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Category: Speeches

  • 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 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how he plans to secure comprehensive analyses of skills shortages in the UK economy after funding is withdrawn from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

    Nick Boles

    In the context of needing to make savings in non-participation budgets to allow the core adult skills participation budgets to be protected in cash terms, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has consulted the Devolved Administrations and other users of labour market information on future research priorities.

    These discussions have identified the significance of the Employer Skills Survey, the Employer Perspectives Survey and the LMI (Labour Market Information) for All Portal. We are considering how these can best be delivered in future and will announce future arrangements as soon as final decisions are made.

  • Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the whiplash reform programme.

    Dominic Raab

    Further reforms were announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in November. Those reforms will remove the right to compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity from minor whiplash injuries, and reduce legal costs by raising the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000. The government will consult on the detail of these reforms in due course, with a view to implementing them as soon as the necessary legislation is in place.

  • Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will amend the remit of the taskforce created to respond to the closure of SSI in Redcar to include the Teesside economy as a whole.

    Anna Soubry

    Where there are redundancies within the Tees Valley, the Government will work with local partners, including the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the Local Enterprise Partnership and the SSI Task Force to determine how support can be most effectively targeted to affected individuals. The SSI Task Force is already supporting the Tees Valley economy more broadly, for example through the £16m Support for Businesses Schemes, which the Task Force reports has created 186 jobs, safeguarded 326 jobs and committed £4.1m funding, attracting £6m in private sector match.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the agenda for the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016 will include the issue of reverse burden of proof as it applies to senior managers across the financial services industry.

    Matthew Hancock

    The summit will include wide-ranging discussions of ways of tackling corruption, including corporate secrecy, government transparency, the enforcement of international anti-corruption laws and the strengthening of international institutions.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-06-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the annual revenue arising from VAT on incontinence products is.

    Mr David Gauke

    VAT arising from the sale of incontinence products and VAT that is recovered on the purchase of incontinence products is not separately itemised on the VAT return, so the requested information is not available.

    However, there are many circumstances where incontinence products are supplied at the zero rate of VAT. This includes over the counter sales for personal use.

  • The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The Marquess of Lothian – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Marquess of Lothian on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many xenophobic and racist hate crimes were reported in England and Wales each month in the past year; what percentage rise, if any, there has been in the number of such crimes reported since 24 June; and what is their assessment of the causes of any rise.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Home Office publishes information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales annually. The most recently published data are for 2014/15 and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2014-to-2015

    Data for 2015/16 will be published in October 2016. It is planned that this publication will include some information on hate crime following the EU Referendum on the 23 June.

    Following increases in the reporting of hate crime and raised community tensions in late June, the National Police Chiefs’ Council requested weekly returns from forces across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. These show the number of all monitored hate crime recorded by forces, not just those that were racist or xenophobic.

    At its peak, these returns showed a 58 per cent increase in the reporting of hate crime in comparison to 2015. This has since subsided and we have now observed four consecutive weeks of reductions in reporting. The latest returns from 5 to 18 August show 2778 hate crimes and incidents. This is a decrease of 479 offences on the previous fortnight but it is a 14 per cent increase on the equivalent period in 2015. Full information on these statistics can be found here: http://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/tackling-hate-crime-remains-a-priority

    There is no single factor to which the rise in reporting can be attributed, and there is no current evidence to indicate the rise is due entirely to an increase in occurrence of hate crime. However, multiple factors, including the increased profile of hate crime in the media, greater awareness of hate crime and increased confidence in the police may have had an impact on levels of reporting.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will enter negotiations with her US counterpart to have the ban on British haggis imports to that country lifted once the UK has left the EU.

    George Eustice

    We are working with the US authorities to ensure the restrictions on British lamb are lifted as soon as possible. The US has a longstanding ban on the use of animal lungs as food, but the Scottish haggis industry is working on a US-specific recipe to allow the industry access to the US market at the earliest opportunity.

  • David Crausby – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    David Crausby – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the cumulative effect of the Pensions Act 1995 and the Pensions Act 2011 on women born in the 1950s.

    Justin Tomlinson

    An overview of the evidence considered when developing the policy for equalisation of the State Pension age, is provided in the 1993 White Paper, ‘Equality in State Pension age’, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library.

    Estimates of the effect of the increase in State Pension age in the Pensions Act 2011 are presented in the Pensions Act 2011 Impact Assessment, published in November 2011, available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181462/pensions-bill-2011-ia-annexa.pdf

    The latter assessment is a comparison of the impact of the Pensions Act 2011 timetable against the baseline of the 1995 Pensions Act timetable.

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  • 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 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to strengthen regulation of marketing of alcoholic drinks; and what the Government’s policy is on introducing minimum unit pricing for alcohol.

    Jane Ellison

    UK controls (regulatory and self-regulatory) control both the placement and content of alcohol advertising to prevent advertisers targeting young people.

    The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) police and promote the rules, which were strengthened in October 2005 and part of a general review of all the ASA codes in late 2009.

    The Government is committed to working with industry to address concerns over any irresponsible promotions, advertising and marketing relating to alcohol, particularly to ensure that children and young people are suitably protected.

    Material in the Committee of Advertising Practice and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Codes relating to the advertising and marketing of alcohol products is exceptionally robust, recognising the social imperative of ensuring that alcohol advertising is responsible and in particular that children and young people are suitably protected.

    If new evidence emerges that clearly highlights major problems with the existing Codes, then the Advertising Standards Authority has a duty to revisit the Codes and take appropriate action.

    The Government has no plans to introduce Minimum Unit Pricing although the evidence for all policy approaches is kept under review.

    We have noted the recent opinion of the EU Advocate General. We await a final ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union and we will continue to monitor developments.

    In the meantime we are pursuing targeted action to reduce alcohol-related harms.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what change there has been in the number of black and white television licences held in Northern Ireland between 1 January 2012 and 1 January 2015.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    According to TV Licensing, between 1 January 2012 and 1 January 2015, the number of black and white licences in Northern Ireland decreased by 404 licences, from 1,140 to 736.