Category: Speeches

Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-10-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much income tax was paid by UK resident non-domiciled people in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what proportion of the total income tax receipt those amounts were.

Jane Ellison

The information requested is set out below :

Tax Year	Number of Non-Domiciled Individuals	Number of UK Resident Non-Domiciled Individuals	Income Tax Paid by UK Resident Non-Domiciled Individuals (£bn)	Proportion of Total UK Income Tax (%) paid by UK Resident Non-Domiciled Individuals
2010/11	115,100	80,900	6.09	4%
2011/12	113,200	80,200	6.20	4%
2012/13	116,600	81,700	6.29	4%
2013/14	118,200	83,000	6.56	4%
2014/15	118,100	83,400	6.44	4%

01/01/2023

Gavin Newlands – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide support for women who have been affected financially as a result of changes brought about by the Pension Act 2011.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government will not be revisiting the State Pension age arrangements for women affected by the Pensions Act 1995 and Pensions Act 2011. These women will receive their State Pension either at the same age as men or earlier as we remove current gender timetable inequality.

The equalisation of State Pension age was necessary to meet the UK’s obligations under EU law to eliminate gender inequalities in social security provision. The Pensions Act 1995 contained legislation to equalise women’s State Pension age and, since April 2010, women’s State Pension age has been gradually increasing. Following sharp increases in life expectancy projections, and therefore the increase in the number of people living longer in retirement, this timetable was accelerated by the Pensions Act 2011.

A concession was made prior to the passing of the 2011 Act which reduced the delay that anyone would experience in claiming their State Pension, relative to the previous timetable, to 18 months. This concession benefited almost a quarter of a million women, who would otherwise have experienced delays of up to two years. A similar number of men also benefited from a reduced increase, and the concession was worth around £1 billion in total.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the reasons in the discrepancy between the proportion of granted asylum claims which are made to people from Pakistan and the proportion of applicants under the detained fast-track procedure who are from that country.

James Brokenshire

The basis of an individual’s asylum claim is not recorded on Home Office systems. It is not therefore possible to differentiate Pakistani applicants claiming for reasons of religious persecution and discrimination from Pakistani applicants claiming for one or more other reasons in the Detained Fast Track (DFT) or the non-detained process.

Certification under section 94 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 is not requested by an applicant. It is applied by the Secretary of State in circumstances where the applicant’s claim is refused and considered to be so lacking in merit as to be clearly unfounded.

The number of initial certified refusals for Pakistan main asylum applicants, from year ending September 2013 to year ending September 2015, was 604. The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications and decisions on a quarterly and annual basis. The information supplied on certified refusals is based on initial decisions which do not necessarily relate to applications made in the same period.

No assessment has been made of any difference that might exist between grant rates in respect of Pakistani applicants in the DFT process when it operated, and cases entering the non-detained process at the same time. However, as the DFT process avoided claims involving particular complexity and/or vulnerability, and prioritised cases which appeared to be late or opportunistic, it is to be expected that the DFT would have fewer grants than the non-detained process.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-12.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent communications his Department has had with the National Archives on the release of Cabinet papers dated between 1986 and 1988.

Matthew Hancock

The Cabinet Office has regular ongoing communications with the National Archives.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office met National Archive officials to discuss the release of Cabinet Office papers for the 1986 to 1988 period on two occasions.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on benefit and tax credit demand from workers who are Royal Mail employees at franchises of former post offices; and what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost of that demand to the public purse.

George Freeman

Royal Mail and Post Office Limited are separate independent businesses. Post Office Limited runs and manages its directly managed Crown post offices. Employees of these offices are employees of Post Office Limited. Changes to the Crown network are an operational matter for Post Office.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who will take the decision on whether (a) the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and (b) the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership are agreements requiring ratification by Parliament; and when such a decision will be taken.

Anna Soubry

The decision as to whether the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will be mixed agreements will be taken by the EU and its Member States when each agreement is signed.

01/01/2023
Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure equality of educational attainment between boys and girls at all key stages.

Nick Gibb

Our goal is to deliver educational excellence everywhere, so that every child and young person can achieve to the best of his or her ability. Girls’ key stage 2 results are better than ever and their entries to mathematics and science A levels have increased by more than 12,000 since 2010. We continue to consider what more needs to be done to support equality in educational attainment, in particular the justified concerns about white working class boys.

01/01/2023

Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Main on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have spent on infraction proceedings in each of the last 10 years.

Matthew Hancock

The Cabinet Office, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have incurred nil expenditure on infraction proceedings before the European Court of Justice.

Figures held centrally by the Cabinet Office are set out below, which show costs incurred by other government departments in engaging counsel as a result of infraction proceedings issued against the UK before the Court.

	2010/2011	2011/2012	2012/2013	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016	2016/2017 (year to date)
BIS	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
CO	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DCLG	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DCMS	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DECC	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DEFRA	Nil	£1,740.00	Nil	Nil	Nil	£8,791.61	£966.66
DfE	£780.00	3,630.00	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DfT	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DFID	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
DH	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	NIl	NIl
DWP	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
FCO	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
HMT (HMRC)	£687.50	£3,797.50	£16,610.67	£24,004.95	£6,749.99	£9,834.99	Nil
HO	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
MoD	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
MoJ	Nil	Nil	£2,520.00	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
NIO	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
SO	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
WO	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil

*The above represents all data held. We do not hold financial records on these matters before FY 2010/2011.

The UK has never been fined by the European Court of Justice as a result of infraction proceedings.

Costs for departments include costs incurred by non-departmental public bodies and agencies for which they are the lead department. While some departments will have incurred ad hoc costs in the pre-litigation stage of infraction proceedings, and costs associated with the attendance of government officials at infraction hearings, the cost of identifying that data would be disproportionate.

Departments do not quantify the cost of time spent by government officials throughout the infractions process.

01/01/2023

Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the timetable is for the Digital Economy Bill.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Digital Economy Bill will be introduced to Parliament shortly.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-09-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effect on consumers of the practice by certain mobile phone companies of enforcing a two-week wait before customers can receive their unlock codes in order to change provider.

Matt Hancock

At Autumn Statement 2015, we challenged the mobile phone industry to improve their handset unlocking practices; since then operators have committed to unlocking many more of their customers’ handsets for free, and as of this autumn, no major mobile provider will charge a customer to unlock their phone outside of an initial contract period.

During the Government assessment of handset unlocking practices in early 2016, the major mobile providers were challenged on their turnaround times for issuing unlock codes. Although many providers state that it can take up to 10 working days to issue an unlock code, this is only in the instance that the provider has to contact the handset manufacturer to obtain the unlocking code. In the majority of cases, providers are able to issue unlock codes within 1-3 working days.

01/01/2023