Category: Speeches

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the value of (1) UK exports to the US, and (2) imports from the US to the UK, for the most recent years for which figures are available; and whether this trade was based on any trade agreement with the US.

    Lord Price

    In 2015 UK exports of goods and services to the US were £ 95.1 billion and UK imports from the US were £ 59.7 billion.

    There is no bilateral trade agreement with the US. Both the EU and US are members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). There are no estimates of the impact that their membership of the WTO and its trade agreements such as the Information Technology Agreement has had on UK-US trade.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are aware of any studies regarding the not primarily abstractive” test that the Office of Road and Rail makes in respect of open access applications to test its validity.”

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    Her Majesty’s Government is not aware of any recent studies which specifically test the validity of the Office of Rail and Road’s not primarily abstractive test. However, it has made representations to the ORR on its appropriateness for use on individual open access applications, most particularly in relation to the recent open access applications on the East Coast Mainline.

  • Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of whether it will be necessary to bring forward new (a) primary or (b) secondary legislation to implement the UK’s obligations under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    No immediate changes are needed to the UK’s legislation on climate change in order to implement our obligations under the Paris Agreement. The UK is already playing its part in delivering the Agreement through its Climate Change Act 2008. The Committee on Climate Change has said that it will report in the Autumn on the future implications of Paris for the UK. We shall want to consider carefully the CCC’s recommendations.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, to which destinations (a) Ministers and (b) officials of his Department have taken flights as part of their official duties since his appointment as Foreign Secretary.

    Sir Alan Duncan

    The details of overseas visits undertaken by Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers, including the mode of transport used, are published in quarterly returns, which are available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/minister-data

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take, if any, to help Britain’s aerospace and defence industry in the light of Rolls-Royce’s fifth profit warning in 21 months.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Government is working with Britain’s aerospace and defence industry through the Aerospace Growth Partnership and the Defence Growth Partnership to remove barriers to growth, boost exports and grow high value jobs.As part of this work we are supporting the industry’s investment in technology, competitiveness and productivity, and skills, to help ensure the UK remains one of the world’s leading aerospace and defence nations

    At the Spending Review, the Government protected and extended spending on the Aerospace Technology Institute.

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the reasons for which the jobseeker’s allowance claimant rate is falling faster than the unemployment rate; and what estimate he has made of the proportion of people eligible to claim jobseeker’s allowance in 2013-14 who did not do so.

    Priti Patel

    It is not appropriate to consider Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in isolation because the roll out of Universal Credit (UC) means growing numbers now claim UC rather than JSA.

    The Office for National Statistics publishes claimant count figures that combine JSA and those claiming UC who are not in work. This does not show the claimant rate falling faster than the unemployment rate. In fact over the past quarter the claimant rate has remained flat while the unemployment rate has fallen 0.3 percentage points.

    Estimates of the take-up of income-related benefits in 2013-14 have already been published and are available at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/437501/ir-benefits-take-up-main-report-2013-14.pdf

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential efficacy of the Transmarche Metro proposal connecting Kent with the Nord-Pas-de-Calais; and if he will make a statement.

    Claire Perry

    The Government has made no assessment of a Transmanche Metro. The efficacy of a route would be for the market to determine.

  • 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 2016-01-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether there is a shortfall in the number of Ministry of Defence Police Officers; and what provision there is for tasking such officers beyond their contracted hours of work.

    Mark Lancaster

    The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) currently has a number of vacancies within the Force. Where there is a shortfall in numbers at an MDP station the use of overtime working may be authorised in order to cover essential duties. Volunteers to work additional hours are sought in the first instance, but officers may be directed to work additional hours if insufficient volunteers are available.

  • Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to counter people trafficking.

    Karen Bradley

    We are committed to tackling people trafficking and all forms of modern slavery. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 gives law enforcement agencies the tools they need to tackle modern slavery, ensures that perpetrators can receive suitably severe sentences up to life imprisonment, enhances support and protection for victims and places a duty on large businesses to report on what they are doing to stop modern slavery occurring in their global supply chains. We have successfully lobbied for the establishment of the first ever UN Sustainable Development Goal to end modern slavery and are working with a range of international partners to tackle slavery and its causes. We are also piloting a new approach to identifying and supporting potential victims of slavery through the National Referral Mechanism and we have appointed an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to spread best practice in the UK and overseas.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    None. My Department does not receive any funding from the European Social Fund.