Tag: 2016

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-02-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when each allocated route under the Regional Air Connectivity Fund will be launched.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Funding through the Regional Air Connectivity Fund is now available to the 11 successful bids. The start dates of the successful routes are a matter for the airlines. Flybe have announced start dates for their air services from Norwich to Exeter and Southampton to Lyon which will commence operations in March and May respectively. Funding will only be paid to airlines upon the service being provided.

  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Hunt of Kings Heath – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-14.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will ensure that their review of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group contract with UnitingCare LLP for older people’s and adult community services will deal objectively with the role of the Department of Health and NHS England, in the light of the fact that both organisations undertook Gateway reviews of the contract proposals.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    NHS England is responsible for the review of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough clinical commissioning group’s (CCGss) contract with UnitingCare LLP. NHS England advises that it has commissioned an independent review to ensure objectivity. The review is looking at the contract from a commissioning perspective, which means it will cover the role of NHS England, but the role of the Department is not within its scope.

    The Department’s role in gateway reviews was to facilitate the review on behalf of the project owner. The procedure was that the Department’s Health Gateway Team, working with the project owner, selected a suitable review team from a pool of accredited, independent reviewers. At the end of the review, the independent review team produced a report which was presented to the project owner and was their property. The Department stopped providing this service in 2015.

    NHS England advises that the CCG, as the project owner, used the Department’s Health Gateway Team to facilitate three independent gateway reviews into its procurement for older people’s and adult community services, two in 2013 before the submission of final bids and the third in November 2014. NHS England advises that these gateway reviews were not intended to undertake detailed financial reconciliation.

    NHS England advises that it facilitated two gateway reviews in early 2014, before the appointment of the preferred bidder. These focused on reviewing significant service changes from a clinical pathway perspective. They were not intended to cover procurement and technical financial details.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to Question 30873, what EU ECHO-funded structures have been demolished in the Occupied West Bank since 1 January 2016; and what the cost was of each demolished structure.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    140 of the structures demolished in Area C from January to March 2016 were funded by international donors. This includes structures funded by EU ECHO and other Member States. We do not have the data broken down by individual Member States.

  • Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Liz Saville Roberts – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Saville Roberts on 2016-05-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many magistrates have (a) resigned or (b) given notice to resign to HM Courts and Tribunals Service since February 2016; and how many magistrates resigned or gave notice to resign in equivalent periods in 2014 and 2015.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The numbers of magistrates who resigned between 1 February and 20 May this year and each of the two preceding years are shown below:

    2016: 223

    2015: 360

    2014: 305

    The Judicial Office is notified of resignations, and processes them, on a rolling basis. The figure for 2016 does not, therefore, include any resignations which have been received locally by bench chairmen or advisory committees, but not yet communicated to the Judicial Office. That information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • William Cash – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    William Cash – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by William Cash on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress has been made on the status of the proposed Trafford combined cycle gas turbine plant.

    Jesse Norman

    Following representations from the developer, as provided for under the Capacity Market legislation, an extension of 60 working days to 19 December has been granted for them to achieve the requirements of the Capacity Market progress milestone. The Secretary of State’s discretionary powers to extend a compliance period are designed to recognise situations where a little additional time can help a provider achieve a milestone, to the benefit of our security of supply.

  • Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Stephen Gethins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    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.

  • Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    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:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-01-13/22287/.

    “

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    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.

  • Marcus Fysh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Marcus Fysh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    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.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    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.