The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the timetable is for the Digital Economy Bill.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The Digital Economy Bill will be introduced to Parliament shortly.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeff Smith on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effect on consumers of the practice by certain mobile phone companies of enforcing a two-week wait before customers can receive their unlock codes in order to change provider.
Matt Hancock
At Autumn Statement 2015, we challenged the mobile phone industry to improve their handset unlocking practices; since then operators have committed to unlocking many more of their customers’ handsets for free, and as of this autumn, no major mobile provider will charge a customer to unlock their phone outside of an initial contract period.
During the Government assessment of handset unlocking practices in early 2016, the major mobile providers were challenged on their turnaround times for issuing unlock codes. Although many providers state that it can take up to 10 working days to issue an unlock code, this is only in the instance that the provider has to contact the handset manufacturer to obtain the unlocking code. In the majority of cases, providers are able to issue unlock codes within 1-3 working days.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Hayes on 2016-10-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending a ban from operating as a letting agent or sales agent to include a ban on operating as a sales agent or letting agent.
Gavin Barwell
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduces a package of measures to help local authorities crack down on rogue landlords and letting agents. They include the ability to seek a banning order against a landlord or letting or managing agent who has been convicted of a banning order offence. This provision is expected to come into force in 2017.
There are separate powers to ban sales agents under the Estate Agents Act 1979. Letting agents and sales agents carry out different functions and operate under different legislation. We do not currently have any plans to introduce legislation that would ban someone from being a sales agent where they have been banned from being a letting agent or vice versa. I would be happy to meet the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood to discuss this issue.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2016-01-12.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on reducing levels of tax avoidance by large corporations; and if he will make a statement.
Mr David Gauke
The UK initiated the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project and has already taken action to implement two of the internationally agreed outputs with domestic legislation to introduce country-by-reporting and rules to address hybrid mismatches.
In addition, the UK played a key role in securing the successful EU agreement on automatically exchanging information on tax rulings, reached at the ECOFIN Council in October 2015.
Complementary to international efforts to tackle this issue, we introduced the Diverted Profits Tax from April 2015 to counteract the diversion of profits from the UK by large multinational enterprises.
In the summer Budget 2015 we legislated to improve the effectiveness of our Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) regime by removing the ability for companies to use UK losses and reliefs against their CFC charge.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-04.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department’s policy is on the use of debt collection agencies to collect outstanding payments.
Joseph Johnson
The core Department’s policy is governed by HM Treasury’s ‘Managing Public Money’ guidance. This sets out that public sector organisations should always pursue recovery of debts. In practice there will be both practical and legal limits to how cases should be handled. So each case should be dealt with on its merits. Within BIS, the use of a debt collection agency would only be considered after all other methods of recovery had failed.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Civil Aviation Authority’s proposal to increase the fee for holding aerial displays on the viability of the aerial display industry.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Civil Aviation Authority has consulted publicly on proposed air display and low flying permission charges. After this consultation, the Civil Aviation Authority would need to consult the Secretary of State, before making the scheme. When the Civil Aviation Authority consults the Secretary of State on any scheme, he will consider that scheme, including considering possible impacts on the viability of the aerial display industry.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the number of (a) UK firms based in the North East of England that trade with other EU member states and (b) people employed by those firms.
Anna Soubry
HMRC Regional Trade Statistics on the number of firms trading with the EU are publically available through the UKTradeInfo website.
HM Treasury has published estimates of the number of UK jobs linked to EU exports broken down by region. These are available through the GOV.UK website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-03.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to tables 1.2 and 1.4 of HM Revenue and Customs’ document, Measuring tax gaps, published in October 2013, what assessment HM Revenue and Customs has made of the reasons for which the corporation tax gap for large businesses has narrowed as a percentage while the overall percentage tax gap for large businesses has remained the same since 2009-10; and if he will estimate the large business tax gap for each tax in each year since 2009-10.
Mr David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published its latest tax gap estimates on 22 October 2015 in Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470540/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2015-1.pdf
Tables 1.2 and 1.4 of the Measuring tax gaps 2015 edition show different information. Table 1.2 looks specifically at the large business Corporation Tax gap as a percentage of theoretical liabilities for large business Corporation Tax, and Table 1.4 expresses the tax gap for all large businesses taxes (including VAT and income taxes) as a percentage of all theoretical liabilities for all HMRC customer groups. Trends in tax gaps for specific taxes and customer groups are different.
Measuring Tax Gaps does not include full detailed segmentation, such as the requested large business customer group by type of tax, as a number of segments at this level are not sufficiently robust for publication. Table 6.9 on page 53 provides information on the estimated tax gap for large employers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-06-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of the P-8 Poseidon programme is covered by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Mr Philip Dunne
It is intended that the Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft will be purchased through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement with the US Government, which allows us to get the capability we need within the required timeline. No assessment has yet been undertaken as to which parts of the aircraft or the associated support solution are covered by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations, although all such considerations will form part of the terms of the FMS case.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Chapman on 2016-09-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) assets and (b) personnel of his Department were involved in Exercise Northern Coasts in the Baltic Sea in each of the last five years.
Mike Penning
During 2015 and 2016 one Sandown Class Mine Counter Measures Vessel, with a ship’s company of 43 and 40 personnel respectively, was sent on Exercise Northern Coasts in the Baltic Sea. No assets or personnel were involved in the previous three years.