The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 31461, when he plans to respond to Question 24897, tabled on 29 January 2016 by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham for answer on 3 February 2016.
Joseph Johnson
I have replied to my hon Friend.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Barker on 2016-05-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there will be UK ministerial attendance at the UN High Level Meeting for ending AIDS in June.
Baroness Verma
The UK government will be represented at the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on ending AIDS at the UN headquarters in New York in June 2016 and the International AIDS Conference in Durban in July. Precise attendance has still to be finalised.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-07-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an estimate of the cost of their monetary policy on the solvency of pension schemes, and whether they plan to use the profit made from quantitative easing to strengthen the financial position of the Pension Protection Fund.
Lord Freud
The UK’s monetary policy framework gives operational responsibility for monetary policy to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Decisions on setting monetary policy are for the judgement of the Monetary Policy Committee.
The Government is sensitive to the fact that there will be those who gain and those who lose from any particular monetary policy decision. Such distributional effects typically balance out over the course of a policy cycle.
Over the last six years low interest rates have helped households and businesses through challenging economic times. Furthermore, as the Bank of England has explained in its article entitled "The distributional effects of asset purchases" published in its 2012 Q3 Quarterly Bulletin: "Without the Bank’s asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off. Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. Many more companies would have gone out of business. This would have had a significant detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society."
The Pension Protection Fund is financially sustainable and there are no plans to further strengthen it. The PPF 2015/16 annual report said that the Fund has over £22 £23 billion assets under management and is 115 116.3 per cent funded.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Argar on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation on the ground in Yemen.
Rory Stewart
Yemen is one of the most serious and complex humanitarian crises in the world. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 21.2 million people in Yemen require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs for food, water, sanitation, and healthcare, or protect their fundamental rights. Yemen is also experiencing an economic crisis, which has driven up food and other prices, and reduced people’s purchasing power.
Ultimately, only an end to the conflict will address the humanitarian crisis. The UK is working closely with other countries to de-escalate the conflict and is providing significant support to UN-led peace talks. The UK is also working with the UN and other countries to improve commercial and humanitarian access to and within Yemen.
The Secretary of State recently co-hosted an international event on Yemen to shine a spotlight on the humanitarian crisis. At the event, the UK announced a further £37 million, bringing our total humanitarian support for Yemen to £100 million for 2016/2017.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of intermediaries were used for (a) witnesses, (b) victims and (c) defendants in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Mike Penning
In 2015, 7% of initial requests from the police and Crown Prosecution Service for a Registered Intermediary were related to witnesses (who were not victims in the case) and 93% to victims. We do not have a figure for how many of these victims then gave evidence as a witness. Information on intermediaries for defendants and the use of non-registered intermediaries is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent diplomatic steps the Government has taken to support the reopening of peace talks in Yemen and the establishment of a ceasefire.
Mr Tobias Ellwood
We welcomed and fully supported the UN facilitated talks held in Switzerland in December 2015 and the commitment to engage in a new round of talks in the near future. We are working closely with the UN to encourage parties to engage in good faith without preconditions in future talks. We are encouraging all parties to reinstate a ceasefire at the next round of talks and are working closely with the UN to achieve this. This is being achieved through Ambassadorial and Ministerial engagement with the Yemeni government and the UN. I spoke to the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed (IOCA) at the start of February.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Jenrick on 2016-03-14.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what timetable the Government has set for the release of sanctioned Iranian assets; and what value of assets the Government expects to release in 2016 and 2017.
Harriett Baldwin
I refer my Honourable friend to the written answer I gave on 10 March 2016 (Ref: 29924).
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-04-12.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the implications of the leaked documents relating to the operations of Mossack Fonseca for HM Revenue and Custom’s policy on investigating and tackling tax evasion and avoidance using offshore vehicles.
Mr David Gauke
The Government has introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an additional £800 million to invest in expanding compliance and tax evasion work. This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years.
The Government is introducing a criminal sanction for corporates facilitating tax evasion, and launching a taskforce, jointly led by HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Drawing on investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its purpose will be to swiftly obtain and analyse the Mossack Fonseca papers and take rapid action where there is evidence of wrongdoing. The taskforce will look beyond tax into all potential areas of financial crime and other regulatory breaches.
The taskforce will provide a progress report to the Chancellor and Home Secretary later this year. The report will set out the their initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.
Additional resourcing of £10m will ensure that the taskforce’s work can be done on top of departmental commitments. Where resource is moved into the task force, existing roles will be back filled as soon as possible.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Low of Dalston on 2016-05-19.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Department for International Development is taking to encourage other donors to fund the Education Cannot Wait fund at its launch at the World Humanitarian Summit.
Baroness Verma
The UK is working closely with UNICEF and other partners to encourage a broad funding base to Education Cannot Wait, including funding from non-traditional donors, private sector and philanthropic organisations. This includes via UK technical support to the fund’s case for investment and other key communication and outreach products, to raise awareness of the fund with others.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-07-13.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their programme and timetable for the reception of 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020.
Baroness Williams of Trafford
We continue to work with local authorities and International Partners to deliver the Government’s commitment to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this Parliament. We are on track to do this. The number resettled in a particular period will depend on a range of factors including the flow of referrals from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the availability of suitable accommodation and support in the UK. Progress on resettlement is indicated in quarterly immigration statistics.