STORY
Chris Chope, the Conservative MP for Christchurch, has said that he will be backing Robert Jenrick for the Conservative Party leadership as Kemi Badenoch, the other contender, is “pre-occupied with her children”. He mentioned that “Robert’s children are a bit older” and said that he was not against a woman being the leader of a political party if she has children. Neither of the leadership candidates have yet commented on Chope’s comments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-10-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make finances available from her Department’s budget to fund payments owed by the Zimbabwean government for former employees of the Southern Rhodesian government until such time as the Zimbabwean government is able to meet its legal commitment to those employees.
Grant Shapps
The government sympathise with the plight of those former public servants who are entitled to a Zimbabwe government pension. For years there have been problems with late payment or non-payment of pensions, and the benefits have been severely eroded. Officials from the FCO, and the British Embassy in Harare last raised Pensions with the Zimbabwean government in September.
As acknowledged by the OSPA, the responsibility for payment of these pensions rests squarely with the Zimbabwean government. The UK does not have any legal obligation or responsibility for the pensions of Zimbabwe former public service workers. This is because since 1923, the former Southern Rhodesia’s civil and public servants have been appointed on local terms.
Zimbabwe public service pensioners do not qualify for the payment of overseas pensions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that a sufficient supply of large goods vehicles drivers is available for the road haulage industry.
Andrew Jones
The Department is working with its motoring services agencies to reduce times and delays in obtaining a driving test appointment and medical licence renewals.
In order to reduce waiting times for LGV driving tests the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is currently recruiting examiners and is focusing its efforts particularly in areas where waiting times are higher. To date, DVSA has recruited 78 new driving examiners during 2015/16 with a further 65 either attending or are booked on to new entrant courses. DVSA has also offered posts to a further 41 potential examiners.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) are now dealing with vocational applications with no declared medical condition within 5 working days. DVLA has also made some changes to improve the processing of applications where a driver has declared a medical condition. However processing these applications relies on the timeliness of third parties including medical professionals and drivers.
The latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey show that the number of HGV drivers employed across all sectors such as manufacturing and retail has continued to grow since the 259,000 low in 2013 to 299,000 drivers in 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many new statutory regulations on business have been introduced since May 2015; and how many regulations on businesses have been repealed in that time.
Anna Soubry
Under the provisions of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, the Government will list the measures it has made since May 2015 affecting business in its annual report to Parliament on delivering the Business Impact Target. The first report will be published in summer 2016. However, details of legislation made by all Government departments, their associated impacts; and regulations that have been repealed can be found on the Legislation.Gov website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-02-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research her Department has undertaken on the best available means of countering coastal flooding and beach erosion at Avon Beach, Christchurch.
Rory Stewart
The Poole and Christchurch Bays Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) assessed options for managing the Avon beach and has set a policy of ‘holding the line’. This means its defences will be maintained and upgraded or replaced in their current position where funding permits. The SMP is available on line at:
www.twobays.net/index.htm.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-02-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 26276, on recycling in Christchurch, if she will place in the Library a copy of the assessment including the cost-benefit analysis.
Rory Stewart
Repair and recovery grants were approved by the Executive Director of Operations on the advice of Environment Agency’s Large Project Review Group (LPRG) and its sub group LPRG Lite, which assessed the eligibility of schemes for recovery projects across the country.
The approval for each recovery project undertaken by the Environment Agency followed a national procedure set out in an operational instruction which I have placed in the House Library.
Additionally I have placed a copy of the Christchurch Beach Replenishment Scheme Asset Repair Planning Brief setting out the case for the work to take place under the recovery programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the balance of trade between the UK and the rest of the EU was in (a) sugars and confectionery, (b) beverages and tobacco, (c) animal products, (d) cereals and preparations and (e) fish and fish products using the same definitions as in the presentation of information on page 15 of The process of withdrawing from the EU, in the last year for which data is available.
Anna Soubry
The trade balance between the UK and the rest of the EU in the above commodity groups in 2015 is given in the table below. These figures are sourced from HM Revenue and Customs’ Overseas Trade Statistics database and based on the same definitions as in the presentation of information on page 15 of ‘The process of withdrawing from the EU’.
|
Commodity (HS commodity code) |
UK trade balance with the EU (£ million), 2015 |
|
Sugars and confectionery (HS 17) |
-451 |
|
Beverages and tobacco (HS 2009, 2201-08) |
-1,969 |
|
Animal products (HS 01, 02, 1601-02) |
-3,465 |
|
Cereals and preparations (HS 0407-10, 10, 1101-04, 1107-09, 19, 2102-06, 2209) |
-2,729 |
|
Fish and fish products (HS 03, 0508, 051191, 150410, 150420, 1603-05, 230120) |
+84 |
Source: HM Revenue and Customs Overseas Trade Statistics database
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will make it the policy of the Government that electricity customers across the UK should pay the same for electricity transportation.
Andrea Leadsom
Electricity network charges vary by region and reflect the costs of running the network in that area and the number of consumers that those costs are spread over. The Government does not plan to move to national network charging, as the current cost reflective approach helps to ensure efficient use of the network and keeps overall costs down for bill payers across Great Britain. In contrast, national pricing risks an overall increase in network costs by weakening each network company’s local accountability to its customers, as well as making charges less transparent. On 23 October 2015, Ofgem published a report on the regional differences in network charges, which found no compelling case from a regulatory perspective to move to a national network charge. The report is available at:
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/regional-differences-network-charges.
The Government will continue to consider any evidence that is presented.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-06-28.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it is the policy of the Forestry Commission to sell the Cannon Hill plantation in Ferndown, Dorset for development.
Rory Stewart
We are committed to keeping the public forest estate in England, including Cannon Hill plantation, in trust for the nation and for it to continue to be sustainably managed by the Forestry Commission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-09-08.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much (a) capital and (b) revenue expenditure his Department has given to local partnerships to date; and what estimate he has made of the value of his Department’s share in its joint ownership.
Mr David Gauke
As of March 2015, HM Treasury had made £800,000 of equity investments and provided £1,175,000 of loan stock to Local Partnerships. Local Partnerships has so far made £675,000 of repayments of loan stock to HM Treasury.