Category: Speeches

Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Kenyan government on the attack of 6 October 2016 carried out by Al-Shabaab militants in Mandera County.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK government condemns the tragic loss of life during the Al Shabaab terrorist attack in Mandera, Kenya on 6 October. We have expressed our regret to the Kenyan authorities. The UK and Kenya have a shared interest in tackling terrorism, and we are committed to supporting the Government of Kenya and building capacity to counter this shared threat.

01/01/2023
Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what representations she has made to the European Commission on difficulties faced by milk farmers because of the low price of milk.

George Eustice

UK Ministers and officials have regularly drawn the Commission’s attention to the difficulties facing UK dairy farmers. The Commission has listened to the concerns raised by the UK and other Member States and has introduced a €500m package of targeted support for EU farmers. The UK has been allocated the equivalent of £26.2m as part of this aid package and this will be shared between dairy farmers on the basis of their milk production. Northern Irish farmers will receive a boosted payment in recognition of the very low prices in Northern Ireland. Payments are expected to be made in December 2015.

01/01/2023
Baroness Kennedy of Cradley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Kennedy of Cradley on 2015-11-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that tunnelling engineering skills in the UK are not lost.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

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In 2012, the Government published “Tunnelling: A Capability Analysis” which identified the tunnelling skills essential to deliver key projects, including Crossrail, HS2 and the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

To help meet this demand and maintain the UK’s skills base, the National Construction College delivers training at a purpose-built facility: the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in East London.

In September, the Government published the National Infrastructure Plan for Skills, to ensure the UK has the right skills base to deliver and maintain world-class infrastructure. This report sets out the scale of the challenge and is just the first step. The Government is now consulting with stakeholders across industry, academia and training providers to build a series of detailed actions to address the skills challenge.

01/01/2023
Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s report, Universal Credit Extended Gateway Evaluation, published on 6 December 2015, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the report’s finding on page 13, that 37 per cent of people claiming universal credit felt that their claimant commitment took account of their personal circumstances.

Priti Patel

The report shows that 85% of people claiming Universal Credit thought the Claimant Commitment took into account all or some of their personal circumstances. Of that, 37% thought that all of the requirements in their Claimant Commitment took into account their personal circumstances and an additional 48% felt that some of the requirements of their claimant commitment took their personal circumstances into account.

Universal Credit is having a positive impact on claimants’ movements into work. Other recently published research, ‘Estimating the Early Labour Market Impacts of Universal Credit’, demonstrates that UC has a substantial impact on the chances of people moving into work after they make a new claim. UC claimants were 8 percentage points more likely to get a job within 270 days of claiming than equivalent new claims to JSA made at the same time in similar areas by similar individuals.

01/01/2023
Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether there is an approved Final Business Case for the £600 million of further design work proposed for the Successor submarine programme.

Mr Philip Dunne

In line with normal Ministry of Defence processes, a business case for the additional investment referred to in the Strategic Defence and Security Review is going through the formal approvals process.

Options for the subsequent investment stages, including scope, time and cost are currently under consideration.

01/01/2023
Jonathan Reynolds – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Reynolds on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will ensure that all standards explicitly linked to the Renewable Heat Incentive are non-commercialised and publicly available to all relevant parties who may wish to offer services related to the implementation of that initiative.

Andrea Leadsom

The Department is currently working with industry to establish the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) as a legal entity. The accessibility of MCS standards referenced in the RHI regulations will be considered as part of that process to ensure that those standards which are mandatory for the purpose of the RHI remain publicly available.

01/01/2023
Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-15.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the amount of tax revenue lost due to the illicit trade in tobacco in each year for which data is available.

Damian Hinds

Estimates of tax revenue losses associated with illicit tobacco are published every year. The latest estimates, for the years 2006/7 to 2014/15, are published in ‘Tobacco Tax Gap estimates 2014-15’.

This can be accessed via the GOV.UK website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tobacco-tax-gap-estimates

HM Revenue and Customs makes no other estimate of the value of the illicit tobacco trade.

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for how long the proposed apprenticeship levy vouchers will be valid.

Nick Boles

Levy funds will expire 18 months after they enter an employers’ digital apprenticeship service account unless they are spent on apprenticeship training. This will also apply to any top-ups in the account. Expiration will take place automatically, but an employer’s digital apprenticeship service account will let them know in good time when any funds are due to expire so that the funds can be spent if the employer wishes to do so.

01/01/2023

Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-05-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many bed days were lost due to delayed transfers of care in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2015.

Alistair Burt

In 2015 there were 11,907 delayed transfers of care at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Month	Number of delayed transfers of care (days)
January 2015	1,194
February 2015	1,047
March 2015	958
April 2015	824
May 2015	916
Jun 2015	1,098
July 2015	1,139
August 2015	1,089
September 2015	861
October 2015	1,017
November 2015	975
December 2015	789
Total	11,907

Source: Delayed transfers of care, NHS England

01/01/2023

Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what bi-lateral discussions she has had with her counterparts in which EU member states on the long-term status of UK citizens in those member states.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government has repeatedly stated that there will be no immediate changes in the circumstances of UK nationals and their family members entering or currently residing in the European Union.

During the period of the negotiations, the UK remains a full member of the EU, entitled to all the benefits and obligations of membership. We have published guidance on gov.uk which makes this clear.

It is a Government priority to protect the legal rights of British nationals living in EU countries, as well as EU nationals in the UK, and we are confident that we will be able secure those things together during discussions with our EU partners.

As part of this process, the Secretary of State will continue to work closely with EU counterparts and with relevant stakeholders.

01/01/2023