Tag: 2016

  • Bill Esterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Bill Esterson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bill Esterson on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many (a) private sector companies, (b) public sector bodies went beyond the maximum 60-day period to repay debt covered by the Late Payment Directive in the last 12 months.

    Anna Soubry

    The Department does not hold the information required. However, BACS data shows that small and medium businesses are owed a total of £26.8 billion, and the average small business is waiting for £31,900 in overdue payments.[1]

    The Government recognises that late payment remains an important issue for small businesses in the UK and is taking significant steps to assist small businesses to recover late payment debts. This is part of a package of measures to tackle late payment. We have also legislated for new transparency measures in the public and private sectors.

    The Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 legislated for new reporting requirement on the UK’s largest companies and Regulations will be introduced this year which will compel larger companies to report on payment practices and performance. This information will be published on a six-monthly basis and will be made publicly available.

    The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 introduced a requirement for all public-sector buyers to publish annually, from 2017, their liability to debt interest payments. In central government we have gone further and faster. We will be publishing against these requirements quarterly from April this year. This will allow full public scrutiny of payment performance.

    Through the Enterprise Bill, currently before Parliament, we will legislate to establish a Small Business Commissioner to give general advice and to help small businesses resolve disputes relating to payment matters with larger businesses.

    Tackling late payment is about creating a responsible payment culture where larger companies recognise the benefit of having a sustainable and robust supply chain, and smaller businesses feel able to challenge poor behaviour. Once implemented, the Government is confident that these measures will lead to significant changes in the UK’s payment culture.

    [1] BACS Data June 2015.

  • Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Baroness Quin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Quin on 2016-02-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure timely and effective processing of Rural Payments Agency payments to farmers in 2016.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    The 2015 Basic Payment Scheme payment window runs between December 2015 and June 2016. As of the end of January the Rural Payments Agency had paid around 66,800 farmers approximately £1 billion. The Rural Payments Agency is focused on paying the remainder as promptly as possible.

    2015 was the first year of the new complex Common Agricultural Policy. The Rural Payments Agency anticipates improvements on payment performance for the 2016 Basic Payment Scheme.

  • Diane Abbott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Diane Abbott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of allowing for more security-related expenditure within the definition of Official Development Assistance on maintaining a distinction between development cooperation and policing missions for security.

    Justine Greening

    The updates to the ODA rules agreed at the 2016 High Level Meeting (18-19 February 2016) mean that ODA can be used to support the military in fragile countries on issues that promote development, such as human rights and the prevention of sexual violence; this means the international community is better equipped to meet Global Goal 16, which calls for the stronger governance in developing countries to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crime.

  • Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Robert Flello – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Flello on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received about concerns identified by the Care Quality Commission at a British Pregnancy Advisory Service abortion clinic in Richmond; and if he will make a statement.

    Jane Ellison

    One representation has been received in relation to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection of BPAS Richmond. The CQC is responsible for ensuring that requirements under the Health and Social Care (HSC) Act 2008 are met by the providers of termination of pregnancy services including meeting the fundamental standards of quality and safety as set out in Part 3 to the 2014 Regulations, and Regulation 20 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, which is specific to independent sector termination of pregnancy providers. The CQC is responsible for ensuring that the requirements under the HSC Act 2008 are maintained through a system of monitoring and, where appropriate, inspection visits. It is for the CQC and the provider to address required and recommended actions identified following an inspection.

    Independent sector providers are also required to comply with the Department of Health’s Required Standard Operating Procedures.

    Departmental officials meet regularly with representatives from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) but have not met since the CQC report on BPAS Richmond was published.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-05-03.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which organisations from the (a) UK and (b) international financial sector will be attending the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May 2016.

    Matthew Hancock

    The summit will bring together governments, international organisations, businesses and civil society to confront the problem of corruption. This includes selected representatives of the financial sector.

  • Judith Cummins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Judith Cummins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Judith Cummins on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of families in Bradford who will move home as a result of pay to stay provisions of the Housing and Planning Act 2016 during the current Parliament.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government believes social tenants on higher incomes should contribute a fairer level of rent. More than 90 percent of tenants will be unaffected by our plans. Many above the threshold will be protected from big rent rises through our tapered approach.

    All of Bradford’s council housing stock was transferred to housing association control in 2003. The policy is voluntary for housing associations so it would be for the housing association managing the stock to decide whether to operate a pay to stay approach.

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-09-12.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many recipients of child tax credit have had their payments restored following investigation in each of the last three years.

    Jane Ellison

    The information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many families in (a) England, (b) Greater Manchester, (c) Tameside and (d) Stockport have been identified as challenging and are subject to persistent visits under the Troubled Families programme.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    In Stockport, the local authority achieved outcomes with 565 families in the first Troubled Families Programme; in Tameside with 620 families; in Greater Manchester with 8,090 families. Across England local authorities achieved outcomes overall with 116,654 families. We expected that local authorities would work with more families than they claimed results for in order to achieve their targets.

    In the new programme, Greater Manchester, including Stockport and Tameside, is delivering the programme as a whole. Greater Manchester has engaged 13,228 families in the new programme so far; across England, 164,481 families have been engaged.

    The programme promoted but did not mandate a whole family intervention approach. It was not appropriate to do so: all local authorities are different, and the problems faced by each local authority and each family are different. The intensity of the intervention, and the number of visits made by key workers to each family, was dependent on the particular needs of each family and the approach agreed by the family and the key worker.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-01-12.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the annual cost to the financial services sector of compliance with money laundering regulations in each of the last five years.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government’s Anti-Money Laundering regime has a clear aim: to make the UK financial system a hostile environment for illicit finances, while minimising the burden on legitimate businesses and reducing the overall burden of regulation.

    The government conducts an impact assessment when updating the Money Laundering Regulations, which were last amended in 2012, and will shortly publish an impact assessment alongside a consultation on the transposition of the EU’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. However, the government does not make annual assessments of the cost of compliance and the FCA, as the supervisor of the financial services sector, also does not undertake such assessments on the basis that regulated firms are generally unable to provide costs specifically for compliance with the money laundering regulations given that these costs accrue in relation to systems and controls that manage a variety of operational risks, both relating to financial crime and for other conduct and prudential reasons.

    Bearing in mind to objective of minimizing burdens on legitimate businesses, the Government has launched a review of the impact of the current Anti-Money laundering and terrorist finance regime as part of the Cutting Red Tape Review programme. The Review is specifically seeking evidence on the role of supervisors in that regime, so that regulatory activity can be made as efficient as possible. A report is expected in the coming months and this will inform the work that the government is doing to reform the regime as part of the Action Plan to address weaknesses identified by last year’s National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing risks.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on benefit and tax credit demand from workers who are Royal Mail employees at franchises of former post offices; and what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost of that demand to the public purse.

    George Freeman

    Royal Mail and Post Office Limited are separate independent businesses. Post Office Limited runs and manages its directly managed Crown post offices. Employees of these offices are employees of Post Office Limited. Changes to the Crown network are an operational matter for Post Office.