Tag: 2016

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what provisions there are for tenants to ensure that they able to recover security deposits that have been returned to the letting agents by the MyDeposit scheme.

    Gavin Barwell

    If a tenant meets all their obligations at the end of the tenancy, the deposit will be returned to them in full by the agent (under the insured scheme) or by the tenancy deposit scheme (under the custodial scheme).

    If there is a dispute about the amount of deposit to be returned to the tenant, both parties can either agree to use the free alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service provided by the schemes or go to court. If they decide to use the ADR service, the case will be considered by an independent adjudicator and the decision will be binding on both parties.

    The disputed amount will be held by the scheme until the court or adjudicator makes a decision on how the amount should be apportioned between the parties.

  • Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the proposed salary and permitted allowances are for the chairs of each sustainability and transformation plan body.

    David Mowat

    Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprints are not statutory bodies, but collective discussion forums which aim to bring together health and care leaders to support the delivery of improved health and care based on the needs of local populations. They do not replace existing local bodies, or change local accountabilities. Each footprint has been asked to determine governance arrangements for agreeing and implementing their STP. Individuals who are leading the development of STPs within each footprint, which include National Health Service provider Chief Executives, clinical commissioning group accountable officers and local authority senior leaders, are responsible for convening and chairing system-wide meetings, facilitating the open and honest conversations that will be necessary to secure sign up to a shared vision and plan. In the overwhelming majority of cases this is a voluntary, non-statutory role and they are not being paid over and above the remuneration they receive for their existing role. Their salary details will be available in the individual annual reports of the organisations by whom they are substantively employed.

  • Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-01-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department currently uses for the cost of rolling stock for High Speed 2.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The current estimate for High Speed 2 rolling stock is approximately £7.0bn (in 2015 prices).

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of policing operations for sporting events across the UK in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

    Mike Penning

    The Home Office does not routinely collect the cost of policing operations in England and Wales. It is an operational decision for Chief Officers, working with their Police and Crime Commissioner, to determine how their available resources are used according to local priorities.

  • Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andrew Murrison – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Murrison on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were imprisoned for non-violent drug offences in each year since 2005.

    Andrew Selous

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-03-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 31131, how much financial assistance her Department plans to provide UNOCHA for its work in Libya during the next financial year.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    In the next financial year, DFID will fund a secondment to OCHA to support coordination of the humanitarian response. Exact figures are to be finalised, though we expect it to be of the order of £50,000. We are keeping the humanitarian situation in Libya under review including funding requirements in the next financial year and stand by ready to adapt our response in order to meet humanitarian needs.

  • Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-04-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has made to the World Trade Organisation to request that anti-dumping measures are taken against the People’s Republic of China.

    Anna Soubry

    The World Trade Organisation does not have a role in conducting anti-dumping investigations. Responsibility for anti-dumping investigations and imposing anti-dumping measures against imports into the EU and the UK lies with the European Commission. These investigations are driven by requests from EU producers.

    The Government makes regular representations to the Commission concerning allegations of dumping of steel. My Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister pressed for more action on dumping of steel at European Council on 17 and 18 March. The government judges each anti-dumping case on its merits, based on the evidence presented by the Commission and on representations from interested parties, including producers, users and importers, but is strongly in favour of effective trade defences to tackle unfair trade practices where justified. We have voted in favour of anti-dumping measures on several steel products since July, including the imposition of provisional anti-dumping measures on reinforcing bar in January, an investigation for which we lobbied the Commission successfully, and on cold-rolled flat steel products in February.

    We have supported industry calls for higher duties on specific cases where this is justified by the evidence. For example, in the reinforcing bar case we have raised the steel industry’s concerns that the provisional duties were too low with the Commission. My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills spoke with Trade Commissioner Malmström about this and received assurances that the Commission will reconsider this during the definitive stage of the investigation, if industry can provide the necessary evidence.

    We also welcomed the opening of four new anti-dumping investigations involving steel products earlier this year.

    The Government continues to push the Commission for faster, more effective action to deal with dumping of steel. This was one of the conclusions of the Extraordinary Competitiveness Council on Steel in November, a meeting which my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills was instrumental in convening. In advance of the Commission’s energy-intensive industry stakeholder’s summit on 15 February – another key action from the Competitiveness Council – the government and several other EU Member States sent a joint letter to the Commission, pressing it to make full and timely use of all trade defence instruments to tackle unfair trade. I played an active role at this summit. My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has also raised these issues in discussions with Commissioner Malmström, most recently at the OECD conference on the challenges facing the steel industry on 18 April. My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) (Intellectual Property) reiterated the need for faster and more effective action on dumping at the Competitiveness Council held on 29 February and the Presidency conclusions of that Council reflected this message. I did likewise at the European Steel Day on 21 April. Officials also have regular discussions about anti-dumping cases with Commission officials and officials from other EU Member States.

    The Government is also supporting a robust discussion of the issue of overcapacity through the EU’s ongoing dialogue with the Chinese and other governments, including at the OECD conference. My Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister has discussed this issue directly with President Xi and was told that China will take steps to reduce its overcapacity. My Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer also raised it during his visit to China in February and my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills raised it with his counterpart in February. Similarly, my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs raised it during his visit to China in April.

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-06-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the British Virgin Islands were not invited to the UK Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

    Matthew Hancock

    The Government invited leaders from those Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories that had agreed to the recent initiative on automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information.

  • Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Brendan O’Hara – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost was of the operation (a) in August and September 2014 in which RAF Hercules dropped food and other humanitarian supplies to civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar, Iraq and (b) on 30 and 31 August 2014 in which two RAF Hercules dropped food and aid to the town of Amerli, near Kirkuk.

    Mike Penning

    The cost of the operation to deliver food and other humanitarian supplies to civilians trapped on Mt Sinjar and Amerli in Iraq was £3.50 million. £1.97 million of this was charged to Department for International Development on a marginal cost basis and £1.5 million was covered by Operation SHADER. The costs cannot be split between individual locations as both used common air assets that were deployed under Operation SHADER.

  • Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ian Austin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2016-10-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase public awareness of the Community Trigger for reviewing anti-social behaviour complaints.

    Sarah Newton

    The Home Office does not collect or hold information on anti-social behaviour case reviews undertaken by local agencies using the Community Trigger process. The Government issued statutory guidance for frontline professionals in July 2014 on the use of powers to tackle anti-social behaviour introduced by the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

    This included information on the Community Trigger, including setting an appropriate threshold, publishing the procedure to be followed when making an application, and relevant data relating to use of the Trigger. We are currently reviewing the statutory guidance and we will publish revised guidance in due course if changes are required.