Category: Speeches

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has provided to local authority children’s services on the practice of breast ironing.

    Edward Timpson

    Breast ironing is child abuse and it is illegal. It cannot be excused as a cultural or traditional practice. Children’s services should safeguard children from this as from any other form of abuse. Statutory guidance for local authorities and others on how to safeguard children can be found in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’[1].

    The Home Office is leading cross-Government work to tackle so-called honour-based violence, and the Department for Education contributes to this work. I refer the Hon. Member to the response submitted by the Home Office to the Parliamentary Question on this issue, No. 34114, on 19 April 2016.

    [1]https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf

    “

  • Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions have taken place between the Department of Health and the Department for International Development regarding the draft Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis 2016–2021.

    Baroness Verma

    The UK Government welcomes the development of this strategy for preventing, diagnosing and treating viral hepatitis. DFID works very closely with the Department of Health and we have a joint delegation to the World Health Assembly.

    DFID supports improving the access to clean and safe water and hygiene promotion to reduce the risk of transmission of hepatitis A and E. We are the largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which increases access to immunisation in low income countries. This includes protection against hepatitis B. The UK supports UNITAID, which is working to improve access to better diagnostics for Hepatits C and we are supporting the Clinton Health Access Initiative to reduce prices and increase access to new treatments. In addition DFID supports comprehensive harm reduction programmes and strategies through its support to the Global Fund, which help reduce transmission of both HIV and Hepatitis C.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of people in (i) Leeds North West constituency, (ii) the Leeds City Region, (iii) West Yorkshire and (iv) Yorkshire are paid less than the Living Wage Foundation’s living wage.

    Chris Skidmore

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

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, when her Department plans to publish its Bilateral Aid Review.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government intends to publish the outcomes of the Bilateral Aid Review shortly.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-11-19.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many jobs will be created at each of the 13 new HM Revenue and Customs regional centres by 2021.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) announcements about the move to regional centres focus on where it will deliver its business from in the future. HMRC expects that most of its current staff will be able to travel to one of the new sites. HMRC has quoted the expected sizes of its regional centres. The smallest will hold 1,200 to 1,300 full-time equivalent (FTE) members of staff and the largest will hold more than 6,000. More details will be available when final staffing levels are agreed.

    The plans are part of HMRC’s long-term transformation into a smaller, more highly-skilled operation offering modern, digital services.

    The number of people relocating from individual offices will be known when lines of business have finalised their plans and individuals have had the opportunity to discuss their personal circumstances in one-to-one meetings with their manager.

    Overall, HMRC has planned on the basis that it is likely to have about 50,000 FTE posts by 2021.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what transitional arrangements are being made for local authority employees who administer housing benefit when responsibility for that benefit moves to universal credit.

    Priti Patel

    Any transitional arrangements are the responsibility of the Local Authority, but we will work with them to manage the impact of these changes in a way which minimises the need for any redundancies. Where this does not prove possible, after the exercise of all reasonable efforts to redeploy people, the Department has given Local Authorities a commitment that we will meet their costs of any residual redundancies.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much was awarded to businesses in Brighton and Hove under the Government Start-Up Loans scheme; and how much of that has been repaid to date.

    Anna Soubry

    To date over £1.1million has been lent through Start-Up Loans issued in Brighton and Hove. Of this, over £268,000 has been repaid.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which estate agents in London have been penalised for failing to comply with the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 in each year since the introduction of those regulations; and what the level of the fine was in each such case.

    Harriett Baldwin

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is unable to provide any information which would identify its customers. The Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 gives HMRC a duty of confidentiality which applies to all information it holds in connection with its functions.

    In 2014-15 HMRC issued 677 penalties to the total value of £768,000. This is for all HMRC supervised businesses in the UK. The total includes estate agency businesses which HMRC supervised from 1 April 2014. This is three times the total value of penalties issued in 2013-14.

  • Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-03-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.248 of the Budget 2016, to which Department bids to help develop the next generation of small modular reactors will be submitted.

    Greg Hands

    Following the announcement made at the Budget, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched the first phase of a competition to identify the best value small modular reactor for the UK on the 17th March. This development builds on a previous announcement, made at Autumn Statement 2015, that DECC would conduct this competition to help pave the way towards building one of the world’s first small modular reactors in the UK.

    The relevant documentation for the competition is available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/small-modular-reactors

  • Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers have been subject to penalties for non-compliance with Single Farm Payment Scheme requirements in each of the last five years; and what the total value of those penalties was.

    George Eustice

    The volume of penalties, plus their value for Single Payment Scheme claims, for the last five years of the scheme are below.

    We have not yet finalised information for the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme.

    Scheme Year

    Number of Claimants In Breach

    Value €

    2014

    2,703

    2,489,438

    2013

    2,134

    2,781,039

    2012

    1,574

    1,704,085

    2011

    1,722

    2,594,023

    2010

    1,493

    2,329,495