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Tag: 2014

  • David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    David Crausby – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2014-04-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to increase the availability of credit for small businesses in (a) Bolton North East constituency and (b) England in the last year.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Government is committed to ensuring businesses can access the finance they need for investment and growth.

    The Bank of England and HM Treasury announced in November that the Funding for Lending scheme would be focused on lending to businesses to reflect the success that the scheme has had with households. Lending under the Funding for Lending Scheme has totalled over £16bn according to the latest figures.

    The British Business Bank is being established to ensure that business finance markets work efficiently and effectively for smaller businesses, and its loan guarantee and investment programmes supported £660 million of lending and investment in 2013 across the UK.

    A breakdown of the value of debt finance facilitated to businesses in Bolton North East constituency and England through British Business Bank programmes in the last year is detailed in the table below.

    Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (drawn down)

    Start Up Loans Scheme

    (drawn down)

    Lending facilitated by the Business Finance Partnership

    Bolton North East Constituency

    7 Loans with a value of £1.14m

    24 loans with a value of £117 330

    North West Region: 462 loans with a value of nearly £ 27m

    England

    2857 loans with a value of £307.6 million

    13432 with a value over £75m

    3721 loans provided with a value of nearly £226m
  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many times magistrates have issued warrants to utility companies permitting the forcible installation of prepayment meters in the homes of their customers in each year since 2002–03.

    Lord Faulks

    Utility companies apply for warrants of entry to magistrates’ courts. When the application is heard the outcome is recorded on the court register. They are not recorded or collated centrally so this question could only be answered by manually inspecting records at each magistrates’ court, which would incur disproportionate costs.

  • Julie Hilling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Julie Hilling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Hilling on 2014-03-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the effect of the removal of the under-occupancy penalty on the number of children living in relative income poverty.

    Esther McVey

    This information could be only provided at disproportionate cost.

    This Government has made good progress in tackling the root causes of child poverty and has recently published the 2014-17 draft child poverty strategy for consultation which outlines the actions we are taking. The latest figures from 2011/12 show that 2.3m (17%) children are in relative income poverty – down 300,000 since 2009/10. These are the lowest level since the mid-1980s.

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the impact of air pollution on the development of an irregular heartbeat and blood clots in the lung.

    Earl Howe

    In 2010, the Department’s expert advisory Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) published an estimate of the mortality effect in 2008 of long-term exposure to particulate air pollution arising from human activities. The mortality burden for the United Kingdom was estimated as an effect equivalent to nearly 29,000 deaths.

    Air pollution has been linked with effects on the cardiovascular system. However, it has not been extensively and consistently linked to an increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat and there are few studies investigating whether it raises the risk of blood clots in thelung.

  • Ms Karen Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Ms Karen Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ms Karen Buck on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of London households in temporary accommodation were in (a) private sector leased properties, (b) hotels, (c) bed and breakfast, (d) local authority registered social landlord property and (e) other accommodation (i) at the most recent date for which figures are available and (ii) at 31 March 2010.

    Kris Hopkins

    [Holding Reply: Monday 17 March 2014]

    To assist public scrutiny, I have placed in the Library of the House, a table which provides quarterly figures for the last ten years.

    Over that period, the numbers of households in temporary accommodation in London in this Government is far lower than averaged under the last Administration. The peak of 63,800 households in December 2005 compares to 42,430 in December 2013.

    Councils have a responsibility to move homeless households into settled accommodation as quickly as possible and we made common sense changes to the law to enable them to use suitable private rented homes. The average stay in temporary accommodation in England has been reduced from 20 months at the beginning of 2010 to 14 months now, which means that people on average are spending far less time in such temporary accommodation.

    We have also seen a 42% reduction in the numbers of families with children in Bed and Breakfast for more than six weeks on this time last year across the country. The seven local authorities that my Department has funded to tackle families in Bed and Breakfast have made significant progress, achieving an overall reduction of 96% since the funding began.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-06-09.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they have made to the government of Israel about its holding children detained in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in immediate solitary confinement; whether they have any plans to work within the European Union to end the practice; whether they know when the proposed system of summons will start; and whether they will take steps to ensure access by parents to their children in custody.

    Baroness Warsi

    The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Mr Grayling), raised the treatment of child detainees with the Israeli Supreme Court President during his visit to Israel in May. The system of summons started in February 2014. It has already shown initial success in decreasing the number of children arrested at night. We intend to carry out further analysis on this system over the coming months. As a recent progress report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates, Israel has taken some positive steps towards addressing the recommendations in UNICEF’s Children in Israeli Military Detention report. These include: the introduction of legal obligations to inform the child’s parents of an arrest and grant them legal status to be represented in court, as well as to notify minors of their legal rights; and standard operating procedures on methods of restraint. The Government will continue to work, both through bilateral engagement and through the EU, to encourage Israel to take further positive steps.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    Paul Blomfield – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electorial Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the electoral registration figures were in each ward in the recent confirmation dry run conducted in Sheffield.

    Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

    Results for all wards are available on the Commission’s website here:

    http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

    The ward results for Sheffield City Council were as follows:

    Ward

    Green matches

    Amber matches

    Red matches

    Arbourthorne

    82.3%

    1.2%

    16.5%

    Beauchief & Greenhill

    85.6%

    0.9%

    13.5%

    Beighton

    87.2%

    0.7%

    12.1%

    Birley

    87.2%

    1.0%

    11.8%

    Broomhill

    37.5%

    2.8%

    59.7%

    Burngreave

    75.7%

    3.9%

    20.5%

    Central

    34.9%

    3.1%

    62.1%

    Crookes

    65.7%

    0.9%

    33.4%

    Darnall

    77.5%

    3.1%

    19.4%

    Dore & Totley

    86.1%

    1.2%

    12.7%

    East Ecclesfield

    86.2%

    1.0%

    12.7%

    Ecclesall

    81.8%

    1.2%

    17.0%

    Firth Park

    82.6%

    1.8%

    15.7%

    Fulwood

    62.8%

    1.3%

    35.9%

    Gleadless Valley

    79.3%

    1.7%

    19.0%

    Graves Park

    82.9%

    1.1%

    16.0%

    Hillsborough

    81.7%

    1.4%

    17.0%

    Manor Castle

    76.5%

    1.5%

    22.0%

    Mosborough

    85.6%

    0.9%

    13.4%

    Nether Edge

    69.4%

    2.7%

    27.9%

    Richmond

    86.1%

    1.1%

    12.8%

    Shiregreen & Brightside

    82.9%

    1.4%

    15.6%

    Southey

    84.8%

    1.1%

    14.1%

    Stannington

    84.9%

    1.8%

    13.3%

    Stocksbridge & Upper Don

    85.2%

    1.8%

    13.0%

    Walkley

    69.5%

    1.7%

    28.8%

    West Ecclesfield

    87.9%

    0.8%

    11.3%

    Woodhouse

    86.1%

    1.3%

    12.6%

    “

  • Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what future discussions he has planned with his counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive on climate change.

    Gregory Barker

    The UK has an open dialogue with the Devolved Administrations to discuss matters relating to climate change. This includes consulting the Devolved Administrations, including the Northern Ireland Executive, on the UK position on the international negotiations ahead of the annual UNFCCC Conference of the Parties.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2014-03-11.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many graduates of British universities aged 21 to 25 are claiming unemployment-related benefits.

    Nick Hurd

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in open prisons have previously absconded or escaped from prison.

    Jeremy Wright

    Keeping the public safe is our priority. That is why this Government has taken action on both releases on temporary licence (ROTL) and absconds from prison.

    We commissioned a fundamental review of ROTL policy and practice last year and, in March, announced a package of measures to ensure that the public was properly protected. We have brought forward some of those measures so that they take effect immediately; particularly with more serious offenders, where the review concluded that an enhanced risk assessment approach should be taken.

    Absconds have reached record lows under this Government but each incident is taken seriously. Immediate changes have already been ordered to tighten up the system as a matter of urgency. Prisoners will no longer be transferred to open conditions or allowed out on temporary release if they have previously absconded.