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Category: Speeches

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times officials in his Department responsible for procurement checked whether a contractor employed by his Department was under investigation for corruption with law enforcement agencies in the last two years.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Ministry of Defence (MOD) routinely carries out checks on potential contractors prior to contract award, including on criminal activity, such as convictions for tax evasion, bribery or fraud, and a review of a company’s audited accounts. These enquiries are conducted in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011.

    This process is reiterated in all competitive and single source tender documentation issued to tenderers prior to any contract award.

    Any suspicion of corruption is reported to the appropriate authority. Where justified, the MOD can exclude potential suppliers who pose an unacceptable risk to public money.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what safeguards are in place to avoid mistakenly withdrawing motor tax following erroneous or malicious notification of cars being exported or going off road.

    Andrew Jones

    The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) requires specific information or documentation before it will process a notification that a vehicle has been exported or taken off the road.

    In order to be able to make such notifications electronically (where such a service is available) a unique reference number from the vehicle registration certificate and/or vehicle excise duty renewal letter must be used. This helps to ensure that it is the registered keeper of the vehicle making the notification.

    If the notification cannot be made electronically, the registered keeper must use the appropriate section of the vehicle registration certificate or write to the DVLA.

    When the off road or export notification has updated the DVLA’s records, a refund of any remaining vehicle excise duty will be issued to the registered keeper. Unexpectedly receiving this payment should prompt the keeper to contact the DVLA if they did not make the notification themselves.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many inspections were carried out under section 97 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 in each of the last 24 calendar months; which schools were so inspected; and whether each such inspection found that the institution breached section 96 of that Act.

    Nick Gibb

    This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what criteria were used to determine who in South Lakeland was entitled to £500 flood compensation payments.

    James Wharton

    South Lakeland District Council are responsible for determining the criteria for distribution and entitlement to the £500 flood compensation payments.

    The funding came from a central government funding scheme (the Communities and Business Recovery Scheme) for Cumbria and Lancashire flood affected households.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the implications for her policy on the solar power industry are of the recent European Court of Justice decision on levels of VAT.

    Andrea Leadsom

    HMRC has consulted on removing solar technologies from the list of measures that are currently eligible for the lower (5%) rate of VAT. They are currently considering the responses to the consultation, which closed on 3rd February[1].

    If it is decided that a change to VAT is appropriate, we will consider options on how to maintain a suitable rate-of-return for investors.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/vat-changes-to-the-reduced-rate-of-vat-for-the-installation-of-energy-saving-materials

  • Craig Mackinlay – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Craig Mackinlay – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Mackinlay on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the European Council on the use of EU funds to support travel by candidates for the post of the UN Secretary General in connection with that candidacy.

    Mr David Lidington

    We are not aware of any EU funds being used to support travel by candidates for the post of UN Secretary General and have therefore not made any representations.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he plans to take to monitor the location and use of the recently announced military equipment being given to Ukraine.

    Michael Fallon

    All equipment being gifted is non-lethal in nature, and includes night vision goggles, global positioning sets (GPS), helmets, body armour, ruggedized laptops, large tents, heating units, cold weather clothing and individual first aid kits.

    This equipment has helped save lives in contested areas in the Donbas. Given its non-lethal nature, we see no need routinely to monitor its location and usage.

  • Baroness Smith of Basildon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Baroness Smith of Basildon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 2016-04-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations and advice they have received from (1) the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, (2) the Civil Nuclear Police Authority, and (3) the Civil Nuclear Police Federation, regarding the normal retirement age of 60 for Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    My hon. Friend the Minister of State for Energy has met with the Chair of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority (CNPA) and the Chief Constable of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) on two occasions since taking office where the pension age of officers was discussed. In October 2015 and March 2016.

    The Minister of State has recently written to the Civil Nuclear Police Federation about meeting representatives of that organisation to discuss issues including the age at which CNC officers receive their pension.

    Officials at the Department of Energy and Climate Change have worked closely with officials at the CNPA and CNC at all levels, up to and including the Chief Constable, on the issue of the pension age of CNC officers since May 2014. The Department has received frequent and substantial advice on all aspects of this issue. This includes, but is not limited to, the impact of fitness standards on CNC officers and how those standards affect deployability of officers, and the costs of administering a pension scheme with a lower effective pension age.

    The Minister of State has received two letters from the Civil Nuclear Police Federation outlining their legal case for a lower pension age. Officials have met with the Civil Nuclear Police Federation to discuss the pension age of CNC officers on two occasions in 2015.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is offering to small and medium-sized enterprises to assist with the cost of setting up an apprenticeship programme.

    Nick Boles

    The government provides £1,500 per apprentice to smaller employers taking on new apprentices aged 16-24 through the Apprenticeships Grant for Employers. Additional support provided for employers includes funding training for 16-18 year old apprentices, those young people who are aged 19-24 who have been in the care of the Local Authority, apprentices with additional learning needs, and apprentices who don’t have the level of English and maths that is required to meet the minimum standard. Further funding detail and provisional funding rates are due to be published in June.

    Since April, employers have not been required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for almost all apprentices aged under 25 up to the Upper Secondary Threshold (£827 per week in 2016-17).

    This change makes the business case for apprenticeships even stronger, reducing the cost of employing a young apprentice by over £500 a year on a salary of £12,000, and over £1,000 a year on a salary of £16,000.

    Employers can access information about employing an apprentice on the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/take-on-an-apprentice

    “

  • Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Eilidh Whiteford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of people who were affected by the recent server issue affecting the universal credit portal; and if he will make a statement.

    Damian Hinds

    Whenever a service problem is identified the Department always prioritises claimants first ensuring their payments are not interrupted. In this instance the outage impacted only 24 of the 712 Jobcentres across Great Britain and none of the claimants impacted experienced a delay in their payments.

    The performance of all systems is continuously monitored on many resilient servers and in the event of an outage an immediate impact assessment is made and appropriate action taken to ensure normal service is resumed at the earliest possible opportunity and the impact on claimants is minimised.

    We continually assess the performance of our suppliers, and underlying engineering, to ensure systems are available to meet the needs of claimants and the Department. With the exception of this isolated supplier outage the performance of the UC portal has been higher than expected, however, further improvements to resilience were already under active consideration as part of preparing for UC Full Service national expansion.