate is given as the proportion of 18 year olds that accepted a place during a UCAS application cycle.

    Table: Higher Education entry rates for 18 year olds from the Dartford Constituency

    2011/12

    2012/13

    2013/14

    2014/15

    2015/16

    28.6%

    23.2%

    29.9%

    27.3%

    32.5%

    “