Tag: 2016

  • Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-06-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been allocated in the current financial year to the married couples tax allowance; and how much he expects the Government to spend on that allowance in this financial year.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) revised the forecast for Marriage Allowance at Budget 2016. Details were published in the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook in March 2016.

    The Government remains committed to recognising marriage through the tax system. Marriage Allowance could benefit eligible couples by up to £432 this year if couples also backdate their claim to 2015-16. HM Revenue and Customs is continuing to look at ways to increase take-up of Marriage Allowance, including through further advertising, to ensure all eligible couples are able to take advantage of the allowance.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) specific functions and (b) scope of the recently established International Modern Slavery Fund will be.

    Sarah Newton

    The Prime Minister has announced £33.5 million of Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding over five years. The fund be will be used to prevent slavery in ODA eligible countries and bring perpetratorsto justice; helping communities to fight modern slavery. We have already announced that:

    • The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK has been funded to work with parliaments across the Commonwealth to support them in considering legislation similar to the UK’s world-leading Modern Slavery Act 2015.

    • £2.4 million has been allocated to the £3 million Child Trafficking Protection Fund.

    Some funding will be used to support innovative programmes to reduce the prevalence of modern slavery and improve the evidence base on what works. A call for proposals on the innovation fund will be issued later this year.

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to help protect the pensions of long-serving employees.

    Richard Harrington

    We have a well-established regime of checks and balances in place, for example the Pension Protection Fund and the Pensions Regulator. The Government keeps this framework for pensions under constant review, and amends it when evidence demonstrates such change is needed

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, who each (a) Colonel of the Regiment and (b) Colonel-in-Chief is in the armed forces.

    Mark Lancaster

    Lists of Colonels in Chief and Regimental Colonels are shown in the attached table. Where an individual’s rank is below that of one star and their name is not already available in the public domain it cannot be released and I am withholding the information under the data protection act.

  • Stephen McPartland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen McPartland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen McPartland on 2016-01-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the annual cost to the to the Exchequer of all subsidies and reliefs for business in the financial years 2010 to 2015.

    Greg Hands

    Tax Reliefs

    HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes the Exchequer cost for around 180 reliefs in its annual publication on the cost of tax reliefs. This list includes reliefs provided to both individuals and households as well as businesses.

    The data for the years 2012-13 to 2015-16 was published on 31 December 2015 and a link is provided below:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-expenditures-and-ready-reckoners

    The data for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12 were published in December 2011 and 2012 and a link is provided below:

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121103081415/http://hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_expenditures/menu.htm

    http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130103073027/http://hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/expenditures.htm

    Public Spending Grants and Subsidies

    Information on ‘subsidies to private sector companies’ is published in Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses. A link is provided below:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-2015

    Table 2.1 on budgetary expenditure by economic category of spend includes this category on page 40 under ‘resource budgets’. Information is published for the last five outturn years.

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  • Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department, NHS England and NICE will publish work undertaken to analyse variation between areas in treatment for patients during the transition from the current Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) to proposed a new CDF scheme.

    George Freeman

    NHS England has advised that it plans to publish analyses of variation in use of Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) drug indications according to geographical areas in the spring of 2016 and then routinely in the future for the new CDF.

  • Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the direct effect of drug eluting stents on the reduction of lower limb amputations.

    George Freeman

    Vascular services manage the treatment and care of patients with diseases related to disorders of the arteries, veins and lymphatic system. These can be managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures and surgical reconstruction. NHS England commissions these services as part of its specialised commissioning portfolio.

    The vascular disease specialised commissioning clinical reference group has prepared a service specification for specialised vascular services. This aims to ensure that services deliver improved patient experience, provide equality of access to the full range of vascular diagnostics and interventions, and ensue that patients are receiving a high quality of service, with access to the most modern techniques.

    Implementation of the service specification for specialised vascular services through the local service review processes is designed to reduce regional variation.

    The service specification can be found at:

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/a04-spec-vascu-adult.pdf

    The Government has made no assessment of the effects of drug eluting stents on lower limb amputation rates.

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  • Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-04-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the implications for the Falkland Islands of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf finding that they are in Argentinian territorial waters.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the member for East Devon (Mr Swire), on 13 April 2016 (PQ 33811).

    "The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) has no jurisdiction to consider areas subject to competing claims and therefore has no locus to make recommendations in relation to the Falkland Islands. The UN itself has acknowledged that the CLCS could not consider those parts of the original Argentine submission of 2009 that were subject to dispute. This would include the Falkland Islands."

    Furthermore, the UK has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falklands and surrounding maritime areas, nor about the Falkland Islanders’ right to decide their own future. We will continue to make that clear to Argentina and other countries in the region.

  • Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Clive Betts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Clive Betts on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment the Government has made of the contribution of the work of the Olympic Legacy Park in Sheffield to breaking down distinctions between sport and wider physical activity.

    David Evennett

    Government is committed to increasing physical activity as set out in our sport strategy, ‘Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation’ published late last year. That strategy removed the artificial barriers between sport and wider physical activity, broadening Sport England’s remit to include cycling, dancing and walking. The recently published Sport England strategy, ‘Towards an Active Nation’, sets out their plans to implement this new approach.

    I recognise that creating a more active society will require action by a range of bodies working together over a significant period of time. I therefore welcome the work of Legacy Park Ltd in Sheffield in bringing together partners across local government, the health sector, academia, elite and community sport and the private sector. I look forward to seeing their ambitious plans to establish sport facilities for elite and community use and an Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre that would work with the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine to provide health and wellbeing research and learning.

  • Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Margaret Hodge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Hodge on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish a list of all secondees to her Department from (a) PwC, (b) Deloitte, (c) Ernst and Young, (d) KPMG and (e) other consulting firms in the last three financial years; and what the role was of each of those secondees.

    Sarah Newton

    The Home Office has seconded less than five people from consultancy firms including those listed, in the last three financial years. It is not possible to provide a further breakdown as it would breach the Department’s obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998, not to disclose to a third party, personal information about another person.