Tag: 2016

Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 16853, how the additional £4 million allocated for national minimum wage enforcement was allocated within national minimum wage enforcement activity.

Greg Hands

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. A further increase in penalties will come into force in April 2016 and will increase the penalty percentage from 100% to 200% of the underpayments owed to each worker, up to the existing maximum.

The extra funding was allocated in two tranches. The first of £3 million has been used by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recruit additional staff primarily into front line compliance posts to increase the scope and coverage of interventions aimed at identifying employers who do not pay the minimum wage.

The second tranche of £1 million has been used to appoint staff into new roles specifically geared to promoting compliance with the National Minimum Wage, through education and support for employers, helping workers to understand their rights, and tackling serious non-compliance where deliberate behaviour is suspected.

Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing National Minimum Wage, including people who work in legal advice, debt management, technical support and criminal investigation. However, HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified in UIN 16853.

HMRC does not breakdown the overall budget allocated into specific activities. For details of the overall budget in 2015/16, I refer the honourable member back to the answer provided at UIN 16853. Funding allocations for 2016/17 onwards have yet to be confirmed.

January 1, 2023
Jonathan Edwards – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-02-22.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received from the Welsh Government on the fiscal framework to accompany the devolution of income tax powers to Wales.

Greg Hands

The Autumn Statement announced that the Government will legislate to remove the need for a referendum to introduce Welsh Rates of Income Tax. The Government has been clear that it will amend the draft Wales Bill to do this.

The programme of fiscal reform has been designed for a purpose: to empower the Welsh Government with further tools and levers to deliver more growth and be more accountable to the people of Wales by raising more of the money they spend.

We will continue to discuss the implementation of Welsh Rates of Income Tax – including the financial arrangements – with a range of interested stakeholders, including the Welsh Government.

January 1, 2023
Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-03-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was involved in the process to select which charities would receive funding from the Tampon Tax Fund.

Mr David Gauke

‘Showcase’ bids were identified, with the help of departmental expertise, that were innovative, in line with the aims of government policy, and likely to provide strong value for money. The bids selected represent a range of different initiatives to benefit women across the whole of the UK.

Additionally, in recognition of the very high level of interest received, the government has also allocated funding to the Women’s Fund for Scotland, Comic Relief and Rosa who have specialist experience in this area, to disburse funding to a range of grassroots women’s organisations. These funds mean further awards will be made to a high number of charities in this sector.

January 1, 2023

Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost of his Department’s recent consultation on infected blood was; how many responses that consultation received from (a) people with Stage 1 hepatitis C, (b) people with Stage 2 hepatitis C, (c) people with HIV, (d) people with HIV and hepatitis C, (e) the widows and widowers of those affected and (f) other people; and how many full-time equivalent staff have been allocated to running that consultation.

Jane Ellison

The main costs associated with the consultation on reform of the infected blood payment schemes were for printing of the consultation document and postage of letters to inform all 3,482 scheme registrants, and 180 hon. Members, of the launch of the consultation. This amounted to £7,177 and was taken from the Department’s own budgets. A core team of three civil servants, with senior management input, is developing the new payment scheme and the consultation is integral to their work. Thirteen additional staff members, from across the Department, are helping to analyse the consultation responses.

Information on the respondents’ status was collected as part of the consultation but it was not obligatory to provide it and neither was it collected in the way asked in this question.

Consultation responses are still being analysed, however to date, the number of respondents by category are;

I have hepatitis C (from infected National Health Service supplied blood/blood products)	894
I am HIV positive (from infected NHS supplied blood/blood products)	101
I am immediate family (a widow, partner, child or parent) of someone infected with hepatitis C, HIV or both by an NHS blood/blood product	277
I am a carer for a person infected with hepatitis C, HIV or both by an NHS supplied blood/blood products)	30
Prefer not to say	23
Other	165
Not answered	50

January 1, 2023

Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what role the Anti-Corruption Tsar had in the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

Matthew Hancock

The Anti-Corruption Champion attended the anti-corruption summit on 12 May and hosted a delegate’s breakfast. He also addressed the Tackling Corruption Together conference, organised by civil society and business, and attended a reception for summit delegates at No10 Downing Street the day before. In addition, he had a number of bilateral meetings with some of the delegates.

January 1, 2023
Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department plans to respond to its consultation on changes to the statutory scheme to control the prices of branded health service medicines.

Nicola Blackwood

The Department is developing its response to the consultation.

January 1, 2023
Chris Philp – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Philp on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the service on Southern Rail.

Paul Maynard

On 1 September the Secretary of State announced a Network Rail £20m fund, to help improve resilience of the Southern network. Chris Gibb will head a new project board, working with the train operator, the Department for Transport and Network Rail, to explore how to achieve a rapid improvement to services for the public. The board will oversee the fund and create closer working between Govia Thameslink Railway and Network Rail to improve performance.

January 1, 2023
Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will discuss with his Russian counterpart the release of the Ukrainian MP Nadiya Savchenko.

Mr David Lidington

The UK Government believes that Nadiya Savchenko is being held illegally and has repeatedly called for her release. I have raised our concerns with the Russian Government at Ministerial and Ambassadorial level on multiple occasions, most recently with First Deputy Foreign Minister Titov during a visit to Moscow on 22 December.

January 1, 2023
Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much steel by (a) market value and (b) weight has been purchased from each country for the manufacture of the TIDE Class Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers.

Mr Philip Dunne

Under European and UK procurement regulations, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) could not contractually mandate the use of particular suppliers. Decisions on the source of steel are a matter for the contractors who take into account the cost, timeliness of availability and the quality of steel used in defence contracts. These considerations allow defence contractors to deliver value for money for the taxpayer.

The Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability contract to build the four Tide Class tankers was awarded to Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in March 2012. Although UK companies participated in the competition to supply the vessels, none submitted a final bid.

In January 2015, the MOD awarded a contract worth approximately £15 million to A&P Group Ltd in the UK for the provision of UK customisation, Capability Assessment Trials and Support for all four tankers. The work will be managed by A&P Group Ltd’s Falmouth shipyard.

Manufacture of the four Tide Class tankers will in total require 44,000 tonnes of steel. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering source this steel locally in South Korea. The market value of steel depends upon a number of factors, including geographical location and quality. The MOD does not hold information from which the market value of the steel used in the manufacture of the Tide Class tankers could be determined.

January 1, 2023
Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 26570, on planning permission, which local authority made each of those article 4 directions; and what modifications his Department made to eight of those directions.

Brandon Lewis

The Department has been notified of Article 4 directions for basement developments made by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster.

The Secretary of State has modified Article 4 directions which remove office to residential permitted development rights for:

– the London Borough of Richmond; the London Borough of Sutton; Brighton and Hove City Council and Oxford City Council: to exclude those properties which had secured prior approval for the change of use from office to residential before the date the Article 4 directions took effect;

– London Borough of Camden: to reduce the geographical coverage of the Article 4 direction;

– Broxbourne Borough Council; the London Borough of Islington and the London Borough of Merton: to exclude those properties which had secured prior approval for the change of use from office to residential before the date the Article 4 directions took effect and to reduce the geographical coverage of the Article 4 directions.

January 1, 2023