The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish as soon as possible a full analysis of responses to his Department’s recent consultation on the deregulation of Sunday trading.
Brandon Lewis
The Government published its response to the consultation on 9 February.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his Department’s planned expenditure on workforce training for staff in public libraries is for (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities. My Department has through Arts Council England’s Library Development Funding, which supports the development of public libraries in England including workforce training, provided £680,000 in 2012/13; £683,000 in 2013/14; £595,000 in 2014/15; and £744,000 in 2015/16. Workforce development is also one of the priorities of the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce, established in 2015 by my Department and the Local Government Association.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Smeeth on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedures her Department has to ensure that aviation watch lists are cross-referenced with passenger manifests; and what steps her Department takes in instances of failure of such procedures.
James Brokenshire
The Government works closely with all carriers, not just British registered carriers, to connect their systems to the Government’s border systems to ensure those connections are operating properly and to ensure that any IT problems are identified and resolved. Should any circumstance arise where a carrier should have refused authority to carry an individual to the UK, that individual will be met on arrival. Border Force also conducts 100% checks at passport control on all passengers arriving in the UK by commercial air, rail or maritime services at passport controls. This includes screening against watch lists.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the annual budget is for food produced for his Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for his Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.
Mr Mark Francois
The Department for Communities and Local Government does not have an annual food budget. Catering services are provided via a contract with Interserve Plc, and is operated on a nil subsidy basis.
Annual spend is determined by the contractor and is informed by private sales to members of staff.
Approximately 34% of products across all food and drink categories were sourced from British producers as at March 2016.This proportion reflects that a large volume of food and drink sold includes non-indigenous products such as rice, pasta, tea, coffee and bananas, and that as this period falls in the Winter season there are out of UK seasonal products procured from the wider EU.
The proportion also reflects consumer trends, and the commercial contractor’s pursuit of value for money given the nil subsidy arrangement.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-07-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to speed up the application process for refugee family reunion.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Customer service is a key priority for UK Visas and Immigration, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the visa application process is kept under regular review, including by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. Customers now apply and pay online in addition to being able to make appointments to submit their documents and biometrics at visa application centres in over 200 locations around the world.
The published service standard for resolving refugee family reunion applications is within 12 weeks, or 60 working days. Where an application is complex and likely to take longer than the advertised processing times, UKVI will contact the applicant to inform them of this. The average processing time for 2015 was 40 days.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether risk adjustments have been made to the rail passenger franchises currently out to tender for services on the (a) South Western, (b) West Midlands and (c) East Anglia lines since 23 June 2016; and if he will provide details of any such adjustments in each case.
Paul Maynard
The Department issued the Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the West Midlands franchise on 30 August 2016, and bidders have until 29 November 2016 to submit their bids. The Department intends to follow the risk adjustment process as detailed in the published ITT once bids have been received.
The Department is evaluating bids for the South Western rail franchise and intends to follow the risk adjustment process as detailed in Appendix 3 to the Invitation to Tender, published on the Department’s website.
The East Anglia franchise competition concluded on 23 August, when the Department signed the Franchise Agreement with Abellio East Anglia. The Department followed the risk adjustment process detailed in the Invitation to Tender, published on the Department’s website.
The Department does not communicate the detail of Risk Adjustments, as these relate to cost and revenue details of the leading bid, which are commercially sensitive.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Edward Garnier on 2016-01-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is his policy that costs in fatal cases involving a claim for less than £25,000, including the costs of representation at inquest, will fall outside of the proposed fixed recoverable costs in clinical negligence schemes.
Ben Gummer
The Department is currently preparing to go out to public consultation on the introduction of fixed recoverable costs (FRC) for clinical negligence claims as originally proposed by Lord Woolf and Lord Justice Jackson in 1996 and 2009 respectively. The consultation will include consideration on the maximum value of claims that will be covered by the FRC regime and whether there should be any exemptions. We will review all responses before making a final decision on these issues.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-01-25.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the written statement by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 15 December 2015, HLWS393, what elements constitute a similarly effective system for tax information exchange and company beneficial ownership information.
James Duddridge
We have asked the Overseas Territories to implement either a central register of company beneficial ownership, or a similarly effective system, which meets the following criteria:
a) UK law enforcement and tax authorities must be able to access company beneficial ownership information without restriction, subject to relevant safeguards;
b) These competent authorities should be able to quickly identify all companies that a particular beneficial owner has a stake in without needing to submit multiple and repeated requests; and
c) Companies or their beneficial owners must not be alerted to the fact that an investigation is underway.
We are continuing our dialogue with the Overseas Territories and have offered technical support as they develop their proposals.
The Overseas Territories have shown their commitment to tax information exchange by being early adopters of the new OECD global standard on tax transparency with the first exchange of data taking place in 2017. They have also had the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on Tax Matters extended to them.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make representations to the BBC on increasing the provision of voice-overs for BBC programmes.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The statutory target for audio description is 10% for most broadcasters. The BBC in 2010 committed a higher target and now provides audio description of 20% of its content on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC and CBeebies.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his Department’s planned expenditure on workforce training for staff in public libraries was in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14, (e) 2014-15 and (f) 2015-16 to date.
Mr Edward Vaizey
Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities. My Department has through Arts Council England’s Library Development Funding, which supports the development of public libraries in England including workforce training, provided £680,000 in 2012/13; £683,000 in 2013/14; £595,000 in 2014/15; and £744,000 in 2015/16. Workforce development is also one of the priorities of the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce, established in 2015 by my Department and the Local Government Association.