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  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department owed in late payments to small and medium-sized enterprises in each year for which data is available.

    Anna Soubry

    When making payments, the core Department does not differentiate between small, medium and large enterprises as many small and medium sized businesses can be found at various tiers of the procurement chain.

    The Department takes prompt payment very seriously and records show that in the current financial year to the end of February 2016, 96.4% of all valid invoices (by volume) were paid within 5 working days. When looking at the overall value, this equates to 99.8% paid within 5 working days and 99.99% of invoices were paid within the 30 day standard contractual terms.

  • Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kevin Brennan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-21.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Principle G of the Cabinet Office Consultation Principles 2016, what steps he took to (a) consider how the summer holiday period would affect consultation with stakeholders and (b) mitigate such effects when deciding on the consultation period on proposals relating to exit payments in the public sector.

    Greg Hands

    The consultation on a public sector exit payment cap ran from 31 July to 27 August 2015. These dates ensured that the consultation concluded in advance of the Enterprise Bill’s introduction on 16 September 2015, to inform the content of the ‘public sector employment: restrictions on exit payments’ clause.

    In addition, this policy was a clear manifesto commitment made in April 2015 and the intention to legislate was announced in May. The Government also considered responses received after the official consultation deadline.

    The consultation received over 4000 responses, which is a good indication that there was sufficient time to comment and demonstrates that stakeholders were able to effectively engage with the proposals. The measure has also undergone full Parliamentary scrutiny during the passage of the Enterprise Bill.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the number of jobs supported by the Scotch whisky industry.

    George Eustice

    The Scotch whisky industry estimates that 10,800 people are directly employed in the industry in Scotland and the sector supports more than 40,000 jobs in total across the UK.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-21.

    To ask the Attorney General, what estimate his Department has made of the number of its senior civil servants who will potentially fall under the provisions of the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849; and what assessment he has made of which of his Department’s agencies or other public bodies will potentially be classed as holding a prominent public function for the purposes of that directive.

    Robert Buckland

    Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. This would include some senior civil servants, such as ambassadors and chargés d’affaires. The Government’s view is that the Directive permits a risk-based approach to the identification of whether an individual is a politically exposed person and, when identified, the Directive enables the application of different degrees of enhanced measures to reflect the risks posed. The Government will be setting out this view in a consultation which will be published shortly.

    The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. The Treasury regularly raises these issues with financial institutions and the regulator, and encourages financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 15 March (HL6859), whether the number of Home Office officials seconded to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit in Paris will increase.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    The case for seconding UK experts to the Interior Ministry’s Dublin Unit is under review.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 15 March (HL6859), how many take-charge notices issued by French authorities have been accepted by British authorities.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    Data on cases progressed under the Dublin III Regulation is recorded on the main immigration database. However, this data is not held in a way that allows it to be reported on automatically and is not currently available.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the 19,000 remaining refugees to enter the UK by the end of this Parliament have been already identified by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    We work closely with The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme. The scheme is based on need and supports those who cannot be supported effectively in their region of origin.

    We cannot therefore provide long term forecasts but have agreed a timetable of referrals. This remains subject to change due to a number of operational factors.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have forecast how many of the 20,000 asylum seekers to enter the UK by the end of this Parliament will be under 18.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    We work closely with The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme.

    The scheme is based on need and supports those who cannot be supported effectively in their region of origin.

    The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Latest statistics published on 25 February 2016 confirms in 2015, a total of 1,194 people were resettled the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) including 1,085 who arrived in the last quarter of 2015. Of those resettled under the scheme in 2015, 605 were under 18 years old.

  • Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many applications for asylum from refugees in the Calais and Dunkirk camp they have accepted under the Dublin III Regulations.

    Lord Keen of Elie

    Whilst all asylum claims, including those accepted under Dublin III, are registered on the main immigration database the specifics of each case including the route of travel and possible stay in the camps in Calais and Dunkirk can only be ascertained by a manual check of the notes on the immigration database and a physical check of the paper file.

    It will therefore not be possible to answer this question for reasons of disproportionate cost.

  • Lord Marlesford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Marlesford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Marlesford on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in introducing the requirement for non-UK citizens newly registered with general practitioners under the NHS general practice to inform hospitals to which they may be referred of the need to recover the cost of that treatment.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    It is not possible to provide data on the amounts collected for treatment of directly chargeable foreign nationals and residents of countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) by the National Health Service prior to financial year 2013-14. Since then the Department has been collecting data from NHS trusts on the amount of cash payments received in-year relating to invoices raised in current and previous years.

    Figures for financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15 are shown in the table below.

    Cash payments received in-year (relating to invoices raised in current and previous years) 2013-14

    Cash payments received in-year (relating to invoices raised in current and previous years) 2014-15

    £millions

    £millions

    NHS Trusts

    8.5

    11.4

    NHS Foundation Trusts

    11.1

    13.7

    Total

    19.6

    25.1

    Source:

    NHS Trust data – NHS Trust Development Authority
    NHS Foundation Trust Data – Monitor

    Since 6 April 2015 , temporary , non-EEA migrants coming to the United Kingdom for more than 6 months, or who apply to extend their stay in the UK, are required to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) (unless an exemption applies) . In cash terms between 6 April 2015 and 14 March 2016, the Home Office collected IHS income, net of refunds and transferred £117.8 million to the Department for spending on the NHS.

    EEA countries and Switzerland reimburse the UK for the cost of the NHS providing treatment to people they are responsible for under EU law, including UK nationals insured in another EEA country or Switzerland. This information is available for the last three financial years in the attached table.

    The Department on behalf of the UK Government reimburses other EEA countries and Switzerland for the cost of providing treatment to people we are responsible for under European Union law, irrespective of nationality. This information is available for the last three financial years in the attached table.

    General practitioners (GPs) have discretion to register anyone as an NHS patient, including a person not ordinarily resident in the UK, for primary medical care free at the point of delivery. Being registered with a GP does not in itself mean that the person is entitled to free NHS hospital treatment. Practices are strongly encouraged to provide NHS providers with any relevant information when they refer a patient they believe may be chargeable for secondary care.