Tag: 2015

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will ensure that save-as-you-earn and share incentive plan savings limits are increased in line with inflation on an annual basis.

    Mr David Gauke

    The tax-advantaged Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) limits were significantly increased from April 2014. The increases the Government have made are reasonable, given the average monthly SAYE savings and the value of awards currently made to employees under SIP, and they represent the best use of resources. The Government will continue to keep the SAYE and SIP limits under review.

    In addition to increasing the SAYE and SIP limits, the rules of the schemes were substantially reviewed and simplified following the recommendations made by the Office of Tax Simplification in March 2012. Last year, the requirement that these schemes must be approved by HM Revenue and Customs to qualify for favourable tax treatment was replaced by self-certification. Coupled with other changes to simplify some technical aspects of the rules, this will make these schemes more attractive to businesses and employees.

    No data is collected and no estimates are made of the income levels of the participants in SAYE schemes.

    Permitting private equity backed companies to offer all-employee tax advantaged schemes would be likely to involve significant changes to the rules of the schemes, and there would be a number of other factors to consider carefully, including the increased cost and complexity of any extension.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Information Commissioner’s Office has spent on processing assessments pursuant to section 42 of the Data Protection Act 1998 in each of the last five financial years; how many such requests that Office has received in each of the those years; and what the recorded outcomes were of those requests.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Under section 42 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), any person who is, or believes that he is, directly affected by the processing of personal data, can ask the Information Commissioner to consider whether the processing is likely to comply with the law. On receiving such a request, the Commissioner is obliged to consider the concern and make an assessment. Any such request, and cases taken forward are dealt with by the ICO’s customer contact and performance improvement business areas. The ICO does not cost up S42 assessments separately from other data protection casework, but the total staffing costs for these two business areas for the last five financial years are set out below:

    2015/16 (April-Nov)

    £2,883,256.14

    2014/15

    £3,879,782.83

    2013/14

    £3,969,104.17

    2012/13

    £3,581,161.82

    2011/12

    £3,389,336.87

    Numbers of assessments received and concluded for each of the past 5 years are set out below:

    Financial years

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Number of assessments received under s42 DPA

    13034

    12980

    13760

    14738

    14268

    Number of assessments completed under s42 DPA

    14276

    12725

    14280

    15492

    15052

    The recorded outcomes of those assessments are set out below:

    Financial years

    Outcome of s42 assessment

    2010-11

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    2014-15

    Not progressed

    14%

    11%

    13%

    14%

    Compliance likely

    22%

    21%

    22%

    19%

    Compliance unlikely

    33%

    31%

    35%

    34%

    Ineligible/Made too early

    27%

    36%

    30%

    33%

    Reopened – pending final outcome

    4%

    1%

    No Action for Data Controller

    35%

    Data Controller Action required

    22%

    Concern to be raised with Data Controller

    17%

    compliance advice given to Data Controller

    10%

    Response needed from Data Controller

    7%

    Complaint not applicable under DPA

    4%

    General advice given to Data Controller

    4%

    Data Controller outside UK

    1%

    Improvement action plan agreed with Data Controller

    1%

    “

  • Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2015 to Question 12248, what the gross cost to the Planning Inspectorate was of the examination into the planning consent application for the Navitus Bay Wind Park; and how much of that cost was paid by Navitus Bay Development Ltd.

    James Wharton

    The gross cost to the Planning Inspectorate of the examination into the planning consent application for the Navitus Bay Wind Park was £995,660. Navitus Bay Development Ltd paid £565,660 of those costs.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many assaults there have been on staff working for (a) London Underground, (b) London Overground, (c) London buses, (d) Docklands Light Railway and (e) Tramlink in each year between 2010 and 2014.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Department for Transport does not collect this information.

    However, I am able to say that the British Transport Police will shortly be launching Project Servator, which aims to detect and deter crime on the railways. It deploys highly visible and unpredictable police patrols to prevent a range of criminal activity, from pickpocketing and theft to more serious crimes including terrorism.

  • Christian Matheson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Christian Matheson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many responses she has received to the recent consultation on proposed cuts to the feed-in tariff; how long she plans for her Department to spend on evaluating those responses; and when she plans to make public the Government’s proposed next steps on this matter.

    Andrea Leadsom

    The Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) scheme review consultation closed on 23 October and we are currently evaluating the responses received. We have received nearly 55,000 responses to the consultation and we currently estimate that just over 2,600 are unique and detailed responses; the rest are briefer and more uniform responses, generated by campaigns.

    We expect to publish a Government response in due course.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rachel Reeves – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachel Reeves on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the potential effect on the income of a family with one earner and three children that starts a new claim for universal credit and is not migrating from a legacy benefit of the proposed reforms to universal credit in the Summer Budget 2015 in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-10.

    Priti Patel

    The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost

  • Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Grahame Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many doctors have requested a certificate of current professional status in each of the last five years.

    Ben Gummer

    The information requested is not held centrally. Information from the General Medical Council is available about the number of doctors that have been issued certificates of current professional status in each of the last five full calendar years. This is shown in the table.

    Year

    Number

    2010

    4,352

    2011

    4,832

    2012

    5,163

    2013

    5,142

    2014

    4,925

    Source: General Medical Council

  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-25.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what datasets are collected under the provisions of the Statistics of Trade Act 1947.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • David Amess – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Amess – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is his policy for NHS England to require individual funding requests to be made when treatment is permitted by the relevant commissioning policy.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that if there is a commissioning policy in place for a treatment, and the patient fulfils the treatment criteria contained within this, then an individual funding request (IFR) is not required, as the treatment will be routinely funded. It is only if the patient’s treatment falls outside of the criteria that an IFR would be appropriate or if there is no policy in place for the treatment/indication.

    Neither the Department nor NHS England has made any assessment of the suitability of IFRs for preventative treatments.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2015-11-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of capacity on travel routes from Wrexham to Liverpool for HM Revenue and Customs staff redeployed from Wrexham to Liverpool.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced the planned locations of its future Regional Centres based on a number of key principles that will enable it to deliver more for less. In addition to cost, HMRC has taken account of the quality of local transport links, the local labour market and future workforce supply, and the need to retain the staff and skills it requires to continue its transformation. These changes will reduce HMRC’s estates costs by around £100 million a year by 2025.

    HMRC estimates that Liverpool will be home to between 2,800 and 3,100 full time equivalent employees. Consolidation into the Regional Centre is expected to begin in 2019-20. HMRC plans to open the Regional Centre in Cardiff in 2019-20. It is likely that the office at Plas Gororau in Wrexham will close in 2020-21. HMRC will be holding one-to-one discussions with each of its people to discuss the next steps.