Category: Speeches

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has made to the World Trade Organisation to request that anti-dumping measures are taken against the People’s Republic of China.

    Anna Soubry

    The World Trade Organisation does not have a role in conducting anti-dumping investigations. Responsibility for anti-dumping investigations and imposing anti-dumping measures against imports into the EU and the UK lies with the European Commission. These investigations are driven by requests from EU producers.

    The Government makes regular representations to the Commission concerning allegations of dumping of steel. My Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister pressed for more action on dumping of steel at European Council on 17 and 18 March. The government judges each anti-dumping case on its merits, based on the evidence presented by the Commission and on representations from interested parties, including producers, users and importers, but is strongly in favour of effective trade defences to tackle unfair trade practices where justified. We have voted in favour of anti-dumping measures on several steel products since July, including the imposition of provisional anti-dumping measures on reinforcing bar in January, an investigation for which we lobbied the Commission successfully, and on cold-rolled flat steel products in February.

    We have supported industry calls for higher duties on specific cases where this is justified by the evidence. For example, in the reinforcing bar case we have raised the steel industry’s concerns that the provisional duties were too low with the Commission. My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills spoke with Trade Commissioner Malmström about this and received assurances that the Commission will reconsider this during the definitive stage of the investigation, if industry can provide the necessary evidence.

    We also welcomed the opening of four new anti-dumping investigations involving steel products earlier this year.

    The Government continues to push the Commission for faster, more effective action to deal with dumping of steel. This was one of the conclusions of the Extraordinary Competitiveness Council on Steel in November, a meeting which my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills was instrumental in convening. In advance of the Commission’s energy-intensive industry stakeholder’s summit on 15 February – another key action from the Competitiveness Council – the government and several other EU Member States sent a joint letter to the Commission, pressing it to make full and timely use of all trade defence instruments to tackle unfair trade. I played an active role at this summit. My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has also raised these issues in discussions with Commissioner Malmström, most recently at the OECD conference on the challenges facing the steel industry on 18 April. My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) (Intellectual Property) reiterated the need for faster and more effective action on dumping at the Competitiveness Council held on 29 February and the Presidency conclusions of that Council reflected this message. I did likewise at the European Steel Day on 21 April. Officials also have regular discussions about anti-dumping cases with Commission officials and officials from other EU Member States.

    The Government is also supporting a robust discussion of the issue of overcapacity through the EU’s ongoing dialogue with the Chinese and other governments, including at the OECD conference. My Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister has discussed this issue directly with President Xi and was told that China will take steps to reduce its overcapacity. My Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer also raised it during his visit to China in February and my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills raised it with his counterpart in February. Similarly, my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs raised it during his visit to China in April.

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-06-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the British Virgin Islands were not invited to the UK Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Government invited leaders from those Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories that had agreed to the recent initiative on automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost was of the operation (a) in August and September 2014 in which RAF Hercules dropped food and other humanitarian supplies to civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar, Iraq and (b) on 30 and 31 August 2014 in which two RAF Hercules dropped food and aid to the town of Amerli, near Kirkuk.

    Mike Penning

    The cost of the operation to deliver food and other humanitarian supplies to civilians trapped on Mt Sinjar and Amerli in Iraq was £3.50 million. £1.97 million of this was charged to Department for International Development on a marginal cost basis and £1.5 million was covered by Operation SHADER. The costs cannot be split between individual locations as both used common air assets that were deployed under Operation SHADER.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase public awareness of the Community Trigger for reviewing anti-social behaviour complaints.

    Sarah Newton

    The Home Office does not collect or hold information on anti-social behaviour case reviews undertaken by local agencies using the Community Trigger process. The Government issued statutory guidance for frontline professionals in July 2014 on the use of powers to tackle anti-social behaviour introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

    This included information on the Community Trigger, including setting an appropriate threshold, publishing the procedure to be followed when making an application, and relevant data relating to use of the Trigger. We are currently reviewing the statutory guidance and we will publish revised guidance in due course if changes are required.

  • Rupa Huq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    Rupa Huq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Women and Equalities

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rupa Huq on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to reduce gender economic inequality.

    Nicky Morgan

    You cannot have true opportunity without real equality. Achieving gender equality isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s vital for our economy. We cannot afford to waste the skills of a single person, let alone half our population.

    The Government wants to support all women to fulfil their potential and progress in work. One of the greatest issues affecting both women AND men is childcare. That is why we are doubling the amount of free childcare available to working parents and introduced flexible working and shared parental leave.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-01-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2015 to Question 17211, how much revenue has been recovered by actively targeting operational and intelligence activity to tackle the issues of online VAT fraud in the last six months.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is actively targeting operational and intelligence activity, as well as a range of other options, to tackle this issue. The work is ongoing and therefore the information requested is only available at disproportionate cost. As part of the approach to tackling this particular type of tax evasion HMRC launched the e-marketplace campaign, the results of which are available on gov.uk.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

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

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage people to become pilots.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Secretary of State for Transport appointed Terry Morgan CBE to develop a transport infrastructure skills strategy, which was published on the 28 January. The strategy, which covers aviation and specifically pilot training, contains recommendations for both government and industry to act on.

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many pathologists qualified to conduct post-mortems there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2015.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Department does not hold this information.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-10-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of deaths caused by the naval blockade of Yemeni ports; and what part the UK has played in that blockade.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    There is no blockade, although some measures were put in place to prevent the flow of arms to Yemen. We welcomed the Government of Yemen’s announcement in October 2015 that all of Yemen’s ports were open.

    It is vital that commercial shipments of food and fuel enter the country to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis. That is why the Department for International Development is providing £1.42 million to support the establishment of the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism (UNVIM), which became operational on 5 May. It is successfully verifying, and where necessary inspecting, ships in line with UNSCR 2216 (2015). This should speed up the clearance process for ships and improve commercial confidence, increasing supply and in turn aiming to reduce the price of basic goods. We call on all parties to facilitate and respect the operation of UNVIM.

  • The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The Lord Bishop of Coventry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Lord Bishop of Coventry on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that they have sufficient measures in place to meet any humanitarian need arising from military efforts to liberate Mosul from Daesh.

    Baroness Verma

    Since June 2014, the UK has committed £79.5 million in humanitarian assistance to the crisis in Iraq. We are the largest contributor to the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund, which can provide rapid disbursements in the event of crises, such as sudden population displacements resulting from military operations. We have funded a contingency planning specialist to work with the Government of Iraq (GOI), Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the UN to support the humanitarian system in responding to needs arising from military efforts to liberate Mosul. This forms part of wider support by the UK to the GOI and KRG’s crisis response centres which have been developing humanitarian contingency plans ahead of any operations in Mosul.