Category: Speeches

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.122 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of reducing the income rise disregard on the household income of a tax credit claimant family with one earner and two children whose income rose from £20,000 to £25,000 during the year.

    Damian Hinds

    Reducing the income rise disregard to £2,500 brings forward some of the benefits of Universal Credit, so that tax credit entitlement reflects claimant’s recent earnings. It makes the system fairer so claimants on similar incomes will receive similar awards. The effect of reducing the income rise disregard on a family claiming tax credits will depend on the household’s income level before it increased.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total crew complement of HMS Ocean was on its most recent deployment; of what the Embarked Military Forces she carried consisted; and how many helicopters of which type she carried.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Ships’ complements are not fixed; they vary, even across a class, depending on equipment fits and in response to specific tasking.

    HMS OCEAN has a complement of 380 when in her normal operating role; however, this would have varied during her deployment on COUGAR 15 as personnel embarked and disembarked dependent on the activity. The Embarked Military Force (Royal Marines and Aviation Group personnel) was in the region of 620.

    Similarly, the number and type of helicopters embarked varied depending on the activity. At points during the deployment, HMS OCEAN carried the following helicopters:

    Chinook CH47

    2

    Apache

    4

    Wildcat

    4

    Merlin Mk2

    2

    Osprey MV 22 (US Marine Corps)

    3

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of investing in video-conferencing facilities to facilitate split-site working by staff in his Department.

    Joseph Johnson

    Video conferencing is used across the Department as a tool for keeping in touch with colleagues split across numerous sites, with around 1,500 meetings held by video-conferencing every month.

  • Lord Aberdare – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Aberdare – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Aberdare on 2016-03-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are considering introducing a more streamlined process to become a registered training organisation in order to encourage more employers to deliver their own specialist apprenticeship training.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    We have committed to streamline the process to reduce barriers to new training providers entering the market and joining the Register of Training Organisations, so that there is a broad and flexible range of high quality providers of apprenticeship training.

    We will consult with employers to help us determine what this process should look like in the future. We recognise the important contribution of employers that provide apprenticeship training and want to ensure this continues.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on improving women’s mental health since the publication in 2010 of Working towards women’s wellbeing: unfinished business.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department’s mental health policy teams provide strategic policy advice on mental health for people of all ages and genders. When issues are specific to a gender these are addressed within the policy development.

    The Coalition Government published a national mental health strategy No Health Without Mental Health in 2012 which addressed mental health issues for the whole population, and introduced the concept of parity of esteem for mental health. This Government continues to hold NHS England to account through the NHS Mandate for the achievement of measurable progress towards the parity of esteem for mental health.

    The Government announced almost £1 billion of additional investment for mental health in January 2016 including £290 million of new investment over the next five years to provide mental healthcare for new mothers. The Mental Health Taskforce Report published in February 2016 set out a recommendation for NHS England to ensure that by 2020/21 at least 30,000 more women each year access evidence-based specialist mental health care during the perinatal period. The recommendation stated this should include access to psychological therapies and the right range of specialist community or inpatient care so that comprehensive, high-quality services are in place across England.

  • Lord Shutt of Greetland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Shutt of Greetland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Shutt of Greetland on 2016-05-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that, when a Saturday air service begins to operate between Johannesburg and St Helena, those flights will provide connections with flights between South Africa and the UK that avoid an overnight stay in Johannesburg.

    Baroness Verma

    Based on the currently proposed schedule for regular flights between Johannesburg and St Helena, these will permit onward flight connections to and from the UK with a reasonable transfer time and which should not require overnight stays in Johannesburg in either direction.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to improve access to the private rented sector for single people who are homeless.

    Gavin Barwell

    One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to do all we can to prevent homelessness.

    Increasing access to the private rented sector is one of the many ways we are trying to achieve this. We have already made a significant investment of nearly £14 million for Crisis to develop a programme to help single homeless people access private rented sector accommodation. This has helped over 10,000 people, with over 90% maintaining tenancies for at least 6 months.

    In Budget 2016, we also announced a £10 million fund to support and scale-up initiatives to prevent and reduce rough sleeping and a £10 million Social Impact Bond to support the most entrenched rough sleepers off the streets.

    In addition, we are working to increase supply, and therefore affordability, in the private rented sector 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.

  • Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Patrick Grady – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the government of Sudan on the use of funds earmarked under the Khartoum Process by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The EU has made absolutely clear that no funding will be provided to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). We have raised our concerns about the use of the RSF to manage migration directly with the Government of Sudan, most recently during the visit of the UK Special Representative for Sudan and South Sudan to Khartoum in September.

  • Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of the Government’s proposed reductions in tax credits on the pupil premium.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    As my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor announced on 25 November, the government is not proceeding with the changes to the tax credit threshold and taper announced at the Summer Budget 2015.

    We are determined to deliver educational excellence everywhere so that every child, regardless of background, reaches their potential. That is why we are delivering on our commitment to continue providing the pupil premium, protected at current rates, so schools receive additional money for pupils from the poorest backgrounds.

  • Julian Knight – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Julian Knight – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will ensure that affordable rent to buy housing is exempt from the Government’s pay to stay proposals for higher income social tenants.

    Brandon Lewis

    Higher income social tenants in a Rent to Buy scheme will not face increased rent under proposals for pay to stay. This is because the rent they pay is an intermediate rent which is excluded from social rent policy.