Tag: Greg Mulholland

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is providing to former workers at Redcar Steel Works to help them find alternative employment.

Anna Soubry

The Government has announced a package worth up to £80m to support people who have lost their jobs as a result of SSI’s liquidation, and mitigate the impacts on the local economy. The funding will include support for workers to retrain and help for local firms to grow and create jobs. In addition, we have established a locally led task force which has submitted proposals on how it will use this funding which the Department is looking at closely. The task force has quickly mobilised local partners and delivered a successful jobs fair last week which attracted 1817 people and 53 local employers with another one planned for next week.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what independent oversight arrangement has been established to monitor the Channel programme.

Mr John Hayes

We continue to monitor and evaluate the Channel programme to ensure that it is as effective as it can be and that good practice is shared across the country. Channel evaluation is based on comprehensive monitoring systems which track outcomes over time and robust evaluation techniques that assess effectiveness.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2015 to Question 12724, on the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, how much (a) funding and (b) staffing resource is currently dedicated to that group.

Mr Marcus Jones

Since 2012, the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group has advised Ministers on issues including training for journalists to tackle the negative portrayal of Muslims in the media; encouraging increased reporting and recording of anti-Muslim incidents and online abuse; supporting social media workshops to build the capacity of community organisations to promote positive narratives; and facilitating a number of regional road shows to engage communities on integration and tackling anti-Muslim hatred. The group also worked on the issue of disaggregation of anti-Muslim hate crime, as is done with anti-semitic hate crime. Last month, my Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister announced that police forces in England and Wales would be required to disaggregate religion based hate crime data.

The Working Group meets quarterly and uses this forum to advise Ministers on issues relating to anti-Muslim hatred rather than through official submissions.

The independent members of the Working Group volunteer their own time to take part in the group and can claim basic travel expenses for the meetings. As part of a broader role, one official in the Department provides secretariat support to the group and officials from across Government Departments attend quarterly meetings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with Interserve about members of his Department’s cleaning staff facing disciplinary action over a pay dispute.

Mr David Lidington

Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials asked Interserve to comment in light of allegations from Citizens UK that Interserve cleaners had been disciplined because of a letter written to The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) in July about the London Living Wage. Interserve replied to to say that they had carried out an investigation to establish whether the letter had breached their confidentiality agreement with their staff. Interserve has since confirmed that their investigation has concluded and that no disciplinary action will be taken against the staff members concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the cost of the public inquiry into the New Generation Transport trolleybus scheme; and what he expects the final cost of that inquiry to be.

Claire Perry

Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority as promoters of this scheme are responsible for providing the inquiry venue and facilities; paying for professional experts to present their case; and meeting the Planning Inspectorate’s costs in providing an Inspector. The Planning Inspectorate charged £157,162 for this inquiry, based on the time spent by the Inspector preparing for, travelling to and holding the inquiry; the time spent by the Inspector writing his report; and his travelling and subsistence. Other parties to the inquiry were responsible for meeting their own costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support the UK steel industry.

Anna Soubry

The Government recognises the current difficulties that are unique to the steel sector. While we cannot fix the price of steel, halt global overproduction or fix currency rates, the government has taken a number of measures to help our steel industry.

We have taken action on unfair trade, recently voting in support of anti-dumping measures on wire rod and steel tubing imports, as well as lobbying successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar.

The Government will be exempting eligible Energy Intensive Industries, including steel, from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Small Feed-in-Tariff (FiT). This will we can keep their bills down, keep them competitive, keep them here and also give certainty for future investment decisions. The steel industry’s request for flexibility over Industrial Emissions Directive exemptions has also been secured. This will save the industry millions of pounds of unnecessary expenditure at a time of crisis by offering steel companies more time to comply with this European legislation.

Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government projects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide information on the (a) age, (b) race, (c) gender, (d) religion and (e) region of residence of the 700 individuals referred to in paragraph 88 of her Department’s Counter-Extremism Strategy, published on 19 October 2015.

Karen Bradley

The Home Office intends to publish Channel data in the near future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what further work remains to be undertaken before he takes a final decision on the future of funding of insolvency litigation.

Dominic Raab

The Ministry of Justice is in the process of considering the way forward in relation to the application to insolvency litigation of the no win no fee reforms in Part 2 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what indicators are used by the Government and local authorities to assess the effectiveness of initiatives funded by the Prevent strategy.

Mr John Hayes

The Government has developed a comprehensive approach to assessing the effectiveness of the initiatives funded by the Prevent strategy, including output measures as well as an increased focus on impact and outcomes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the membership of the Community Engagement Forum is.

Mr John Hayes

The Community Engagement Forum met for the first time on 13 October. Attendance at forum meetings will rotate to allow ministers to hear directly from a wide range of individuals and groups taking a leading role in challenging extremism in our communities.