Category: Speeches

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much financial support they have provided directly to refugee camps in the Middle East since the beginning of 2015.

    Baroness Verma

    The vast majority of Syrians who have fled Syria live amongst host communities. HMG’s response is therefore focused on refugees in these communities, not solely those living in formal and informal camps.

    In financial year 2015/2016, DFID has allocated £151 million to support Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities in the region, including £94 million in Lebanon, £47 million in Jordan and £10 million in Turkey. Spending in these countries in financial year 2014/2014 was £120 million, including £62 million in Lebanon, £48 million in Jordan and £10 million in Turkey.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to respond to the Children’s Commissioner’s report, Protecting Children from Harm, published in November 2015.

    Edward Timpson

    The report captures the findings from the first part of the Children’s Commissioner’s inquiry into child sexual abuse in the family environment. The Government will give careful consideration to the findings of the full inquiry when it is completed in December 2016.

    Tackling child abuse is a priority for this Government. This Government has set up the first ever cross-government Ministerial Child Protection Taskforce to overhaul the way police, schools, social services and others work together in tackling this abhorrent crime. The taskforce’s work will build on the Government’s wide-ranging reforms to create a care system that puts children’s needs first. This includes the appointment of a Chief Social Worker to champion reform in the profession, a £400 million investment in social work training, and cuts to bureaucracy to free up social workers to do what they do best.

    We have also invested an extra £100m to support vulnerable children and we areproviding £7m for services supporting survivors of child abuse.

    The Government is committed to driving forward fundamental reforms to protect the most vulnerable children in our society and give them the opportunity to succeed.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many solar power companies there were in (a) Lancashire, (b) the North West and (c) Britain in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

    Andrea Leadsom

    DECC does not hold information on the number of solar power companies. However, data on the number of solar photovoltaic installations (including households) by UK region, are available for 2010 to 2014. This is given in the table below. DECC does not hold information by UK county. Data for 2015 for the UK as a whole will be available on 28 January 2016, and by region in September 2016.

    End-2010

    End-2011

    End-2012

    End-2013

    End-2014

    North-West England

    1,404

    17,723

    33,208

    41,960

    54,583

    Britain (England, Scotland and Wales)

    25,684

    221,000

    374,778

    465,678

    574,582

    Source: Regional Renewables Statistics, 2003-2014, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/regional-renewable-statistics

    Data by Local Authority (for 2014 only) are available on the same link. Monthly solar installations data for the UK as a whole are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-photovoltaics-deployment

    “

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many Article 4 directions to restrict the application of permitted development rights in local areas have been made by (a) local planning authorities and (b) the Secretary of State in the last three years; how many times he has restricted or amended those developments by local planning authorities in that time; and how many such cases relate to planning permission for the construction of basements.

    Brandon Lewis

    Between 2013 and 2015 the Department was notified of 256 article 4 directions made by local authorities. The Department made no article 4 directions and modified eight.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the consultation on a national school funding formula will begin.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The spending review announced our commitment to making school funding fairer by introducing a National Funding Formula for schools. Implementing such a large scale reform of the distribution of over £40 billion of education funding is a detailed and complex issue, and one we must get right. It is paramount that we consult with the public and sector, and we will set out, and consult on, our detailed plans for a National Funding Formula in due course.

  • Mary Creagh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Mary Creagh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mary Creagh on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of how many indebted prepayment meter customers there are in (a) Wakefield constituency and (b) the UK; and what the change in the number of such customers has been over the last five years.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Ofgem closely monitors domestic energy supplies’ performance and publishes information on the number of prepayment meters installed for debt in Great Britain each year. The data does not show how many prepayment meters were installed for indebted customers in the Wakefield constituency.

    The table below shows the number of prepayment meters installed to manage debt in GB in 2010 to 2014. Ofgem does not monitor the gas and electricity supply market in Northern Ireland, as it is devolved matter.

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    Gas

    199,964

    184,726

    208,235

    226,999

    195,841

    Electricity

    227,352

    199,483

    211,519

    227,886

    175,348
  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to encourage other nations to contribute bilateral donations to the Great Lakes regional appeal.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    The UN regional refugee response covering Burundian refugees is for $314 million (£216 million) and is currently funded at 27%. DFID has contributed £21.15 million to that appeal since April 2015, to support refugees in Tanzania and Rwanda. We are considering further allocations to address the continuing crisis. DFID is also supporting refugees in the DRC and Uganda through existing programmes and the provision of technical advice. DFID is working closely with other donors to the appeal such as the EU and US, as well as UNHCR and NGOs, to highlight priorities and encourage other countries to donate.

  • Rob Marris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rob Marris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rob Marris on 2016-06-14.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 18 January 2016 to Question 20373, what criteria he has used to assess the level of competitiveness in the motor insurance market.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government is committed to ensuring that insurance markets operate on the basis of fair and open competition.

    The Government has established the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to promote competition for the benefit of consumers and investigates any issues that may arise in this respect, including in insurance markets.

    In 2014, the CMA investigated the competitiveness of the UK private motor insurance. It found evidence that there was strong price competition for motor insurance sold via price comparison websites (PCWs), which are responsible for over half of insurers’ new motor insurance business, and that PCWs had increased competition between private motor insurance providers overall.

    Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) data on “net combined ratios” of motor insurers provides further indication that there is strong competition in the private motor insurance market.

    The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills also found that the private motor insurance has high switching rates compared to other markets, providing another indicator of strong competition.

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-09-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect on gender equality of school uniforms.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The department has published advisory guidance on school uniform policy. The guidance makes clear that it is for the governing body of a school to decide whether there should be a school uniform policy and if so what that should be. It also makes clear that, when deciding on uniform policy, a school will have to consider its obligations not to discriminate unlawfully, including on the basis of gender.

    The guidance can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.

    “

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support international efforts to improve tax transparency and accountability.

    Mr David Gauke

    A major focus of the UK’s G8 Presidency was tax transparency and combatting offshore tax evasion. As part of this the UK promoted the development of a new global standard for reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information in order to effectively tackle the global problem of tax evasion. Due in large part to the UK’s leadership, over 90 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to the new global standard – known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – and will begin automatically exchanging information under the standard by 2017 or 2018. The receipt of large amounts of information on offshore accounts under the CRS will mark a step change in HMRC’s ability to crack down on tax evasion.

    During our G8 Presidency, we also drove forward the international work on country-by-country reporting (CBCR), calling on the OECD to develop a template for CBCR reporting as part of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The OECD template is aimed at providing tax authorities with information on the global allocation of profits and taxes paid and accrued by multinationals, as well as indicators of economic activity in each country. The UK was one of the first countries to commit to implementing the OECD template for CBCR with legislation in the Finance Act 2015.

    The final package of measures developed under the BEPS project was published by the OECD on 5 October 2015, and endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October and the G20 Leaders at their summit on 15-16 November. The UK welcomes the outcomes of the BEPS project and will give full consideration to the OECD’s recommendations.

    In addition, the UK has actively supported the revision of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, to ensure the effective exchange of information about cross-border tax rulings between EU Member States. This directive was agreed in October 2015, and will come into force from 1st of January 2017.