Category: Speeches

Bill Esterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of his proposals for automatic enrolment of employees in pension schemes on businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

Justin Tomlinson

In 2010 the independent Making Automatic Enrolment Work (MAEW) review considered the impact of automatic enrolment on small and micro businesses. DWP’s impact assessments and on-going evaluation of Automatic Enrolment continue to monitor the costs and benefits of automatic enrolment on small businesses, including those with fewer than 10 employees.

DWP’s evaluation reports and impact assessments are all available online.

01/01/2023
Clive Betts – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many new homes of each type of tenure he plans will be funded by measures announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

Brandon Lewis

The Spending Review and Autumn Statement made last week reaffirmed this Government’s commitment to keeping the country building, to delivering the homes communities want and supporting hard-working people who aspire to own their own home to be able to do so.

Over £20 billion was secured for housing from the Spending Review. This includes £8 billion to deliver over 400,000 affordable starts, and a further £12 billion of housing investment which will support our 1 million homes ambition by 2020/21.

The Spending Review package announced last week supports a variety of tenures, including affordable homes for rent, shared ownership schemes and starter homes. It also supports home ownership through supporting custom build, the extension of Help to Buy, and extending the Right to Buy to tenants of housing associations.

Precise splits between differing types of tenure will depend on the nature and quality of bids recieved for new funding programmes, and on the type of sites coming forward.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20639, whether franchise agreements for future franchises within the South East Flexible Ticketing geographical area will include an obligation for operators to subscribe to that programme.

Claire Perry

We are keen that operators significantly increase the uptake of smart ticketing across all franchises and we have challenged the industry to move forward with the development of new ticketing technologies. We are working with the Rail Delivery Group to work out what would need to be specified in franchises, but it is too early to say what those specifications could look like.

01/01/2023
Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the effect on the number of teachers of the Government’s policy to consider for deportation after five years non-EU migrants earning less than £35,000 per annum.

Nick Gibb

The Department does not collect data on the nationality or immigration status of the school workforce.

This is a local matter for schools and all schools must employ members of the school workforce in accordance with employment law.

01/01/2023
Diane Abbott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications of the findings of the report by Europol, Migrant Smuggling in the EU, published in February 2016, for her policies on tackling smuggling through the criminal justice system.

James Brokenshire

The Government’s system-wide approach to tackling Organised Immigration Crime is based on information and intelligence from a wide variety of sources. The Government takes Organised Immigration Crime very seriously – we are working to smash the criminal gangs that are fuelling this terrible trade in people. In June 2015 the Prime Minister announced the creation of the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce bringing together officers from the NCA, Border Force, Immigration Enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service. The Taskforce was subsequently expanded in November 2015 to more than 100 officers, and has had its funding extended until 2020. The Government values the intelligence-led approach to tackling Organised Immigration Crime Europol helps to facilitate, including through Joint Operational Team Mare, and welcomes the launch by Europol on 22 February 2016 of the new European Migrant Smuggling Centre which will proactively support EU Member States in dismantling criminal networks involved in organised migrant smuggling. The UK has been at the forefront of calls in the EU for a robust approach to tackling Organised Immigration Crime.

01/01/2023
Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding her Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

Mr Desmond Swayne

My Department has not received any funding from the European Social Fund.

01/01/2023
Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there is a specific allocation within Local Growth Deal funding for Local Enterprise Partnerships for spending on transport.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Department for Transport is contributing over £7 billion of the £12 billion Local Growth Fund. This includes £475m reserved for major transport schemes too large for regular Growth Deal allocations. We expect that transport schemes will continue to feature strongly in Local Enterprise Partnerships’ proposals for further funding, though LEPs have flexibility in what they bring forward and how they use the funding.

01/01/2023
Lord Teverson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Teverson on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to promote the development of energy storage.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

DECC published a document ‘Towards a smart energy system’ in December 2015, and we are investigating the potential barriers to deployment of energy storage and possible mitigating actions, focussing in the first instance on removing policy and regulatory barriers. DECC plans to issue a call for evidence on a smart systems routemap in the near future.

Since 2012, public sector support (including Ofgem innovation funding) for storage has topped £80m.

01/01/2023
Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-07-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will conduct an assessment on the potential effect on the manufacturing sector in Britain of reverting back to World Trade Organisation terms for exports.

Mr Nick Hurd

There has been no decision on the future terms of trade for the UK. In preparation for negotiations to leave the EU, the Government is undertaking work across a range of areas, including market access, across all sectors.

01/01/2023

Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many young offenders under the age of 18 have been admitted to a children’s mental health ward in each month since January 2014.

Dr Phillip Lee

We are committed to improving mental health treatment for young people in contact with the youth justice system. We are currently working with NHS England to develop a specific £24 million programme to address gaps in mental health provision for children and young people in contact with the justice system.

The information requested is as follows:

(1) Young offenders under the age of 18 (including those on remand) admitted to an adult mental health unit since January 2014

There was one such admission in November 2014.

(2) Young offenders under the age of 18 (including those on remand) admitted to a children’s or adolescent mental health unit since January 2014

The number of such admissions is set out in the table below:

Month of Admission	Number Admitted

January 2014	nil
February 2014	5
March 2014	5
April 2014	3
May 2014	1
June 2014	nil
July 2014	1
August 2014	nil
September 2014	2
October 2014	3
November 2014	1
December 2014	4

Month of Admission	Number Admitted

January 2015	2
February 2015	1
March 2015	1
April 2015	nil
May 2015	3
June 2015	4
July 2015	2
August 2015	1
September 2015	4
October 2015	2
November 2015	nil
December 2015	2

Month of Admission	Number Admitted

January 2016	nil
February 2016	nil
March 2016	1
April 2016	3
May 2016	3
June 2016	1
July 2016	2
August 2016	nil

Note 1 – the figures may represent individual offenders admitted more than once since January 2014.

Note 2 – these figures represent restricted patients only.

01/01/2023