Category: Speeches

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the likely timetable for conclusion of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership; and if he will make a statement.

    Anna Soubry

    There have now been twelve rounds of negotiations for the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The twelfth round took place in Brussels last week. We are making progress and our ambition remains to reach a political agreement on the bulk of the deal during the Obama presidency.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of barriers to humanitarian agencies reaching people in need in Yemen.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    Conflict is making humanitarian access within Yemen extremely difficult. Humanitarian agencies report that they are constrained in reaching areas of greatest humanitarian need and delivering assistance for a number of reasons including bureaucratic requirements imposed by the authorities, access challenges for international staff, insecurity in a number of districts, and a proliferation of checkpoints across the country.

    We continue to urge all parties to the conflict to take all reasonable steps to facilitate rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access. We work with trusted and impartial partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places.

  • The Earl of Clancarty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The Earl of Clancarty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Clancarty on 2016-04-28.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have carried out research to ascertain the degree of awareness of small businesses about intellectual property rights.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) IP Awareness Survey was first conducted in 2006 and was rerun in 2010 and early 2015. The survey establishes a sense of understanding of IP and IP rights across all sizes of UK firms and all sectors of UK industry. The most recent survey contained 3 sections: an IP knowledge section which tested the respondent’s familiarity with IP, a management section which sought to discover how firms were administering IP within their organisation and a final section which focussed on where IP information and advice was sourced from.

    Key findings include:

    • 94% of respondents thought that it was important for businesses to understand how to protect their IP.
    • 52% of responding firms had protected some sort of IP (either through a single right or a combination).
    • 65% of respondents thought that confidentiality agreements are important to protecting their IP. This method of protection was the most popular.
    • The majority of surveyed firms have not been involved in a dispute around IP, (over 75%).
    • 96% of firms have not valued their IP.
    • 79% of firms did not know that telling people about an invention before applying for a patent could lead to an unsuccessful application.
    • 28% of firms check they are not infringing other people’s IP, the most popular IP management activity amongst respondents.
    • 20% of firms indicated that they license their IP, allowing others to use it for a fee.

    In addition to this formal piece of research the IPO routinely surveys businesses in the course of designing and delivering its business support and outreach activities. This is intended to help to monitor and assess the effectiveness of these activities to ensure they are fit for purpose and if necessary improve, develop and even cease them for alternative approaches.

    The IPO is using findings from its own and other business surveys to inform its approach to business outreach and the creation of IP advisory and support tools.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-06-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of workforce confidence in the safe operation of commercial helicopter transport in the North Sea oil and gas industry.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The UK’s independent safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) takes seriously concerns raised in the safe operation of commercial helicopter transport.

    The CAA currently leads the Offshore Helicopter Safety Action Group (OHSAG) which seeks to drive through safety improvements.

    The Group is represented across industry and includes pilot and workforce representatives from key organisations to facilitate dialogue between helicopter operators, workforce representatives, manufacturers and regulators.

    The OHSAG has made significant safety improvements, including prohibiting helicopter flights in the most severe sea conditions.

  • Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    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.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will increase the level of funding made available to the Department of Health in the 2016 Autumn Statement to the level requested by the Chief Executive of NHS England.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Spending Review last year set out clear spending plans for the rest of the Parliament. The NHS will receive an additional £10 billion per annum more in real terms by 2020-21 than in 2014-15 which is £2bn more than what the NHS asked for. The Government is committed to delivering those plans.

  • Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Andrew Stephenson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people eligible for the Class 3A Voluntary National Insurance Contribution Scheme that have signed up to that scheme.

    Justin Tomlinson

    We do not hold application data for the State Pension top up (Class 3A) at a regional or constituency level. To obtain this would incur a disproportionate cost. Across the UK we have received 3193 applications for State Pension top up (Class 3A) in the scheme’s first 3 weeks.

    Up to c. 12m individuals are eligible for the scheme depending upon personal circumstances. In the first 3 weeks of operation there were 3193 applications for State Pension top up (Class 3A).

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to tackle obesity in children under 11.

    Jane Ellison

    Tackling obesity, particularly in children, is one of our major priorities. Progress has been made in recent years, but we know we have much further to go. We will announce our plans for tackling childhood obesity in the new year.

    In the meantime we are continuing to invest in the Change4Life campaign, which provides motivation and support for families to make small but significant improvements to their diets and activity levels. Industry has also taken a range of actions including removing billions of calories and tons of sugar from products and portion sizes have been reduced, but the challenge to industry to make further substantial progress remains.

  • Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2016-01-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the official records from 1987 relating to the ban on the publication of Spycatcher by Peter Wright have not been released to the National Archives under the 20-year rule.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Moving from a 30 year to 20 year rule has meant a doubling of the amount of information to be considered for release. The Cabinet Office is actively reviewing the remaining 1987 and 1988 records and will complete this work as quickly as possible.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-02-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much of the funding under the European Social Fund programme assigned to his Department he expects to allocate in the current funding round.

    Anna Soubry

    The Skills Funding Agency, one of the partner organisations of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has secured approximately £725,624,976 including administration costs from the European Social Fund (ESF) on behalf of 38 Local Enterprise Partnership areas. The Skills Funding Agency is currently procuring learning and skills activity identified by local areas. These funds are profiled to be spent by end March 2018.