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Tag: 2015

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-30.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will identify which government-funded cycling programmes will (a) continue to be funded, (b) cease to be funded and (c) have their funding reduced in each of the next five years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The DfT is funding a number of cycling programmes as below:

    • the Cycling Ambition City programme until 2017/18; any further investment is subject to future spending decisions;
    • the Highways England cycling programme until 2020-21;
    • the DfT is funding Bikeability until 2019-20;
    • the Local Growth Fund, which includes funding for cycling schemes, is being funded until 2020-21.
    • the new Access fund, which will build on the legacy of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, will be funded until 2019-20.
    • The Cycle / Rail programme will run until the end of 2015/16.
  • Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Greaves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Greaves on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of (1) how many refugees are currently around Calais waiting for an opportunity to travel to the United Kingdom, and (2) how many of those refugees are (a) accompanied, and (b) unaccompanied, children; what assessment they have made of the problems that the onset of winter might cause those refugees; and what additional measures they will take to help to address those problems.

    Lord Bates

    The management of the migrant camps in Calais is the responsibility of the French Government. The French Government has recently stated that there are approximately 6,000 migrants living in makeshift camps in the Calais area. The UK Government does not routinely assess the numbers of migrants in Calais or hold a breakdown of the ages of migrants.

    The UK Government is working to decrease the opportunities available for migrants to enter the UK illegally by investing tens of millions of pounds to bolster security infrastructure in Calais as part of a major programme of work in close collaboration with the French Government to improve security in the area. Alongside this, the French Government has opened up thousands of new places in its asylum system encouraging migrants to claim asylum in France and not travel to the UK.

    The French Government is responsible for the care of migrants in Calais, including support over the winter. However, both governments are committed to finding a sustainable solution to the situation in Calais. The UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August 2015 committed the UK to providing £3.6 million (or €5 million) per year for two years to help support a range of work to manage the migrant population in Calais, in particular to provide support and facilities elsewhere in France. Additionally, the UK has provided £530,000 (or €750,000) to fund the France Terre d’Asile Project to identify those in the camps who are especially vulnerable and at risk of trafficking and exploitation, and to provide them with appropriate support within the French system.

  • Mark Menzies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Mark Menzies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2015-12-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that consumers can have confidence in vehicle emissions data.

    Andrew Jones

    Consumers must be able to trust data provided to inform their purchasing decisions. That is why the government pushed in Europe for the recently agreed changes to the way emissions are measured.

    I am pleased that real driving emissions will be measured from 2017 but, in the meantime, officials are retesting the emission performance of the most popular vehicles in Great Britain. We will publish a report of this work in spring 2016.

  • Baroness Walmsley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Baroness Walmsley – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Walmsley on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether in assessing the benefits of PFI against conventional procurement they take account of the amount of UK tax paid by PFI investors, as recommended by the Public Accounts Committee in its report of 2011 Lessons from PFI and other projects.

    Lord O’Neill of Gatley

    In its response to the Public Accounts Committee report, the Government made clear that it did not agree with the Committee’s conclusion and recommendation.

    As set out in the response, HM Treasury stated that the initial appraisal of a project takes into account the additional tax receipts that arise from the use of a privately funded project, compared to a publicly funded project.

    Managing Public Money directs procuring authorities to ensure that procurement decisions do not rely on any tax advantage that a particular bid may enjoy because of the tax status of the proposed contactor. Any privately financed option will only be pursued if it is better value for money than the publicly funded alternative.

    The Treasury’s full response can be found on the gov.uk website.

  • Toby Perkins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Toby Perkins – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many days on average each class of Royal Naval officer and rating was at sea in each year between 2005 and 2014.

    Mark Lancaster

    Time spent at sea can vary depending on the tasking of the vessel.

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

  • Cat Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Cat Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of proposals to allow Ministers to cap union facility time contained in the Trade Union Bill on (a) staff morale, (b) productivity and (c) patient safety in the NHS.

    Ben Gummer

    There are no current proposals to cap tradeunion facility time although the Trade UnionBill includes a reservepower to do so if it is deemed appropriate.The Department has not assessed the effect on staff morale, productivity and patient safety should this power be implemented and has no evidence that they would be affected.

  • Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Callum McCaig – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Callum McCaig on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assumptions her Department relied on to produce the information on expenditure on Contracts for Difference in respect of each eligible technology that it provided to inform the Office for Budget Responsibility assessment of the Levy Control Framework.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Department takes into account a number of factors to project Levy Control Framework (LCF) spending in relation to Contracts for Difference (CfD) contracts, including capacity for each individual project, strike prices, wholesale electricity prices, load factors and commissioning dates. Some of the CfD predictions that fed into the Office for Budget Responsibility November LCF forecasts are already in the public domain, such as strike prices for signed CfD contracts which are available on the LCCC website. Some predictions are based on commercial intelligence and sensitive information from the developers which we cannot disclose.

  • Deidre Brock – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Deidre Brock – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Deidre Brock on 2015-11-05.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether under any Act arising from the Scotland Bill the Scottish Government will be enabled to pay tax credits.

    Damian Hinds

    The Smith Commission agreement, agreed by all the main parties in Scotland, set out those benefits where power should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. Tax credits were not amongst those benefits.

    However, under the current Scotland Bill clauses, the Scottish Government will have the power to top-up tax credits, as long as it does so through using its own resources. The Smith Commission agreement said that any new benefits or discretionary payments introduced by the Scottish Parliament must provide additional income for a recipient and not result in an automatic offsetting reduction in their entitlement to other benefits. Once the Scottish Government have been clear about how they want to use their new powers, we will work with them to understand the interactions between the reserved and devolved benefit systems.

  • Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proposals the Government made aimed at making fully transparent the financial management practices in each member state participant in the Joint Ministerial Council of British Overseas Territories at its fourth meeting in December 2015.

    James Duddridge

    The Government and Overseas Territories committed at the Joint Ministerial Council to work in partnership as appropriate to support capacity building and the development of expertise in public financial management and economic planning. This includes maintaining sound public finances, building economic resilience and ensuring value for money in use of public funds, including through effective use of audit.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-11-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which regulations his Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015 to date; which regulations his Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to UIN 15037.