Category: Speeches

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the minutes of the meetings of the HM Revenue and Customs’ Board and associated sub-committees for a) 2013 and b) 2014.

    Mr David Gauke

    It is HMRC’s policy to publish Board and Executive Committee minutes annually. The HMRC website is due to be updated with these in the next month. HMRC’s Annual Report contains a summary of the key areas of work for each sub-Committee over the previous year.

  • Nick Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Nick Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2014-03-14.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

    Results for all wards are available on the Commission’s website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

    The ward results for Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council were as follows:

    Ward

    Green matches

    Amber matches

    Red matches

    ABERTILLERY

    82.4%

    3.0%

    14.6%

    BADMINTON

    87.9%

    1.4%

    10.7%

    BEAUFORT

    86.1%

    1.6%

    12.3%

    BLAINA

    83.0%

    2.3%

    14.7%

    BRYNMAWR

    82.1%

    2.3%

    15.7%

    CWM

    85.4%

    1.6%

    13.0%

    CWMTILLERY

    84.9%

    1.9%

    13.2%

    EBBW VALE NORTH

    85.1%

    1.8%

    13.1%

    EBBW VALE SOUTH

    81.2%

    2.0%

    16.8%

    GEORGETOWN

    85.4%

    1.0%

    13.7%

    LLANHILLETH

    82.8%

    2.1%

    15.0%

    NANTYGLO

    83.3%

    2.6%

    14.2%

    RASSAU

    86.7%

    1.7%

    11.6%

    SIRHOWY

    85.3%

    1.7%

    13.0%

    SIX BELLS

    82.8%

    2.6%

    14.6%

    TREDEGAR CENTRAL & WEST

    84.0%

    1.9%

    14.1%

    “

  • Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the Passport Office to ensure it continues to meet the deadlines for applications to be processed and returned during the holiday period.

    James Brokenshire

    Her Majesty’s Passport Office looks to ensure that adequate resources are in place to meet demand whilst ensuring that resources are proportionate to that demand. Contingencies are in place to coincide with peak periods of demand e.g. school breaks and summer holidays.

    This primarily involves staff working overtime but also includes, as required, the redeployment of resources to support passport application examination staff and to assist in the handling of customer contact.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Deputy Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

    To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if his Department’s funding to improve registration will be given to local authorities that are spending (a) more than and (b) less than the average on voter registration.

    Greg Clark

    All Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have received funding, based on their levels of under-registration, to help with the costs of local activities to maximise registration, as part of the transition to Individual Electoral Registration.

    Funding allocations were based on the number of non-registered people, comparing the size of the register to the 16+ population. An element was based on the number of 16-18 year olds to encourage activity in schools to register attainers.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gareth Thomas – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2014-06-04.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will require banks and their financial institutions to release further personal and business lending data by postcode; and if he will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    In July 2013 the Government announced that it had reached an agreement with the major UK banks to publish lending data across 10,000 individual postcodes.

    The first dataset was published in December 2013 and shows the outstanding stock of lending that has been committed to customers across three categories; loans and overdrafts to SMEs, mortgages and unsecured personal loans (excluding credit cards).

    The data will allow challenger banks, smaller building societies, credit unions and community development finance institutions (CDFIs) to find areas where there is a lack of lending so they can offer finance to those customers who are crying out for support to help their business grow.

  • Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mr David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr David Hanson on 2014-03-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of how many (a) private and (b) public sector properties will be used for the vulnerable persons relocation scheme in 2014-15.

    James Brokenshire

    The Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme has been put in place to relocate to the UK some of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees, displaced to neighbouring countries by the on going conflict. We anticipate that it will support several hundred people over the next three years. On-going discussions with a number of local authorities regarding participation in the scheme will determine exact numbers to be relocated between 29 January 2014 and 30 May 2015. Given the continuing nature of these discussions, it is therefore too early to have a clear indication of the type of accommodation that will be available to house the relocated refugees.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what total income was received by the Passport Office in fees for (a) fast track and (b) premium service (i) in 2013 and (b) between 1 January and 31 May 2014.

    James Brokenshire

    Table A sets out the requested information in respect of how many telephone
    calls were received during the requested periods.

    Table B shows income received in fees for premium and fast track services.

    Table C provides information on the number of full time equivalent staff
    employed by HM passport Office on 31 December for each of the years from 2010 –
    2013.

    Table D sets out the number of first time passport applications and the number
    of passport renewals received during each month between January 2013 and May
    2014.

    In the period between 1 January and 31 May 2014, 31,188 straightforward
    passport applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office were not
    processed within the 3-week target.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the differential turnout was between the highest and lowest income group in each general election for which such data is available.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold this data. Some information on how turnout varies by socio-demographic factors is available from an analysis of public opinion polls carried out by Ipsos MORI around general elections. The data for 2010 can be found here: http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/2613/How-Britain-Voted-in

    “

  • Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Gareth Johnson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Attorney General, how many reported cases of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged 13 to 16 under section 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 were not prosecuted because of the 12 month statute of limitations for that offence in the last (a) year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years.

    Oliver Heald

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold records of the number of cases reported to the police or of the number the police decide not to proceed with. A record is held of the number of cases where the CPS has been asked to make a charging decision and the decision made; either to charge or take no further action.

    However, no central records of the alleged offence(s) considered at the pre-charge decision are held by the CPS. To obtain details of the number of allegations of unlawful sexual intercourse offences considered and those which do not proceed, either by way of decision to take no further action or discontinuance following charge, due to the 12 month Statute of Limitations would require a manual exercise of reviewing individual case files to be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.

  • Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2014-03-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his policy is on alternative models of compensating small businesses for sickness absence after the abolition of the percentage threshold scheme for recovering statutory sick pay.

    Mike Penning

    The Government believes that reinvesting savings from the abolition of the Percentage Threshold Scheme to establish the Health and Work Service is the most effective means of targeting public funds to tackle sickness absence. The Health and Work Service will reduce the length of sickness absence and offers a more proactive approach to sickness absence management. Small businesses are least likely to have access to occupational health services, and will benefit from having access to occupational health assessments and advice through the Health and Work Service.

    We have considered an alternative approach along the lines of restricting access to a reimbursement scheme to employers with fewer than five employees. However, this was discounted because it resulted in additional burdens on employers and additional Statutory Sick Pay reimbursement costs for the state.