Tag: Ivan Lewis

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Ministers from the devolved administrations were invited to attend the Global Dementia Legacy Event in London in June 2014.

Norman Lamb

Senior officials from each of the devolved administrations are members of the Dementia Steering Group (International) and were involved and aware of plans for the UK Global Dementia Legacy event. They were also invited to attend the event. Ministers were not invited, senior officials were sent a formal invitation.

The Scottish Government hosted an international dementia event on 9 and 10 June, and officials from the Department attended.

Ministers from across the United Kingdom signed up to the Blackfriars Consensus to prevent and delay dementia, which was announced at the UK Global Dementia Legacy event.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with its counterparts in Northern Ireland ahead of the Global Dementia Legacy Event in London on 19 June 2014.

Norman Lamb

Senior officials from each of the devolved administrations are members of the Dementia Steering Group (International) and were involved and aware of plans for the UK Global Dementia Legacy event. They were also invited to attend the event. Ministers were not invited, senior officials were sent a formal invitation.

There were no discussions between my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his Ministerial counterparts. Senior officials in the Devolved Administrations were involved in discussions via their participation in the Dementia Steering Group (International).

Ministers from across the United Kingdom signed up to the Blackfriars Consensus to prevent and delay dementia, which was announced at the UK Global Legacy event.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications have been processed by the passport office in Belfast in each year since 2010.

James Brokenshire

The table below shows the number of passports processed by the Passport Office
in Belfast.

Year	Number of passports processed
2010	364,688
2011	408,628
2012	427,422
2013	433,530
2014 (until 31 May)	294,998

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when she last met the (a) CEO and (b) Chair of the British Business Bank to discuss how that organisation can more effectively support Northern Ireland businesses; and if she will make statement.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

I regularly hold discussions with representatives of the British Business Bank in my role as Chair of the Joint Ministerial Task Force on banking and access to finance.

The Task Force has discussed how Northern Ireland business benefits from the British Business Bank schemes and will continue to explore how these measures can be delivered in the most effective way in Northern Ireland.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what work the British Business Bank is doing in Northern Ireland to promote its services to small businesses located there.

Matthew Hancock

British Business Bank programmes facilitated £7.5m of new lending and investment to smaller businesses in Northern Ireland in 2013/14.

The Business Bank’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee programme supported £5.1 million of additional lending to Northern Irish businesses during 2013/14, bringing the total amount of lending through the programme in Northern Ireland to £36.1 million.

The Bank’s Start Up Loans programme was extended to Northern Ireland in June 2013 and since then, it has provided 120 loans to Northern Irish start-ups, lending a total of over £560,000.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Northern Ireland Executive recently hosted a roadshow in Northern Ireland to promote the delivery of Business Bank programmes through Northern Irish finance providers and the Business Bank is actively discussing with the Executive how it can continue to support Northern Irish businesses in the future.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional support she is providing to the passport office in Belfast.

James Brokenshire

The Belfast Office Full Time Equivalent (FTE) workforce in June 2014 was 216.29
compared with 147.76 FTE in June 2012. The increase in staff has been to deal
with the introduction of processing of work from overseas in 2013-14 and the
introduction of an evening shift in January 2014 to assist in dealing with UK applications.
Currently there are 20 additional staff redeployed to Belfast to assist in the
examination function.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what support her Department has given to secure the establishment of US immigration, customs and agricultural pre-clearance at Belfast International Airport.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

My Department has been working with the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to understand the issues surrounding US immigration, customs, and agricultural pre-clearance at Belfast International Airport.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the variation in average unit retail price of petrol and diesel in Northern Ireland and in the rest of the UK; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon

No formal assessment has been made of the reasons for the variation in average unit retail prices of petrol and diesel in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Retail fuel prices are determined by the demand and supply fundamentals in local areas. Prices will reflect the underlying cost of crude oil, the process to refine it and transport it so that it is available for consumption at the pump.

Variations in prices are determined by changes in supply and demand factors both for crude oil and for individual products.

On 5 September 2012, the OFT launched a call for information (CFI) to investigate claims that the UK petrol and diesel sectors are not working well. In their January 2013 report they concluded that:

“Overall, on the basis of the evidence collected, it appears that competition in the UK road fuels sector is working relatively effectively”.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2015-01-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he last met the Chief Executive of Invest NI.

Mr David Gauke

Treasury Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2014-06-24.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2014, Official Report, column 36W, on minimum wage: Northern Ireland, whether HM Revenue and Customs’ national minimum wage enforcement team have any staff located in Northern Ireland outside the city of Belfast.

Mr David Gauke

The Government takes the enforcement of national minimum wage (NMW) very seriously and HMRC enforce the NMW legislation on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). It does that by investigating all complaints made about employers suspected of not paying the minimum wage, in addition, carrying out targeted enforcement where it identifies a high risk of non-payment of NMW across the whole of the UK.

The National Minimum Wage team in Northern Ireland contains six full-time and two-part-time staff with all using Belfast as a base location.

However, as I explained in my previous response, HMRC deploys resources to risk, so work relating to a specific geographical area may not always be undertaken by the NMW team based in that area. In addition, the NMW Dynamic Response Team (DRT) provides a multi-agency response to emerging risks, high profile casework and compliance initiatives across the UK.