Tag: David Lammy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-04-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the implications of the leaked documents relating to the operations of Mossack Fonseca for HM Revenue and Custom’s policy on investigating and tackling tax evasion and avoidance using offshore vehicles.

Mr David Gauke

The Government has introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an additional £800 million to invest in expanding compliance and tax evasion work. This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years.

The Government is introducing a criminal sanction for corporates facilitating tax evasion, and launching a taskforce, jointly led by HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Drawing on investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its purpose will be to swiftly obtain and analyse the Mossack Fonseca papers and take rapid action where there is evidence of wrongdoing. The taskforce will look beyond tax into all potential areas of financial crime and other regulatory breaches.

The taskforce will provide a progress report to the Chancellor and Home Secretary later this year. The report will set out the their initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.

Additional resourcing of £10m will ensure that the taskforce’s work can be done on top of departmental commitments. Where resource is moved into the task force, existing roles will be back filled as soon as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate his Department has made of the likely effect of the extension of right-to-buy and the sale of council properties on the total cost of housing benefit in each year to 2020.

Brandon Lewis

The voluntary Right to Buy will give 1.3 million housing association tenants the opportunity to purchase a home.

For every home sold through the voluntary Right to Buy or the sale of higher value vacant housing, at least one additional home will be built and for every higher value property sold in London, two will be built, increasing overall supply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to extend the terms of reference of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to investigate the abuse of children in mainstream schools.

Karen Bradley

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse already has wide-ranging terms of reference to examine the extent to which public and other bodies in England and Wales have failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse. Decisions around what it investigates, and the specific terms and scope of the investigations, are a matter for the Independent Inquiry. There are no plans to extend the terms of reference further.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied child refugees have been reunited with relatives in the UK since the announcement, Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to be resettled from Europe, on 4 May 2016.

James Brokenshire

As announced by the Prime Minister on 4 May and now reflected in the Immigration Act 2016, we will work to admit unaccompanied refugee children to the UK from elsewhere in the EU, where this is considered to be in the child’s best interests.

As the legislation sets out, we need to consult with local authorities first and we are also working closely with NGOs, the UNHCR, UNICEF and relevant Member States to establish suitable processes to implement this initiative.

Ministers and senior officials are in ongoing discussions with Greece, Italy and France to identify and transfer to the UK unaccompanied refugee children where it is in their best interests. We are also consulting local authorities, non-governmental organisations and UNHCR. In addition, we have worked with France to improve the operation of the Dublin family reunification process, and accepted over 30 transfer requests between January and the end of April with many more cases in train.

We are committed to act as quickly as we can but we must take the necessary time to ensure we have the capacity to support those who are resettled. We must also ensure that we are able to continue to fulfil our obligations to children who are already in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what help and support is available to historic victims of forced marriage.

Sarah Newton

Figures on the number of cases reported to the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), via its public helpline and email inbox, are published annually and are available on GOV.UK. The figures include a breakdown of cases by age, gender and country to which the case relates.

The FMU carries out a range of activity, including delivery of a comprehensive programme of outreach, provision of an e-learning tool and guidelines for professionals, and a series of short films aimed at supporting victims and deterring potential perpetrators. We also recently launched a new forced marriage campaign, ahead of the summer holidays, aimed at raising awareness through radio adverts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many days it took his Department to answer hon. Members’ correspondence on average in (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015 and (d) 2016.

Justin Tomlinson

The Cabinet Office publishes information on the performance of Departments and agencies on handling correspondence from hon. Members and peers annually by way of a written statement.

The information for the years that is available, 2013 and 2014, are in the Official Record (13 May 2014: Column 17WS and 3 Jun 2015: Column 15WS, respectively).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-04-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide dedicated funding to HM Revenue and Customs for the investigation and tackling of tax evasion and avoidance through the use of offshore companies, in light of the leaked documents relating to the operations of Mossack Fonseca.

Mr David Gauke

The Government has introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an additional £800 million to invest in expanding compliance and tax evasion work. This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years.

The Government is introducing a criminal sanction for corporates facilitating tax evasion, and launching a taskforce, jointly led by HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Drawing on investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its purpose will be to swiftly obtain and analyse the Mossack Fonseca papers and take rapid action where there is evidence of wrongdoing. The taskforce will look beyond tax into all potential areas of financial crime and other regulatory breaches.

The taskforce will provide a progress report to the Chancellor and Home Secretary later this year. The report will set out the their initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.

Additional resourcing of £10m will ensure that the taskforce’s work can be done on top of departmental commitments. Where resource is moved into the task force, existing roles will be back filled as soon as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what financial provision his Department has made for the (a) research, (b) education and (c) treatment of problem gambling in each year to 2020; and if he will estimate the amount of funding provided by the gambling industry for such activities in each such year.

David Evennett

The Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB), was set up to by the Gambling Commission to advise on priorities for research, education and training (RET) relating to responsible gambling. The Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT) an independent charity, then commissions research into gambling related harm and funds education and treatment programmes, taking into account the priorities set out by the RGSB.

It is a requirement on all gambling licence holders to make an annual financial contribution to one or more organisations that perform research, education or training for gambling-related harm. The vast majority choose to make that contribution to the Responsible Gambling Trust, which has raised £7.5 million in 2016 (unaudited); £6.5 million in 2015; £6.3 million in 2014; £5.7 million in 2013; £5.2 million in 2012; £5 million in 2011 (each year relates to the previous 12 months to 31 March). RGT’s accounts for these years are available on the Charity Commission website and include the breakdown of expenditure between research, treatment and harm prevention.

RGT is committed to working with RGSB to estimate the cost of the education activities identified in the recently published National Responsible Gambling Strategy, 2016-19, that will be expected to raise from businesses who profit from commercial gambling in Britain.

The Responsible Gambling Trust has published a number of research reports into FOBTs since 2010, which are available on the RGT website: http://www.responsiblegamblingtrust.org.uk/research/research-publications/

Further RGT commercial and independent research on Category B Gaming Machines was published on 24 May, and can be found here http://www.responsiblegamblingtrust.org.uk/research/research-publications/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what Tech North’s (a) operational and (b) communications budget was for (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016; and what Tech North’s total expenditure on third party communications consultancy and public relations agencies was in each of those two years.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Tech City UK (including Tech North) total operations budget was £2,500,000 in 2014-15; £4,223,000 in 2015-16; and £4,100,000 in 2016-17. Tech City UK (including Tech North) communications costs were £173,091 in 2014-15; £279,355 in 2015-16; and £5,000 in 2016-17 (YTD). These costs were all expenditure on third party communications, consultancy and public relations agencies

Tech North’s communication costs were nil in 2014-15 and 2016-17 (YTD), and £74,500 in 2015-16. These costs were all expenditure on third party communications, consultancy and public relations agencies.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-07-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many bilateral trade agreements the UK has with countries outside the EU.

Anna Soubry

Since the EU has sole competence on trade policy, the UK has no bilateral trade agreements in force with countries outside the EU.