The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Scott of Needham Market on 2014-06-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made on reaching a decision over proposals to increase rent arrear deductions from 5 per cent to 40 per cent under Universal Credit.
Lord Freud
We recently consulted on the proposal to increase the rate of rent arrears deductions in Universal Credit. We are currently considering the consultation responses.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Hart on 2014-04-03.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government has taken to extend the tax warehousing system to inland road fuel terminals throughout the UK.
Nicky Morgan
This information is held on a HMRC database and includes excise identification and approval numbers unique to the traders listed. For taxpayer confidentiality reasons this information is not publically available, and there is no intention to publish it.
Eligibility criteria for a duty deferment guarantee waiver under the Excise Payment Security System do not apply to or exclude particular sectors. These criteria are published by HMRC, and apply to all applicants.
HMRC is considering the future of the vapour recovery scheme as part of the wider work programme to determine the appropriate course of action in respect of all their extra-statutory concessions.
The Government’s policy is not to allow duty suspended movements within the UK, this is both for administrative simplicity and to reduce the opportunities for criminal activity and fraud.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2014-06-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the new President of Egypt concerning the opening of Rafah crossing to Gaza, in order to facilitate travel and the transfer of medical supplies.
Baroness Northover
We continue to urge the Egyptian authorities to ease the movement of bona fide travellers and humanitarian aid through Rafah. We call on Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to work together to enable a sustained increase in the legal flow of goods and persons from and to the Gaza Strip.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Jones on 2014-04-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of his proposed changes to energy company obligation funding on families in fuel poverty who were in flood risk areas.
Gregory Barker
The impact of the proposed changes to the Energy Company Obligation was estimated in the Assessment of Impacts published alongside the consultation document on 5th March:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-future-of-the-energy-company-obligation
No specific estimate was made for those fuel poor families specifically living areas of flood risk.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change intends to complete a full Impact Assessment as part of the Government’s response to the consultation later in the year.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Sharp of Guildford on 2014-06-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Student Loans Company does not provide up-to-date online information about the state of an account, detailing all repayments made into the account via the PAYE system since the last statement was issued.
Viscount Younger of Leckie
HMRC collates employer information on student loan deductions at the end of each tax year and provides this information in P14 “end of year summaries” to the SLC. The SLC calculate interest and statements are issued to borrowers, advising them of their deductions, interest and outstanding balance at the end of the tax year. This process is repeated annually until all student loan repayments are collected.
The repayment information held by the SLC will, as a result of this system, be accurate to the April of the previous tax year. The SLC is not in a position to provide an accurate settlement of a borrower’s balance more recently than the previous April. However, the borrower can track and monitor their own settlement balance online if they retain a note of all their repayment deductions made over the tax year.
HMRC, BIS and SLC are currently discussing arrangements to share student loan repayment information more quickly, but there is no mechanism to do so in the current tax system and necessary changes will take some time to implement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2014-04-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish a report on the implementation of the Department’s anaerobic digestion strategy and action plan for 2013-14.
Dan Rogerson
We intend to publish a further report on implementation of the Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan later this year.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the ethnic breakdown of workers on zero hour contracts.
Mr Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government’s most recent assessment is of the likelihood of President Assad complying with the agreed Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons timetable for the removal and destruction of Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.
Mr William Hague
Good early progress was made toward putting both Syria’s chemical weapons manufacturing facilities and the weapons themselves beyond use. However, the programme has fallen behind schedule and the regime has missed a number of interim deadlines, including the 31 December target for the removal of priority I chemicals, and the 5 February deadline for the removal of priority II material. It is the regime’s responsibility to comply with the timetable set out by the UN-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The UN Secretary General, the OPCW Director General and the coordinator of the OPCW-UN joint mission have assessed that Syria has all the equipment it needs to ensure the expeditious removal of the chemicals concerned. To date, approximately 54 percent of the declared chemical stockpile has been removed from Syria. The regime must significantly accelerate the movement of the chemicals to port to enable their removal if the 30 June deadline for the elimination of the chemicals is to be achieved.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of staff within his Department who have been subject to formal disciplinary proceedings in each of the last five financial years classed themselves as white British.
Brandon Lewis
It is not possible to provide definitive or meaningful percentages, as (a) not all staff declare their ethnicity, (b) due to the manner in which white ethnicity data is self-reported by staff , and (c) the sample sizes are so small as to be statistically misleading when comparing years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Curran on 2014-04-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment tribunals in Scotland have been processed by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in each year since 2010.
Mr Shailesh Vara
The Government is committed to working across the employment law (including the employment dispute resolution) system to help to make it easier for companies to hire and manage staff, while protecting workers’ rights. This encourages employers to create new jobs, supporting enterprise and growth.
Workload before the employment tribunals is affected by several factors, including underlying economic performance trends, the impacts of reforms of employment legislation and tribunals process, and the number of collective disputes (for example involving insolvencies, and equal pay complaints) that lead to large-scale multiple claims.
The number of claims accepted by employment tribunals and processed by HMCTS in each calendar year, since 2010, is set out in the table below.
Employment tribunal claims accepted in Scotland for Calendar years 2010 to 2013, inclusive
|
Calendar Year |
No. Claims Accepted |
|
2010 |
18,795 |
|
2011 |
16,670 |
|
2012 |
12,533 |
|
2013 |
7,506 |
Source: ET Database