Tag: 2015

  • George Kerevan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    George Kerevan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by George Kerevan on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will bring forward proposals to assist SMEs with higher labour costs by 2020 under the National Living Wage.

    Nick Boles

    The Government is reducing Corporation Tax to 19% from 2017-18 and then to 18% from 2020-21; setting the Annual Investment Allowance at a new permanent level of £200,000; and increasing the Employment Allowance by £1,000 to £3,000 from 2016-17. The increase in the employment allowance means a business could employ four people on the National Living Wage and pay no National Insurance Contributions.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of his proposed changes to business rates on (a) the North East, (b) the North East Combined Authority area and (c) Newcastle upon Tyne local authority area.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Government intends to move to 100% business rates retention in England by the end of this Parliament. We have confirmed that as part of the new system there will continue to be redistribution of local tax revenue between authorities and protections in place for authorities that see their business rates income fall significantly. Over the coming months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme.

    Ahead of final decisions, it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas or authorities, but before the start of the financial year, local authorities in the North-East estimated that the total business rates income for 2015-16 would be £854.58 million.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-10-21.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the level of mobile telephone coverage available to train passengers in tunnels; how that matches his Department’s coverage targets; whether his Department classifies such coverage as in-building coverage; and what steps he is taking to improve that coverage.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Department for Transport is leading work on improving mobile coverage on the rail network and my department is working closely with them. A joint Call for Evidence was issued in June and responses received are currently being analysed.

    This complements the ongoing improvements to mobile coverage arising from the Government’s landmark agreement with mobile network operators in 2014, to provide coverage to 90% of the UK landmass, and the licence obligation on Telefonica to provide indoor 4G coverage to 98% of UK premises by 2017.

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

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support the steel industry in the light of the director of UK Steel’s statement that the steel industry is in crisis.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    There is no straightforward solution to the complex global challenges facing the steel industry; however, the Government has been extremely active in advocating for, and supporting the sector. On 16th October, we held a Steel Summit, which was an important opportunity to bring the key players together and since then we have been taking urgent action to address the ‘5 Asks’ of the steel industry, operating through three Ministerial led working groups. We are also supporting the metals sector more widely through the industry-led Metals Strategy, which will provide a platform for Government to work with the industry on some of the most pressing issues holding back the future growth of the sector.

    Firstly, we are tackling unfair trade practices where clear evidence exists. We supported and voted for the renewal of EU anti-dumping measures on wire rod, and lobbied successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar. The Business Secretary had meetings with European Commissioners and spoke with key counterparts in other Member States on 28 October, calling for firmer, faster action against unfair trade practices. As a direct result, an extraordinary meeting to the European Competitiveness Council is taking place on steel.

    In addition, the Prime Minister discussed steel with President Xi during his recent visit. The Chinese President recognised the UK’s concerns and will be taking action to address Chinese overcapacity

    Secondly, the Government has confirmed to the steel industry that it will be able to take advantage of special flexibilities to comply with new EU rules on emissions. These are now awaiting final approval by the Commission.

    Thirdly, the steel industry has been invited to present detailed evidence on issues affecting the business environment at the next meeting of the steel working group on competitiveness and productivity chaired by the Treasury Commercial Secretary.

    Fourthly, with regard to energy costs, following the meeting between the Business Secretary and the Competition Commissioner on 23 October, we are now expecting to have state aid approval to provide relief to our Energy Intensive Industries for the cost of renewables policy by the end of this year. Further to that, the Prime Minister announced on 28th October that we will make an additional £45m available to commence compensation for the costs of the Renewables Obligation from the date of state aid approval, alongside providing relief to these sectors from the costs of the small Feed in Tariffs. An exemption for the costs of the Contracts for Difference will also commence early next year. This is on top of over £50 million of support already given to the steel industry to mitigate increasing electricity costs.

    Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The National Infrastructure Plan contains a significant number of projects which will use British steel, e.g. Crossrail – with four UK based companies providing over 50,000 tonnes of steel; and HS2 – where Government has already given notice of the thousands of tonnes of steel that will be needed. Following the first meeting of the steel procurement working group chaired by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government projects.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to publicise its call for evidence for the Review of the Secondary Ticketing Market.

    Nick Boles

    The “Review of Consumer Protection Measures in the Ticket Resale Market” commenced on 13 October 2015 with a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament.

    The Call for Evidence was published on Gov.uk on 13 October and my officials have written to the main stakeholders to alert them to this and invite contributions.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the slowing of the growth of the Chinese economy on growth in the UK.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Treasury continuously monitors global economic developments, including those in China, and their impact on the UK as part of the normal process of policy development.

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

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

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the homelessness prevention grant.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Homelessness Prevention Grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the current status is of schools placed in special measures in Cumbria.

    Nick Gibb

    As of 30 September there are three schools in Cumbria judged by Ofsted as requiring special measures. Of these:

    Two are local authority maintained; the first, a PRU is judged to be making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures. The second, a small community

    primary school, is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures.The third, a sponsored academy has recently been re-inspected. We are awaiting Ofsted’s report from this inspection.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the progress of UK firms in reducing their contribution to climate change.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Since 2003, the UK has had the least energy intensive economy in the G7. In its recent progress report, the Committee on Climate Change set out provisional figures for 2014 [1] which indicate that industrial output grew while energy consumption and emissions fell. The Government response [2] to the CCC report provides further assessment of progress towards reducing emissions from all sectors, including business.

    However, there is still significant untapped energy efficiency potential in the business sector, estimated at 45TWh in 2020, representing around 10% of current business energy use. On 28 September Government launched a consultation reviewing the business energy tax landscape that will seek to better exploit this potential, reducing energy costs and improving productivity, while minimising administrative burdens. For energy intensive industry, following publication of the 2050 Industrial Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency Roadmaps in March, the Government is working with sectors to develop action plans to enable industry to contribute to our decarbonisation targets while remaining competitive in the international marketplace.

    [1] https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/reducing-emissions-and-preparing-for-climate-change-2015-progress-report-to-parliament/

    [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/committee-on-climate-changes-2015-progress-report-government-response

    “

  • Crispin Blunt – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Crispin Blunt – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Crispin Blunt on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in what form he expects the results of the renegotiation of the UK’s membership of the EU to be presented (a) by the European Council and (b) by the Government to the electorate.

    Mr David Lidington

    At the conclusion of any deal, the public will rightly expect Ministers to set out the results of the renegotiation, how the relationship with Europe has been changed and if – and how – those changes address their concerns. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the member for Tatton (Mr Osborne) said in June, the Government will publish assessments of the merits of membership and the risks of a lack of reform in the European Union, including the damage that that could do to Britain’s interests.