The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2015-10-21.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received from the Welsh Government on the Barnett consequentials for Wales resulting from public expenditure on High Speed 2.
Greg Hands
Treasury Ministers are in regular contact with Welsh Government Ministers on a variety of matters.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Murray on 2015-10-21.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Part 2 of the Scotland Bill 2015, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the planned transfer of income tax powers on the operation of Gift Aid in Scotland.
Damian Hinds
The effective operation of Gift Aid, which enables charitable donations to be made free from tax, is a vitally important issue for Government, charities and their donors in all parts of the United Kingdom. The UK Government works closely with the charity sector to ensure that Gift Aid works effectively for charities and their donors.
We consulted the charity sector fully in advance of agreeing the arrangements for the continued operation of Gift Aid under the Scottish Rate of Income Tax, which will come into effect in April 2016. Under the agreed arrangements Gift Aid will continue to operate at UK-wide rates, a solution that means no extra complexity, uncertainty or administrative burden for the charity sector or donors.
Similarly, we are fully committed to consulting the charity sector – in Scotland and the rest of the UK – to fully understand the impact of the devolution of income tax powers as proposed by Part 2 of the Scotland Bill 2015 ahead of agreeing arrangements for the continued operation of Gift Aid.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will take steps to ensure that reviews decisions by local authorities to rule that a person is intentionally homeless are conducted by people independent of that authority.
Mr Marcus Jones
The homelessness legislation gives households rights to request a review of local authority homelessness decisions. A review may be carried out by the housing authority itself or by someone acting as an agent of the housing authority. Where the review is to be carried out by an officer of the housing authority, the officer must not have been involved in the original decision, and must be senior to the officer who took the original decision.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2015-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s policy is on ensuring that UK-produced steel is used in items being procured by his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Government’s policy is to provide our Armed Forces with the best capabilities we can afford and, in doing so, to obtain the best possible value for money. It is the responsibility of contractors to obtain steel at a competitive price, at the required time and quality. Steel for defence programmes is sourced from a range of suppliers, including steel-producers in the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to increase enforcement rates for the national minimum wage.
Nick Boles
The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break the National Minimum Wage (NMW) law. In 2014/15, HMRC conducted 2,204 investigations into potential NMW non-compliance, totalling £3,291,529 of arrears for 26,318 workers.
This is up from 1,455 investigations conducted in 2013/14, totalling £4,645,547
of arrears for 22,610 workers.
Building on our existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW. These include:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people from a working class background were recruited onto the Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme in each year since its inception.
Matthew Hancock
To govern modern Britain, the Civil Service needs to look and sound likemodern Britain. We need access to the broadest possible pool of talent, drawing on peoplefrom all backgrounds and all parts of the country.
The Civil Service is implementing a number of initiatives to recruit individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds onto the Fast Stream and Fast Track Apprenticeship schemes, including internship programmes, schools and colleges mentoring and discovery days, work experience programmes and engagement with universities with a high representation of lower socio-economic students.
Information on the socio-economic status of recent appointees to the SCS was published in 2014,and the socio-economic status of Fast-Stream applicants has been published since 2011.
In 2015 16.8% of new joiners to the Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme were from lower socio-economic backgrounds, up from 8.5% in 2013/14. From 2015 this data will be published as part of the Fast Stream applicants publication.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what forecast he has made of whether the total stock of local authority homes will increase or decrease in the next five years.
Brandon Lewis
Whilst we have made no forecast of what the stock of council homes will be over the next 5 years, I do note that more council houses have been built since 2010 than were built in the entire 13 years of a Labour Government.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether all UK service personnel deployed to malarial areas since 2013 have been individually assessed for contraindications for mefloquine; and what the method of assessment was for those who were individually assessed.
Mark Lancaster
Since 2013, it has been Ministry of Defence policy that mefloquine should only be prescribed after an individual risk assessment. To verify that an individual assessment has been undertaken in every case since 2013 would require the examination of the medical records of all individuals who have deployed since 2013. This could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Templates exist to optimise consistency in the preparation of personnel requiring anti-malarials, including mefloquine. Defence Primary Healthcare has a malaria protocol to guide clinicians to use these templates. Work is currently in hand to develop it further, taking previous lessons into account, to ensure that all individuals are assessed in a consistent manner.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2015 to Question 7974, what research her Department has conducted into the ease of switching energy supplier.
Andrea Leadsom
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has, as part of its investigation into the energy market, commissioned research into consumer experiences and views of the energy market including the ease of switching energy supplier.
The CMA investigation is still ongoing but the report it commissioned has already been published can be found at:
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what regulatory arrangements apply to potential measures to control and cull invasive non-native waterfowl.
George Eustice
Defra, in conjunction with the Great Britain Non-Native Species Secretariat, takes the problems and risks associated with non-native waterfowl very seriously. Since the 1990s Defra has commissioned and invested in a range of research projects, carried out by the Animal and Plant Health Agency, on invasive non-native waterfowl, including an assessment of the options for large-scale control and field trials of removal techniques for Egyptian geese. Additionally, best practice management guidelines have been published for Canada geese.
Since 2005 Defra has also supported the UK Ruddy Duck Eradication Programme, and recently, established an Invasive Species Action Plan for the sacred ibis, and is developing an action plan for zoos to reduce the risk of escapes of all species, including waterfowl.
Section 14(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it illegal to release or allow to escape into the wild, any animal or plant which is not ordinarily resident in Great Britain and is not a regular visitor to Great Britain in a wild state, or is listed in Schedule 9 to the Act. This applies to all animals including waterfowl. An amendment to the 1981 Act, introduced this year in the Infrastructure Act 2015, introduced the provision of Species Control Orders, which can be used to remove any non-native species where they cause significant threats to biodiversity, the water environment, human health or the economy, in cases where a voluntary approach with landowners has otherwise failed.