Tag: 2015

  • Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Owen Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

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

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people aged 18 to 21 in receipt of housing benefit also received tax credits in the most recent period for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of the effect on those people of planned reforms to tax credit.

    Damian Hinds

    The Government is committed to achieving a higher wage, lower tax, lower welfare economy. That means more emphasis on support to working families on low incomes through reducing tax and increasing wages, than on topping up low wages through tax credits.

    The Chancellor is listening to concerns raised by colleagues and will announce in his Autumn Statement how he plans to achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits and saving the money we need to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition.

  • Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Mike Kane – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mike Kane on 2015-12-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make it his policy to ensure that 15 per cent of the three million apprenticeships his Department plans to deliver over the next five years are taken up by disabled people.

    Nick Boles

    We are committed to reaching 3 million new apprenticeship starts by 2020. Thousands of disabled people have benefitted from apprenticeships. In the 2014/15 academic year 44,090 of those starting an apprenticeship declared a disability or learning difficulty (LDD). This is 8.8% of the total starts.

    Apprenticeships are jobs with training and availability is dependent upon employers offering opportunities. However, we believe that there is more that can be done to ensure that people from a diverse range of backgrounds are in the best possible place to apply for and secure an apprenticeship. Employers must fulfil their duties as set out in the Equality Act 2010 for apprentices as they would for other employees.

    An Apprenticeships Equality and Diversity Advisory group helps government understand and address any apprenticeship equality and diversity issues in order to reduce barriers and make apprenticeships as inclusive as possible.

  • Lord Empey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Empey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2015-11-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what communications they have had with the Northern Ireland Executive about the establishment of City Deals in Northern Ireland.

    Lord Dunlop

    The Government communicates with the Northern Ireland Executive frequently on a wide range of issues.

    The Economic Pact between the Executive and the Government was modelled on some of the approaches the Government takes with City Deals but many of the policies included in City Deals in Great Britain are devolved in Northern Ireland and are the responsibility of the Executive.

  • Lord Dobbs – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Dobbs – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Dobbs on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the political objectives of the Free Syrian Army.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Free Syrian Army is a collective term used by a range of moderate opposition groups in Syria who are fighting the regime and Daesh. The Free Syrian Army are fighting to change the regime in Syria; they call for a pluralistic system that respects the rights of all Syrians. They reject terrorism and terrorist tactics, and have condemned Islamic extremism. They have been fighting both the regime and Daesh in Syria for over two years with success in a number of areas, in particular in Idlib and Aleppo in Northwest Syria and in Dera’a Province in the South.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the steps taken by the British Virgin Islands to meet the Prime Minister’s ambition for a public register of beneficial ownership since June 2013.

    James Duddridge

    In March the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and I wrote to the Premier of the British Virgin Islands asking him to set out plans and a timetable for the implementation of a central register of company beneficial ownership, or similarly effective system, ahead of the Joint Ministerial Council. The letter included three criteria we expect BVI to meet.

  • Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Maginnis of Drumglass – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government which Peers and MPs who are based in Northern Ireland were invited by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers, to her briefing on the Northern Ireland political agreement prior to her statement in the House of Commons on 19 November.

    Lord Dunlop

    There was no briefing for Peers or MP’s prior to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland’s Statement to the House of Commons on Thursday 19 November.

    An invitation to the briefing on the Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Bill held on Monday 23 November was circulated electronically to all Peers via the Usual Channels.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many replies to constituent correspondence from hon. Members her Department sent by (a) email and (b) letter in each of the last three years; and what the cost of using each method was in each such year.

    Karen Bradley

    The systems used to manage correspondence received from hon. Members do not record whether the response has been sent by email or letter; we are therefore unable to provide the requested breakdown or associated costs.

  • Baroness Royall of Blaisdon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Baroness Royall of Blaisdon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the progress made by the #iwill campaign towards meeting its aim of having an additional 1.5 million young people involved in social action by 2020.

    Lord Bridges of Headley

    Cabinet Office and Step Up To Serve commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey 2,021 10-20 year olds in September 2015 to determine the proportion of young people involved in social action in the UK. The survey helps to measure the progress of the #iwill campaign and found that 42% of 10-20 year olds took part in meaningful social action.

    Cabinet Office has pledged to support the #iwill campaign by ensuring that young people from all backgrounds have the opportunity to engage in meaningful youth social action opportunities.

    Opportunities for young people to get involved in youth social action can be found through the #iwill campaign website which sets out many of the excellent programmes that already exist in the UK.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Seema Malhotra – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-11-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government has taken to (a) improve destination data for school leavers and (b) develop online portals to help advise school leavers of all post-16 learning options.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Information on the destinations of Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 students was published on 20 October 2015. These experimental statistics are available online.[1]

    The statistics are published at national, local, constituency, and institution level.Since they were first released in 2012, we have added data about employment destinations; improved the coverage by including independent schools, special schools, pupil referral units and other alternative provision; and have improved the timeliness of the data. We have also included the Key Stage 4 education destinations in performance tables.

    We are looking to improve the quality of the destinations data by linking it to employment and benefits data. We plan to publish all Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 destinations as headline performance measures in the 2016 performance tables.

    In our guidance on post-16 funding, we set out the expectation that providers of post-16 education and training will add information on their Government funded courses to a national database. The aim is that portal providers will be able to access this information and present it in a user-friendly way, to help young people make informed decisions about their options. Providers of post-16 education and training are currently uploading course information to this database.

    [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-destinations

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  • Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-12-03.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the activities of ticket resale websites.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    An independent Review has been established to consider consumer protection measures in relation to online ticket resales and will report by 26 May 2016.