Tag: Douglas Carswell

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to update the Drug Driving (Specified Limits) (England and Wales) Regulations 2014, so as to reduce the amount of a drug that can be detected in blood for the purposes of the definition of that offence.

Andrew Jones

The Department is evaluating the new specified limits drug driving offence and a final report from the researcher is due at the end of 2016. The Department will consider its findings and assess whether there is any requirement to change the legislation, but currently there are no plans to amend the regulations. Thanks to the tougher law, police are catching and convicting more drug drivers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff in his Department were in receipt of Continuity of Education Allowance in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15; and what the cost to his Department was of providing that allowance for staff based (i) in the UK and (ii) overseas in each such year.

Mr Julian Brazier

The requested information is provided in the following table and I have added the figures for 2009-10 for comparison.

Continuity of Education Allowance, Number of Claimants and Cost (UK and Overseas) by Financial Year (FY)

	FY 2009-10	FY 2012-13	FY 2013-14	FY 2014-15
UK Claimants	5,020	4,160	3,600	3,230
Overseas Claimants	1,000	790	700	650
Total Claimants	6,020	4,950	4,300	3,880
UK Cost (£ million)	93.2	82.2	74.3	69.4
Overseas Cost (£ million)	18.1	16.4	15.0	15.1
Total Cost (£ million)	111.3	98.7	89.3	84.5

Note: all numbers are rounded

Continuity of Education Allowance was reviewed as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 since when improvements in governance have achieved a reduction of costs by around £30 million per annum along with an associated reduction in claimants. Work continues to further reduce the cost of the allowance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government’s policy is on Turkey’s accession to the EU.

Mr David Lidington

The UK supports Turkey’s EU accession process, which remains the most effective mechanism for continuing reform in Turkey. Turkey’s accession itself is not on the cards for many years to come. Turkey first applied for associate membership of the EEC in 1959, and there remains a very significant amount of detailed work to do before Turkey is ready to join the EU including economic reforms. Every Member State has a veto at every stage. For the UK, the EU Act 2011 requires any Accession Treaty admitting a candidate country to membership to be ratified by Act of Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to ensure that the next East Anglia franchise provides more frequent train services to Clacton-on-Sea and Walton-on-the-Naze.

Claire Perry

We have already set out the minimum levels of service in the invitation to tender for East Anglia and where bidders see there is an opportunity to offer more than those, they can do so. That tends to be based on whether there is a commercial case for improving services further.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of doctors working in hospitals are from non-UK countries.

Ben Gummer

The Health and Social Care Information Centre collects data on the number of doctors working in National Health Service hospital and community health services in England.

Nationality is a self-reported field within the electronic staff record system and of the 98,894 full time equivalent number of doctors (not including locums) who declared their nationality 25,607 (25.6%) are non-United Kingdom nationals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many planning refusals for greenfield sites have been overturned on appeal in each year between 2010 to 2015.

Brandon Lewis

This information is not held centrally by this Department.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to extend the classification criteria of brownfield sites for housebuilding.

Brandon Lewis

Brownfield land is defined as previously developed land in the National Planning Policy Framework. We are consulting on whether it would be beneficial to strengthen national policy on the development of brownfield land for housing. The consultation closes on 22 February.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister’s Oral Statement of 22 February 2016, Official Report, column 35, on the European Council, whether his Department is undertaking planning in the eventuality of a majority leave vote in the EU referendum.

John Penrose

At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-17.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what planning his Department is undertaking to facilitate private sector investment in the scalability of the proofs-of-work aspects of blockchain technology; and what discussions he has had with the Bank of England on that topic.

Harriett Baldwin

Digital currencies, and the distributed ledger technology that underpins them, have the potential to bring innovative services and products to UK customers and firms – particularly in areas like international transfers.

The Chancellor announced in March 2015 that the Government will bring digital currency exchange firms into regulation in the UK to help the legitimate industry flourish, and to create a hostile environment for illicit actors. We will publish proposals on this regulatory regime in due course.

As outlined in Deputy Governor, Ben Broadbent’s recent speech, the Bank of England is also exploring this emerging sector and the implications it could have for monetary and financial stability as part of its broader research agenda.

Separately, academics at University College London’s (UCL) digital currency research centre have also been looking at how the distributed ledger technology that underpins digital currencies could be harnessed by central banks. The Government is encouraged to see this research from one of the UK’s world-leading universities. However, this a theoretical paper by an independent institution, separate from the Bank of England’s work and from Government policy.

It is the Government’s ambition to foster the growth of legitimate digital currency firms as part of the wider FinTech ecosystem here in the UK. As part of this, the Government will consider the wider implications of a growing digital currencies sector for the financial services sector and the economy as a whole. Some parts of Government are also looking at how the benefits of distributed ledger technology can be harnessed to deliver greater innovation. However, the Government and the Bank of England do not currently have any plans to introduce a centrally issued digital currency.

The UK has been rated as having the world’s leading FinTech ecosystem in a recent global benchmarking exercise and attracted c. £524mn in investment in 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Army Air Corps pilots have resigned due to his Department’s plans to recover over-payment of flying pay; how many of those pilots (a) are currently serving and (b) have retired; what assessment he has made of the effect on (i) staffing levels and (ii) the effectiveness of that corps; whether any of those pilots affected have been subject to disciplinary proceedings due to non-repayment of such over-payments; what the value is of such over payments; over what period such over-payments relate to; and if he will make it his policy to not recover such over-payments.

Mark Lancaster

I refer the hon. Member to the response given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State for Defence, the Rt Hon. Earl Howe, to the noble Lord, the Rt Hon. the Lord Trefgarne, in the House of Lords (Official Report, column 2379). In addition to this I can confirm that an overpayment of recruitment and retention pay amounting to £829,000 in total was made to 146 Army aircrew personnel over a number of years. Of the 146 personnel affected, 97 are still serving. We have apologised and explained the circumstances of the overpayments to all affected. Each individual has the opportunity to object, appeal, and if necessary submit a Service Complaint against recovery action receiving individual and tailored advice as required. Since notification of the recovery action, the Army Air Corps is not aware of any resignations as a direct result. The error was caused by differing interpretations and use of the Recruitment and Retention Pay (Flying) policy across the Army Air Corps. As such there are no disciplinary issues associated with the overpayment.

Although there are manning pressures within the Army Air Corps they are able to meet all current commitments. In recognition of these pressures a Financial Retention Incentive was introduced in 2015 and 81% of the eligible personnel have taken up this offer resulting in a stabilisation of Army Air Corps pilot manning levels.

In accordance with HM Treasury Policy and Guidance, pay has been reverted to the correct levels and recovery action has now begun. This guidance requires that efforts are made to recover incorrect payments in all cases across the public sector. I am satisfied that this is the correct approach to take under these circumstances and reflects the previous recovery of overpayments within the Armed Forces.