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Category: Speeches

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on British farming of the Plan for Public Procurement, published in July 2014.

    George Eustice

    Total spend on public sector food and catering services is around £2.4 billion. The Plan for Public Procurement launched a new approach to the way the Government and its catering providers buy food. It provides a transparent set of criteria that allow contracting parties to reach agreement about the quality and value of products and services. British farmers are well placed to meet these standards and to compete for a further £400 million of business that the Plan opens up.

  • Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Nic Dakin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nic Dakin on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support British jobs and industry through its procurement process.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Ministry of Defence spends some £20 billion a year in the UK, making us British Industry’s largest single customer. Around half of this spend is in manufacturing and some £4 billion with small and medium-sized enterprises. We are determined to drive greater innovation into defence procurement, maximising opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses, investing in skills and supporting responsible exports, to help ensure we maintain a healthy and competitive UK defence sector.

  • Stewart Malcolm McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stewart Malcolm McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart Malcolm McDonald on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to amend the eligibility criteria for pension credit so that all men and women aged 60 and above can access that credit.

    Richard Harrington

    Pension Credit is an income-related benefit paid out of general taxation which targets help at the poorest pensioners. It is a condition of entitlement for Pension Credit that a person has attained the “qualifying age”, which is linked to the women’s State Pension age. This is the same age at which entitlement to Universal Credit ceases.

    Changing the eligibility criteria would mean displacing Universal Credit with Pension Credit. Universal Credit has much better work incentives than Pension Credit, and ensures that work always pays. Universal Credit also disregards pension pots in the means test, encouraging further saving, whereas Pension Credit takes pension pots into account and therefore provides no incentive to increase their size.

    For those with disability and care needs, the welfare system already makes provision through benefits and services based on needs assessment. This includes provision for those whose health condition means that it is difficult for them to remain in employment. The Government will be publishing a Green Paper on Work and Health later this year which will consider this issue.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding the Gulf Strategy Unit has received in each of the last 15 years.

    Ben Gummer

    The Gulf Strategy Integrated Delivery Team was established in 2015.

    Its remit is to coordinate the Government’s strategic approach to UK engagement with the Gulf States as set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015.

    It employs three full-time and one part-time Government employees. One is military and three are civilian.

    Administration costs were £70,004 in the 2015-16 financial year and the budget for administration costs in the 2016-17 financial year is £423,000. The 2015-16 figure reflects the fact the unit was established later in the financial year.

  • Stewart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stewart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart McDonald on 2015-10-27.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the quality of the information available for HM Revenue and Customs claimants to distinguish between genuine communications from Concentrix and phishing scams.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) undertakes a wide range of work to protect customers from websites which attempt to unlawfully obtain information. This includes:

    • maintaining a portfolio of domains which could be used to confuse customers
    • proactively monitoring the internet daily to identify sites which infringe on the brand, and taking appropriate legal action against them
    • providing a mailbox service for the reporting of suspected phishing emails and websites.

      HMRC’s pages on GOV.UK make clear that Concentrix works on behalf of HMRC, and that some tax credits customers will receive a letter showing both logos. Neither HMRC, nor agencies working for HMRC, will ever ask for online banking or other information via email or over the phone that would enable an unauthorised person to access bank accounts or otherwise commit fraud.

  • Kate Hoey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kate Hoey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2015-12-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received from (a) the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington and (b) the Labour Party on reform of EU state aid rules; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Chancellor receives a large number of representations on a wide range of issues including both the EU Budget and EU State Rules. As has been the case with previous administrations, it is not normal practice to release details of such representations.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much has been budgeted for compensation payments to residential and business properties affected by the construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

    Rory Stewart

    Compensation payments for owners of residential or business properties which are acquired pursuant to the development consent order for the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT) are a matter for either Thames Water Utilities Limited or Bazalgette Tunnel Limited (trading as Tideway and being the licensed infrastructure provider that will finance, own, build and operate the tunnel). Provision for such compensation payments is included in the overall budget for the construction of the TTT. In the case of Thames Water Utilities Limited, these costs are included within their price control for the period 2015-2020 as determined by Ofwat. In the case of Bazalgette Tunnel Limited, the cost is within the overall budget included within the project licence granted to Tideway by Ofwat. The amount set aside for these compensation payments are commercially sensitive so cannot be disclosed.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2015 to Question 16435, when his Department expects to publish the Impact Assessment on changes to reduce costs in medical negligence mitigation.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department will publish the impact assessment alongside the consultation document on introducing fixed recoverable costs in clinical negligence claims.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February to Question 27441, if he will place in the Library the report received by the Civil Aviation Authority on the emergency landing of 25 January.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    In the UK it has long been the case that in order to contribute effectively to the improvement of flight safety, reportable occurrences in aviation are treated confidentially to maintain full and free reporting from the aviation community and to protect the identity of the individual.

    Occurrence reporting is now covered by (EU) Regulation No 376/2014. It requires that the reporting, analysis and follow-up to an occurrence pursuant to an ongoing CAA investigation remains confidential. For this reason, we are unable to place the report in the Commons Library.

    However, the Regulation does permit information to be released on request to interested parties that have a genuine safety related need for the information. An Application can be made at www.caa.co.uk

    “

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has a strategy to ensure that the growth of district heating is accompanied by the development of non-fossil fuel heat sources that are compatible with long term carbon emissions targets.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Yes. The development of heat networks and non-fossil fuel heat sources needs to go hand in hand. One of the key benefits of heat networks is that they can be used to transport heat from a wide range of low carbon heat sources.

    The Government’s support for both renewable heating and district heating (heat networks) was confirmed in the Autumn Statement. My Rt Hon friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer made clear that the Renewable Heat Incentive will see an increase in funding to £1.15 billion by 2020-21 and separately that over £300 million of funding would be made available for up to 200 heat networks to generate enough heat to support the equivalent of 400,000 homes.

    We are currently designing the Heat Network Investment Fund to allocate this funding, which is due to launch later in 2016 and run until 2021. We are keen to ensure that the projects supported by the fund are low carbon, economically viable and strategically designed to ensure future growth and development. We expect a range of projects with a mix of different heat sources to come forward for support, as we have seen with those Local Authority projects already supported at the development stage by the Government’s Heat Network Delivery Unit. As well as fossil fuelled Combined Heat and Power, such sources include non-fossil fuel heat from waste, deep geothermal heat, water-sourced heat pumps and heat from underground minewater. In addition, DECC’s innovation budget was doubled; some of this will be used to support the development of low carbon technology in heat delivery.