Category: Speeches

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers of his Department have had with (i) arms manufacturers, (ii) tobacco manufacturers and (iii) representatives of the Israeli embassy since the period covered in the Cabinet Office’s most recent ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings data release.

    Joseph Johnson

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 26 February 2016 by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office to Question 27634.

    “

  • Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 75 of the Budget, how much of the £130 million announced for repairs of roads and bridges he plans will be spent in Calderdale; and when he expects Calderdale council to be in receipt of such funds.

    Andrew Jones

    From the total funding of £180 million the Department for Transport has made available to assist local highway authorities affected by this winter storms, including £130 million as announced in the Budget 2016, we have agreed to allocate a total of £25 million to Calderdale Council to help repair damage to the local highway infrastructure for which they are responsible. This includes the £5.5 million announced in January 2016 to help replace Elland Bridge.

    This funding is in addition to the funding of £‎20.5 million we are providing to the council for local highways maintenance funding to 2020/21.

  • Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what further steps she plans to take under the National Litter Strategy to reduce the number of bottles on beaches.

    Rory Stewart

    The National Litter Strategy will promote concerted, coordinated and effective actions to reduce litter and littering on land, which in turn should lead to a reduction in the amount of litter reaching local areas, including our beaches. To develop the National Litter Strategy we are working with a range of interested stakeholders, including representatives of the packaging industry.

    The Scottish Government is taking forward further work on the specific issue of a deposit return system for single-use drinks containers such as plastic bottles, and we will review any new evidence arising from this in the course of developing our own National Litter Strategy for England. However, in the meantime, we will continue to focus on improving existing waste collection and recycling systems for these items.

    In the UK, packaging producers who put more than 50 tonnes of packaging materials on the market a year, and have an annual turnover of more than £2 million, are required to recover and recycle a proportion of their packaging waste. As a result, most major bottle manufacturers and retailers who sell bottles pick up a financial obligation to recycle their packaging waste. More stringent recycling and recovery targets across the years led to a decrease in the proportion of bottles ending up in landfill and in litter. We will continue to focus on improving this system in future years.

    The UK Marine Strategy Part Three, published in December last year, sets out the actions we are taking to improve the marine environment. It covers measures that contribute to reducing sources of litter, including sources of beach litter, and to remove what has already reached our beaches. Actions related specifically to UK beaches include Defra-funded beach cleaning schemes on priority beaches.

  • Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has been asked by the Department for International Development to analyse why Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen from three percent in 1970 to less than two percent in 2014.

    Baroness Verma

    DFID, BIS and the FCO form a joint Trade Policy Unit which collectively works on issues of trade policy and trade facilitation and regularly scrutinises sectoral trade and growth trends across Africa.

    While Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen since 1970, this is mostly driven by the rise in manufacturing production in China and India. Manufacturing production is increasing across Africa, but with varying experiences across countries. African manufacturing grew at 3.5% annually in real terms over the last decade. However, manufacturing still represents on a small fraction of economic activity and it is our assessment that manufacturing in Africa is lagging.

    The World Bank calculates that 18 million jobs need to be created in Africa every year until 2035 to keep up with this growth. The Department for International Development is currently scaling up our efforts to boost manufacturing in Africa to help create jobs and economic opportunities. This adds to DFID’s strong portfolio on unlocking industrialisation and trade in Africa.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to ensure that the early years workforce strategy encourages the recruitment and retention of early years teachers.

    Nick Gibb

    We recognise the importance of the Early Years workforce in improving quality and delivering better outcomes for children. That is why we are committed to publishing an Early Years workforce strategy. The strategy will set out how we will help to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing staff. As part of the strategy, we will look at the barriers to increasing the number of graduates in the workforce.

    The Government currently delivers Early Years initial teacher training places, funds eligible graduates to undertake training and also provides student bursaries. Information about training routes is available from the Get into Teaching site: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

    “

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to paragraph 3.103 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, when her Department plans to launch the consultation on increasing the small claims limit from £1,000 to £5,000.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    Ministers are considering this issue and the Government will bring forward proposals in the coming months.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations his Department has made to the Israeli government on the Children in Military Custody report, funded by his Department, which was published in June 2012.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv have held roundtable meetings with Israeli officials to discuss the Children in Military Custody report, most recently on 19 May. Since the publication of the report, there has been some progress on the issue of children held in military detention. This includes piloting of sending summons instead of carrying out night-time arrests, changes to standard operating procedures on methods of restraint, and steps to reduce the amount of time a child can be detained before seeing a judge. There has also been a reduction in the use of solitary confinement and an increase in the use of Arabic to give notifications of arrest. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv continue to push for further progress with Israeli officials. On 27 August, our Ambassador to Tel Aviv lobbied the Israeli Military Advocate General on Children in Detention where the issue of child detention was discussed.

  • Karin Smyth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Karin Smyth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department plans to make a decision on whether to refer for consideration by NICE PRRNT treatment for pancreatic cancers.

    George Freeman

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recently consulted stakeholders on the suitability of Lutetium-177 Dotatate – a type of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) – for treating unresectable, somatostatin receptor-positive gastroentero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours without disease progression for referral to its technology appraisal work programme. A decision on its referral to NICE will be taken shortly.

  • Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Peter Kyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2016-01-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on micro-businesses of changes included in the Finance Bill in relation to dividend taxation.

    Mr David Gauke

    At Summer Budget 2015, the Chancellor announced that the dividend tax credit will be replaced by a new £5,000 tax-free dividend allowance from April 2016, and that dividend tax rates would be amended from the same date.

    A tax information and impact note setting out expected impacts was published on 9 December. This is available to view at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-changes-to-dividend-taxation/income-tax-changes-to-dividend-taxation.

    “

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to reduce the productivity gap.

    Greg Hands

    The government has published “Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation”, its plan for productivity growth in the UK. This plan outlines the steps the government is taking to encourage further investment in the drivers of productivity growth, including science, education, skills and infrastructure. It also sets out the ways the government is promoting a dynamic economy through reforming planning laws, boosting competition and creating a Northern Powerhouse.

    These steps include: investing £6.9 billion in the UK’s research infrastructure up to 2021; introducing a levy on large employers to help deliver 3 million apprenticeships starts this Parliament; guaranteeing that all revenue raised from VED in England from 2020-21 will be allocated to a new Roads Fund and invested directly back into the strategic road network; and creating a new “zonal” system which will grant automatic permission in principle on brownfield sites.