Tag: Jeremy Lefroy

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to commence Section 154 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, on fixed penalty notices for leaving litter.

Rory Stewart

No timetable has been set for when Section 154 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 will be commenced.

Defra has announced plans for a new litter strategy and we are working with industry, experts and councils across England to improve the way we all tackle the scourge of litter. The litter strategy will promote affordable and replicable ways to influence littering behaviour and reduce littering. This will include work on ways to deal with littering from vehicles.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to support businesses in Stafford constituency.

Anna Soubry

The Government is working to make the UK the best place to start and grow a business by supporting businesses across the country. In Stafford, 42 Government backed Start-Up Loans have been drawn down since September 2012 with a value of over £218,000. A Regional Growth Fund award of £4m made in 2011 has attracted private investment of £56.5 million, delivering 1,600 jobs. Since May 2010, 26 loans have been drawn down in Stafford, worth over £2.6 million, from the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme. Businesses in Stafford also have access to the Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire Growth Hub which was live from September 2014, which is one of a network of 39 Growth Hubs set up across England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-01-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether it is her Department’s policy to support the G7 Initiative on Climate Risk Insurance.

Mr Nick Hurd

The UK supports the G7 Climate Risk Insurance Initiative and is committed to contributing to meeting the collective target set out in the Elmau declaration of helping up to an additional 400 million people in the most vulnerable developing countries to gain access to climate risk insurance by 2020.

UK support under the Initiative includes contributions to the African Risk Capacity and the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative. In September the Prime Minister announced that the UK would provide at least £5.8 billion of climate finance over the next five years which will include support for climate risk insurance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farmers in Stafford constituency who are eligible for payments under the Basic Payments Scheme 2015 had not been paid by 31 March 2016.

George Eustice

As of 31 March 2016, the Rural Payments Agency had paid 168 (80%) of the 211 eligible Basic Payment Scheme 2015 claims received in Stafford constituency. To date 191 had been paid and the agency has announced that those customers who do not receive a claim payment in April will be provided a bridging payment. Bridging payments will be around half of their claim value.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the level of access to credit for businesses in Stafford constituency in the last 12 months.

Anna Soubry

The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 contained two specific policies to support Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in accessing finance.

The first requires major banks to refer SMEs they reject for finance to designated ‘finance platforms’ that can help match SMEs with alternative finance providers. This will ensure that viable SMEs, including businesses in Stafford, that may not fit the major banks’ risk appetite can still get the finance they need to grow and expand. Three platforms have recently been designated by HM Treasury on the advice of the British Business Bank and are expected to come into operation later this year.

The second requires the major banks to share information on their SME customers, with the SME’s permission, with other lenders through designated Credit Reference Agencies. This will improve the ability of challenger banks and alternative finance providers to conduct accurate risk assessments and level the playing field between providers and make it easier for SMEs to get finance from providers other than their bank.

The Government is supporting the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Crowdfunding sectors, which provide alternative sources of finance for both businesses and individuals. The British Business Bank, for example, has invested £100m in SMEs via five P2P platforms.

In addition, the British Business Bank’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme has facilitated over £2.6 billion of bank lending and other finance to over 25,000 SMEs. Since the start of the scheme, 45 EFG loans have been drawn down in Stafford worth over £5 million. Government has also provided loans through the Start Up Loans Company to help new businesses in Stafford. 42 start up businesses in Stafford have secured a loan from the Start Up Loans Company, with a total value of over £218, 000.

More widely, credit conditions for business continue to improve with net lending to SMEs in 2015 positive across the complete year, the first time this has happened since the financial crisis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-10-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the projected level of income tax that will be forgone by the taxpayer by providing higher rate income tax relief on pension contributions in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

Mr David Gauke

Information on the total cost of pensions tax relief is published in HM Revenue and Customs’ National Statistics table PEN6, available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/registered-pension-schemes-cost-of-tax-relief

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-10-09.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to establish a grant scheme to support charities providing rapid response vehicles for medical purposes.

Greg Hands

The government is currently finalising the administration arrangements for the rapid response grant scheme which will open for applications this financial year. The scheme will cover the VAT costs incurred in the purchasing and fitting out of medical emergency rapid response vehicles by charities which are not already in scope of existing VAT refund schemes or are not already funded for VAT. The total grant available across the UK will be £100,000 in 2015-16.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what analysis his Department has carried out on the comparative living costs of people (a) in the work related activity group of employment and support allowance and (b) on jobseeker’s allowance.

Priti Patel

The Department has not carried out any analysis on the comparative living costs of these two groups.

If claimants experience additional costs as a result of their illness or disability, they may be eligible to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP) which we have exempted from the Benefit cap and will continue to uprate by inflation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the total renewable installed capacity was on 30 June 2015.

Andrea Leadsom

At the end of March 2015, total renewable electricity installed capacity in the UK was 26.4 GW. Figures as at end of June 2015 will be available on 24 September 2015.

Source:

Table 6.1, Energy Trends section 6: renewables, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/energy-trends-section-6-renewables.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-09-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many entry visas for business purposes were granted to nationals of (a) China, (b) India, (c) Brazil, (d) Indonesia, (e) Malaysia, (f) Nigeria, (g) Tanzania and (h) Kenya in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2014-15.

James Brokenshire

The requested information is given in the table below, for skilled workers sponsored by business (Tier 2 of the Points Based System):

[Insert table]

The Home Office publishes statistics on entry clearance visa grants by work category in table vi_06_q_w (Entry clearance visas tables volume 2) within the ‘Immigration Statistics’ release.

A copy of the latest release, “Immigration Statistics April to June 2015”, is available from the Library of the House and the Home Office website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release