Category: Speeches

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) legal fees for employment tribunals for the last twelve months, where invoices have so far been received (January 2015 – December 2015), total £46,385.52. The FCO is in the process of recovering £3,000 of this following a Costs Order in our favour.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to which location he plans to relocate his Department’s functions out of London.

    Joseph Johnson

    The Department has not yet made final decisions on its future estate. As my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise has already informed the House, the current plans for the Department’s future estate are for:

    • A combined HQ and policy centre in London
    • Business-facing centre, likely to be in South Wales
    • Institutional and Research funding centre, likely to be in Swindon, but may initially also include Bristol
    • Further education funding centre – location yet to be decided but may initially be in Coventry
    • Higher education student finance centre, initially in Glasgow and Darlington
    • A regulation centre likely to be in Birmingham
    • A combined regional footprint for where service delivery to local users need to happen on a local basis, comprising the BIS Local offices and local service delivery
  • Jack Lopresti – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jack Lopresti – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Lopresti on 2016-04-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the UK’s (a) payments to the EU, (b) receipts through EU schemes and (c) receipts through the UK rebate in each year between 2020 and 2030.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Treasury’s approach to estimating the net cost of the EU budget to the UK over the long term is set out in Annex B of HM Treasury Analysis: the long-term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives, publicly available at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517415/treasury_analysis_economic_impact_of_eu_membership_web.pdf

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that staff in her Department receive religious literacy training.

    Nick Gibb

    We currently have no plans to carry out religious literacy training in the Department.

    Civil Service Learning, the main training portal for Civil Servants, has a broad range of diversity and inclusion courses, which are available to all civil servants. There is also a two day course covering both Abrahamic and Dharmic religions for officials who need a more in depth understanding to carry out their role.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much (a) government and (b) industry funding the UK Defence Solutions Centre received in the financial year 2015-16; and how much such funding is projected for 2016-17.

    Jesse Norman

    The Defence Growth Partnership (DGP) is an industry led group, established jointly by industry and government to deliver export-led growth within the Defence sector. It does not receive any public funding. Since 2014, it has enabled joint industry and government resource equivalent to £50 million over three years to achieve its agenda: £30 million for strengthening the UK Defence & Security Organisation and establishing the UK Defence Solutions Centre (UKDSC). The remaining £20 million is currently delivered through a number of initiatives supporting the DGP’s growth agenda: establishment of the Centre of Maritime Intelligent Systems (CMIS); Dual Use Technology Exploitation (DUTE) cluster and the MOD Innovation Challenge fund.

    Government and industry have committed through a mix of cash and resource equivalent to £3.8m in 2015-16 to the UKDSC and a similar figure is predicted for 2016-17. As of 1 April 2016, there were 4 staff directly employed by the UKDSC and 28 secondees from across the 16 DGP Partner Companies.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the cost of applying country-of-origin checks to UK businesses in the event that the UK leaves the EU without joining the EU Customs Union.

    Margot James

    The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is currently working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union to understand the impacts of applying country-of-origin checks to UK businesses in the event that the UK leaves the EU without joining the EU Customs Union. As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has said we will work hard to get the best deal for Britain.

  • Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-10-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average (a) duration and (b) cost to the caller of a telephone call to HM Revenue and Customs’ tax credit telephone lines was in the most recent 12 months for which data is available; and how much revenue was generated from these calls.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not track each customer journey end to end through the phone system, and cannot therefore provide the average duration time as requested.

    HMRC does not hold information of the cost of a call to its lines. I would refer to my answer given on 13 July 2015 to UIN 5712.

  • Jess Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jess Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 13 of the NHS’ Five Year Forward View, what progress NHS England has made on the commitment to give patients choice over where and how they receive care; and how progress on that commitment will be assessed.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS England is working to secure a sustained improvement in awareness, offer, operation and take up of choice by 2020. This includes supporting the independent Maternity Services Review, which is due for publication early in the New Year, and taking forward any recommendations that relate to choice; improving the quality of End of Life Care and the choices people should have about where they receive their care and where they choose to die; strengthening choice in both physical and mental health elective services, to ensure that the NHS honours patients’ legal rights to choice of who provides their care; and securing choice in the design and implementation of new care models for the future NHS.

    NHS England has brought this work together with their programmes on personal health budgets and integrated personal commissioning, under a new Director and with additional resource, to accelerate the work in all of these areas in support of the Five Year Forward View commitment to deliver greater patient empowerment. Improvements will be assessed through a new national assessment framework for clinical commissioning groups.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of offenders of each offence type pleaded guilty to an offence during (a) the latest period for which information is available after 13 April 2015 and (b) the equivalent period of time before 13 April 2015 in (i) Magistrates Courts and (ii) Crown Courts.

    Mike Penning

    The proportion of defendants who were tried at the Crown Court and who pleaded guilty, by offence group, in England and Wales in 2014 can be viewed in the table.

    Centrally held information does not include the plea of defendants proceeded against and handled entirely within the magistrates’ courts. This is held on individual court records, which could only be examined at disproportionate cost.

    Final data for defendants tried at the Crown Court is only available up to the end of 2014.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department took to publicise the recent NHS Mandate Consultation.

    George Freeman

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for High Peak (Andrew Bingham) on 2 December 2015 to Question 18482.

    “