UKPOL.CO.UK

Tag: 2014

  • Emma Lewell-Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Emma Lewell-Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff employed by the Law Officers’ Departments received each level of performance rating in their end of year performance assessment for 2013-14.

    Oliver Heald

    It is not possible to provide figures for all the Law Officers’ Departments as their staff performance appraisal processes for 2013-14 have yet to be completed. Figures should be available in the autumn.

  • Nick Gibb – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nick Gibb – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Gibb on 2014-06-24.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what current contracts (a) his Department and (b) each of his Department’s executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies hold with the Educational Testing Service or any of that organisation’s subsidiaries.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Since January 2011, central government departments have been required to publish on Contracts Finder information on the contracts they award (www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/). In addition, departments publish details of spend in excess of £25,000.

    HM Treasury and its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies do not hold any current contracts with the Educational Testing Service or any of that organisation’s subsidiaries.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Gregory Campbell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has for the issuing of further licences for local television.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    As part of our Local TV licencing programme, Ofcom advertised the following locations with a deadline of 7 January 2014: Barnstaple, Basingstoke, Derry/Londonderry, Gloucester, Guildford, Limavady, Luton, Maidstone, Plymouth, Reading and Salisbury and Ofcom is in the process of considering the resulting applications. Out of these locations, Ofcom only received applications for five: Reading, Basingstoke, Guildford, Salisbury and Maidstone. The licences for Reading, Salisbury and Guildford have been awarded by Ofcom (on 3 June 2014) and Ofcom expects to be able to make a decision on the remaining two locations, namely Basingstoke and Maidstone shortly.

    Ofcom plans to invite applications for further areas later this year.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Stephen Doughty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British armed forces personnel were operationally deployed to Northern Ireland in each year from April 1984 to April 2010; and how many such personnel were accompanied by a (a) spouse or (b) civil partner in each such year.

    Mr Mark Francois

    The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

    “

  • Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Alex Cunningham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to compensate local authorities whose leasehold title to land is transferred to academy trusts when the associated school achieves academy status.

    Mr Edward Timpson

    When community schools convert to academies, the freehold is retained by the local authority and a lease is granted to the academy trust.

    We have no plans to compensate local authorities in relation to the transfer of leasehold title to academy trusts as the land in question will continue being used for its original purpose: the education of children in high-quality local schools. In addition, there are strict rules protecting publicly funded land used by academies, regardless of who holds the freehold. This is set out in guidance published online at:

    www.gov.uk/government/publications/protection-of-school-playing-fields-and-public-land-advice

    A copy of the guidance has been placed in the House Library.

    “

  • Emma Lewell-Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Emma Lewell-Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff employed by his Department received each level of performance rating in their end of year performance assessment for 2013-14.

    Gregory Barker

    In DECC the staff declaration rate for disability is:

    • 5.7% have declared they have a disability;
    • 70.6% have declared they don’t have a disability;
    • 23.7% have not declared their disability status.

    The 2013/14 performance ratings breakdown for these groups is:

    Declared have a disability

    Declared don’t have a disability

    Disability status not declared

    1- SCS, Top; AO-G6, Exceptional performance.

    12.2%

    27.1%

    22.5%

    2 – SCS, Achieving; AO-G6, Effective performance.

    70.7%

    67.5%

    70.7%

    3 – SCS, Low; AO-G6, Need for improvement/ developing

    17.1%

    5.5%

    6.8%
  • Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-06-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in the Egyptian government on the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Hugh Robertson

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), discussed the Muslim Brotherhood with former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy on 14 May.

  • 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.