Tag: Jim Cunningham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-23.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase (a) income tax and (b) corporation tax receipts; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Gauke

The Government wants to deliver a low tax, high wage economy.The personal allowance has been increased from £6,475 in 2010-11 to £10,600 in 2015-16, and the headline rate of corporation tax has been cut from 28 per cent to 20 per cent since 2010.

The Government has committed to going further in this parliament by raising the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold to £50,000.Corporation tax will be cut to 18 per cent by 2020, benefitting over a million companies.

Due to the strength of our economy, tax receipts are growing strongly. Onshore corporation tax receipts have risen nearly 30% since 2010.Income tax receipts are £8bn higher in the first 10 months of 2015 compared to the first 10 months of 2014. In its most recent Economic and Fiscal Outlook the Office for Budget Responsibility have raised their forecast for receipts over the parliament.

At the same time the government has taken a number of steps to clamp down on avoidance and evasion. For instance it will invest over £800m in HM Revenue and Customs to help them to tackle evasion and non-compliance over the course of the parliament. These measures are forecast to raise £7.2bn by 2020-21.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department plans to spend on domestic counter-terrorism operations in each of the next five years; and if she will make a statement.

Mr John Hayes

The Government protected counter-terrorism police funding over the last 5 years and the Strategic Defence and Security Review and Spending Review both confirmed a real terms increase to counter-terrorism police funding to invest in new capabilities.

The Spending Review announcement set the overall budget for the Home Office. Officials are now going through the detail and will continue to provide advice to the Home Secretary on individual allocations and spending commitments. We anticipate that funding allocations for counter-terrorism will be confirmed in the New Year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK police and intelligence staff are based in (a) Europe and (b) Turkey; and if she will make a statement.

Mike Penning

For national security reasons we do not disclose details of intelligence officers or counter terrorism police deployed or based abroad.

In respect of wider policing we do not hold details of all overseas deployments by police forces. We only hold details of those deployments which provide assistance to an international organisation, foreign government or police service and therefore require authorisation from the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Home Secretary under the provisions of Section 26 of the Police Act (1996).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20540, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the distribution of Syria crisis response funds in (a) Lebanon and (b) Jordan; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Desmond Swayne

To date, the UK has allocated £304 million in Lebanon and £193 million in Jordan to support Syrian refugees and vulnerable host communities. This allocation has effectively delivered humanitarian and development support where needs are greatest and most unmet across both countries. For example, as of June 2015 in Jordan and Lebanon respectively, 1,684,800 and 2,032,500 food rations have been delivered providing food for one person for one month.

The effectiveness of the UK’s humanitarian response in Jordan and Lebanon is assessed regularly through progress reports from funded agencies monitoring their achievements against plans outlined in their funding agreements. Progress is followed up through regular discussions and periodic field monitoring visits to project sites by DFID staff based in our Embassies in Amman and Beirut and from our headquarters in the UK. In addition, projects are formally reviewed on an annual basis and in some cases we also commission independent evaluations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees were resettled in each (a) region and (b) parliamentary constituency in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement.

Richard Harrington

The Home Office is committed to publishing data on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 25 February 2016 and will cover the period October – December 2015.

This information will not show where refugees have been resettled, as resettlement under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme by local authorities is voluntary. It is a matter for each local authority to decide whether they want to publish the fact of their participation and the numbers of refugees they take.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of finance options available to doctors to cover their training costs; and if he will make a statement.

Ben Gummer

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department of Health have joint responsibility for the funding of students on medical courses. For the first four years of the five or six year undergraduate degree, medical students receive the same maintenance and tuition fee loans as mainstream students under the BIS Education (Student Support) Regulations.

In the fifth year of study funding is provided by the National Health Service Bursary Scheme and eligible medical students can receive a means tested NHS Bursary and a non-means tested grant of £1,000. The NHS will also meet the cost of their tuition, so medical students do not have to pay tuition fees in the final years of their course.

Health Education England (HEE) has responsibility for determining the amount of funding available to students via the NHS Bursary Scheme.

HEE also support doctors in training by funding clinical placements for undergraduate students which is paid directly to the NHS providers at an agreed national tariff price, and postgraduate training at 50% of trainee salary and a placement fee of £12,400.

Funding support is reviewed on an annual basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will review the affordability of public transport for people in full-time education; and if he will make a statement.

Andrew Jones

The legislation which regulates the bus industry does not require bus operators to offer reduced fares to young people. However, bus operators in most areas do offer discounted travel tickets to various groups of young people on a commercial basis. Government recognises the importance of accessible transport to all young people and we are working with the sector to encourage operators to continue to improve their offers.

Whilst there is no requirement for local authorities to provide free transport for 16-19 year olds attending further education, some local authorities do also provide discretionary travel concession schemes for young people.

Current estimates indicate that around 50% of young people aged 16 to 19 receive at least a third off standard bus fares.

In terms of rail services, young rail passengers are able to purchase a 16 – 25 Railcard where they can save a third on most standard class rail fares.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received in the last year from (a) Christian, (b) Jewish and (c) Muslim faith schools on the Counter Extremism Strategy used in schools; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Timpson

This Government believes all children should be educated in a safe environment, whether in a school or out of school.

Department officials have briefed representatives of faith schools, including Christian, Jewish and Muslim schools, on matters relating to the Government’s Prevent and Counter-Extremism strategies. The Department received a number of queries from both faith schools and non-faith schools on how to implement the Prevent duty. The Department has issued practical advice to schools to help them understand their role under the new Prevent duty, and also launched a dedicated counter-extremism helpline in 2015 to enable front line staff, governors, and others to raise concerns directly. The Department has combined all its existing advice in the new Educate Against Hate website[1], which was launched by the Secretary of State on 19 January.

The Department recently completed a call for evidence on proposals for the registration and inspection of out-of-school settings providing intensive education which were announced in the Counter-Extremism Strategy. Over 3,000 people, including representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, completed the response form, either online or manually. The Department received a significant number of further representations to the consultation by email and post. All responses and representations are being logged, analysed and verified.

We will be publishing a response to the consultation in due course, in line with Cabinet Office guidance.

[1] http://educateagainsthate.com/

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 22794, how many beneficiaries of the Student Opportunity Fund there were in each of the last five years.

Joseph Johnson

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) allocates the Student Opportunity Fund to Higher Education providers as part of the teaching grant. Although the different elements of the fund are calculated on the basis of the number of students within an institution with particular characteristics, institutions have been able to use the funding in whichever way they feel is most appropriate for their students. Therefore, there is no centrally collected data on the numbers of students supported by the fund.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the risk posed to children by domestic violence; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley

Data showing the total number of women who have suffered domestic abuse in the last five years is set out in the Crime Statistics published on 11 February 2016: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/focus-on-violent-crime-and-sexual-offences–2014-to-2015/index.html.

Since the 2004/05 Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), the number of women aged 16 to 59 experiencing any domestic abuse in the last year has reduced from 1.71 million to 1.35 million (360,000 fewer victims and a fall of 21%) and the estimate of the number of women experiencing any domestic abuse in the last year is the lowest since the survey began.

Latest data published by the Office for National Statistics from the 2014/15 CSEW additionally show that in 46% of cases of partner abuse, a child was present in the household, of which 20% of children saw or heard the abuse.

Data on children referred to and assessed by local authority children’s social services in England in 2014/15 show that there were 197,700 assessments where domestic violence was identified as a relevant factor. This data is only available for 2014/15.

The Government works closely with charities, academics and statutory agencies to assess and address the impact of domestic abuse on children and wholly recognises the life changing impact domestic abuse can have on the lives of children. That is why we have expanded the Troubled Families Programme for a further five years (2015-2020) to work with an additional 400,000 families, including those affected by domestic abuse.

To further address the impact of domestic abuse on victims and their children, we have introduced a new domestic abuse offence to tackle coercive and controlling behaviour, and in England and Wales we have rolled out Domestic Violence Protection Orders and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme. Improvements have been made to the police response to domestic abuse, and we are supporting multi-agency working which takes a whole family approach.

We will shortly publish a refreshed cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy setting out how we will do more still to support victims and their children. The Government has already announced £40 million of funding for domestic abuse services between 2016 and 2020, as well as a £2 million grant to Women’s Aid and Safelives to support early intervention programmes.