The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 26584, on housing: young people, what conditions vulnerable young people have to meet in order to qualify as being in need of support.
Mr Marcus Jones
Young people’s eligibility for support with their housing costs is set out in the relevant benefit regulations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Moynihan on 2016-03-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government between which dates the current President of the World Anti-Doping Agency was a consultant to UK Anti-Doping; how much he was paid; and what his responsibilities were.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Sir Craig Reedie was appointed a Special Advisor to UK Anti-Doping in 2009. The role was created to provide expert advice to UK Anti-Doping, primarily during its formative phase, as and when required. Under this appointment, Sir Craig Reedie was not commissioned to provide any expert advice and therefore received no payment from UK Anti-Doping. He formally stood down from this role on his appointment to President of the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Marlesford on 2016-04-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what academic studies have been conducted into the financial case for bat bridges over roads, and what assessment they have made of the conclusions of those studies.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Highways England are not aware of any studies conducted into the financial case for bat bridges. Work in 2015 undertaken by Leeds University, on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), did look at the effectiveness of bat bridges.
Highways England have reviewed the study and met with Natural England and DEFRA to discuss the conclusions of the report.
While the conclusions of the Leeds University work are based on limited sample size, the authors conclude that the effectiveness of crossing structures increases with their size, connectivity and similarity to natural features. They also conclude that wire bat bridges do not provide effective mitigation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-06-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether current female genital mutilation protection orders contain information on girls’ country of origin and nationality.
Lord Faulks
An application for an FGM protection order may include information in relation to the country of origin or nationality of the person to be protected if it is relevant to the application. This information would not necessarily be included in every application or order granted.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Hodge on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Attorney General, how many times the Law Officers’ Departments have used the services of (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms in the last three financial years; and what (i) work was undertaken and (ii) the cost to the public purse was on each such occasion.
Jeremy Wright
The Government Legal Department (GLD) and the Attorney General’s Office have not procured any consultancy advice or support in the last three years.
GLD has used two of the firms specified to provide support to litigation cases involving the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The table below shows the amount spent with PwC and KPMG.
|
Supplier |
2013/14 Total Value (Net) |
2014/15 Total Value (Net) |
2015/16 Total Value (Net) |
|
PwC |
£1,187,975 |
£1,221,674 |
£603,938 |
|
KPMG |
£241,920 |
£308,576 |
£208,364 |
Over the past three financial years Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service (HCMPSI) has spent £47,440 on consultancy services to provide general advice and support to the Chief Inspector and £6,662 to assist with a review of the shape and size of HMCPSI.
The table below sets out payments made for the past three financial years by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to the above firms and the reason for payment. None of these payments were for consultancy services. The SFO have engaged some other firms who provide consultancy services but in all cases this was for forensic accounting or expert witness services in support of our investigations rather than consultancy.
|
Supplier |
2013/14 Total Value (Net) |
2014/15 Total Value (Net) |
2015/16 Total Value (Net) |
|
Deloitte |
– |
£8,732 |
– |
|
PwC |
£12,500 |
£1,259 |
£8,262 |
|
KPMG |
– |
£4,800 |
– |
The Deloitte spending related to data recovery. PwC and Ernst & Young expenditure related to payment to an expert witness for an SFO case.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has not incurred any expenditure with PwC, Ernst and Young or KPMG in the last three financial years.
he CPS has incurred expenditure with Deloitte. However, records of each separate engagement are not maintained and the department is therefore unable to confirm the number of times Deloitte’s have been engaged.
Central records of total CPS expenditure are maintained and expenditure with Deloitte’s for each of last financial years is shown in the table below.
Deloitte LLP Milton Keynes
|
Year |
£’s |
|
2013/14 |
9,661 |
|
2014/15 |
20,952 |
|
2015/16 |
26,347 |
|
Total |
56,960 |
The payments relate to building works and associated services in respect of three offices the CPS has lease agreements on and where Deloitte’s act on behalf of the properties landlords.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Blackford on 2016-10-19.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the quantitative easing programme on defined benefit pension schemes.
Simon Kirby
Monetary policy is set independently by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England. The minutes to the MPC’s August meeting, in which the Committee expanded its asset purchase programme, noted that ‘lower yields posed potential risks to some aspects of the functioning of the financial system, for example by increasing the deficits of many pension funds’ but concluded that ‘at present, however, those effects appeared to be relatively limited’.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2015-11-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will ensure that any agreement on a central registry of beneficial ownership in Anguilla will include access for the public with legitimate reason.
Mr Hugo Swire
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the answer given by my Rt Hon Friend, the Member for South West Hertfordshire (David Gauke MP), the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, to questions 10437, 10438 and 10448, which sets out the criteria we expect the Overseas Territories to meet in relation to their central register of company beneficial ownership, or similarly effective system.
We are continuing our dialogue with the Anguilla authorities on this and have offered any technical support that might be required as they develop their proposals.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mann on 2015-11-30.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that medical and fuel supplies for Nepal are not blocked by the Indian government.
Mr Hugo Swire
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 26 November 2015 (PQ 17369) and 16 November (PQ 15614).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lingfield on 2016-01-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, charities not in receipt of grants from public funds will be subject to freedom of information requests.
Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government will announce its intentions about the development of the Freedom of Information Act once it has received and considered the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information’s recommendations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-02-03.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the planned increase in stamp duty on the ability of people to purchase a retirement property in advance of selling their primary home.
Mr David Gauke
From 1 April 2016 higher rates of SDLT will be charged on purchases of additional residential properties, such as second homes and buy-to-let properties. The higher rates will be 3 percentage points above the current SDLT rates. This is part of the Government’s commitment to supporting home ownership and first-time buyers.
The Government has carefully considered the case where a purchaser buys a new main home in advance of selling an old one. Where there is a temporary overlap between replacing and selling a main residence, the Government intends that higher rates will apply but the purchaser will be entitled to a refund of the higher amounts when they dispose of their previous main residence within 18 months.
The Government has consulted on the changes to ensure they are introduced in a fair way. The final policy design will be confirmed at Budget on 16 March 2016.