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Tag: 2015

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-09-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to bring forward legislation to regulate (a) digital currencies, (b) crowdfunding and (c) peer-to-peer lending.

    Harriett Baldwin

    At the March Budget, the Government said it would consult on how to regulate digital currency exchanges in the new Parliament.

    Operating a P2P platform has been an activity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) since 2014. Crowdfunding is also a Regulated Activity and is subject to FCA rules.

  • MiDavies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    MiDavies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by MiDavies on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of new houses was built on brownfield land between May 2010 and May 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    Statistics for 2013/14 were published in August 2015. These statistics showed that in 2013/14, 60 per cent of new residential addresses, including conversions to residential use, were created on previously developed land.

    The figures in the 2013/14 publication are the first in the new series and so are not directly comparable to the previous Land Use Change Statistics which last published data covering the year 2011.

    The Land Use Change Statistics provide the Department’s official source for estimating the proportion of new residential development on previously developed land (brownfield). They were historically collected from 1985 to 2011. The previous data collection was expensive to run. By switching to an innovative new methodology the Department has made significant savings whilst providing a statistical series more suitable for detailed statistical and spatial analysis than before.

    Historical Land Use Change statistics are available on the Department’s website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/land-use-change-statistics#archived-publications

    “

  • Douglas Chapman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Douglas Chapman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost is to the public purse of the contract to purchase the ASRAAM missiles from MBDA (UK) Ltd; and how many such missiles will be purchased as part of that contract.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The ASRAAM contract awarded to MBDA(UK) Limited is worth some £300 million (excluding VAT) and covers the development, qualification and manufacture of operational, telemetry, and training missiles. I am withholding details of the number of missiles ordered as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of our Armed Forces and allies.

  • Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Phillips – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to prevent illegal trade in ivory products.

    Rory Stewart

    The UK has played a leading role in galvanising international action to combat the illegal wildlife trade, including the illegal trade in ivory. We hosted the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade in February 2014 and actively supported the Government of Botswana in its hosting of a follow-up Conference in Kasane in March 2015. The UK has also supported the Elephant Protection Initiative, of which nine African elephant range states are now members and which is designed to help them to secure and maintain healthy elephant populations.

    The UK is committed to maintaining the current global ban on any new international trade in ivory, established under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In addition, the UK does not permit trade in raw ivory tusks of any age and we are pressing for this approach to be taken across the whole of the European Union.

    We have committed £13 million to support projects around the world to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. These projects seek to reduce demand, strengthen law enforcement and develop sustainable livelihoods for communities affected by illegal wildlife trade, principally through Defra’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. A second round of the Challenge Fund was launched on 5 August.

  • George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    George Howarth – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Howarth on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average annual cost to the NHS of the effects of sight loss; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department has made no recent estimate of the number of people with sight loss, the likely number who will have sight loss in the future, or of the costs in treating sight loss and eye health issues.

    Information on the number of patients who are blind or have sight loss is not collected centrally. However information is available on the number of people who are registered by local authorities as blind or partially sighted. At March 2014, the number of people on the register of blind people was 143,000 and on the register of partially sighted people 147,700.

    Registration as blind or partially sighted is voluntary so the numbers registered are likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss. Research funded by the Royal National Institute of Blind People, published in 20091, estimated there were almost 2 million people in the United Kingdom living with sight loss and that this number would double to 4 million by 2050.

    Information is collected centrally and published on NHS expenditure on `problems of vision’ across both primary and secondary care. In the latest year for which data has been published2 for both primary and secondary care, 2012/13, primary care trust expenditure was £2.3 billion. The Department expects NHS England to commission services for eye health to meet any increased demand, as it would in any other area of healthcare. The ‘Five Year Forward View’3 sets out the vision for how services may be organised going forward.

    1 http://www.rnib.org.uk/sites/default/files/FSUK_Report.pdf

    2 http://www.england.nhs.uk/resources/resources-for-ccgs/prog-budgeting/

    3 http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/5yfv-web.pdf

    “

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to make the register of deaths of UK residents available online.

    Richard Harrington

    Under present legislation, the register of deaths in England and Wales contains details of all deaths which have taken place there, regardless of whether the deceased was a UK resident. Similar arrangements are in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Civil registration is a devolved matter.

    In England and Wales, information from the register of deaths is made available in the form of a certificate, on payment of the appropriate fee. Currently, there are no plans to change this process.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Laurence Robertson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the fine levels for offences related to section 168 of the Equality Act 2010.

    Andrew Selous

    The figures do not suggest that courts are finding their sentencing powers inadequate.

  • Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Adam Afriyie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the noise impact of the Future Airspace Strategy on Windsor constituency.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government has not made such an assessment.

    The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) led Future Airspace Strategy provides a framework for how the UK’s airspace should be managed in the future. It is a CAA requirement that any proposer of an airspace change should consult with their local communities on how the implementation of the strategy will affect them.

  • Queen Elizabeth II – 2015 Christmas Broadcast

    Queen Elizabeth II – 2015 Christmas Broadcast

    The Christmas Broadcast made by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 25 December 2015.

    At this time of year, few sights evoke more feelings of cheer and goodwill than the twinkling lights of a Christmas tree.

    The popularity of a tree at Christmas is due in part to my great-great grandparents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. After this touching picture was published, many families wanted a Christmas tree of their own, and the custom soon spread.

    In 1949, I spent Christmas in Malta as a newly-married naval wife. We have returned to that island over the years, including last month for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders; and this year I met another group of leaders: The Queen’s Young Leaders, an inspirational group, each of them a symbol of hope in their own Commonwealth communities.

    Gathering round the tree gives us a chance to think about the year ahead — I am looking forward to a busy 2016, though I have been warned I may have Happy Birthday sung to me more than once or twice. It also allows us to reflect on the year that has passed, as we think of those who are far away or no longer with us. Many people say the first Christmas after losing a loved one is particularly hard. But it’s also a time to remember all that we have to be thankful for.

    It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

    One cause for thankfulness this summer was marking seventy years since the end of the Second World War. On VJ Day, we honoured the remaining veterans of that terrible conflict in the Far East, as well as remembering the thousands who never returned. The procession from Horse Guards Parade to Westminster Abbey must have been one of the slowest ever, because so many people wanted to say ‘thank you’ to them.

    At the end of that War, the people of Oslo began sending an annual gift of a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square. It has five hundred lightbulbs and is enjoyed not just by Christians but by people of all faiths, and of none. At the very top sits a bright star, to represent the Star of Bethlehem.

    The custom of topping a tree also goes back to Prince Albert’s time. For his family’s tree, he chose an angel, helping to remind us that the focus of the Christmas story is on one particular family.
    For Joseph and Mary, the circumstances of Jesus’s birth — in a stable – were far from ideal, but worse was to come as the family was forced to flee the country. It’s no surprise that such a human story still captures our imagination and continues to inspire all of us who are Christians, the world over.

    Despite being displaced and persecuted throughout his short life, Christ’s unchanging message was not one of revenge or violence but simply that we should love one another. Although it is not an easy message to follow, we shouldn’t be discouraged; rather, it inspires us to try harder: to be thankful for the people who bring love and happiness into our own lives, and to look for ways of spreading that love to others, whenever and wherever we can.

    One of the joys of living a long life is watching one’s children, then grandchildren, then great grandchildren, help decorate the Christmas tree. And this year my family has a new member to join in the fun!

    The customary decorations have changed little in the years since that picture of Victoria and Albert’s tree first appeared, although of course electric lights have replaced the candles.

    There’s an old saying that “it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness”.

    There are millions of people lighting candles of hope in our world today. Christmas is a good time to be thankful for them, and for all that brings light to our lives.

    I wish you a very happy Christmas.

  • Liz Truss – 2015 Speech at Agrihive on UK Businesses Exporting Food

    Liz Truss – 2015 Speech at Agrihive on UK Businesses Exporting Food

    The speech made by Liz Truss, the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, at the Agrihive Conference on 18 November 2015.

    We have some of the most exciting and inventive people in our food and farming industry in this country. And one of the things we’re doing is tonight, we’re launching Great British Food, which is a new campaign celebrating those pioneers, but also talking about how we can get the message out about how exciting British food is, how exciting British farming is, and what we are doing here in our industry to make sure that we can compete internationally, as well as make sure we’re buying selling and growing more British food here in our own country. And there’s been a lot of work in the dairy area.

    I know a lot of exciting innovations. Only a couple of weeks ago when I announced the extension of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, I visited the Wensleydale Creamery, and I think it’s a brilliant example of a business which operates within a national park. It succeeded in expanding and it does very good job with local farmers, so they are supplying the milk to the dairy. It also promotes itself as a visitor attraction and it’s attracting increasing visitors in the Yorkshire Dales.

    In fact I first came across the people from Wensleydale in Paris, when they were at the CL trade fair and their stand was being mobbed by Japanese buyers wanting to buy into that unique product from Yorkshire. It’s a protected product and I think success stories like Wensleydale who’ve now launched their first yoghurt product. This shows what can happen and where dairy businesses can succeed in the future. I’ve said before at the moment we’ve got a big opportunity on products, we still import the majority of our butter and our cheese. We import 40,000 tonnes of cheddar every year which after all, is a British product kicked off here in the UK.

    So I think there are opportunities, of course we know that many farmers are struggling at the moment and we’ve worked hard at a European level to secure that additional funding, which will be paid in December. We’re also making sure that the BPS payments go out on time which I know many farmers are concerned about, but what we also need to do whilst making sure we retain the strength of our industry in the short term is building up those longer term opportunities.

    So we’re working at looking at the grocery chain adjudicator now at a European level to reflect the nature of the food chain and the way it goes beyond national boundaries. We’re looking at futures markets in dairy to help farmers plan for the future. And we’re consulting on tax averaging over five years to help farmers maintain those long term businesses. We’re also very focused on exports and we’ve seen a 60% increase in dairy exports since 2009. I think there are many more opportunities out there. I’ve highlighted Wensleydale, but we’ve got a whole host of dairy companies coming with us next week on our visit to China on our trade mission to China.

    So there are lots of opportunities but I think an event like this Agrihive, that really involves the leaders of the industry. And those working with the industry is really important to get those ideas out there to look at the pioneering efforts across British dairy, because I’m absolutely clear that dairy is a core part of our food and farming industry. You know, we need to not just maintain it for the long term, but also help build up the industry and I think it is the pioneers. It’s the people with ideas, with new ways of doing things, to make sure that we can maintain our productivity, our competitiveness, and really win in those international markets.

    It’s really important of course, the government is a very big procurer of food. Last year we launched the Bonfield report, which is all about making it easier for public sector bodies like schools and hospitals to buy British food so they can now look at things like where it’s from, is it local, they can look at the quality of the product, rather than just going on the price and that is having an impact. We are seeing more British dairy bought across the public sector. And I want see more progress on that in the next few years.

    So we’re setting an example in government. I think there’s more we can do across the country to support our dairy industry and we are in discussions with supermarkets as well about that, but also, the industry has a major role to play in putting itself forward in grasping those potential. opportunities both here and overseas. But thank you very much for having me along today. It’s a great innovation and I hope to see you all soon. Thank you