Category: Speeches

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing Government tax incentives in the tech start-up sector in order to reduce the number of companies potentially unable to attract private investment after tax reliefs expire.

    Jane Ellison

    The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts scheme provide tax reliefs to encourage individuals to invest in early stage, higher risk companies that would otherwise struggle to access finance. The government has no plans to withdraw these tax reliefs.

  • Liz McInnes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Liz McInnes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz McInnes on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what change there was in the number of firefighter posts in Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

    Greg Clark

    Information on the number of full time equivalent firefighter posts for each fire and rescue service and for each year, together with greater detail, is available in the Department’s Fire and Rescue Operational Statistics publication (Table 2 for full time equivalent posts) at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-and-rescue-authorities-operational-statistics

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  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil servants in her Department are in the redeployment pool.

    Karen Bradley

    There are 104 staff in the redeployment pool. This data is from the Home Office redeployment database.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the applicability to Donald Trump of her Department’s guidelines on excluding hate speakers from entering the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The Government has a policy of not routinely commenting on individual immigration or exclusion cases.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many camera sites that contain speed cameras there are on (a) the Strategic Roads Network, and (b) the trunk road network in England.

    Andrew Jones

    The number of permanent sites that contain speed cameras on the strategic road network is 206. Of these, 76 camera sites are on the motorway network and 130 camera sites are on all-purpose trunk roads.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-02-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they define the word illegal” with reference to the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, to which Israel is a state party, prohibits an occupying power from transferring its own civilian population into occupied territory. Consequently, settlements are illegal under international law. The UK’s position on the settlements is clear. They are illegal, present an obstacle to peace and take us further away from a two-state solution.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the EU is taking to counter extremism and radicalisation in (a) the Middle East, (b) South Asia and (c) Africa; and in what way the Government is contributing to those steps.

    Mr David Lidington

    The EU invests significantly in counter-extremism and -radicalisation. The UK supports and is actively involved in shaping the EU’s comprehensive approach which includes political dialogue led by HRVP Mogherini, wider development assistance, CSDP missions, human rights-based security sector reform, conflict prevention and resolution, support for research and analysis, and support to national efforts to develop Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) strategies. The UK also works with the EU through the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF) Working Group, with the EU co-chairing the Horn of Africa Working Group and UK co-chairing the CVE Working Group. A key joint effort here is addressing the whole lifecycle of radicalisation through capacity-building in priority countries.

    It is not possible here exhaustively to list every step the EU is taking to counter extremism and radicalisation in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, but examples include:

    On (a) the Middle East, the EU is establishing CT Action Plans (including CVE) with priority countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

    On (b) South Asia, the EU seconds a security/CT expert to assist in Pakistan.

    On (c) Africa, the EU is supporting the development of a Somali national CVE strategy.

  • Chris Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Chris Evans – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Evans on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many NHS agencies have changed their name or merged in the last (a) 12 and (b) 24 months; and what the cost was to the public purse of such mergers and name changes.

    Ben Gummer

    No National Health Service arm’s length bodies have merged or changed their name in the last 24 months. As of 1 April 2016, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) have been working under a shared leadership and operating framework as NHS Improvement. However, Monitor and the TDA have not formally merged. They continue to operate in line with their current legal underpinnings as two separate entities. In order to ensure that all NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts have access to the same kinds of support and interventions there will be much more alignment between the two organisations so that they can deliver what patients and taxpayers have a right to expect. As at the end of March, the cost associated with the recruitment of NHS Improvement’s Chief Executive and designing and supporting NHS Improvement’s new structure and operating model has been £655,190. There may have been other costs associated with the alignment of the two organisations but these have been absorbed in their baseline funding allocations.

  • Jonathan Edwards – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jonathan Edwards – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times Ministers in his Department have visited Wales in an official capacity since the last UK general election.

    Mike Penning

    Details of all ministerial meetings are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/moj-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.

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  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with the Skills Funding Agency on the potential effect of its proposal to introduce a register of apprenticeship providers on the ability of lead providers to sub-contract to smaller providers.

    Robert Halfon

    We have engaged with the Skills Funding Agency on the proposals to create a Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers in England. The intention of the proposals is to support a significant increase in the quality of apprenticeships and to create an employer-led apprenticeship system.

    The Skills Funding Agency published their proposal on the Register on 12 August https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-apprenticeship-training-providers. Training providers and interested organisations were given the opportunity to comment on the proposals in a survey which closed on Monday 5 September. The Skills Funding Agency is now considering feedback on the consultation.

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