UKPOL.CO.UK

Category: Speeches

  • Jack Dromey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jack Dromey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has been made of potential changes in local council tax required to maintain overall police spending in real terms.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office worked closely with policing partners and other Government Departments as part of Spending Review preparations to ensure flexibility on council tax is a key part of the Spending Review settlement for the police.

    The Spending Review makes provision for overall police spending to be protected in real terms, when council tax income is taken into account. The ten Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England with the lowest precept levels in each year will be able to raise their police precept level by up to £5 per year over the Spending Review period, compared to the usual two per cent. These provisions are an integral part of the overall Spending Review settlement for the police.

    It is right that PCCs, in consultation with local taxpayers, should decide the level of police precept in their area each year.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people were diagnosed with primary refractory acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia in each of the last five years.

    Mr Rob Wilson

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

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24141, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of (a) unauthorised entries to military bases and (b) thefts or losses of classified material between 2014 and 2015.

    Mark Lancaster

    The apparent increase in incidents is attributed to security awareness programmes and a strengthened reporting regime. These have led to an increasing readiness to report even minor breaches and do not represent systematic failings in security protection.

  • Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Chris Heaton-Harris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Heaton-Harris on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the compliance of the Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 with Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Decision of the Heads of State or Government, meeting within the European Council, on 18 and 19 February 2016 is not subject to the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

  • Roger Mullin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Roger Mullin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Mullin on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to promote the take-up of employee ownership schemes by small and medium-sized businesses in each nation of the UK.

    Anna Soubry

    In 2012, the previous Government asked Graeme Nuttall to advise on what more could be done to increase the number of businesses with employee ownership. The Nuttall Review identified 28 recommendations to address three main constraints: lack of awareness of the concept; lack of resources to support the model; and actual or perceived legal, tax and other regulatory barriers. The action taken to address the recommendations is explained in the ‘The Nuttall Review of Employee Ownership – One Year On’ report published in November 2013 and available on the gov.uk website.

    The Government now expects the private sector to make the business case for this model through organisations such as the Employee Ownership Association – the representative body for employee-owned businesses.

    Ongoing encouragement for employee ownership is provided through four approved share schemes which have tax-advantages for both employees and employers. These are the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI), Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) which are administered by HMRC. In 2013-14 the total value of shares and options awarded under these schemes was around £3.45bn with over £1bn of income tax and national insurance relief given.

  • Henry Bellingham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Henry Bellingham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Bellingham on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have been prosecuted for tax evasion during the last 10 years; and what revenue has been recovered as a result of those prosecutions.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) holds a central record of the number of individuals subject to criminal investigation for tax evasion, together with subsequent prosecutions covering the period from 2011/12 to 2014/15. HMRC does not hold a central record of the number of prosecutions and convictions broken down in this way for earlier years.

    The total number of criminal prosecutions of individuals for tax evasion during the period 2011/12 to 2014/15 was 2404. ‘Revenue Loss Prevented’ is the HMRC management information measure recorded in such cases and the total amount of Revenue Loss Prevented from 2011/12 to 2014/15 was £ 5,070,538,527.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many academy schools hold the freehold of their school sites.

    Edward Timpson

    The Department does not retain a central record of the land holding arrangements for individual academies. However, the vast majority of academies will be occupying sites on the basis of a lease from the relevant local authority.

    No school gains the freehold of a school site as a result of becoming an academy. Academies own their own land only where the school already owned the land before converting to academy status. These are usually former foundation or voluntary schools which are generally the freeholders of their own land even as maintained schools and in the case of voluntary schools which tend to mainly occupy land which was not originally provided by the state.

    The Department does not have detailed information on the current and historic ownership of academy land and buildings, and had chosen not to prioritise the expenditure necessary to resolve the issue.

  • Neil Gray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Neil Gray – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Gray on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Scotland received support from Access to Work grants (a) in total and (b) for a mental health condition in each of the last three years.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The requested data is as follows:

    Financial year

    Number of people helped by Access to Work in Scotland

    Number of people helped by Access to Work in Scotland with a primary medical condition recorded as “Mental health condition

    2013/14

    2,840

    80

    2014/15

    2,860

    90

    2015/16

    2,790

    110

    Note:

    The Department does not routinely publish regional breakdowns of Access to Work data. These data were obtained from the Disability Service Client database and are rounded to the nearest 10.

  • Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jamie Reed – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2016-10-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an application to the EU Solidarity Fund before December 2016.

    Andrew Percy

    The Government finalised the UK’s application to the European Union Solidarity Fund on 22 September 2016.

  • Baroness Goudie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Baroness Goudie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Goudie on 2015-11-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the role that Candu Energy can play in the development of United Kingdom infrastructure and in creating new supply-chain jobs in the United Kingdom’s nuclear sector.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is in the process of submitting advice to DECC, which together with other sources of information and evidence, will enable DECC to consider options for the disposition of plutonium. There are a number of options for dispositioning of plutonium that will be considered, including the potential option presented by Candu. A decision will be made by ministers in due course. The Government is confident that its preferred option for plutonium disposition will be implemented safely and securely, and in a way that is affordable, deliverable, and offers value for money.