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Tag: 2014

  • Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Robert Flello – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his Colombian counterpart concerning the withdrawal on 26 May 2014, of precautionary safety measures recommended by the Inter American Court for Human Rights to protect the human rights activist Juan David Diaz.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    I met representatives from six human rights organisations, including Oxfam and Christian Aid as well as Colombian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during my visit to Bogotá last week. I also met two Deputy Ministers for Foreign Affairs, heads of the Colombian Government’s major human rights agencies and representatives of the Attorney-General’s office. I set out HM Government concern about the reported rise in attacks against human rights defenders and a lack of sentences for those responsible.

  • Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Keith Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-30.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure gender equality in civil service salaries.

    Mr Francis Maude

    The median gender pay gap for full-time civil servants has narrowed since 2010 but we must continue to press to narrow the gap further, including by reminding departments of their clear legal obligations on equal pay and conducting equal pay audits. Salaries for new appointments must be justified on the basis of the skills and experience necessary to do the job. For staff below the Senior Civil Service (SCS), this is for individual departments to manage. For the centrally-managed SCS, pay proposals have regard to the impact on women.

    More widely, the Government is concerned that a long-standing majority of women in the overall civil service, does not translate into a similar proportion in the SCS. I have commissioned work to address this issue.

  • Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Joan Walley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Walley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made in reducing levels of tax avoidance in the UK’s Overseas Territories.

    Mr David Gauke

    The UK Government is at the forefront of the global response to international aggressive tax planning and cross-border evasion, driving the international tax, transparency and trade agenda forward under the UK’s G8 presidency in 2013, and fully backing the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project.

    Under the Prime Minister’s leadership of the G8, the UK has led a global leap forward in international tax transparency, meaning there are fewer places to hide. We are imposing tough new sanctions for those who do not come forward under HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) offshore disclosure facilities. There will be serious consequences for those who continue to believe they can hide wealth offshore, when later on this year HMRC will consult on a new strict liability criminal offence that could mean jail for those who do not declare taxable offshore income. HMRC will also consult on tougher civil sanctions. In addition, last year the Government entered into a series of Intergovernmental Agreements with the overseas territories which will ensure that from September 2016 HMRC will receive details of UK residents who have bank accounts and other investments in the overseas territories.

    HMRC co-operates with tax authorities in other countries, in areas such as exchange of information and recovery of tax. Following the commitments made at the G8, all of the UK’s Overseas Territories with financial centres and the Crown Dependencies have taken significant steps forward on tax transparency putting them at the forefront of this agenda globally. In addition to signing agreements with the UK for the automatic exchange of tax information, they have also agreed to be early adopters of the new global standard for automatic exchange of tax information, committing to an ambitious timetable of implementation as members of a group of 44 countries and jurisdictions.

  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in (a) York, (b) North Yorkshire, (c) Yorkshire and the Humber and (d) England received free school meals in 1995-96 and in each year since.

    Mr David Laws

    Information on the number and percentage of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals in York local authority, North Yorkshire local authority, Yorkshire and the Humber region and England for 2002 to 2014 has been placed in the Library of the House.

    Comparable data for earlier years are not available.

  • Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Hugh Bayley – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hugh Bayley on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many onshore wind turbines there were in North Yorkshire in each year since 2008-09.

    Gregory Barker

    The number of onshore wind turbines that have become fully operational in North Yorkshire in the years since the start of 2008 are as follows:

    Number of wind turbines

    Date fully operational

    2008

    8

    22 April 2008

    2010

    12

    4 October 2010

    2011

    2

    1 January 2011

    Source: Renewable Energy Planning Database, May 2014

  • John Glen – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the purpose is of NHS England’s review of specialised services commissioning; on what date the decision to commission the review was taken; when he expects the review to conclude; whether he intends to consult on the outcome of the review; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    Since April 2013, NHS England has been responsible for the commissioning of services that have been identified as specialised. NHS England’s role is to ensure that the National Health Service delivers better outcomes for patients requiring these specialised services in a consistent manner across the country.

    NHS England is committed to commissioning and planning a healthcare system that seeks to reduce health inequalities. In line with the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases, NHS England promotes equity of access to allow everyone with a rare disease to follow a clear, well defined care pathway, in order to achieve high quality services for every individual through integrated personal care plans. The aim is to ensure no one gets left behind just because they have a rare disease.

    NHS England has advised that the review of specialised services commissioning was initiated at the start of May and will run for an initial period of three months. Dr Paul Watson, Regional Director for the Midlands and East Region, is leading the specialised commissioning taskforce. National discussions took place at the end of April and the taskforce was established in April 2014 in order to make some immediate improvements to the way in which NHS England commissions specialised services, and to put commissioning arrangements on a stronger footing for the longer-term. This taskforce comprises of seven distinct work streams, which will focus on financial control in 2014-15, and planning for the 2015-16 commissioning round. The seven work streams each have a distinct portfolio of work, some of which is short-term, and some of which includes looking to the future and the development of a sustainable and effective model of specialised commissioning.

    Around 50 additional individuals, from different disciplines, have been drawn from across NHS England, coming together to support intensive, focussed attention in a number of these work streams.

    There are aspects of the work which will require engagement with clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). In consultation with the Commissioning Assembly, a specific working group has been established to enable the joint discussions with CCGs to take place. The first meeting of this group was on 4 July.

    NHS England advise that there are currently no plans to consult on the outcome of the work of the taskforce.

  • Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Frank Field – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to the Answer of 25 June 2014, Official Report, column 210W, on human trafficking, how many calls in each of the years from 2011 to 2014 came from (a) victims, (b) other police forces, (c) the UK border force, (d) other professionals and (e) the public; and how many (i) traffickers were arrested and (ii) victims rescued as a result of information provided by those calls.

    Karen Bradley

    This information is recorded by the Trafficking and Kidnap Unit at the
    Metropolitan Police Service. The breakdown of data requested is only available
    from 2013 onwards. This is detailed in the tables below:

  • Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what budget was set for the youth contract in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15.

    Esther McVey

    Following the Youth Contract launch in 2012-13, the Department has set the following budgets:

    12/13 – £260m

    13/14 – £196.3m

    14/15 – £183.8m

  • Stephen Lloyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Stephen Lloyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Lloyd on 2014-06-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many child support agency arrears cases are cases where there is no ongoing liability.

    Steve Webb

    At March 2014 there were 532,500 Child Support Agency cases which had arrears with no ongoing liability.

    Note: This includes cases administered on the 1993 and 2003 schemes only.

  • Lord Birt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Birt – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2014-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the ratio of the aggregated value of sovereign, corporate and personal debt to gross domestic product is higher in the United Kingdom than in other leading economies.

    Lord Deighton

    The aggregate value of general government, non-financial corporations and household sector debt (as a proportion of GDP) for all G7 countries are shown below:

    Country

    Debt as a proportion of GDP in 2012

    Canada

    347%

    France

    335%

    Germany

    248%

    Italy

    329%

    Japan

    476%

    UK

    309%

    US

    320%