The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 2015-10-28.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much income was generated by the Commercial Court in each of the last 10 years, and what were the operating costs for that Court in each year.
Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not analyse the income or cost of the Commercial Court in this way. Such information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what account he has taken of trends in reports of pregnancy discrimination as in his review into employment tribunal fees.
Mr Shailesh Vara
On 11 June we announced the start of the post-implementation review of the introduction of fees in the Employment Tribunals. The review will consider, so far as is possible, the impact the fees have had on those with protected characteristics and the types of case they bring. In order to do this, we will be giving all relevant material the appropriate consideration.
The review is underway and will report in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville on 2015-10-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect on the cost of housing benefit to the public purse of requiring local authorities to sell their housing stock.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Everyone needs to live within their means. People on benefits should have to make the same decisions and choices about where they can afford to live as people who are not on benefits, and should not expect to be housed in properties that most working households are unable to afford.
The Housing and Planning Bill will require local authorities to make a payment to Government based on the estimated value of their high value housing that is expected to become vacant.
This policy is about councils making best use of their housing stock – selling vacant high value housing to fund the building of new homes which reflect housing need and increase overall housing supply, and to increase home ownership, as set out in the Government’s manifesto.
At the heart of this legislation is the building of more homes. A portion of receipts generated from sales of vacant high value local authority housing will be used to build homes that better meet housing need and increase overall housing supply. In addition to this, housing associations will retain the sales receipt from each home sold through Right to Buy to enable them to re-invest in the delivery of new homes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that a sufficient supply of large goods vehicles drivers is available for the road haulage industry.
Andrew Jones
The Department is working with its motoring services agencies to reduce times and delays in obtaining a driving test appointment and medical licence renewals.
In order to reduce waiting times for LGV driving tests the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is currently recruiting examiners and is focusing its efforts particularly in areas where waiting times are higher. To date, DVSA has recruited 78 new driving examiners during 2015/16 with a further 65 either attending or are booked on to new entrant courses. DVSA has also offered posts to a further 41 potential examiners.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) are now dealing with vocational applications with no declared medical condition within 5 working days. DVLA has also made some changes to improve the processing of applications where a driver has declared a medical condition. However processing these applications relies on the timeliness of third parties including medical professionals and drivers.
The latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey show that the number of HGV drivers employed across all sectors such as manufacturing and retail has continued to grow since the 259,000 low in 2013 to 299,000 drivers in 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2015-10-27.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the European Union policy of requiring farmers to erect notices advertising the European Union if they receive grants; whether such notices require planning consent; and whether they will require that all such advertising notices should also indicate information about the ratio of United Kingdom contributions to the European Union budget and the sums returned by way of grants to farmers and others.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble
EU regulations require any business who receives over €500,000 for capital items to display a billboard setting out:
We expect less than 1% of all agreements will be large enough to meet this requirement.
However, the Minister of State for farming, food and marine environment will be considering how this requirement might be removed in future CAP regulations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2015-11-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 23 November (HL3395), how many breaches of government websites there were in 2014 where no national security considerations apply.
Lord Bridges of Headley
For security reasons we do not comment on specific details of cyber security attacks. GCHQ typically responds to an average of 70 sophisticated attacks on government networks per quarter.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2015-10-27.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many responses he has received to the consultation, Freezing the student loan repayment threshold, launched in July 2015; and when he expects the results of that consultation to be published.
Joseph Johnson
The consultation on freezing the student loan repayment threshold closed on 14th October. Over four hundred responses have been received and are being analysed. We will publish the results in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-11-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether representatives from Action on Smoking and Health were present at any meals that officials from the Department of Health had during the World Conference on Tobacco or Health between 16 and 21 March, and if so, which representatives and officials were present at each occasion.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The Acting Deputy Director and Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) attended a dinner, hosted by the American Cancer Society, to celebrate the Luther. L. Terry award for Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry which was presented to the UK on 19 March at the World Conference on Tobacco and Health (WCTOH). Representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), as past recipients of an award in 2012, were also present.
The Acting Deputy Director presented at the WCTOH in March 2015 and the Team Leader for Tobacco Control (EU) presented at the E-cigarette Summit in November. Representatives of ASH also presented at these independent events.
The Deputy Director for Tobacco Control is a member of Public Health England’s Tobacco Control Implementation Board, which also includes a representative from ASH in its membership.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-10-27.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal support his Department is giving to infrastructure initiatives in East Suffolk.
Greg Hands
The Government has committed to invest £100bn in infrastructure over the course of this Parliament. There are 31 projects and programmes in the East of England in the National Infrastructure Pipeline, which include the energy, transport and waste sectors. The Pipeline is a strategic overview of the level of public and private infrastructure investment planned over the rest of this decade and beyond. These projects and programmes have a total capital value of more than £6 billion, of which more than £2.5 billion is public spending.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Storey on 2015-11-24.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many local authority schools have opened in the last five years.
Lord Nash
On 1 February 2011 the Education Act 2011 amended the Education and Inspections Act 2006 to change the arrangements for establishing new schools. Most new schools are now established via the academy/free school presumption.
182 local authority maintained schools have opened since 01 January 2011.