Category: Speeches

  • Gavin Newlands – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gavin Newlands – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment of the ethical standards of debt collection agencies his Department undertakes before entering into a contract with such agencies.

    Joseph Johnson

    Any debt collection contracts let by the core Department would primarily use available framework contracts agreed by the Crown Commercial Service who are responsible for including any required assessment of ethical standards. However, if the need for a specialist debt collection contract should arise that could not be met by a framework contract, the Department’s tender and contract documentation would include further assessments as may be deemed necessary.

  • Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether a Minister of his Department will be representing the UK at the UN’s second Global Summit on Road Safety to discuss the inclusion of targets to reduce crash deaths worldwide as a new sustainable development goal.

    Andrew Jones

    The UN’s Second Global High Level Conference on Road Safety has already taken place.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the number of (a) UK firms based in the West Midlands that trade with other EU member states and (b) people employed by those firms.

    Anna Soubry

    HMRC Regional Trade Statistics on the number of firms trading with the EU are publically available through the UKTradeInfo website.

    HM Treasury has published estimates of the number of UK jobs linked to EU exports broken down by region. These are available through the GOV.UK website.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Government will use the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016 to agree a timetable to force UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to publish central, public registers of beneficial ownership.

    Matthew Hancock

    Our priority for the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies has been for them to establish a central register of beneficial ownership information (or a similarly effective system) where they do not already have one, and for UK law enforcement and tax authorities to have full and automatic access to that information. As has previously been set out the registers will not be public, these measures will place our Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories well ahead of many other similar jurisdictions and represent a significant step forward in our ability to counter criminal activity.

  • Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to engage with representatives from the Alevi community in Britain.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    Ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government meet members of minority communities on a regular basis. My officials are happy to meet with representatives of the British Alevi community and discuss items that have been raised by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Alevis.

  • Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Saville Roberts on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Attorney General, what his policy is on offences under section 4A of the Protection from Harassment 1998 Act being referred to the Court of Appeal on the grounds of undue leniency.

    Robert Buckland

    Neither of these offences are covered under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and therefore the Law Officers have no power to refer sentences for these offences to the Court of Appeal.

    The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-19.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what safeguards the Government plans to put in place to protect customers from fraud and cyber security risks if they use new products and services in an open banking environment.

    Simon Kirby

    Improving the resilience of the finance sector to risks such as cyber security is a priority for the Government. HM Treasury works closely with the financial regulators to drive this improvement; it is their responsibility to supervise banks’ operations. The Financial Conduct Authority has a specific objective on consumer protection.

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published the final report of its market investigation into retail banking on 9 August 2016. As part of this the CMA requires the nine largest UK banks to develop and adopt an open banking standard for application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow access to customer account information, as set out in the revised Payment Services Directive (PSDII) which will come into force in January 2018. These nine banks are required to deliver open data APIs by Q1 2017, and deliver the full open API banking standard by early 2018. Data protection and cyber security are key considerations in PSDII, and the Government will be consulting on the transposition of this directive shortly.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many new claims for housing benefit were made by people who lost their homes to repossession in each of the last 10 years.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The information requested regarding the number of new claims for housing benefit were made by people who lost their homes due to repossessions in each of the last 10 years is not available.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Charlotte Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what system of monitoring his Department has for local authorities which repeatedly commission providers rated by the Care Quality Commission as requiring improvement.

    Alistair Burt

    Commissioning social care is a matter for local authorities as they are best placed to understand the needs of local people and communities, and how best to meet them. The Care Quality Commission ratings should inform their commissioning decisions; these ratings are available to the public. Local authorities are accountable to their local population through democratically elected members.

    The Department has developed statutory guidance to support local authorities to meet their duties for market shaping set out in the Care Act 2014, including commissioning. The Department has also worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and other partners to develop a framework of commissioning standards which will help local authorities improve their commissioning practices.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-01-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of  the human rights situation in the Maldives, and what consideration they are giving to immediate targeted sanctions by the UK and at a EU level on senior officials and key supporters of the government of the Maldives, including freezing assets and travel bans.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The UK is concerned about the decline in respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the Maldives. The Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), visited the Maldives on 17 and 18 January and expressed these concerns to President Yameen and other key members of the Maldivian government including Foreign Minister Dunya.

    We will continue to apply pressure through a range of bilateral and multilateral means to bring about the positive changes we all want to see in the Maldives.