The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to promote the use of credit unions in the work of her Department; and if she will make a statement.
Nick Gibb
I refer The Hon Member for Harrow West to the reply given by Her Majesty’s Treasury to PQ 13524 on 2 November 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to promote the use of credit unions in the work of his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Justin Tomlinson
Government believes it is essential that everyone has access to affordable, good-quality financial products and that credit unions have a role in providing this vital service.
DWP awarded a £38m contract to the Association of British Credit Unions Limited to deliver an expansion project to enable participating credit unions to modernise, expand their services and provide affordable credit to more consumers.
DWP have also publicised the work of credit unions, encouraged DWP staff to join their local credit unions, and have ensured that benefit or pension payments can be paid into any credit union account.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Paisley on 2015-10-26.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has consulted UK-based soft drinks producers about the economic effect a potential excise duty on sugary drinks would have on those businesses.
Damian Hinds
At present the Government has no plans to introduce new taxes on sugary drinks.
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all sides in the conflict in Yemen maintain acceptable humanitarian and human rights standards.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We are aware of reports of alleged violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and abuses of human rights in Yemen, committed by all parties to the conflict – and take them very seriously. We have raised our concerns with the Saudi Arabian-led Coalition, and have received repeated assurances that they are complying with IHL. We continue to engage with them on those assurances. We are also concerned by reports of alleged IHL violations by Houthi-Saleh forces, including attacks on civilians in Aden and Taiz; intimidation of UN ships attempting to dock at Aden; the use of schools and hospitals for military purposes; the use of child soldiers; and the targeting of aid workers and restrictions on humanitarian access. We have raised our concerns with the Houthis on the importance of compliance with IHL.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, from what part of his Department’s budget the support package for Redcar steelworkers will be funded.
Anna Soubry
The support package will be funded through central budgets.
As part of this, we have agreed over £40 million of support following proposals put forward by the Task Force chaired by Amanda Skelton, including:
All of the requests for spend in 2015/16 have been transferred from Government to the SSI Task Force, which is beginning to implement its planned programme of interventions. This is on top of the up to £3m that has been made available to four Further Education colleges in the region to support re-training activity, and redundancy and final salary payments of former SSI employees.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what budget the Government has allocated to the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information.
Matthew Hancock
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 19 October 2015 to UIN: 10764.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many prisoners facing the death penalty have been visited by UK diplomatic staff in China during 2015.
Mr Hugo Swire
British consular officials routinely visit all British nationals in Chinese prisons. To date, no British national has been sentenced to the death penalty in a Chinese prison since 2009. British officials are not in a position to visit foreign nationals facing the death penalty in China. However, we monitor the human rights situation in China closely, and report on individual cases of concern, including human rights defenders facing the death penalty, through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of how much revenue will be collected annually by HM Revenue and Customs through insolvency litigation funded by third-party funding.
Dominic Raab
The Ministry of Justice has not made such an estimate. We are currently considering the way forward for the application of the no win no fee reforms in Part 2 of the LASPO Act 2012 for insolvency litigation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Green on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his Department is doing to ensure that brownfield land which may have been used by heavy industry is cleaned and prepared for house building in (a) Bolton West constituency and (b) England and Wales.
Brandon Lewis
We are supporting the regeneration of brownfield land through a range of measures. This includes up to £400 million to help create Housing Zones which can be used to cover the costs of land remediation, and a £1 billion fund which we intend to create to focus on unlocking homes on brownfield land for additional housing.
We are also supporting development on brownfield sites through the existing Large Sites Programme, which provides long term loan finance and support to developers, and by releasing enough public sector land for over 150,000 homes by 2020.
In Bolton the Homes and Communities Agency have been working with the Council and the Joint Venture ‘Horwich Vision’ since 2008 to facilitate the redevelopment of a large contaminated site – the former Horwich Loco Works for housing.
Through the Housing and Planning Bill the Government will require local planning authorities in England to create and maintain registers of brownfield land that is suitable for housing.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether it is his policy that employers will have to pay the apprenticeships levy if they do not take on apprentices.
Nick Boles
My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.