Tag: Christina Rees

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve legal education in England and Wales.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The legal profession in England and Wales is independent from government. We want to see an innovative and competitive market that provides people with affordable legal services that they want and need, with regulation that supports the public and consumer interest.

We welcome the Law Society’s survey and will take account of the findings as part of the development of legal services policy.

The legal services regulators have a duty to promote the regulatory objectives set out in the Legal Services Act 2007, including improving access to justice and increasing public understanding of the citizen’s legal rights and duties. The regulators have established the “Legal Choices” website, which provides people with information to help them in deciding whether and how to seek legal advice and the available services they might choose from. The Advicenow website, established by Law for Life, provides information on rights and the law.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, by what process his Department identified the areas of policy within its responsibility proposed for reservation in Annex B of the publication Powers for a Purpose: Towards a lasting devolution settlement for Wales, published on 27 February 2015.

Dominic Raab

Annex B to the Powers for a Purpose Command Paper provided an illustrative list of the main areas in which reservations would be needed in a reserved powers model. The list described the Government’s emerging thinking as the new reserved powers model was being developed. The Government published its full proposals in the draft Wales Bill on 20 October.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reasons the Government took the decision to close the Manufacturing Advisory Service.

Anna Soubry

As part of the Spending Review settlement, we decided to wind down the national delivery of the Business Growth Service (BGS) including the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS).

The BGS used substantial taxpayer resources, £85 million a year, which was distributed through a network of contractors and subcontractors. When it did eventually reach businesses, businesses would have to provide half the cost of advice themselves, despite the substantial taxpayer funding being provided.

The Spending Review protected our economic security by taking the difficult decisions to live within our means and bring down our debt. The most important way we can help manufacturers is to continue to secure a strong, growing economy.

Where we do use taxpayers money, we have targeted it where it will help businesses the most.

We have extended the doubling of Small Business Rate Relief by another year, meaning 405,000 small businesses will pay no rates at all while another 200,000 small businesses will pay reduced rates. Next year we’ll be extending the Employment Allowance from £2,000 to £3,000, meaning thousands of small businesses will pay no jobs tax.

We’re providing further funding to Growth Hubs to help businesses at the local level and away from Whitehall.

We continue supporting our world leading research-led and advanced manufacturing sectors such as life sciences, defence, aerospace, automotive and chemicals to grow, export, and attract and retain inward investment. We are supporting industry with an extra £1 billion in aerospace and automotive R&D and investing £6.9 billion in the UK’s research infrastructure.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on (a) consulting on and (b) piloting future planned reforms of the civil courts structure.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Government welcomes Lord Justice Briggs’s interim report on the review of civil court structures. Our courts and tribunals are antiquated and need urgent reform. We are considering the recommendations of the interim report and will also pay close attention to the content of Lord Justice Briggs’s final report. Our work to reform the courts and tribunals includes consideration of a range of innovative approaches to provide more effective access to justice. In particular we want to make better use of technology to provide simpler court processes. As part of this we will consider the extent to which technology can be used to resolve some of the most complex cases, including personal injury claims.

Lord Justice Briggs has undertaken extensive consultation as part of his Review. In addition to this, the Government will continue to engage and consult with the judiciary, practitioners and court users on our wider programme to reform the courts and tribunals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how his Department plans to apply the apprenticeships levy in Wales.

Nick Boles

My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether it is his policy that the apprenticeship levy will apply to labour-only subcontractors.

Nick Boles

My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how he intends that small employers will access funding for apprenticeships.

Nick Boles

My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he intends that the apprenticeships levy will replace the one-third contributions for post-19 apprenticeships as part of the Richard Review reforms.

Nick Boles

My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether it is his policy that employers who pay the CITB levy will also have to pay the apprenticeships levy.

Nick Boles

My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether it is his policy that employers will have to pay the apprenticeships levy if they do not take on apprentices.

Nick Boles

My Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announce further details of the apprenticeship levy at the Spending Review, including the scope and rate of the levy and how it will operate with respect to the Devolved Administrations.