Category: Speeches

  • Danny Kinahan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Danny Kinahan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment the Government has made of the risks to the security of electricity supply in Northern Ireland posed by the failure to build and have operational by 2020 the 400kV North-South electricity interconnector between County Tyrone and County Meath.

    Mr Ben Wallace

    Non-nuclear energy policy is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and the responsibility of Northern Ireland Executive Ministers.

  • Alan Whitehead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alan Whitehead – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Whitehead on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what plans she has for her Department’s Office of Carbon Capture and Storage.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Government continues to view Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as having a potential role in the long-term decarbonisation of the UK’s power and industrial sectors. The detailed design and implementation of CCS policy changes are currently being assessed.

  • Bill Esterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Bill Esterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much on average was owed in late payment debt to SMEs in each of the last 10 years.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department does not hold the information required. However, BACS data shows that small and medium businesses are owed a total of £26.8 billion, and the average small business is waiting for £31,900 in overdue payments.[1]

    The Government recognises that late payment remains an important issue for small businesses in the UK and is taking significant steps to assist small businesses to recover late payment debts. This is part of a package of measures to tackle late payment. We have also legislated for new transparency measures in the public and private sectors.

    The Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 legislated for new reporting requirement on the UK’s largest companies and Regulations will be introduced this year which will compel larger companies to report on payment practices and performance. This information will be published on a six-monthly basis and will be made publicly available.

    The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 introduced a requirement for all public-sector buyers to publish annually, from 2017, their liability to debt interest payments. In central government we have gone further and faster. We will be publishing against these requirements quarterly from April this year. This will allow full public scrutiny of payment performance.

    Through the Enterprise Bill, currently before Parliament, we will legislate to establish a Small Business Commissioner to give general advice and to help small businesses resolve disputes relating to payment matters with larger businesses.

    Tackling late payment is about creating a responsible payment culture where larger companies recognise the benefit of having a sustainable and robust supply chain, and smaller businesses feel able to challenge poor behaviour. Once implemented, the Government is confident that these measures will lead to significant changes in the UK’s payment culture.

    [1] BACS Data June 2015.

  • Lord Krebs – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Krebs – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Krebs on 2016-02-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the levels of compliance with the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999, as amended, and the effectiveness of those Regulations in reducing lead poisoning of waterbirds.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    Through the Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999, the use of lead shot ammunition is restricted to protect waterfowl from lead poisoning. Its use is banned on all foreshores, certain Sites of Special Scientific Interest and for the shooting of all ducks and geese, coot and moorhen. The supply of lead weights for fishing is also prohibited. One recent piece of research suggests compliance with the Regulations is relatively low with around 70% of wild duck carcasses bought from game dealers in England having been shot with lead ammunition. We will continue to look at how the Lead Shot Regulations can be better implemented.

  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people applied to have their circumstances changed to give them recourse to public funds in the last quarter; and what proportion of such applications were successful in (a) the first quarter of 2016 and (b) the second quarter of 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    Data for Q1 2016 is not yet available. However, in the last quarter for which statistics are publicly available (October – December 2015), 765 people applied to have their circumstances changed to give them recourse to public funds and of these 3.9% were successful, however a significant proportion of these cases are pending their final decision and as such the final proportion may be higher.

    In Q2 2015 (April – June 2015), 750 people applied to have their circumstances changed to give them recourse to public funds. 735 of those applications had been concluded by the end of the publicly available statistics and 270 had been successful, which equates to a proportion of 36.7%.

  • Robert Syms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robert Syms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Syms on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will postpone the start date for the introduction of standardised packaging on tobacco products in order to undertake an assessment of the implications of the post-implementation review of a similar measure in Australia on his policies in this area.

    Jane Ellison

    The Government has no current plans to postpone the introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco products. The Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 come into force on 20 May 2016. Standardised packaging is an important public health measure and any delay in implementing the policy would also delay the health benefits from accruing. The Government continues to consider relevant information and evidence on standardised packaging, including the Post-Implementation Review of Tobacco Plain Packaging published by the Australian Government last month.

  • Baroness Thomas of Winchester – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Baroness Thomas of Winchester – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Thomas of Winchester on 2016-05-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will publish the number of people with disabilities who are seeking asylum.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    At present the Asylum Transparency Agenda Data set does not report information on asylum claimants with disabilities nor are there plans for this to be included. In addition we do not currently record this information in a readily accessible format.

  • Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-06-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the current Commissioner for Birmingham City Council’s children’s social care services started work; how long his appointment is for; what progress reports he has provided to the Secretary of State; and whether those reports are in the public domain.

    Lord Nash

    Andrew Christie was appointed Commissioner for children’s social care services in Birmingham in December 2015. The statutory Direction that appointed him lasts until September 2016. He reports regularly to the Secretary of State. These reports are not in the public domain.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to remove restrictions on local authorities raising council tax to meet the needs of their communities.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    The Government is committed to working with local authorities to protect hard-working council tax payers from excessive increases. In the Spending Review, the Government announced a new adult social care precept worth 2 per cent for authorities with responsibility for adult social care for the remainder of the Parliament, subject to the approval of the House of Commons. This new precept was in addition to a ‘core’ council tax referendum principle of 2 per cent, which would be reviewed annually. The Government has set out its proposals for council tax referendum principles for 2017-18 in the Local Government Finance Settlement Technical Consultation, released on 15 September 2016.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings (a) Ministers of her Department and (b) officials of HM Prison Service have had with drone manufacturers in each quarter of each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Details of all ministerial meetings with external companies are published on gov.uk. Information on officials’ meetings is not held centrally.

    We remain vigilant to all incidents involving drones and take the threat they pose to prison security very seriously. We have already introduced new legislation to further strengthen our powers, so that anyone found using a drone in an attempt to get contraband into prisons can be punished with a sentence of up to two years imprisonment. We take a zero tolerance approach to smuggling of contraband into prisons and work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure those caught are prosecuted.

    A range of methods to counter the threat posed by drones are continuously being trialled and evaluated for their effectiveness across the prison estate.