Category: Speeches

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-09-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of recent changes in business rates on corporate demand for rooftop solar power.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Draft 2017 rateable values prepared independently by the Valuation Office Agency will be published for the first time on 30 September 2016. Once rateable values are available we will look closely at the impacts of the forthcoming revaluation and consult on how to make sure the right support is in place for businesses to adjust to any changes.

  • Bill Esterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Bill Esterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of his proposals for automatic enrolment of employees in pension schemes on businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

    Justin Tomlinson

    In 2010 the independent Making Automatic Enrolment Work (MAEW) review considered the impact of automatic enrolment on small and micro businesses. DWP’s impact assessments and on-going evaluation of Automatic Enrolment continue to monitor the costs and benefits of automatic enrolment on small businesses, including those with fewer than 10 employees.

    DWP’s evaluation reports and impact assessments are all available online.

  • Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new homes of each type of tenure he plans will be funded by measures announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Spending Review and Autumn Statement made last week reaffirmed this Government’s commitment to keeping the country building, to delivering the homes communities want and supporting hard-working people who aspire to own their own home to be able to do so.

    Over £20 billion was secured for housing from the Spending Review. This includes £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable starts, and a further £12 billion of housing investment which will support our 1 million homes ambition by 2020/21.

    The Spending Review package announced last week supports a variety of tenures, including affordable homes for rent, shared ownership schemes and starter homes. It also supports home ownership through supporting custom build, the extension of Help to Buy, and extending the Right to Buy to tenants of housing associations.

    Precise splits between differing types of tenure will depend on the nature and quality of bids recieved for new funding programmes, and on the type of sites coming forward.

  • Lord Bradshaw – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lord Bradshaw – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2015-12-02.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 18 November (HL3318), in the light of the fact that the franchise to Virgin Stagecoach for the East Coast Main Line specified five additional services between Lincoln and London each day, whether there are any immediate steps that can be taken, either directly or via Newark North Gate, to improve the present service.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The additional Lincoln services have been contracted by the Department to run from May 2019, because at that time the new IEP rolling stock and infrastructure enhancements (subject to the ORR granting the necessary rights) will enable Virgin Trains East Coast to operate these additional services.

    However, Franchise Agreements state the minimum service provision of the train operator, and if the train operator believes that the demand exists for more services than are stipulated and they have the rolling stock, staff availability and they can obtain the required track access rights, there is nothing to stop them from running more services.

    The Government believes that Train Operators are better placed to respond to the changing demands of their customers in the creation of train services.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-01-13.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards are in place to prevent students using paid-for commercial essay-writing services advertised on the internet.

    Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

    The Government strongly condemns any form of cheating. All publicly funded providers of higher education courses are expected to comply with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, published by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). One of the requirements of the Code is to ensure that students do not obtain awards through any form of unacceptable academic practice relating to assessment, including plagiarism. There is no centrally held set of data on the number of recorded plagiarism cases in UK Higher Education – responsibility for tackling plagiarism lies with the HE providers themselves, as autonomous organisations. Institutions have a variety of mechanisms to address cheating by both international and EEA/UK students, including strong policies and specialist software. Between 2012 and 2015, the QAA carried out approximately 650 reviews of institutions. Of these, it only had to make recommendations to 30 individual universities and colleges on the need to improve systems and information related to plagiarism. The QAA are discussing the legality of essay mills with the Consumer and Markets Authority.

  • Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-02-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the letter from her Department to the Harperbury Free School governors of 17 November 2015, if she will make an assessment of the implications for housing and other planned developments in the catchment area of the proposed Harperbury Free School of the risk referred to in that letter that no suitable site can ever be found for that school.

    Edward Timpson

    Assessing the implications for housing and other developments is a matter for the Council rather than the Department.

    In order for planning permission to be granted for a site in the Green Belt, as is the case for the trust’s preferred site, the Local Planning Authority would have to accept that there is a strong need for a school in the locality of the identified site, which they do not.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-02-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Kantar Worldpanel 2014 dataset on sales-weighted average sugar content in soft drinks; and whether he plans to review the Government’s voluntary approach to the food and drink industry in relation to calorie reduction in soft drinks.

    Jane Ellison

    As part of its review to identify possible actions to reduce sugar intakes and inform the Government’s thinking on sugar, Public Health England considered the current evidence on sugar in food and drinks. We are considering this alongside other evidence as we develop our Childhood Obesity Strategy which will be launched in the summer. It will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese including sugar. It will also set out what more can be done by all.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to (a) review and (b) improve the autism self-assessment framework.

    Alistair Burt

    Working with the Department, Public Health England regularly undertakes an autism self assessment exercise with local authorities and their partners to gauge progress in implementing the Autism Strategy. The results of the self assessment and the individual returns from areas are made public so that organisations and people can challenge locally if they think that more needs to be done. The assessment questions and the process for local agreement are reviewed each time, taking into account that general continuity is needed in terms of measuring progress. The February meeting of the cross government Autism Programme Board considered the changes proposed for the next exercise which were put forward following discussions with representatives of Government departments, local authorities, the National Health Service, the autism third sector and people with autism and family carers. Further refinement will be undertaken over the next few weeks before the self assessment exercise is launched in the summer.

  • 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 2016-05-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Minister for the Cabinet Office on promoting a fair global tax system at the Anti-Corruption Summit in May 2016.

    Mr David Gauke

    Treasury Ministers are in regular dialogue with Cabinet colleagues on a range of issues.

    This Government has played a leading role in tackling avoidance and aggressive tax planning, driving fundamental reform of the international tax rules and standards. We helped initiate the G20-Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project to make sure multinationals pay tax on profits where the economic activities that give rise to these are located. We have led the way in terms of implementation; legislating for the OECD model for country-by-country reporting to tax authorities, and adopting the OECD recommendations for hybrid mismatch arrangements and interest restriction.

    At the Anti-Corruption Summit, we will seek to galvanize a global response to tackle corruption, as well as dealing with issues including corporate secrecy, government transparency, the enforcement of international anti-corruption laws, and the strengthening of international institutions. It will be an important opportunity for the Government to make the case for further international action on tax transparency.

  • Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2016-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what resources his Department has allocated to assessing the counter-proposal to the Government’s plans for community pharmacy published by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee in April 2016.

    Alistair Burt

    We have been developing our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond in discussion with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and other stakeholders. We welcomed the publication of the PSNC’s counter proposal which is being considered as part of the consultation process. Our aim is to communicate our final decisions early in July.