Tag: Chi Onwurah

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Prime Minister’s announcement of 7 November 2015 on broadband access, what public funding has been assigned for the delivery of the Universal Service Obligation for broadband; and whether he plans to publish this information as part of the comprehensive spending review.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Government will be consulting in early 2016 on the Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband. The USO will be designed to be as efficient as possible, and ensure value for money for the consumer and taxpayer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Funeral Payment provision for funeral expenses.

Justin Tomlinson

The Social Fund Funeral Payment scheme continues to provide valuable help towards the cost of a funeral for people in receipt of a qualifying benefit. My department continually reviews the scheme to improve and streamline it.

Funeral Expenses Payments are made to all applicants who satisfy the eligibility criteria. Awards cover the full necessary costs involved with either burial or cremation and up to £700 for other funeral expenses. In 2014/15 over 32,000 awards were made to people in Great Britain. These payments were worth £44 million, with an average award of £1,375. The average award has increased by 27% since 2006.

Social Fund Budgeting Loans are also available to help with funeral expenses for people who have been in receipt of a qualifying benefit for at least 26 weeks.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the level of awareness among (a) micro, (b) small and (c) medium-sized enterprises of the Cyber Essentials programme.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have carried out an extensive range of activity to promote Cyber Essentials since the scheme launched in June 2014. This includeswork with trade organisations (such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chambers of Commerce); inclusion of Cyber Essentials in Government cyber security guidance; the requirement for suppliers to hold a Cyber Essentials certificate for certain Government contracts; marketing and communications activity, including Cyber Essentials embedded in the Cyber Streetwise campaign for small businesses; plus an ongoing programme of events, conferences, industry engagement and Ministerial activity.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what transitional arrangements are being made for local authority employees who administer housing benefit when responsibility for that benefit moves to universal credit.

Priti Patel

Any transitional arrangements are the responsibility of the Local Authority, but we will work with them to manage the impact of these changes in a way which minimises the need for any redundancies. Where this does not prove possible, after the exercise of all reasonable efforts to redeploy people, the Department has given Local Authorities a commitment that we will meet their costs of any residual redundancies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department or Ofcom has made an assessment of the cost drivers behind BT’s recent 50 per cent increase in charges for non-payment by direct debit.

Mr Edward Vaizey

BT’s charges to business customers for payments made other than by direct debit increased on 1 October 2015. It a commercial decision for providers such as BT to determine these charges, however, telecoms providers are regulated and monitored by Ofcom, who review customer satification on a rolling basis. Since January 2014, small business customers (with ten employees or fewer) affected by a mid-contract price increase may be able to leave their contract without penalty under Ofcom rules. Further information about this is on Ofcom’s website (http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/ofcom-for-business-consumers/business-contracts).

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2016 to Question 26044, which three of the five funds Northstar Ventures manages are closed to new investments; and when the decision was taken that Northstar Ventures should exit from remaining deals.

James Wharton

The three Northstar Venture Funds that are closed to new investments are the Proof of Concept Fund, Co Investment Fund and North East Creative Content Fund.

Each Fund was designed with an investment phase and closure/end date, specified in the fund management agreements signed at the outset.

No decision has been made to exit Northstar Ventures from teh remaining deals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-02-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information his Department holds on the proportion of British Film Institute funding that was allocated to Hollywood studio films in the latest period for which figures are available; and what definition of Hollywood studio films is used in this context.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Hollywood studio films refer to films produced and distributed by a major studio based in the United States. No British Film Institute (BFI) funding has been awarded to any Hollywood studio film since the BFI became a Lottery distributor in 2011.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-04-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of (a) the Cyber Streetwise campaign and (b) her Department’s policies on reducing the level of cyber crime.

Mr John Hayes

Cyber Streetwise is a cross Government campaign, developed by private and public stakeholder partners and coordinated by the Home Office’s Research, Information and Communications Unit. It is designed to measurably make the UK a safer place to interact and do business online by increasing individual and SME adoption of safe online behaviours. Since its launch in January 2014, it is estimated that 2 million adults have adopted safer online behaviours that will better protect them.

The quarterly crime statistics bulletin published on 21 April , set out a 6% decrease in computer misuse crime (from 15,322 offences to 14,347 offences), during the year ending December 2014 to December 2015.

Cyber Security, including cyber crime, is a top priority threat to national security. The Government are continuing to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure delivery agencies have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime.

Through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), we invested over £90 million under the last Parliament to bolster the law enforcement response. My Rt.Hon. Friend, the Chancellor announced in November that this Government has committed to spending £1.9 billion on cyber security over the next five years, including for tackling cyber crime. We will also publish a second five-year National Cyber Security Strategy this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he plans to take to address installation issues arising from the satellite broadband subsidy scheme.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Customers can report any installation issues to the supplier, BT or BDUK. BT and BDUK work with suppliers to ensure that any customer issues are addressed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-05-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of corporation tax receipts from the digital economy sector in 2015-16.

Mr David Gauke

We cannot make an estimate of the corporation tax receipts from the digital economy.

During the international work on corporate tax avoidance in the digital economy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development agreed that the digital economy cannot be ringfenced for tax purposes. This is because it is becoming impossible to say what is and is not part of the digital economy, due to digital aspects permeating the economy as a whole.