Tag: Dan Jarvis

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to develop a comprehensive strategy to combat ISIL and simultaneously prioritise the protection of civilians in Syria.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The UK already has a robust, long-term and comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat ISIL. As the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (David Cameron) said on 16 November, the UK’s approach covers a full spectrum response – military power, counter-terrorism expertise and defeating the poisonous narrative that is the root cause of this evil. We are reinforcing our investment in our response and working tirelessly to protect UK citizens, both at home and abroad, from the threat posed by ISIL.

We are also playing a leading role in the 65-member Global Coalition tackling ISIL. That international effort includes military action against ISIL in its heartlands in Iraq and Syria, coordinated international efforts to cut off its finances, tackling foreign fighter flows, and stabilising areas which have been liberated from ISIL. The Coalition is also confronting ISIL’s ideology by exposing this extremism for what it is – a belief system that glorifies violence and subjugates its people, most of all Muslims. On 28 November, I co-chaired the Coalition Strategic Communications Working Group’s social media conference in London.

The UK remains committed to protecting civilians in Syria, both from the brutality of ISIL and the indiscriminate killing of the Assad regime. I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the answer I gave to Question 15059 on 13 November.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to introduce a one-month time limit on engagements for (a) small business and (b) other limited company contractors before they are treated as employees for tax purposes.

Mr David Gauke

Where people would have been employees if they were providing their services directly, the intermediaries legislation (known as IR35) requires that they pay broadly the same tax and National Insurance as other employees.

The Government estimates that currently only around 10% of people who should pay tax on at least part of their company’s income under these rules do so. This non-compliance is both unfair and estimated to cost over £400 million a year. The Government is therefore looking to improve the legislation in a way that protects the Exchequer and improves fairness. However, it is not the Government’s intention to widen the scope of the rules.

The Government published a discussion document on 17 July 2015 that set out the issues in more detail and invited views on options for reform. The discussion period closed on 30 September and the Government will announce next steps in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many meetings she has had with businesses since May 2015 on increasing the number of women on company boards; and who those meetings were with.

Caroline Dinenage

The Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities and I have met with many business representatives since taking on our roles as Ministers for Women and Equalities. We have also met employers and business representatives as part of our plans to introduce gender pay gap reporting and always ensure that we use these opportunities to raise the issue of achieving a better gender balance on boards. This includes attending and speaking at conferences and events, including at the 30% Club and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents 190,000 businesses in the UK.

Since May 2015, we have met numerous business leaders at conferences and events, including meetings with:

• Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE

• Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, CBE, CEO, Mitie Group PLC (in her capacity as Chair of the Women’s Business Council)

• Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, CBE, CEO, Mitie Group PLC

• Cilla Snowball, CBE, Group Chairman and Group CEO, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

• Denis Woulfe, Partner, Deloitte LLP

• Emer Timmons, President, BT Global Services UK

• Fiona Dawson, Global President, Mars Food, Drinks, and Multisales, Mars Food

• Sue Langley, OBE, Non-Executive Chairman, A J Gallagher UK, UK Asset Resolution Limited (Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford & Bingley)

• Sue O’Brien, OBE, Partner, Ridgeways Partners

• Amanda Harrison, HR Director, Centrica PLC

I also spoke at the launch of Lord Davies’s final report, which was attended by a large cross section of over 100 businesses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the smoking rate in (a) local authorities in which it is above the English average and (b) other local authorities.

Jane Ellison

Local authorities, funded by the Government’s public health grant, have responsibility for providing a programme of tobacco control that meets the needs of their populations. Public Health England provides local authorities with a range of data and tools including the Local Tobacco Control Profiles for England and a local youth smoking mapping tool, to assist local priority setting and support delivery.

This Government has committed to publishing a new tobacco control plan to further reduce the prevalence of smoking in England. Addressing health inequality and local variation will be a priority of the new strategy. We are working with local authorities to develop this element of the plan to support and empower local action, where tobacco control can be tailored to the unique needs of local populations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of senior civil servants in his Department are women.

Brandon Lewis

46.3% of senior civil servants in the Department are women. This is higher than the overall proportion of women in the senior civil service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

Nick Boles

The Skills Funding Agency (and its predecessor, the Learning and Skills Council) is a co-financing organisation for the European Social Fund in England. It received £1,494,936,801.00 between January 2007 and December 2013 and £485,027,046.00 from January 2014 to December 2015, a total of £1,979,963,847.00. The money was used to support skills projects across England.

For the 2014-2020 Programme in England the Skills Funding Agency has put in place funding agreements with Local Enterprise Partnerships to the value of £725m from the European Social Fund.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department received from the European Social Fund (a) between 2007 and 2014 and (b) from 2014 to the last month for which data is available.

Mr Robert Goodwill

None. My Department does not receive any funding from the European Social Fund.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps the EU is taking to tackle poverty in (a) the Middle East, (b) South Asia and (c) Africa; and what the Government’s contribution is to those steps.

Mr Nick Hurd

The European Union (EU), including its Member States, is the world’s largest aid donor. In 2014, the EU and its Member States spent nearly £50bn of Official Development Assistance (ODA), which represents around half of global ODA. The UK has a powerful voice on development through its EU Membership and has achieved real changes to the EU development programme in line with UK priorities.

More detail on the EU development programme can be found at https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/2015-annual-report-web_en.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how her Department intends to support and mentor weaker schools as part of the Northern Powerhouse schools strategy.

Nick Gibb

Our White Paper, Education Excellence Everywhere, sets out the range of support we will offer to schools across England.

Where schools are failing, Regional Schools Commissioners will identify a suitable academy sponsor to turn them around. In areas where there are too few sponsors, we will recruit new sponsors, including high-performing schools and more sponsors from business, charity and philanthropy. We will also encourage existing sponsors to expand, increasing incentives and minimising barriers, learning from the investment we have already made through the Northern Sponsor Fund.

For other struggling schools, we will ensure there is nationwide coverage of system leaders (teaching schools and National Leaders of Education), who will be expected to work with weaker schools to support them to improve. To help achieve this, we will improve how we designate system leaders by introducing a more sophisticated approach based on timely and accurate data rather than relying heavily on Ofsted judgements. We will also partner schools with the potential to become strong system leaders with existing teaching schools and National Leaders of Education.

Through the Department’s strategy for Achieving Excellence Areas, we will target our existing programmes to secure sufficient high quality teachers, leaders, system leaders, sponsors and members of governing boards on the areas of greatest need. At the Budget, the Government announced that we will invest an additional £20 million a year to build on this strategy to raise education standards across the Northern Powerhouse. The allocation of this funding will depend on the identified need and will be reassessed each year, based on the evidence.

For the additional funding announced in the budget, decisions on how the funding will be allocated for the 2016-17 financial year will be made by the autumn of this year and will be informed by the emerging findings of the review by Sir Nick Weller. We will be publishing the terms of reference for Sir Nick Weller’s review shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s proposal for collaboration between the NHS and Vertex to widen access to the treatment Orkambi on the treatment of the patients with that disease.

George Freeman

The Department has received the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s proposals for an arrangement that would potentially allow access to Orkambi (lumacaftor in combination with ivacaftor) as part of a Managed Access Scheme in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) appraisal of Orkambi.

I have encouraged the Trust and the manufacturer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, to engage with NICE to consider whether there remains scope for this, or any other, proposal to be taken into account in its appraisal and the Department is also engaging with the manufacturer directly on this matter.