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Tag: 2015

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Andrew Rosindell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to promote British business in (a) Australia, (b) Canada and (c) New Zealand.

    Anna Soubry

    We are taking forward our manifesto commitment to strengthen relationships with Australia and New Zealand and bilateral trade plays an important part of this. Our trade campaigns are focussed on the strongest growing sectors that match UK business strengths. Australia continues to offer particularly good opportunities for UK firms in transport infrastructure witha Laing O’Rourke led consortium winning a £2.1bn highway upgrade project earlier in the year. Other sectors of opportunity include: defence, urban regeneration & construction, airports, rail, ICT & software, food & beverage. The changing dynamics in the world economy have reduced demand for UK oil & gas expertise but we are continuing to explore opportunities in renewable energy.

    We are also using the GREAT Campaign to provide platforms for UK firms to network through business events around Rugby World Cup, Bond, the Clipper Yacht Race, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Melbourne and a broader Culture is GREAT campaign in Victoria. Trade missions from London, Northern Ireland and a sports infrastructure themed mission organised by Major Events International have all visited Australia in 2015. We are also supporting the launching of EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement talks and we maintain a strong flow of ministerial and high-level official contacts in support of the bilateral relationship including on trade and investment.

    In New Zealand particularly good opportunities continue for UK firms in transport infrastructure, defence,construction, airports, rail, and food & beverage. Our campaigns have exposed senior New Zealand infrastructure leaders to UK infrastructure best practice which has helped eight UK companies win contracts totalling over £28m this financial year.

    We are using the GREAT Campaign here to provide platforms for UK firms to network through business events around Rugby World Cup, Bond and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Wellington. Trade missions from London and companies from Northern Ireland visited in 2015. We also strongly support the launch of negotiations on an EU-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and we will continue to use ministerial engagement in 2016 to further trade and business objectives.

    In Canada, our efforts are focussed on those sectors with the highest potential for British business and where the UK has competitive advantage. These include: energy, infrastructure, transport, financial services, creative industries and defence and security. Activities in the past three months to deliver this include: a Northern Ireland Minister led trade mission to Montreal & Toronto; securing business for UK film producers at the Toronto International Film Festival; deliver a 12 day programme of GREAT activity in Toronto and supporting low carbon technology at the opening of Shell’s Carbon Capture and Storage facility in Alberta.

    In 2016 we will promote the Canada EU comprehensive economic and trade agreement which will deliver substantial benefit for UK business. This will include publication of a report to highlight specific opportunities for UK business afforded by CETA and a roadshow of profile raising UK events targeted at businesses.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether adult children will be included in the vulnerable persons relocation scheme along with their younger siblings and parents.

    Richard Harrington

    We work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed vulnerability criteria for the Syrian Resettlement Scheme. This can include families where adult children form part of the family unit where the UNHCR deem resettlement is appropriate for the entire family group.

  • John Mc Nally – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    John Mc Nally – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Mc Nally on 2015-11-09.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is his policy to maintain the level of funding to the NHS from national insurance contributions (NICs) regardless of the overall amount raised by NICs; and if he will make a statement.

    Greg Hands

    By 2020-21, the Government will increase funding for the NHS by £10 billion a year in real terms compared to 2014-15 to support the transformation of services across the country. This investment is £2bn more than the NHS asked for, and will help deliver the Government’s objective in moving to a seven day NHS by 2020.

    The Government does not commit to achieving a specific level of funding to the NHS from National Insurance contributions (NICs). Instead, a fixed proportion of each class of NICs receipts (from employees, the self-employed and employers) is allocated directly to the NHS; this adds up to about 20% of NICs receipts. The rest of NHS funding comes from general taxation.

  • Steve McCabe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Steve McCabe – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what legal and regulatory obligations apply to members of the public identified by banks as Politically Exposed Persons; and what information his Department holds on how such people are identified by banks.

    Harriett Baldwin

    At present, only foreign Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) are subject to the Money Laundering Regulations (2007). The Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, requires enhanced customer due diligence (EDD) measures to also be extended to domestic PEPs. We intend to interpret the Directive in a way that continues to allow banks to apply a “risk-based approach” to both the identification and application of EDD measures. This involves treating UK PEPs on the basis of risk when undertaking due diligence measures. We intend to set out this view in our consultation on transposition of the Directive which will be published in early 2016.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential for the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived to assist efforts to help homeless EEA nationals in the UK.

    Priti Patel

    The UK allocation from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) is €3.96m for the 2014-20 period and will be used to expand breakfast club provision in deprived areas in England. The Department for Education received interim funding of €541,216 in advance of the scheme commencing. Officials are currently exploring options for the best way for the scheme to be administered.

    Since FEAD was created from within structural funds allocations and has some similarities to ESF, DWP Ministers took the initial decisions on our negotiation position on the size of the UK allocation and on the use of the funds. Responsibility for implementing the Fund now sits with DfE, and we have agreed this response with them. We will discuss with officials there whether all correspondence, PQs and so on, should now be their responsibility, or whether we retain a policy lead.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kirsten Oswald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2015-12-08.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received on differences in the (a) criteria used by the Financial Ombudsman’s Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme to determine cases and (b) determinations reached by those bodies.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Treasury Ministers and officials receive regular representations on a wide range of issues.

    As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.

  • Clive Efford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Clive Efford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Efford on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on plans to introduce a Horserace Betting Right; and if he will make a statement.

    Tracey Crouch

    Work is continuing on the detailed policy design of the Horserace Betting Right. We will make an announcement in due course.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 13628, whether the £230 million spend incurred by BT is an addition to the £683 million recorded as state aid receipts in BT’s accounts.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The £230m is BT expenditure and would therefore be in addition to receipts recorded on the BT annual accounts.

  • Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Maria Eagle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the physical and mental health of refugees arriving by boat at RAF Akrotiri; and what steps he plans to take to ensure the wellbeing of those refugees.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The transit facility at Dhekelia Station in Cyprus has been developed with advice from the Department for International Development (DfID) and has been visited by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Cyprus, who has said that the conditions of the facility exceed the standard of comparable set-ups.

    We have a DfID adviser embedded at the transit facility who continues to advise on best practice which has enabled us to maintain these high standards.

    All of the migrants have been assessed by medical personnel and provided with any necessary treatment.

  • Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Steven Paterson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steven Paterson on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 4.98 in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, published on 23 November 2015; how many of the 10,000 military personnel available to assist civil authorities are (a) based in Scotland and (b) available to be used to assist civil authorities in Scotland.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Under the deployment plan the Ministry of Defence and police have identified a range of security tasks that the military will undertake in order to release police firearms officers to respond to a major counter-terrorism (CT) incident. A proportion of these are in Scotland although we do not reveal the specific numbers of personnel involved for reasons of operational security.

    The plan also allows us to generate a far more significant surge of military personnel to deploy in response to a major CT incident. These personnel deploy across the UK, including in Scotland. Military units have a responsibility for this task on a rolling basis, including the 9,810 personnel based in Scotland.