Category: Speeches

Alan Brown – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2015 to Question 13632, on what dates in September 2015 he met (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) other ministers in HM Treasury to discuss the potential effects in Scotland of a carbon price support exemption scheme.

David Mundell

As indicated in my previous answers on this issue, I have had a number of meetings and discussions this year, both formal and informal, on the important issue of opencast restoration and in particular the proposal for a carbon price support exemption. These have included discussions with colleagues from HM Treasury, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Scottish Government and Local Authorities.

January 1, 2023
Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-11-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish the draft bill setting up the Historical Investigations Unit and other legacy bodies that was presented to political parties at the recent negotiations held under the Belfast Agreement 1998.

Lord Dunlop

The recent negotiations established substantial common ground between the parties on how to establish the legacy bodies identified in the Stormont House Agreement.

The Government is currently reflecting on how we can move forward and achieve broad consensus in support of legislation to establish these legacy bodies.

January 1, 2023
Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Government spent on creating flood prevention schemes since 2007.

Rory Stewart

Government funding on flood and coastal erosion risk management is available in the ‘Central Government Funding for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management in England’ document. This is available in the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/480527/Funding_for_Flood_and_Coastal_Erosion_in_England_Dec_2015.pdf

This document sets out both capital and resource expenditure from 2005.

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January 1, 2023
Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for legal aid were (a) made by and (b) granted to victims of people charged with domestic violence in each local authority area in the North West Police Authority in each year since 2010.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The LAA does not routinely collect information on whether applicants for legal aid are victims of people charged with domestic violence.

Prior to 2013, when people applied for legal aid they were not asked to declare whether domestic violence had occurred. Since 2013, applications for legal aid do not routinely request this information. Therefore the data requested is not available.

People seeking protective injunctions, like non-molestation orders, remain eligible for legal aid. Legal aid also remains available in private family cases that involve domestic violence. We have listened closely to any concerns about how the system has been operating, and made changes in response, such as making it easier to prove abuse and so get legal aid.

The number of applications which require Domestic Violence evidence received and granted following LASPO, and figures for civil representation in the ‘Domestic Violence’ category both pre and post LASPO, are published in the official statistics on legal aid published quarterly on the Gov.uk website at the following link https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics

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January 1, 2023
Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many concerted indiscipline incidents of each type have occurred in each prison establishment in each month since May 2005.

Andrew Selous

Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of new psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to the problems we face but we are making progress.

We have launched a two year Violence Reduction project to help us to gain a better understanding of the causes and characteristics of violence. We are also trialling the use of body worn cameras in prisons, training sniffer dogs to detect new psychoactive substances and have made it an offence to smuggle new psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively reform and rehabilitate offenders.

Many Concerted indiscipline incidents vary widely in nature and duration and many of these incidents are relatively minor and of short duration and cause little disruption to the prison regime.

Note: The figures included in the table attached, have been drawn from the NOMS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last case the figures may not be accurate to that level.

January 1, 2023
David Winnick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Winnick on 2016-03-17.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will arrange for HM Revenue and Customs to acknowledge or reply to the letter of 24 February 2016 from the hon. Member for Walsall North concerning a constituent.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 14 March 2016.

January 1, 2023
Will Quince – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Will Quince on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2016 to Question 34465, if his Department will take steps to allow web-users to include honours when completing Government online forms.

Mr Robert Goodwill

My Department provides a wide variety of online forms across multiple systems. Most of these are designed to enable web users to use perform a transaction, such as to book a driving theory test. Therefore we only ask our users the minimum information required to process their requests to enable them to complete these transactions as quickly as possible.

I am mindful that there could be an additional cost to the taxpayer in making changes to online systems to capture and store additional data.

January 1, 2023

Lord Storey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2016-05-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the annual cost of providing assessment and testing materials in primary schools in England in each of the last five years.

Lord Nash

The comprehensive net expenditure of the Standards and Testing Agency in each of the last five years was as follows:

Year ending	Cost
Year ending March 2015	£46.2m
Year ending March 2014	£45.9m
Year ending March 2013	£38.7m
Year ending March 2012	£28.8m
Year ending March 2011	£40.3m

January 1, 2023

David Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Morris on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make representations to the Competition and Markets Authority on investigating the price of milk at major supermarkets.

George Eustice

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as the UK’’s competition authority can carry out investigations where there is evidence of abuse of a dominant position or market abuse. Whilst the Government does not generally intervene in what businesses charge consumers for their goods and services we do recognise concerns about transparency and trust in the dairy supply chain. A number of supermarkets have pledged to pay a premium over and above the current market price. This is welcome and gives some respite to farmers. Some retailers have also taken steps to increase the number of dairy products they source from the UK and improve country of origin labelling on cheese.

The Groceries Code which has been in operation since 2010 and the Adjudicator which came into force in 2013 have had a positive impact on the relationship between retailers and suppliers in the dairy chain. The Code was a specific remedy recommended by the Competition Commission following an extensive investigation into the UK grocery market. A review of the Adjudicator is due this year and will include a Call for Evidence on the case for extending the Groceries Code Adjudicator’s remit in the UK groceries supply chain and, as part of this, we will look at how this can further help the farming industry.

January 1, 2023
Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 10 October 2016 to Question 46333, how much has been spent on the functions of the Department for International Trade; and what estimate he has made of how much will be spent on those functions by the end of the current fiscal year.

Mark Garnier

Following her appointment on 13 July 2016 the Prime Minister established the Department for International Trade (DIT). Until such time as a transfer of functions order establishes my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade as a corporation sole, DIT remains a unified Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) department for accounting purposes. The transfer of functions order (No 2016/ 992) laid on 19 October 2016 will come into effect on 9 November 2016.

DIT is a new Department and is in the process of establishing a separate and distinct budget for its operating costs. This will be shared with Parliament through the Autumn Statement and Supplementary Estimates.

January 1, 2023