Category: Speeches

  • Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Dawn Butler – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2015-10-27.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the average annual amount by which working families affected by changes to tax credits will be compensated by the increase in the level of the minimum wage.

    Damian Hinds

    This Government is committed to moving from a high welfare, high tax, low wage economy to a lower welfare, lower tax, higher wage society. As the Chancellor made clear on [Monday / 26 October], the Government will set out at Autumn Statement how we plan to achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits, saving the money we need to save to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition.

    The Summer Budget offered a new deal for working people. A new National Living Wage for workers aged 25 and above, initially set at £7.20 per hour from April 2016, will directly benefit 2.7 million low wage workers, and up to 6 million could see a pay rise as a result of a ripple effect up the earnings distribution. The new National Living Wage will boost pay for those currently earning the National Minimum Wage by £4,800 a year by 2020 when the National Living Wage is expected to rise to over £9 per hour.

    To help working families keep more of what they earn, the personal allowance will increase to £11,000 in 2016-17 and £11,200 in 2017-18. The government has committed to increase the personal allowance to £12,500 by 2020 which will mean that a typical basic rate taxpayer will see their income tax cut by £1,205 a year compared to 2010.

    The government set out its assessment of the impacts of the Summer Budget policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July 2015.

  • Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-11-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current level of HM Treasury’s outstanding statutory debt in relation to the Dunfermline Building Society; how much has been paid by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme towards that debt; and whether any assets have been retrieved or sold since the Society went into administration.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    In March 2009, Dunfermline Building Society (DBS) was entered into special administration under the Banking Act 2009. As part of the resolution, HM Treasury provided just under £1.6 billion to enable the transfer of the core DBS business to Nationwide Building Society. The remainder of DBS is currently being wound-down by KPMG affiliated administrators.

    Most of the estate has been wound-down and the remaining commercial book is expected to run-off over the next 1-2 years, at which point the administration will be complete. In 2014, the remaining residential mortgage portfolio was sold by the administrators to Arbuthnot Latham and Co. As of 31 March 2015, HM Treasury has received just over £1 billion from the DBS estate.

    The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ‘Contribution Regulations’ allow the Treasury to recover any shortfall from the estate from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), subject to a cap, via an interim levy on industry. In October 2014, the FSCS made the first payment to HM Treasury with respect to DBS, of £100 million.

    HMT expects to recover the amount in full.

  • Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for how long people under the age of 18 who were transferred to a place of safety under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 were detained on average in (a) a police cell and (b) a police vehicle in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.

    Mike Penning

    The information requested is not held centrally.

    However, the use of police cells as a place of safety for all persons detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 has more than halved since 2011/12 (when figures were first collated) as shown in the following table. A joint inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC); Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP); the Care Quality Commission (CQC); and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) (published in 2013) found that the average time that each such person spent in police custody was 10 hours 32 minutes.

    The Government intends to make provision in the Policing and Crime Bill, to be introduced in Parliament soon, to prohibit the use of police cells as places of safety for people under the age of 18, and to further limit their use in the case of adults. The maximum period for which a person may be detained pending a mental health assessment will also be reduced.

    Table 1: number of times a police station was used as a place of safety for people detained under Section 136 Mental Health Act 1983 (England only)

    Year

    Section 136 detentions in police stations

    Percentage reduction year on year (to nearest whole number)

    2011-12

    8,667

    N/A[1]

    2012-13

    7,881

    -9%

    2013-14

    6,028

    -24%

    2014-15

    3,996

    -34%

    Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre

    [1] No data on use of police stations is available for 2010-11.

  • Stephen Tim – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Stephen Tim – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Tim on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many (a) kilometres of new duct and (b) poles installed by BT with funding from BDUK have been made available for use by other communications providers.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    All ducts and poles in BT’s network beyond the telephone exchange are open to other providers, under the Passive Infrastructure Access obligation imposed by Ofcom, to provide primarily residential broadband services.

  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the proportion of starter homes that will be wheelchair accessible.

    Brandon Lewis

    Starter Homes like all new homes, will ahve to meet Building Regulations’ access requirements which ensure reasonable provision for people to gain access to and use, the dwelling and its facilities.

  • Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-03-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr Hugo Swire, on 25 February (HC27826), whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) relies upon information from the United States Department of the Treasury to ascertain which elements of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea government fund or participate in that country’s nuclear and missile programmes; or whether the FCO conducts its own research into this matter.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Government works collaboratively with international partners and organisations to counter the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s nuclear, ballistic missile or other weapons of mass destruction-related programmes. This includes sharing information to identify persons and entities responsible for this activity in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-04-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they are making to the government of Israel in the light of the dawn raid on a currency exchange shop in Ramallah.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    No representations have been made to the Government of Israel on this issue.

  • Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Toby Perkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of steel used in the new Ajax armoured vehicles will be (a) sourced from the UK and (b) imported from abroad.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 1 February 2016 to Question 25075 to the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Mr Doughty).

  • David Lammy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Lammy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-07-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of refugee children seeking reunion with family in the UK who are currently in Europe.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    We are unable to provide an estimate. Determining such figures is extremely difficult given the mobility of children within and between Member States, differing collection methods at different times and due to lack of registration and monitoring of children. The majority of estimates rely on partial censuses given different access rights and as such, figures can vary greatly.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2016 to Question 45985 on extracurricular activities: offenders, what measures are in place to protect children when such classes are provided (a) privately and (b) on private property.

    Edward Timpson

    Any measures to protect children where they are attending privately run classes, including those provided on private property, rest entirely with parents. It is a matter of parental choice to allow their children to attend and to make a considered decision about the suitability of the individuals running the class.