Tag: Andrew Bridgen

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-08.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the number of child benefit claims made for children living in each other EU member state in each of the last 10 years; and what the estimated cost to the public was of such claims.

Damian Hinds

Around 7m people are receiving Child Benefit. To extract and collate the value of all payments made to EU migrants for children living outside the UK in the format requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Information relating to the number of Child Benefit claims paid to families with children living overseas is available in the Government publication , “The best of both worlds: the United Kingdom’s special status in a reformed European Union”. This publication is available on Gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-best-of-both-worlds-the-united-kingdoms-special-status-in-a-reformed-european-union

The Government’s new settlement between the UK and the EU means that EU nationals whose children live abroad will ultimately receive Child Benefit at a rate that reflects the conditions – including the standard of living and child benefit paid – of the country where their child lives. This will restore fairness to the system.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which EU schemes her Department administers; if she will estimate the annual cost of administering each such scheme in each of the (a) last and (b) next five years; if she will estimate the total value of each scheme in each of the (i) last and (ii) next five years; and for which schemes her Department has been subject to infraction proceedings from the EU Commission.

George Eustice

There are two EU funds under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Defra administers the CAP in England. The Devolved Administrations administer these EU schemes separately. The estimated value of these funds from 2011 to 2020 are set out in the table below, figures are for England.

The current Multiple Financial Framework runs until 2020 so that is the last year where there is an estimate of the total value for both of the schemes.

Year	European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) €m	European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) €m
2011	2,086	447
2012	2,115	469
2013	1,909	531
2014	2,046	442
2015	2,046	333
2016	2,048	590
2017	2,052	590
2018	2,056	590
2019	2,062	590
2020	2,068	591

Decisions relating to the implementation of the CAP in England are integrated into numerous policy areas within the Department and the delivery of the CAP is carried out primarily by the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England and Forestry Commission, alongside other business. This arrangement allows the various objectives of the CAP to be delivered effectively. However, this integrated approach to delivery also makes it difficult to calculate the total annual cost of the CAP in isolation. This is something that was identified by the NAO in its recent report ‘Early Development of the CAP Delivery Programme’, and the Department is currently considering how to respond to this recommendation.

In relation to these two schemes the Department has not been subject to any infraction proceedings from the EU in the last five years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-10-07.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will introduce an interim threshold in the VAT rules on digital supplies for micro-businesses.

Jane Ellison

While we remain in the EU our rights and obligations as a Member State apply and as such we cannot introduce laws that conflict with existing EU law.

The UK government has pushed for change and the European Commission has confirmed proposals expected by the end of this year will include a VAT threshold in order to help small start-up e-commerce businesses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of Government officials engaged in matters relating to policies from the EU; and what the staff cost of such engagement is.

Mr David Lidington

Departments are appropriately resourced to support the Government’s priorities in Europe. The staff costs of engagement on EU business cannot be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers have been subject to penalties for non-compliance with Single Farm Payment Scheme requirements in each of the last five years; and what the total value of those penalties was.

George Eustice

The volume of penalties, plus their value for Single Payment Scheme claims, for the last five years of the scheme are below.

We have not yet finalised information for the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme.

Scheme Year	Number of Claimants In Breach	Value €
2014	2,703	2,489,438
2013	2,134	2,781,039
2012	1,574	1,704,085
2011	1,722	2,594,023
2010	1,493	2,329,495

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how combined authorities are assisting his Department in delivering new housing schemes.

Gavin Barwell

Combined authorities enable local authorities to work jointly to take strategic decisions and improve the delivery of statutory functions such as transport, economic development and regeneration in the local area. Combined authority areas with devolution deals can support the delivery of new housing schemes in a number of ways, including, for example, through preparing strategic plans for their area, forming partnerships with the Homes and Communities Agency and committing to increasing house building.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will estimate the cost of travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials to attend EU meetings in each of the last three years.

Mr David Lidington

The Government publishes information about ministers’ and senior officials’ visits overseas on a quarterly basis in the transparency data section of the gov.uk website. Information on travel overseas for staff at Senior Civil Service Band 1 and below could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what total amount of expenses was claimed by officials working for the UK Permanent Representation to the EU in each of the last five years.

Mr David Lidington

We cannot provide a figure for the total amount of expenses claimed by officials working for the UK Permanent Representation to the EU (UKRep) in each of the last five years, except at disproportionate cost. Expense claims made by UKRep officials are incorporated into budgets that are aggregated across the Government’s Brussels platform as a whole, which consists of UKRep, the British Embassy in Belgium, including UKTI and Consular operations, the UK Joint Delegation to NATO and Corporate Services Benelux.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that providers of his Department’s services (a) better understand the demands of the local labour market and (b) reach out to employers to encourage them to consider disabled applicants.

Damian Hinds

The Department has teams of performance managers who work with providers to ensure they keep to their contracted obligations, which include an understanding of the demands of their local labour market and consideration of disabled applicants.

There are specific programmes which support disabled people with entering or retaining work, and through which providers can work with local employers. These include Work Programme, Work Choice, and Specialist Employability Support.

Additionally, Disability Confident was launched in July 2013. Disability Confident supports this Government’s commitment to halve the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people by focusing on the role of employers, who have a crucial role to play in ensuring disabled people are recruited, retained and developed in their careers. When employers sign up as Disability Confident, they are asked to make specific meaningful offers of opportunities for disabled people such as jobs, apprenticeships, internships, and work experience opportunities. So far, over 1900 businesses have signed up to the new Disability Confident scheme, with this number growing daily.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken in response to the findings of the first set of operational data collected by NHS England on wheelchair services; and what steps he is taking to ensure that short-term wheelchair loans are available for people waiting for provision of NHS wheelchairs.

Alistair Burt

The national wheelchair services data collection was introduced by NHS England in July 2015 and requires clinical commissioning groups to submit quarterly data on their wheelchair services. Data has so far been published for quarter two and quarter three 2015/16. This is a new collection and therefore does not yet provide an opportunity to draw national or regional comparisons. The vast majority of short term wheelchair loans are provided through charities such as the Red Cross and not via the National Health Service.