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, 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 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the conduct of the first round of the general elections in the Central African Republic.

James Duddridge

I welcome the holding of presidential and legislative elections in the Central African Republic on 30 December. The people of the Central African Republic showed a strong determination to move towards a democratic future by turning out to vote in large numbers. The holding of elections, which passed off peacefully, is a huge achievement. It was however unacceptable that many refugees, largely from Muslim communities, were unable to vote in the elections.

We will work with international partners and the newly elected President to ensure that an inclusive government is appointed which is representative of Central African Republic groups, regions and refugees.

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 payments under the Basic Payments Scheme 2015 had not been made to farmers in Stafford constituency by the Rural Payments Agency 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 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fines of what total monetary value were written off by HM Courts Service in Staffordshire in each year since 2011-12.

Caroline Dinenage

Due to the limited management information that can be extracted from the Libra system it is not possible to identify how many financial impositions have been cancelled.

The table below shows the total value of financial impositions cancelled in Staffordshire in each of the year since 2010-11.

Year	Total Value Legally Cancelled regardless of Imposition date	Total Value Admin Cancelled regardless of Imposition date
2010-11	£1,237,941	£722,603
2011-12	£1,181,416	£692,066
2012-13	£1,256,081	£924,630
2013-14	£1,406,722	£835,113
2014-15	£1,320,535	£656,536
Apr 2015 – Dec 2015	£1,154,484	£410,937

The data for January 2016 to March 2016 is not included as the data has not been published yet.

A legal cancellation can be applied when an imposition has been cancelled in court by a Judge or Magistrate, for example if an appeal is successful or if some of the original amount imposed is remitted after the offenders financial circumstances have been reconsidered.

Financial impositions are only administratively cancelled after all attempts to collect the amount outstanding have been made, and in accordance with a strict cancellation criteria. Any imposition which has been administratively cancelled still retains legal status and can be written back at any time if more information is found which will enable collection, for example if a new address for the offender is discovered. We periodically review administratively cancelled accounts.

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