Category: Speeches

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what actions he has taken as a result of receiving the Final Report of the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen.

    Mr Philip Hammond

    We are looking at the conclusions of the UN Panel of Experts’ report carefully. We recognise the importance of the work of the UN Panel of Experts. Looking at the information available to us, we have assessed that there has not been a breach of IHL by the coalition.

  • Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many responses his Department received to the devolving Sunday trading rules consultation.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department received 7,171 responses to that consultation.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of bus services in Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Teesside.

    Andrew Jones

    The bus market outside London is deregulated and decisions regarding service provision is primarily a commercial matter for bus operators. Decisions about the provision of subsidised services are a matter for individual English local authorities, in the light of their other spending priorities.

    The Government is committed to supporting bus services in England. We are taking forward a Buses bill to provide local authorities with the tools they need to improve local bus services.

  • Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-04-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Dunlop on 18 April (HL7513), whether parity of esteem only applies to people who live in Northern Ireland or includes people who come from Northern Ireland and live elsewhere in the UK.

    Lord Dunlop

    In the Belfast Agreement the concept of ‘parity of esteem’ is expressed and defined in relation to people living in Northern Ireland. The Government is committed to treating people fairly and with equal respect wherever they live in the United Kingdom.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on the (a) issuing and (b) geographical extent of abatement notices to homes affected by noise nuisance.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government does not consider it appropriate to provide best practice guidance to local authorities on abatement notices. Noise nuisance is best dealt with at a local level. Local authorities should therefore be free to take account of local circumstances when determining how best to apply the powers available to them in relevant noise and nuisance legislation.

  • Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Hodge on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will publish a list of all secondees to his Department from (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms in the last three financial years; and what the role was of each of those secondees.

    David Mundell

    In the last three financial years, there have been no secondees at the Scotland Office from PwC, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, KPMG or any other consulting firms.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help London’s small technology companies and to protect technology talent.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    We are committed to ensuring that Britain is the best place in Europe to innovate, patent new ideas and start a business, including small tech businesses. Innovate UK provides support to businesses across the UK with around 60% of its grant funding going to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to help them to develop new ideas and recruit and retain tech talent. We are supporting more companies to do research and development through the UK’s R&D Tax Credits scheme. The total of R&D support claimed rose to £2.45bn in 2014-15, an increase of £675m (38%) on the previous year.

    An example of a specific activity in London is Tech City UK (TCUK), funded by Government, who focus their efforts to accelerate the growth of digital businesses at all stages of their development across the UK. TCUK creates a positive culture in relation to digital technology and technological entrepreneurship, and fosters the right policy and business environment for start-up and high-growth entrepreneurial businesses. It does this by connecting entrepreneurs to other businesses and investors, whilst also providing a vital feedback loop to government to ensure that policy development is fit for purpose.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he, his ministers and his officials have had with the European Commission on the situation in the steel industry.

    Anna Soubry

    My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills has engaged with the European Commission and our European partners. He has spoken with a number of European Commissioners in Brussels; Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom (Trade), Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska (Internal Market) and Vice President Jyrki Katainen (Jobs and Competitiveness), and stressed the importance of this issue. He has had positive talks with the Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on progressing the approval of the UK’s Energy Intensive Industries compensation scheme.

    I raised the issue with Matthias Machnig, State Secretary for the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. In addition, the Secretary of State hasraised the issue with his EU counterparts, including those in Luxembourg, France, Italy and Spain. ​Hecalled for an urgent EU Council meeting on steel, and I am pleased that the Luxembourg Presidency has scheduled a Competitiveness Council on9 November specifically to discuss the EU steel industry.

  • Sammy Wilson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sammy Wilson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sammy Wilson on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of animals that had been used in experiments and were classed as re-homed in government statistics in the last three years were sent to laboratories outside the UK.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office does not collect data regarding the number of animals, used in scientific procedures, which are subsequently re-homed. Establishments are required to keep information of the source, use and final disposal of protected animals, bred kept or used at the establishment for any regulated activities, which would include whether an animal used was re-homed.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2016-01-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the previously published Carbon Price Support rates of £30t/CO2 in 2020 and £70t/CO2 in 2030, at 2009 prices, remain in place.

    Damian Hinds

    CPS rates have been capped at £18/tCO2 until 2019/20. An announcement on the rates beyond 2019/20 will be made in due course.