Category: Speeches

Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-03-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.19 of the report, Overview of Tax Legislation and Rates, published on 16 March 2016, what consultation with industry his Department undertook when considering which technologies will be added or removed from the list of qualifying technologies for the first-year allowance scheme for energy-saving and environmentally-beneficial technologies.

Damian Hinds

At Budget 2016, the Government announced changes to 100 percent enhanced capital allowances for energy-saving and environmentally-beneficial (water-efficient) technologies.

Each autumn, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) consult manufacturers and suppliers. DECC and Defra then recommend to Treasury Ministers updates to the schemes.

Details of the changes will be set out in Treasury Order 2001/2541 for energy and 2003/2076 for water in the next few months. As is routine, an impact assessment will be published alongside the Order.

01/01/2023
Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will give Ofcom the power to set or cap access charges with regard to 084 and 087 numbers.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom already has the power to impose tariff principles and maximum prices for the purpose of protecting consumers. Ofcom made changes in July 2015 to simplify non-geographic numbers and make call pricing clearer for consumers. This included making Freephone 080 and 116 numbers free from all telephones; and imposing a common simplified structure on revenue generating numbers – 084, 087, 090, 091 and 118 – which splits the price of the call between the phone company and the call service. Ofcom will be reviewing the effectiveness of these new regulations after their first year of operation and will consider whether further regulation should be imposed.

01/01/2023
Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to Belize and Guatemala on (a) adhering to the provisions established under the 2005 Confidence Building Measures related to the disputed border between those countries and (b) steps to improve confidence and trust between those countries.

Mr Hugo Swire

I last met Foreign Minister Elrington of Belize and Foreign Minister Morales of Guatemala on 25 May to discuss confidence building measures and further steps towards referring the border dispute to the International Court of Justice. We continue to encourage both countries to enhance confidence and trust between them by engaging in constructive dialogue, building on the provisions established by the 2005 Confidence Building Measures. We fund a number of projects to support increased economic activity in the border region, with the aim of reducing the need to cross the border illegally.

01/01/2023
Julian Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Knight on 2016-09-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to minimise the administrative effect on small businesses of information requests from the Financial Ombudsman.

Simon Kirby

The issue raised is a matter for the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) who are operationally independent from Government.

The question has been passed on to the FOS. The FOS will reply directly to the Honorable Member by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

01/01/2023
Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-10-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, at what (a) ministerial (b) official level the Government will be represented in the next round of the human rights dialogue with the Chinese authorities.

Alok Sharma

I intend to open the UK-China Human Rights Dialogue later this month. As in previous years, the UK delegation will be led by the Director of Asia Pacific Directorate in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

01/01/2023
Lord Berkeley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2015-11-02.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 28 October (HL2659) stating that there was no intention to seek a derogation from the technical specifications for interoperability in respect of dimensions of the GC structure gauge for new high-speed lines for station platforms, whether HS2 have withdrawn their letter to the European Commission dated 21 July that seeks such a derogation.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Department for Transport with HS2 Ltd are discussing with the Commission compliance requirements with the technical specification for infrastructure dealing with platform heights. These discussions are ongoing. The intention is, irrespective of the outcome of discussions on platform height, to meet the GC gauge requirements.

01/01/2023
Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many health trusts (a) Simon Stevens and (b) Sir Bruce Keogh have visited in each year since their appointments as Chief Executive and Medical Director respectively of NHS England; and on what dates they visited which health trusts in which locations.

George Freeman

This information is not held by the Department. NHS England has advised that this information is not routinely collected and it could only be collated and provided at disproportionate cost.

01/01/2023
John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what actions she will take to improve the quality of education provision by free schools in the South West.

Edward Timpson

The Government is committed to achieving educational excellence everywhere so that children in every part of the country, regardless of their background and circumstances, have access to an outstanding education.

Free schools benefit from the ability to act quickly to improve standards. The Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) for the South West is responsible for taking action to improve underperforming free schools in the region. Where a free school is identified by Ofsted as under-performing the RSC takes swift action, working with the school to develop robust plans for improvement including, for example, appointing strong new sponsors to run the school.

01/01/2023

Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many acute beds there were in each mental health trust in London since 2010.

Alistair Burt

The information is shown in the following table.

General and acute beds open overnight in mental health trusts in London

Quarter	Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust	East London NHS Foundation Trust	North East London NHS Foundation Trust	West London Mental Health NHS Trust
2011-12 Q1	0	0	135	0
2011-12 Q2	51	0	82	0
2011-12 Q3	51	0	83	0
2011-12 Q4	73	0	84	0
2012-13 Q1	73	61	126	0
2012-13 Q2	73	61	124	0
2012-13 Q3	73	61	115	0
2012-13 Q4	75	61	134	0
2013-14 Q1	75	61	112	0
2013-14 Q2	75	61	178	0
2013-14 Q3	75	61	214	0
2013-14 Q4	75	61	225	0
2014-15 Q1	73	61	203	0
2014-15 Q2	75	61	180	0
2014-15 Q3	74	51	174	0
2014-15 Q4	80	51	188	0
2015-16 Q1	73	51	192	0
2015-16 Q2	73	51	180	0
2015-16 Q3	72	51	176	20

Source: Bed availability and occupancy, NHS England

Notes:

Mental health trusts in London did not report general and acute beds in any quarter in 2010-11.

01/01/2023

Lucy Frazer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lucy Frazer on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he plans to undertake the review of shared ownership announced in the report, Proposals to streamline the resale of shared ownership properties, Consultation: summary of responses, published in March 2015.

Brandon Lewis

The Government carried out an internal review of Shared Ownership policy last year. Following this, the Autumn Statement confirmed £4.1 billion for 135,000 new Help to Buy: Shared Ownership starts by 2021. It also raised the income cap on Shared Ownership in England from £60,000 to £80,000, removed restrictions on who can buy Shared Ownership homes, enabled existing shared owners to climb the Shared Ownership ladder and removed restrictions on how many bedrooms Shared Ownership buyers can purchase.

The prospectus for the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme 2016 to 2021 was launched on 13 April 2016 and invites applications for up to £4.7 billion of funding to increase the supply of new shared ownership and affordable homes.

01/01/2023