Category: Speeches

  • Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Lord Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kinnock on 2016-02-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what applications for support have been submitted to the EU Globalisation Adjustment Fund since its inception; whether they intend to submit an application for support in order to support workers made redundant from the steel industry in the last year; and if not, why not.

    Lord Freud

    The European Globalisation Fund (EGF) provides a financial contribution for active labour market measures, aimed at reintegrating those made or at risk of being made redundant in the labour market.

    Member States are responsible in the first instance for tackling trade adjustment redundancies – the fund is therefore designed to add to national, regional and local assistance.

    The UK already offers a broad range of personalised support to workers made redundant through its Rapid Response Service and Jobcentre Plus, which could not be duplicated or substituted by EGF.

    The Rapid Response Service and the Jobcentre Plus Core Offer are effective reintegration tools which represent good value for money and are our primary and most helpful means of response to large redundancies.

    For this reason, the UK Government has never applied to the EGF.

    In addition to the aforementioned support, in the case of the steel industry, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has also announced packages of support worth up to £80 million for SSI in Redcar and up to £9 million for TATA Steel in Scunthorpe.

    Only if more support is necessary other suitable sources of support will be considered.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on the exemption of academy school staff from the one per cent public sector pay rise limit.

    Edward Timpson

    The reformed national pay and terms and conditions arrangements allow all schools considerable flexibility over the pay of their teachers.

    Staff at academies are employees of academy trusts, companies limited by guarantee with charitable status. Whilst academy trusts are classified as public sector bodies, their staff are not employees of the Crown. Academies have more control over their budgets so that they can meet their school’s needs more effectively and have the flexibility to reward the best teachers and excellent performance. These are the reasons they are not included within the statutory national pay and terms and conditions arrangements, which includes the current one per cent cap on pay increases.

    Many academies have pay systems that mirror the provisions of the statutory national arrangements and many converter academy staff have ‘Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations’ rights that preserve their entitlement to the national pay and terms and conditions arrangements.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many badges of honour have been awarded by (a) Gibraltar, (b) the Falkland Islands, (c) the Cayman Islands and (d) Bermuda in each year since 2010.

    James Duddridge

    Since 2010 badges of honour have been awarded as follows;

    Gibraltar: 2010 – 5; 2011 – 6; 2012 – 6; 2013 – 6; 2014 – 6; 2015 – 6

    Falkland Islands: 2010 – 3; 2011 – 2; 2012 – 1; 2013 – 0; 2014 – 0; 2015 – 2

    Cayman Islands: 2010 – 4; 2011 – 8; 2012 – 2; 2013 – 6; 2014 – 2; 2015 – 1

    Bermuda: 2010 – 14; 2011 – 7; 2012 – 13; 2013 – 5; 2014 – 6; 2015 – 2

  • Lord Smith of Hindhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Lord Smith of Hindhead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Smith of Hindhead on 2016-04-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the current annual arrangements for setting the Horseracing Betting Levy will continue under the proposed new funding arrangements, or will be extended beyond twelve months.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    Currently the levy rate is agreed each year by the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

    Under the new model the level of contribution from betting to racing will be set by Government. We will take into account various findings when considering the rate and its duration, including the independent economic analysis that we commissioned last year. We will hold discussions with both industries before reaching decisions on these issues.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff were paid off-payroll in each agency for which his Department is responsible in each of the last three financial years for which information is available.

    Jane Ellison

    The number of people paid off payroll, in both of the Department’s agencies, for the last three financial years are presented in the table below.

    The information given is an average for each financial year. Off payroll staff includes all agency workers, contractors and consultants.

    Number of People Paid Off Payroll by Financial Year

    Financial Year

    Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

    Public Health England

    Average Headcount

    Average Headcount

    2013-14

    41.17

    279

    2014-15

    43.33

    167

    2015-16

    40.08

    179

    Notes

    1. An average figure for the year has been used to take account of staff who leave and/or join within the year.

    2. Headcount refers to the total number of staff in both part-time and full-time employment.

    3. The figures in the table also includes the off payroll workers earning £220 or more per day and reported separately in the agencies respective annual resource accounts.

    “

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people who received redundancy payments from the NHS in 2015-16 were subsequently re-employed by the NHS on a (a) consultancy and (b) permanent basis; and what the cost to the NHS was of those redundancy repayments.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The number of compulsory redundancies in 2015-16 was 1,944.

    The number of staff made redundant and then re-employed is not currently available.

    In May 2015 the Government announced that it intended to take forward its manifesto commitment to end six-figure exit payments for public sector workers, including the National Health Service. The Enterprise Act containing provisions for the £95,000 public sector exit payment cap received Royal Assent in May 2016 and will come into force later this year.

    Further legislation is being taken forward to allow for the recovery of exit payments from all high earning public sector workers who return to any part of the public sector within 12 months of leaving.

    The Government’s changes to the NHS mean a huge net gain for the taxpayer. The Department published a written ministerial statement on 21 July 2015: Column 90WS NHS Modernisation setting out the costs and benefits of NHS modernisation. “The Department of Health also originally forecast that between 2010-11 and 2014-15 the reforms would save the NHS £4.5 billion in lower administration costs, as well as a further £1.5 billion a year thereafter. Actual savings were far greater, in cash terms at £6.9 billion over this period, including £2 billion in 2014-15—and in 2010-11 prices comparable to the impact assessment £6.5 billion, including £1.8 billion in 2014-15. This means the Government have successfully achieved their aim to reduce NHS bureaucracy costs by a third”.

  • Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Grant Shapps – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grant Shapps on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the £55.7 billion cost of the High Speed 2 project also includes the cost for the High Speed 3 project.

    Andrew Jones

    Spending Review 2015 restated the long-term budget for HS2 at £55.7bn (2015 prices). This is for the entire ‘Y’ network, including Phase 1 and 2.

    The government committed a separate £60m from the Transport Development Fund for the development of Northern Powerhouse Rail (sometimes known as HS3) at this year’s Budget. Transport for the North are leading the development of a range of potential options for Northern Powerhouse Rail, including options that make use of sections of the HS2 network, major upgrades, and new lines. Transport for the North will publish their priorities for further development in spring 2017.

  • 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 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has made to manufacturers on minimising increases in the price of insulin for treating type 1 diabetes.

    George Freeman

    There have been no such representations or discussions. The prices of branded medicines are controlled by the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme or under the statutory scheme established under the Health Service Branded Medicines (Control of Prices and Supply of Information) (No.2) Regulations 2008 and the Health Service Medicines (Information Relating to Sales of Branded Medicines etc.) Regulations 2007.

  • Helen Hayes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Helen Hayes – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of freezing local housing allowance on working families in privately-rented accommodation.

    Justin Tomlinson

    As Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation levels are close to zero, the impact of freezing Local Housing Allowance rates will have no impact in 2016/17 when compared to the counterfactual of uprating by CPI. (In future years, 30 per cent of the savings from the ‘freeze’ will be used to create further Targeted Affordability Funding to help those areas where rent increases are causing a shortage of affordable accommodation.)

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax avoidance schemes are registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) under (a) the disclosure regime for VAT and (b) the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes; how many individuals are registered with each of those schemes; how many (i) individuals and (ii) schemes HMRC has estimated will be issued with accelerated payment notices (APNs) in (A) 2014-15, (B) 2015-16 and (C) 2016-17; and how many (1) individuals and (2) schemes HMRC has issued with APNs.

    Mr David Gauke

    Statistics in connection with the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme (DOTAS) and VAT Avoidance Regime are published on the GOV.UK website. The most recent figures, which are due to be updated shortly, are available to view at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/379821/HMRC_-_Tax_avoidance_disclosure_statistics_1_Aug_2004_to_30_Sept_2014.pdf.