Tag: Jim Sheridan

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the proportion of Royal Mail staff who bought shares in the newly-privatised company in (a) Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituency, (b) Renfrewshire and (c) Scotland.

    Michael Fallon

    The Government has not made any estimates by constituency, county or country of shares bought by Royal Mail staff.

    As part of the Royal Mail Initial Public Offering, each eligible employee has now received 729 shares free of charge. Only 372 of the 147,000 eligible employees opted out of the scheme. Approximately 99.75% of employees accepted the shares that we offered them. Under the Employee Priority Retail Offer, over 15,000 employees (just over 10%) bought additional shares in Royal Mail.

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of fines imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office on reducing nuisance calls and texts.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    No such assessment has been made, but we are aware that after ICO issued a large monetary penalty in November 2012 for spam text messages, the monitoring service Cloudmark reported a 10% drop in unsolicited spam SMS text messages. We remain keen to ensure robust enforcement of the regulations, so that companies breaking the rules are caught and penalised.

    OurNuisance Calls Action Plan that was published on 30th March 2014, details the range of legislative and non-legislative measures being taken forward to tackle nuisance calls and texts and the plan can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nuisance-calls-action-plan-unveiled

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-06-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the net benefit to people in Scotland of the UK’s membership of the EU.

    David Mundell

    The Government does not collate data which would allow calculation of a net benefit to the people of Scotland arising from the UK’s membership of the EU. However, independent analysis published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research in March 2014 suggested that, in 2011, approximately 335,000 jobs in Scotland were associated with Scottish exports to the EU.

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the contribution by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries on 25 February 2014, Official Report, column 95WH, when the consultation on modernising the Electronic Programme Guide regime will be launched.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Pursuant to my contribution on 25 February 2014, Official Report, column 95WH, DCMS will make an announcement on the publication date of the consultation in due course.

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-05-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent discussions he has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in Scotland on the use of zero-hour contracts in Scottish education establishments.

    Jenny Willott

    There have been no recent discussions between my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in Scotland directly relating to the use of zero-hour contracts in Scottish education establishments.

  • Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jim Sheridan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Sheridan on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the president of Sudan regarding the death sentence given to Meriam Yehya Ibrahim.

    Mark Simmonds

    The President of Sudan is indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and has refused to cooperate. In common with other EU countries, we have a policy of having no contact with fugitives from the ICC unless it is essential. However, we have raised Meriam’s conviction in the strongest terms with Sudanese Ministers, including by summoning the Chargé d’Affaires to the Foreign Office on 19 May, at the request of the Foreign Secretary. Immediately following her conviction, I released a statement describing her conviction as barbaric and calling upon the Government of Sudan to respect the right to freedom of religion and international human rights laws as enshrined in its own constitution. The Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development, my Hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Ms Featherstone), also raised this issue with the Foreign Minister of Sudan on 20 May.