Category: Speeches

Margaret Ritchie – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2014-04-09.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received on the future of HM Revenue and Customs’ centres in Northern Ireland.

Mr David Gauke

HMRC has recently announced its intention to consult on the proposed closure of 12 of its general offices across the United Kingdom. This process will start in June 2014 and will include one office in Northern Ireland; Custom House, Newry.

HMRC officials and I met with you and three parliamentary colleagues representing Northern Ireland interests on 15 January 2014. At this meeting HMRC officials advised that none of its general offices will close until at least 2015.

As already announced on 12 February, HMRC will be closing its 10 Northern Ireland Enquiry Centres later this year. This is as a result of HMRC introducing a new service, supporting customers who need extra help getting their tax and benefits right. This service will offer customers who need extra help more in-depth support on the phone and a mobile advisory service if they need a face-to-face appointment. HMRC will roll out the new service across the UK from 31 May 2014, followed by the closure of Enquiry Centre network by 30 June 2014.

HMRC has widely consulted with third parties on the Enquiry Centre closures and piloted the new service in the North East of England

01/11/2022
Nigel Dodds – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the names and causes of death of all UK service personnel who died in the course of or in connection with operations in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2007.

Mr Mark Francois

A definitive central list of those Service personnel who lost their lives on operations in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2007 has not been formally produced to date, though the respective regimental or service histories and records are available, together with Defence’s central data and the Armed Forces Memorial lists maintained by the tri-Service Joint Casualty and Compassionate Cell. The Department intends to produce a single centrally collated document in due course, however, which will be made available through gov.uk once complete.

01/11/2022
Ian Lucas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lucas on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) Palestinians and (b) Jews displaced from their country of origin in the Middle East since 1984.

Hugh Robertson

We have not made an estimate on this issue and do not keep records of this type.

01/11/2022

Sir John Randall – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sir John Randall on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative assessment of the sources, reliability and mutual compatibility of the statistics on the number of human trafficking victims from Albania given in parliamentary written answers and in the annual reports of the National Crime Agency.

Karen Bradley

A comparative assessment has been made.

Parliamentary questions regularly ask for specific details about suspected
victims of trafficking referred to the trafficking victim support service
operated by The Salvation Army.

The source of this data is The Salvation Army records.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) publishes statistics each year on the number of
potential victims who have been referred to the National Referral Mechanism.

The source of this data is the NCA records.

The two sets of figures measure slightly different things but are mutually
compatible.

Not all of the potential victims who are referred to the National Referral
Mechanism will then be referred to The Salvation Army for victim support. Some
might not receive a positive reasonable grounds decision and others might not
want Government-funded support.

We would therefore expect the number of cases referred to the National Referral
Mechanism, reported by the NCA, to be higher than the number of cases referred
to The Salvation Army for victim support, reported by the regular Parliamentary
questions.

This is borne out by our comparative assessment. The table below lists the PQs
that have requested data about the numbers of potential victims referred to The
Salvation Army, and lists the number of Albanian victims supported each month.

In total, this data indicates that there were 139 Albanian adult victims
referred to The Salvation Army for victim support in 2013 in England and Wales.

This is lower than the 208 potential adult Albanian victims who were originally
referred to the National Referral Mechanism in 2013 from England and Wales, as
reported in the NCA’s annual report.

Month	MP	Hansard Reference	No. of Albanian Victims Supported
January	Tony Baldry	14 February 2013, c866W	5
February	Amber Rudd	11 March 2013, c33W	9
March	Margot James	3 June 2013, c925W	7
April	Robert Buckland	3 June 2013, c927W	14
May	David Simpson	19 June 2013, c712W	10
June	Chris Ruane	10 July 2013, c276W	9
July	Fiona Bruce	6 February 2014, c325W	12
August	Caroline Spelman	28 October 2013, c358W	9
September	Peter Bone	14 October 2013, c512W	16
October	Fiona Bruce	3 December 2013, c613W	23
November	John Randall	9 January 2014, c277W	17
December	Frank Field	14 January 2014, c481W	8
TOTAL			139

01/11/2022

Karl McCartney – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the Supreme Court’s judgment in Summers v Fairclough Homes that exaggerated or fabricated personal injury claims might be struck out in exceptional circumstances; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Government is committed to reducing the number of fraudulent personal injury claims. To this end, we are considering what specific reforms might be appropriate.

As announced last year, we are working with stakeholders in the industry to tighten the medical evidence process so that only evidence from accredited experts can be considered, and the costs for those reports can be fixed. This will mean people can no longer profit from exaggerated or fraudulent compensation claims but victims with genuine cases can still get the help they deserve. We are introducing these reforms later in the year. We are also working to secure better data on motor accident cases, including the number of fraudulent cases.

01/11/2022
Jim Murphy – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Murphy on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to emphasise the importance of education provisions and support for disabled children, their teachers and families in order to ensure that Millennium Development Goal 2 is attained.

Justine Greening

The UK Government’s programmes and partnerships are focused on ensuring better inclusion of children with disabilities. For example, the Girls’ Education Challenge is supporting over £9 million of disability-focused programmes.

In September 2013 we announced two additional commitments to step up our support; ensuring all DFID funded education construction is fully accessible and improving data on children with disabilities.

01/11/2022
Justin Tomlinson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Tomlinson on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to extend Pulse Oximetry screening for children.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The UK National Screening Committee has recommended that a pilot for pulse oximetry screening for children should be set up to explore the practicalities of implementation. Ministers have accepted this advice and a pilot will commence shortly.

01/11/2022
Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2014-04-29.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are employed by HM Revenue and Customs in regional post rooms at each location in the UK.

Mr David Gauke

As requested please find detailed below staff numbers employed in HMRC Regional Post Rooms employed solely in post room activities.

Shipley 45

Cardiff 65

Bootle 35

Newcastle 98

Cumbernauld 46

I also refer the Honourable Gentleman to my answer on 12 May 2014.

01/11/2022
Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, who authorises the public release of photographs of aircraft that are intercepted during Quick Reaction Alert flights.

Mr Mark Francois

Photographs are routinely taken during Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) interceptions. There is strong public and media interest in the RAF Quick Reaction Alert deterrent capability. MOD policy is to release a limited amount of non-sensitive information on QRA launches, sometimes including photographs. This provides the public with strong examples of how the RAF is able to respond to this kind of incident. It also provides public awareness of the RAF’s ability to defend the UK through the effectiveness of its air defences and to maintain the full deterrence value of the QRA mission. Media enquiries regarding QRA launches also often include requests for photographs.

Consequently, RAF Operations Staffs in coordination with MOD officials, including the MOD Directorate of Media and Communications, will occasionally consider these photographs for public release.

Photographs of a recent QRA mission were released on 25 April 2014. The previous release of photographs of intercepted aircraft from a recent mission was in March 2010; additionally for other QRA information releases in the last three years, MOD have utilised stock images from the Defence Image Library.

01/11/2022
Ian Lavery – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Lavery on 2014-04-29.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library a copy of the business case for the outsourcing of compliance checks on tax credits claims.

Nicky Morgan

From April to July 2013, HMRC carried out a trial to test whether it would be feasible to increase the number of compliance checks on tax credits claims, through the use of private sector resource. HMRC will publish the evaluation of the trial and the customer research report in due course.

It is not appropriate to place the business case in the public domain given the commercial sensitivities and the risk of prejudice to HMRC’s ability to tackle tax credits error and fraud.

In terms of the external costs of the trial, I refer the Hon Member to the Thirty-Fourth Report of the Committee of Public Accounts [2013/14] into HMRC Tax Collection: Annual Report & Accounts 2012–13, which may be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpubacc/666/66602.htm. All internal HMRC operating costs are published annually in the HMRC Annual Report and Accounts.

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01/11/2022