Category: Speeches

Biography information for Lord Mawhinney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Lord Mawhinney on 2016-09-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what timeframe is envisaged by the ministerial use of the word shortly” when Parliament seeks to determine when a decision will be (1) taken

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government remains fully committed to delivering the important infrastructure projects it has set out, including delivering runway capacity on the timetable set out by Sir Howard Davies.

In the coming weeks the Government will carefully consider all of the evidence and should be in a position to announce a preferred scheme in the autumn.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will ensure that save-as-you-earn and share incentive plan savings limits are increased in line with inflation on an annual basis.

Mr David Gauke

The tax-advantaged Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) limits were significantly increased from April 2014. The increases the Government have made are reasonable, given the average monthly SAYE savings and the value of awards currently made to employees under SIP, and they represent the best use of resources. The Government will continue to keep the SAYE and SIP limits under review.

In addition to increasing the SAYE and SIP limits, the rules of the schemes were substantially reviewed and simplified following the recommendations made by the Office of Tax Simplification in March 2012. Last year, the requirement that these schemes must be approved by HM Revenue and Customs to qualify for favourable tax treatment was replaced by self-certification. Coupled with other changes to simplify some technical aspects of the rules, this will make these schemes more attractive to businesses and employees.

No data is collected and no estimates are made of the income levels of the participants in SAYE schemes.

Permitting private equity backed companies to offer all-employee tax advantaged schemes would be likely to involve significant changes to the rules of the schemes, and there would be a number of other factors to consider carefully, including the increased cost and complexity of any extension.

01/01/2023

Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Information Commissioner’s Office has spent on processing assessments pursuant to section 42 of the Data Protection Act 1998 in each of the last five financial years; how many such requests that Office has received in each of the those years; and what the recorded outcomes were of those requests.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Under section 42 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), any person who is, or believes that he is, directly affected by the processing of personal data, can ask the Information Commissioner to consider whether the processing is likely to comply with the law. On receiving such a request, the Commissioner is obliged to consider the concern and make an assessment. Any such request, and cases taken forward are dealt with by the ICO’s customer contact and performance improvement business areas. The ICO does not cost up S42 assessments separately from other data protection casework, but the total staffing costs for these two business areas for the last five financial years are set out below:

2015/16 (April-Nov)	£2,883,256.14
2014/15	£3,879,782.83
2013/14	£3,969,104.17
2012/13	£3,581,161.82
2011/12	£3,389,336.87

Numbers of assessments received and concluded for each of the past 5 years are set out below:

Financial years
	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Number of assessments received under s42 DPA	13034	12980	13760	14738	14268
Number of assessments completed under s42 DPA	14276	12725	14280	15492	15052

The recorded outcomes of those assessments are set out below:

	Financial years
Outcome of s42 assessment	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Not progressed	14%	11%	13%	14%
Compliance likely	22%	21%	22%	19%
Compliance unlikely	33%	31%	35%	34%
Ineligible/Made too early	27%	36%	30%	33%
Reopened – pending final outcome	4%	1%
No Action for Data Controller					35%
Data Controller Action required					22%
Concern to be raised with Data Controller					17%
compliance advice given to Data Controller					10%
Response needed from Data Controller					7%
Complaint not applicable under DPA					4%
General advice given to Data Controller					4%
Data Controller outside UK					1%
Improvement action plan agreed with Data Controller					1%

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01/01/2023

Angela Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Smith on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department plans to establish a statutory levy on greyhound racing to help support the welfare of retired greyhounds.

Tracey Crouch

I recently wrote to the betting industry to underline the importance that the government attaches to the existing voluntary agreements between betting and greyhound racing through which funding is provided towards areas including animal welfare.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is currently undertaking a review of the effectiveness of the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010. In addition, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Parliamentary Select Committee is undertaking an inquiry into greyhound welfare to feed into Defra’s review. My Department has submitted written evidence to EFRA and we will want to consider any recommendations put forward by them as part of Defra’s review of the 2010 Regulations.

01/01/2023
Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to section 3.3 of his recently published British Road Safety Statement, how the incentive element of local roads maintenance funding will operate.

Andrew Jones

Well-planned maintenance to prevent potholes and other defects forming on the roads is vital. Councils that do this well get better value for every pound spent and improve their customer satisfaction. So, from 2016/17, this Government is introducing incentive funding to help encourage local highway authorities to manage their road networks better and achieve greater efficiencies. I hope we reach a point where, through efficiencies and collaboration, every highway authority receives the maximum level of funding available.

The Department for Transport is providing record funding of over £6.1 billion funding to local highway authorities in England between 2015 and 2021 for local highways maintenance.

This is additional to the funding of over £4.7 billion the Government provided to local highway authorities between 2010 and 2015 for highways maintenance. Between 2010 to 2015 the maintenance funding was 27% or £1billion higher than in the previous five years.

01/01/2023
Sadiq Khan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding from the (a) European Regional Development Fund and (b) European Social Fund was spent in (i) London and (ii) each London borough in each year from 2010 to 2015.

Anna Soubry

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) are administered in London by the Greater London Authority. Annual allocations are set out in the London ERDF Operational Programme 2007-2013 and London ESF Regional Framework 2011-2013 which can be found on the Greater London Authority’s website. The allocations could be spent up to the end of 2015. Allocations were not broken down for each London borough but a full list of projects funded by ERDF can be found also on the Greater London Authority’s website. A list of projects funded by ESF can be found under ESF funding for London on the Department for Work and Pensions website on gov.uk.

01/01/2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-03.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 12W, what assessment he has made of the effects on revenues of a reduction in the top rate of tax from 45p to (a) 44p, (b) 43p, (c) 42p, (d) 41p and (d) 40p.

Mr David Gauke

The Government keeps all aspects of the tax system under review and any decisions on future changes are taken as part of the annual Budget process in the context of the wider public finances.

01/01/2023
Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they have taken, if any, to ensure that the proposed cross-margining arrangements between Eurex and LCH do not subordinate counter-parties in the latter in the event of a failure of Eurex.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

I refer the noble Lord to the investor relations section of the London Stock Exchange Group website, which contains information about the proposed merger, including some information on the combined group’s proposed structure. I also refer the noble Lord to my previous written answer HL7153.

Once formally notified of the proposed merger, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (as supervisors of the London Stock Exchange Group’s UK-authorised subsidiaries) must assess the proposal from a regulatory standpoint.

In addition the proposed merger must be approved by competition authorities and is subject to a range of other assessments including those of overseas regulators and shareholders.

European Regulation No 648/2012 (EMIR) sets out detailed standards on the quality of collateral that a central counterparty (CCP) can accept, and includes a general requirement that the CCP can demonstrate to its supervisor that the form of collateral in question does not present unmanageable risk to the CCP. Furthermore, CCPs are permitted under EMIR to invest their collateral “only in cash or in highly liquid financial instruments with minimal market and credit risk.”

Any proposals for inter-CCP links would need to be assessed against relevant parts of EMIR by the Bank of England, as supervisor of LCH. EMIR requires that models used to set CCP margin requirements (and any changes to them) are validated by the CCP’s supervisor. EMIR also requires that a CCP wishing to extend its business to additional products or services must obtain the authorisation of its supervisor.

01/01/2023
Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-05-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many harassment warnings each police force in England issued in the most recent financial year for which figures are available.

Karen Bradley

The information requested is not collected centrally. The issuance of Harassment Warning Notices, also known as Police Information Notices (PINs), is an operational matter for Chief Constables. Responsibility for the publication of information relating to PINs rests with Chief Constables.

01/01/2023
Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he had with (a) bus operators and (b) local authorities on preventing local authorities outside of London from forming bus companies whilst the Bus Services Bill is under consideration.

Andrew Jones

There are only 8 existing municipal bus companies operating services in England, and we are not aware of any current plans to establish new municipal bus companies.

Government recognises the quality services that existing municipal bus companies provide for passengers, and these existing companies will not be affected. However, it is our view that the commissioning and provision of bus services should be kept separate from each other, particularly as the introduction of new partnership and franchising powers in the Bill could lead to more local authority control and influence of local services.

01/01/2023