Category: Speeches

Jessica Morden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jessica Morden on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank represents value for money to the public purse.

Anna Soubry

The Government is following best practice recommended by the National Audit Office (NAO) to ensure a sale of the Green Investment Bank achieves value for money. This includes following the NAO’s recommendations on Government asset sales that were set out in its report on the sale of the Government’s shares in Eurostar.

We are consulting with the NAO about the approach we are taking, and will continue to assess whether we are achieving value for money for the taxpayer through all stages of this process.

01/01/2023

John Mann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what receipts were received by each police force from the proceeds of crime in 2015.

Mr John Hayes

More assets were taken off criminals in 2014/15 than ever before. £199 million was recovered, and hundreds of millions more was frozen and put beyond the reach of criminals. The table below shows the total receipts from cash forfeited by each police force, and receipts from confiscation orders in the financial year 1 April 2014-31 March 2015.

The table includes data for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. However, the figures for the Police Service of Northern Ireland are for cash forfeitures only, as under the devolution settlement, all confiscation receipts are retained by Northern Ireland, and the Home Office holds no data.

Police Force	Total receipts from cash forfeiture orders and confiscation orders in the year 2014-15
Avon & Somerset Constabulary	£1,490,611.90
Bedfordshire Police	£1,094,410.68
British Transport Police	£556,348.90
Cambridgeshire Constabulary	£720,660.84
Cheshire Constabulary	£2,484,655.12
City of London Police	£2,555,229.61
Cleveland Police	£556,308.05
Cumbria Constabulary	£1,135,771.58
Derbyshire Constabulary	£676,892.51
Devon & Cornwall Constabulary	£1,398,001.79
Dorset Police	£275,603.19
Durham Constabulary	£739,926.17
Dyfed-Powys Police	£196,955.52
Essex Police	£1,636,232.98
Gloucestershire Constabulary	£1,321,446.18
Greater Manchester Police	£6,823,306.05
Gwent Police	£755,622.39
Hampshire Constabulary	£1,357,509.31
Hertfordshire Constabulary	£1,895,544.77
Humberside Police	£1,009,594.15
Kent Police	£1,710,364.42
Lancashire Constabulary	£2,125,492.14
Leicestershire Constabulary	£1,462,857.28
Lincolnshire Police	£440,109.19
Merseyside Police	£3,971,554.79
Metropolitan Police Service	£23,518,346.51
Norfolk Constabulary	£605,485.18
North Wales Police	£555,579.35
North Yorkshire Police	£395,279.48
Northamptonshire Police	£1,607,162.05
Northumbria Police	£827,194.86
Nottinghamshire Police	£924,929.87
Police Service of Northern Ireland	£521,050.22
South Wales Police	£1,313,813.78
South Yorkshire Police	£1,666,790.98
Staffordshire Police	£1,099,376.89
Suffolk Constabulary	£939,571.40
Surrey Police	£1,081,929.13
Sussex Police	£1,089,285.30
Thames Valley Police	£834,890.14
Warwickshire Police	£263,041.41
West Mercia Constabulary	£698,110.14
West Midlands Police	£4,689,385.89
West Yorkshire Police	£5,062,763.87
Wiltshire Constabulary	£430,894.47

01/01/2023

Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total (a) budget and (b) full-time equivalent workforce was of the Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit in each of the last five years.

Mr John Hayes

The Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) receive referrals from a number of sources including the public and law enforcement partners. The unit also self-generates referrals.

All referrals are assessed by CTIRU against UK terrorism legislation (Terrorism Act 2000 and 2006). Those that breach this legislation are referred to industry for removal. If industry agrees that it breaches their terms and conditions, they remove it voluntarily.

Referrals made to industry by CTIRU have led to over 150,000 pieces of terrorist-related material being removed to date from various online platforms. Overall, removals at the request of CTIRU have increased from around 60 items a month in 2010, when CTIRU was first established, to over 4000 a month in 2015.

For reasons of national security we do not publically disclose the detailed allocation of funding for counter terrorism by capability.

01/01/2023
John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that the food served to members of the armed forces at his Department’s facilities run by Sodexo meets his Department’s standards; and what sanctions are in place to deter violations of such standards.

Mark Lancaster

The Department is aware of concerns that have been expressed about the standard of food served to members of the Armed Forces.

The Department has in place a number of safeguards to ensure a good quality of food. These include; contract monitoring, site visits, reviews, customer engagement and assurance by Single Service catering subject matter experts to improve on the service provided.

Any complaint over food can be raised through the chain of command or directly with the contractor by way of a complaints book.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the 10 Point Plan for a Better Openreach proposed by the industry coalition comprising Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, the Independent Networks Cooperative Association and the Federation of Communication Services in their letter to Ms Sharon White, Ofcom, dated 16 May 2016.

Mr Edward Vaizey

I am pleased to see that the industry is engaging constructively with Ofcom on this issue. The Government’s ambition is to ensure that the UK has the right infrastructure to meet the needs of business and consumers and enable the UK to remain a leading digital nation. We welcome Ofcom’s determination to tackle these issues and agree with the Regulator’s view that the current relationship between BT and Openreach will not deliver the country’s needs for more competition, better innovation and better service. Our belief is that Ofcom should be firmly focused on taking whatever action is needed to correct the competition problems identified, however radical a change that might be.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a programme to introduce more oysters in the waters around the UK.

George Eustice

Fisheries management is a devolved issue in the UK. The Government currently has no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of a programme to introduce more oysters to the waters around England.

Oyster restoration schemes currently underway in the UK include the Chichester Harbour Oyster Partnership Initiative, the Essex Native Oyster Regeneration Initiative, and an initiative in the Solent led by the Blue Marine Foundation.

In 2005, Defra and Seafish commissioned Cefas to produce a feasibility study of native oyster (Ostrea edulis) stock regeneration in the UK. The full report is available on the Seafish website.

01/01/2023
Barry Gardiner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons his Department has not renegotiated the Contract for Difference for Hinkley Point C; and if he will make a statement.

Jesse Norman

The commercial terms of the Hinkley Point C contract, including the strike price and protections for consumers, have remained as announced in autumn 2015..

As announced on 15 September 2016, the overall package includes additional commitments from EDF to safeguard against changes of ownership of the developer which have been brought into force through an exchange of letters.

01/01/2023
Mary Creagh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, through what channels his Department plans to disburse the £3.2 million payment from the Fire and Rescue Authorities to private landlords for smoke and carbon dioxide alarms after the introduction of the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015.

Brandon Lewis

To help landlords prepare for introduction of the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015, my Department provided £3.2 million of non ring-fenced funding to local Fire and Rescue Authorities to purchase and distribute smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to landlords.

These regulations aim to protect tenants from fire and carbon monoxide poisoning in the home, and to further that aim we would expect Fire and Rescue Authorities to continue distributing any remaining alarms following the introduction of the regulations to help landlords comply, therefore safeguarding more tenants.

The Chief Fire Officers Association Home Safety Committee are planning to conduct further research and analysis on the distribution of the free alarms in the new year.

01/01/2023
Adam Holloway – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Holloway on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will not make a decision on the choice of Thames Crossing options A and C until a decision is made on the proposed London Paramount theme park.

Andrew Jones

The Government is committed to a new Lower Thames crossing. There is a need for increased capacity across the River Thames due to growth in general traffic and a range of developments in the Thames Gateway, including housing planned around Ebbsfleet. The location and route needs to be decided following further public consultation, expected to begin early this year, to ensure that the new crossing can be in place as soon as possible.

01/01/2023
Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2015 to Question 657, what tangible progress towards the EU-US Free Trade Agreement had been made by the end of 2015; and whether any agreement in principle had been reached on that matter by that date.

Anna Soubry

There have now been eleven rounds of negotiations for the EU-US Free Trade Agreement also known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). A significant step forward was taken last June when the US Congress passed the Trade Promotion Authority bill (fast track authority for trade agreements). The agreement reached at the end of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (in the Asia Pacific region) last October is further good news, and allows the US to increase focus on TTIP.

The last negotiating round took place in October. A significant milestone was reached with the exchange of revised tariff offers, which would see tariffs almost completely removed. Negotiators also discussed all aspects of market access in public procurement. This helps prepare the ground for the first exchange of procurement offers expected in February.

We are making tangible progress and our ambition remains to reach an agreement under the Obama presidency.

01/01/2023