Category: Speeches

  • Antoinette Sandbach – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Antoinette Sandbach – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Antoinette Sandbach on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) homes and (b) businesses that will need to be demolished in Eddisbury constituency to construct phase two of the High Speed 2 line.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Further work is needed on the remainder of the Phase Two route and stations before a final route decision can be taken. The Government intends to make this decision in autumn 2016. At that point the Department will consult on its safeguarding directions which are designed to ensure that land which has been identified for HS2 is protected from conflicting developments. We will then be in a position to provide a robust estimate of the potential impact on homes and businesses along the line of route.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2016 to Question 21704, whether spending by the EU on campaigning during the referendum campaign will be subject to those spending limit rules.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    As international governmental bodies, the spending limits set out in the European Union Referendum Act 2015 do not apply to EU institutions.

    The Electoral Commission has made clear its view that all EU institutions should nevertheless adhere to the same restrictions on the publication of promotional material that apply to governments and publicly funded bodies across the UK in the 28 days before polling day for the referendum. In addition, EU institutions should not, for example, undertake any paid-for advertising activity during the whole referendum period.

    The Minister for Europe has deposited in the library of the House of Commons a copy of correspondence with the Director General of the European Commission which says that the European Commission will not take an active part in the referendum and the related campaigns.

    Once the rules for the EU referendum have been commenced, referendum campaigners are only able to lawfully accept donations over £500 from certain ‘permissible’ sources. The permissibility rules provide that funding can only be accepted by referendum campaigners from certain sources connected to the UK, and, in the case of the EU referendum, Gibraltar. There are also rules and offences related to using permissible donors as agents to circumvent the rules.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the nature and quantity was of the nuclear materials released in terms of (a) its physical state, (b) its mass quantity, (c) the release fraction assumed for each transportation package and (d) the total released radioactivity in Becquerels for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

    I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been transferred from the UK to other EU countries under Articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Dublin III Regulation (a) in total and (b) for the purposes of family reunification in the last 12 months.

    James Brokenshire

    Records indicate that in 2015 there were no transfers from the UK to other EU countries under articles 9, 10 or 11 or for the purposes of family re-unification.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of e-cigarette users who have (a) resumed smoking and (b) purchased vaping supplies from black market sources.

    Jane Ellison

    The best thing a smoker can do to improve their health is to quit smoking for good.

    The Department recognises that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) can help smokers quit and the evidence indicates that they are considerably less harmful to health than cigarettes.

    This Government has committed to publishing a new tobacco control plan to further reduce the prevalence of smoking in England. The development of this plan is underway and will be published later this year. The new strategy will consider the role of e-cigarettes in further reducing the prevalence of smoking in England. To help inform this element of the strategy the Department has been engaging with e-cigarette experts to ensure that local authorities and Stop Smoking Services are provided with up to date, evidenced based advice on e-cigarettes.

    Whilst the Department has not made a formal assessment of the number of e-cigarette users who have resumed smoking, the evidence suggests that in the short-term, relapse rates are lower in those using e-cigarettes to quit.

    The Department has not made an assessment of the number of e-cigarette users who have purchased vaping supplies from black market sources.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that UK corporate tax rules do not incentivise companies to avoid tax in developing countries.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government is committed to making sure multinational enterprises pay their share of tax. The UK has been at the forefront of multilateral action through the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to reform the international tax rules.

    We used our Presidency of the G8 in 2013 to successfully initiate the G20-OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The final recommendations were published by the OECD in October 2015, and endorsed by the G20 leaders in November 2015.

    The BEPS project represents major and unprecedented efforts. The international project involved over 60 countries, including developing countries, to work together on an equal footing to better align the taxation of profits with economic activity and value creation.

    The UK has been a leader on implementing the BEPS outputs – we have adopted the OECD country-by-country reporting template; and, at Budget 2016, the UK announced that it would be the first country to act on the OECD recommended rules on interest deductibility.

    The UK will continue to participate in international efforts to address BEPS by participating in the OECD’s inclusive framework to monitor implementation, which also involves developing countries, and in work to develop toolkits to assist developing countries implementing the BEPS outcomes.

  • Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-06-29.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are taking to ensure widespread access to reasonably priced accommodation for students in London and other metropoles.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Government recognises the need for a diverse housing stock, providing students with a choice of accommodation to suit their individual needs. Our national planning guidance encourages local authorities to plan for sufficient student accommodation whether it consists of communal halls of residence or self-contained dwellings, and whether or not it is on campus.

    The key to improving affordability is to build more homes. We are working to increase supply by accelerating the development of a new market for private renters, including our £1 billion build to rent fund and the £3.5 billion private rented sector debt guarantee scheme.

  • Lord Bradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Bradley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradley on 2016-09-08.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which (1) NHS Foundation Trusts, and (2) NHS Trusts, have an accumulated surplus of (a) up to £1 million, (b) £1–5 million, (c) £5–10 million, (d) £10–20 million, (e) £20–30 million, (f) £30–50 million, and (g) over £50 million.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    ‘Accumulated surplus’ has been interpreted to mean the closing balance of a trust’s retained earnings reserve at 31 March 2016. This represents the accumulated balance of annual surpluses and deficits, adjusted for any amounts offset against other reserves, such as the revaluation reserve. As this is an accumulated balance, it will differ from the annual surplus or deficit reported in the trust’s Statement of Comprehensive Income, which forms part of figures published for the provider sector by NHS Improvement.

    Trusts with accumulated surpluses in the bands specified are detailed in the attached document.

    All other trusts reported an accumulated deficit overall at 31 March 2016.

  • Lord Oates – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Oates – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Oates on 2015-11-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to ensure equality of treatment for mental and physical illness.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    We have put into legislation through the Health and Social Care Act 2012 that mental health should have equal priority to physical health. We have also committed NHS England through the NHS Mandate to achieve parity of esteem between mental and physical health.

    We are implementing the first waiting times targets for mental health services to ensure more people have timely access to care in the same way they do for treatment for physical health. We have also increased access to talking therapies through the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme.

  • Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Debbie Abrahams – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of the cases groups with a current liability using the 2012 statutory child maintenance scheme in August 2015 were due to pay via (a) the CMS Calculation and Collection Service and (b) Direct Pay.

    Priti Patel

    As at August 2015, 30% of cases paid via the CMS Calculation and Collection Service and 70% of cases paid via Direct Pay.

    Information on Service Type (Case based) is set out on Page 6 of the Child Maintenance Service 2012 Scheme Experimental Statistics and Page 8 of the tables which can be accessed online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/2012-statutory-child-maintenance-scheme-aug-2013-to-aug-2015-experimental

    Note:

    Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

    Accurate information by case group could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    “