Category: Speeches

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make a comparative assessment of the effect of tariffs on steel imports in the EU and the US.

    Anna Soubry

    Each anti-dumping case is different. Moreover the levels of dumping and injury occurring in EU and US markets may be very different. The Government examines the evidence in all EU anti-dumping cases closely before taking a view.

    The Government believes that effective trade defence measures should be proportionate, not protectionist, and strike a balance between removing the injury to producers caused by dumping, and avoiding imposing unnecessary costs on user industries, retailers, consumers and the rest of the economy. The evidence we have to date is that duties that have been imposed on imports of Chinese steel into the EU have been effective in delivering rapid, substantial and sustained reductions in imports. For example, imports of wire rod, organic coated steel and stainless steel flat products are down by more than 90%.

    Where the European Commission has set duties that we believe to be too low to remove the injury caused to EU industry by dumped imports, we will push for them to be increased, as we have done in the reinforcing bar and cold rolled flat products cases.

  • Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julian Sturdy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions her Department has had with HM Treasury on the effect of the planned 2017 business rate revaluation on small solar PV systems.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Business rates are calculated based on a property’s ‘rateable value’. The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is responsible for determining the rateable values in line with existing legislation and case law. I understand that the VOA is currently consulting with the solar industry over how those rateable values will apply to solar installations from 1st April 2017.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-09-13.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HM Revenue and Customs staff were employed in Scotland in each year since 2006.

    Jane Ellison

    The number of HM Revenue and Customs staff employed in Scotland each year since 2006 is shown in the following table.

    Year Ending

    Head Count

    31/03/2006

    11,415

    31/03/2007

    11,464

    31/03/2008

    11,018

    31/03/2009

    11,160

    31/03/2010

    10,031

    31/03/2011

    9,860

    31/03/2012

    9,839

    31/03/2013

    9,437

    31/03/2014

    8,959

    31/03/2015

    8,331

    31/03/2016

    9,147
  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to reduce Islamist culture at HM Prison Whitemoor.

    Andrew Selous

    Any behaviour by those convicted of extremist crimes or who subscribe to an agenda which seeks to promote extremist views will be challenged and managed accordingly.

    In order to ensure our current practice is as robust and effective as possible in dealing with such beliefs, the Justice Secretary has commissioned a review, supported by external expertise, of the overall approach to dealing with Islamist extremism in prisons, probation and the youth justice system.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-12-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to collect information centrally on how many doctors and nurses have been signed off work as a result of stress and other mental illness.

    Ben Gummer

    The Health and Social Care Information Centre publishes data on overall levels of sickness absence in the National Health Service. The Department has to balance the usefulness of information collected against the burden placed on NHS employing organisations. There are no plans to increase this burden by publishing information on the reasons for sickness absence including stress and other mental illness. Individual NHS employing organisations are responsible for managing sickness absence including where due to mental health.

  • Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Gould of Potternewton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Gould of Potternewton on 2016-01-20.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there has been an increase in the rate of abortions among women over the age of 24 since 2010, and if so, what assessment they have made of the cause.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    We have made no such assessment.

    Rates of abortions for women aged 25 and over, England, 2010-2014

    Year

    Rate per thousand women

    2014

    13.72

    2013

    13.43

    2012

    12.97

    2011

    13.30

    2010

    12.82

    Source: Office for National Statistics

  • Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to support the global abolition of the death penalty.

    Mr David Lidington

    I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 27 January (question 23192) to the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Toby Perkins).

  • Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Caroline Flint – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Flint on 2016-03-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of her Department’s invoices for goods and services supplied by (a) private companies and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been completed on time in the last year for which figures are available; and what proportion of the (i) number and (ii) value of contracts between her Department and private companies are held by SMEs.

    George Eustice

    Core Defra’s prompt payment reports do not distinguish between invoices from private companies and invoices from small and medium-sized enterprises.

    Information on Defra’s prompt payment performance in respect of all supplier payments in 2015-16 is available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-prompt-payment-performance-report.

    The latest information on the expenditure Defra bodies have with SMEs is available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/482524/Central_Government_Direct_and_Indirect_Spend_with_SMEs.csv/preview.

    The information on the number of contracts core Defra has with SMEs could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

    “

  • Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Richard Arkless – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-04-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions his Department has had with television channel and radio station providers on inclusion and the representation of disability in mainstream media.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The government is encouraging the industry to be proactive in increasing diversity on and off screen – including in the representation of disabled people. I have hosted a number of roundtables that have addressed this issue, including a conference in January, which raised the wider issue of lack of representation of disabled people in the creative industries.

  • Ian Blackford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Ian Blackford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Blackford on 2016-05-18.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the main reasons for recent changes in the death rate.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.