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  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish a full list of each enterprise zone and the original date of its announcement.

    Greg Hands

    I set out in the table below the full list of Enterprise Zones together with the original date of announcement:

    Enterprise Zone

    Date of announcement
    • Mersey Waters
    • Black Country
    • Nottingham, Nottinghamshire Derby and Derbyshire
    • Bristol Temple Quarter EZ
    • London Royal Docks
    • Manchester Airport City
    • Leeds City Region
    • Sheffield City Region
    • North East EZ
    • Birmingham City EZ
    • Tees Valley

    23rd March 2011

    • Newquay Aerohub
    • Sci-Tech Daresbury
    • Solent Enterprise Zone
    • MIRA Technology Park
    • Hereford
    • Discovery Park
    • Harlow
    • Science Vale UK
    • Northampton Waterside
    • Alconbury Enterprise Campus
    • Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft

    17th August 2011
    • Humber
    • Lancashire

    29th November 2011
    • Plymouth

    20th August 2015
    • Blackpool Airport

    12th November 2015

    New EZs

    • Ceramics Valley
    • Dorset Green
    • Carlisle Kingsmoor
    • M62 Corridor EZ
    • Greater Manchester Life Science
    • Luton Airport
    • York Central
    • Hillhouse Chemicals and Energy
    • Cheshire and Warrington EZ
    • New Anglia EZ
    • EZ Newhaven
    • Aylesbury Vale
    • Cambridge Compass
    • Didcot Growth Accelerator
    • Enterprise M3
    • Enviro-Tech Enterprise Zone
    • Heart of the South West Enterprise Zone
    • North East Round 2 EZ
    • Aerohub (extension)
    • Infinity Park Derby (extension)
    • Humber EZ (extension)
    • Tees Valley EZ (extension)
    • Bristol Temple Quarter and Bath and Somer Valley (extension)
    • North Kent Innovation Zone (extension)
    • Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft EZ (extension)
    • Birmingham Enterprise Zone Curzon St (extension)

    25th November 2015
  • Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Emma Reynolds – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Reynolds on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the number of businesses was that traded goods internationally through export or import in 2014.

    Anna Soubry

    Data on the number of businesses in Great Britain engaging in international trade in goods can be found on the ONS website in the ‘Exporters and Importers in Great Britain, 2014’ release, published on 12 November 2015.

  • Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and which local authorities have returned childcare grant funding to the Exchequer in each of the last five financial years.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Funding to local authorities for the early years entitlement for two, three and four-year-olds is made via the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). In the last five years, the Department has not recovered money allocated through DSG from any local authority.

    Prior to April 2013, funding for the entitlement for two-year olds was paid to local authorities through the Early Intervention Grant and no money allocated by this means was recovered by the Department.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to Answer of 9 December 2015 to Question 18558, how many families in receipt of tax credits in 2013-14 who benefited from the income rise disregard saw their income rise by over £2,500 but no more than £5,000 during the course of the year.

    Damian Hinds

    As announced in the combined Autumn Statement and Spending Review, the amount by which a tax credit claimant’s income can increase within the year before their tax credit award is adjusted (the income rise disregard), will be reduced from £5,000 to £2,500. This makes the tax credit system fairer so claimants on similar incomes will receive similar awards. Currently two families on precisely the same earnings at the end of the year can receive significantly different awards.

    The change returns the disregard back to the level it was between 2003 and 2006 – something the tax credit system is now operationally better able to cope with now that it has more up to date information on people’s earnings through Real Time Information. HMRC are also making it easier to report changes quickly online, so that people will less often receive overpayments. Claimants can contact HMRC if they are suffering financial hardship and are having difficulty paying back an overpayment.

    The change will bring forward some of the benefits of Universal Credit so that the tax credit award reflects a claimant’s recent earnings and the system responds more quickly to changes in earnings.

  • Karl Turner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Karl Turner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2015 to Question 18028, with what representatives of claimants his Ministers or officials met when developing policy on the small claims limit.

    Dominic Raab

    The Government is very clear on what claimant representatives think about raising the small claims limit. The Coalition Government consulted on this issue between December 2012 and March 2013 with a wide range of stakeholders. Following that consultation, the Coalition Government announced in October 2013 that it was deferring the decision on whether to raise the small claims limit to focus instead on work that would lead to the establishment of the MedCo system in April 2015.

    The present Government decided that the time was right to return to the issue of raising the small claims limit, announcing its intention to do so in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. The Ministry of Justice has continued to engage with representatives from all sectors since the Chancellor’s announcement and will be consulting on the detail of the new reform package in the New Year.

  • Karl Turner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Karl Turner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl Turner on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2015 to Question 17980, if his Department will consider publishing details of meetings with insurance industry representatives before the next return.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Treasury Ministers and officials meet with a wide range of companies and organisations to discuss relevant issues.

    As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.122 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of reducing the income rise disregard on the household income of a tax credit claimant family with one earner and two children whose income rose from £20,000 to £25,000 during the year.

    Damian Hinds

    Reducing the income rise disregard to £2,500 brings forward some of the benefits of Universal Credit, so that tax credit entitlement reflects claimant’s recent earnings. It makes the system fairer so claimants on similar incomes will receive similar awards. The effect of reducing the income rise disregard on a family claiming tax credits will depend on the household’s income level before it increased.

  • Rob Marris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Rob Marris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rob Marris on 2015-12-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department allocated to HM Revenue and Customs for the purpose of prosecuting employers who failed to pay the minimum wage in each financial year since 2005; and what the projected budget is for such activities in each financial year until 2020.

    Nick Boles

    Funding for National Minimum Wage (NMW) prosecutions is not fixed and comes out of the overall HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) enforcement budget, allocated by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The overall budget for 2015/16 is £13.2m, a £4m increase on 2014/15. Table 1 sets out the enforcement budget for each year since 2005/06.

    The Government is committed to simple, effective NMW enforcement which supports workers and businesses by deterring non-compliant employers from underpaying their workers and removing the unfair competitive advantage that underpayment can bring. For this reason the Government increased HMRC’s 2015/16 enforcement budget by £4 million in 2015/16, and will further increase the enforcement budget from April 2016. A proportion of this budget will be used to establish a new team of compliance officers in HMRC to investigate the most serious cases of employers not paying the NMW and, from April, the National Living Wage. The team will have the power to use all available sanctions, including penalties and criminal investigation.

    No decision has been taken on the enforcement budget until 2020.

    Table 1: HMRC NMW enforcement budget

    Year

    HMRC Enforcement Budget (millions)

    2005/06

    £5.6

    2006/07

    £5.8

    2007/08

    £6.8

    2008/09

    £7.6

    2009/10

    £8.3

    2010/11

    £8.1

    2011/12

    £8.3

    2012/13

    £8.3

    2013/14

    £8.3

    2014/15

    £9.2

    2015/16

    £13.2

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the reasons for increases in the trade deficit in UK goods and services in the three months to October 2015.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The information requested can be obtained from the latest UK Trade publication which is available here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/uktrade/uk-trade/october-2015/stb-uk-trade–october-2015.html

    “

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2015 to Question 15349, if HM Revenue and Customs will expand the tax exemption associated with the Cycle to Work scheme to provide employees with access to tax-free physical activity accessories and personalised activity plans for themselves and their families.

    Mr David Gauke

    The tax exemption associated with the Cycle to Work scheme is for the loan or hire by an employer to an employee of a cycle or cyclist’s safety equipment. It was established to promote healthier journeys to work and to reduce environmental pollution. This and all other tax exemptions are kept under review.