The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to ensure that UK vessels will continue to be able to land fish in other EU countries after the UK leaves the EU.
George Eustice
Access to fishing grounds and measures to enable equal access to ports are important and we will consider these issues as we develop future arrangements outside the EU.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment she has made of the effect of the removal of eligibility for Renewables Obligations Certificates on businesses seeking to develop onshore wind farms.
Andrea Leadsom
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Northfield to Question 22287 on Wind Power, on 18 January 2016:
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests were made by his Department’s Child Maintenance Group to HM Revenue and Customs for information relating to a non-resident parent’s unearned income in each year since the commencement of the 2012 statutory child maintenance scheme.
Priti Patel
The Information requested is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
CMS has direct access to income information held by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) which allows the Child Maintenance Service to capture a much wider range of income types received by non-resident parents. Therefore the definition of income within variations under the 2012 scheme of maintenance has been opened to deal with almost all additional sources of income captured by self-assessment. This is referred to as “unearned income” and captures income derived from property, savings and investments (including dividends), and other miscellaneous incomes.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Marcus Fysh on 2016-03-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the contribution of farmers and landowners to supporting bees and pollinators.
George Eustice
Farmers and other land managers make a vital contribution to supporting pollinators through management and creation of beneficial habitat features. This is reflected in Defra’s National Pollinator Strategy implementation plan.
Well over one thousand applications for the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which funds environmentally beneficial land management, contained the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package. As part of our monitoring and evaluation programme, we will assess the effectiveness of the Scheme in supporting bees and other pollinators.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-18.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward proposals for tighter regulation of companies that carry out payment processing on behalf of payday loan companies.
Harriett Baldwin
The Government has fundamentally reformed regulation of the consumer credit market, transferring regulatory responsibility from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 1 April 2014. This more robust regulatory system is helping to deliver the Government’s vision for a well-functioning and sustainable consumer credit market which is able to meet consumers’ needs.
The FCA has incorporated key elements of OFT guidance on continuous payment authorities (CPAs) into its rules. In particular, firms are required not to use CPA if there is reason to believe that there are insufficient funds in the borrower’s account, or that this will leave insufficient funds for priority debts or other essential living expenses. Lenders must also show forbearance if there is evidence of financial difficulty.
The FCA have introduced rules to limit payday lenders’ use of CPAs to two unsuccessful attempts to withdraw funds from the customer’s account. The FCA has also banned CPA part payment, so that a lender can only take payment if the whole owed sum is available in the customer’s account. The FCA can use its flexible rule-making powers to take further action where it deems necessary to protect consumers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Prime Minister, whether he invited the President of Panama and the Prime Minister of the British Virgin Islands to attend the Anti-Corruption Summit held in London on 12 May 2016; and what criteria he used in deciding which political leaders to invite.
Mr David Cameron
The Anti-Corruption Summit was the first of its kind, bringing together world leaders and anti-corruption champions in business and civil society. 44 countries and seven international organisations attended, including 11 heads of state or government and the heads of the World Bank, IMF and UNDP. Leaders from those Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories that had agreed to automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information were among those invited.
We agreed a Global Declaration, a Summit Communique and a set of country statements with ambitious commitments to expose, punish and drive out corruption. These are published on the gov.uk website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Caulfield on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether (a) a referral or (b) an appointment for an autism diagnostic assessment is captured in published mental health data (i) locally and (ii) nationally.
David Mowat
To support local areas in addressing long waits, NHS England, supported by the Department and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, initiated a series of visits to clinical commissioning groups and local authorities. These visits aimed to develop a better idea of the challenges in securing timely autism diagnosis across all ages, looking at the variability in diagnosis times and sharing good practice to help areas to improve their service. NHS England submitted a report on the visits to the 16 June meeting of the Cross Government Autism Programme Board, which includes representatives of autism third sector organisations and people who have autism. NHS England will have further discussions with relevant organisations over the summer about actions in their report, including on the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework, before reporting back to the Autism Programme Board.
In parallel, as recommended by the independent Mental Health Taskforce, the Department is undertaking a five year plan for the development of mental health data to be published by the end of the year. The plan will set out future requirements and timings for developing data to inform pathways of care, which will include requirements for autism in the Health and Social Care Information Centre Mental Health Services Data Set. Data on referrals or appointments for an autism diagnostic assessment are not currently captured in published mental health data.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Gethins on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what funding she plans to make available to replace the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund after the UK leaves the EU.
George Eustice
The Chancellor has set out that the guarantee for European Structural and Investment Fund projects announced in August will be extended to the point at which the UK departs the EU. This guarantee includes the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and provides further certainty to those fishers, seafood businesses and other organisations seeking support. Where projects secure EMFF funding before we exit, payments will be guaranteed even after the UK has left the EU.
Defra officials will be working with the Department for Exiting the EU to look at future policies for fisheries. We will continue to work closely with relevant industry and other key stakeholders to develop these new arrangements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers who were on the Higher Level Scheme and Entry Level Scheme have joined the Countryside Stewardship Scheme; and if she will make a statement.
George Eustice
Natural England is currently processing 2,848 applications for the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme. 1,526 agreements have been offered so far and 859 have been accepted. All agreements will have a start date of 1 January 2016.
The number of farmers applying who were formerly in Entry Level Stewardship is not yet known. Natural England is, however, currently working on applications from at least 159 farmers whose Higher Level Stewardship agreements are due to end in 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Boateng on 2016-02-11.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many full-time accredited diplomatic staff are employed in the British Embassy Liaison Office in Bujumbura; and of those, how many are not locally engaged, and what are their civil service grades.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Our Embassy Liaison Office in Bujumbura is a subordinate post, covered by our High Commission in Kigali. It has three full time locally engaged staff. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is seeking to appoint a full time accredited diplomatic officer to be based in Bujumbura. Our High Commissioner to Rwanda is accredited as the British Ambassador to Burundi while the Department for International Development Head of Office in Rwanda also covers Burundi. Full-time accredited diplomatic staff at our High Commission in Kigali and elsewhere in the region support political engagement with Burundian actors and visit Burundi regularly.