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Tag: John Robertson

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what deadline has been set by his Department for former oil refineries being converted to bulk storage and distribution terminals to make the necessary upgrades to meet post-Buncefield standards; and how rigorously such standards are being enforced by the Environment Agency.

    Mike Penning

    The COMAH Competent Authority (CA), comprising HSE and the environment agencies, is responsible for ensuring that oil refineries and fuel storage and distribution terminals meet new safety and environmental standards introduced in 2009 following the Buncefield fire and explosion. The standards were developed jointly by industry and the CA and published by the Process Safety Leadership Group (PSLG).

    Refineries were required to produce risk-based action plans to implement the PSLG safety standards at their existing fuel storage facilities. HSE led the assessment of these plans during 2011 and has been inspecting sites to ensure the planned improvements are made. The timings of upgrades to containment standards at refineries’ existing fuel storage facilities is based on risk and will vary for each site. Agreed improvements are embedded in environment inspection plans for each site and followed up to ensure measures are implemented on time.

    The CA is working with refineries undergoing conversion to fuel storage and distribution terminals to ensure the PSLG standards are applied in full to their new facilities.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will conduct an assessment of the effect on carers of the implementation of the Welfare Reform Act 2012.

    Mike Penning

    The Universal Credit Impact Assessment was published in December 2012, full details of the report can be found here

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/welfare-reform-act-2012-impact-assessments

    “

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effects on carers of (a) each change and (b) all changes to the benefits system since 2010.

    Mike Penning

    The Universal Credit Impact Assessment was published in December 2012, full details of the report can be found here

    https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/welfare-reform-act-2012-impact-assessments

    “

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discusssions she has had with the Passport Office about the updating of advice on timescales during busy periods for (a) the renewal of a passport and (b) the time it will take for staff to call an applicant back.

    James Brokenshire

    Ministers have held frequent recent discussions with Her Majesty’s Passport Office.

    Current advice for customers on expected service standards is published on
    https://www.gov.uk.

    The current guideline for returning calls to customers is to do so within 48
    hours. Her Majesty’s Passport Office gives priority to those with the most immediate
    travel plans.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average waiting time for people (a) applying for a passport renewal and (b) waiting for a call back from the Passport Office.

    James Brokenshire

    The information requested is as follows:

    (a) Expected service standards for passport renewals are published at
    https://www.gov.uk.
    (b) The current guideline for returning calls to customers is to do so within
    48 hours. Her Majesty’s Passport Office gives priority to those with the
    most immediate travel plans.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the average profit made by energy companies on the energy bills of households in each constituency in the UK.

    Michael Fallon

    Data on the average profit made by energy companies at the level of households in each constituency is not available.

    The average pre-tax profit made per household consumer in 2012 was £53 or 4.3%. (Source: “Making the Profits of the six largest energy suppliers clear” factsheet, Ofgem). Ofgem also estimates pre-tax margins over the next 12 months using current data in their Supply Market Indicator. Their latest estimate of pre-tax margins for May 2014-April 2015 was £96 or 7% (Source: Understanding energy bills, Ofgem).

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of children in poverty in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK in each year until 2020.

    Esther McVey

    The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty either locally or nationally. The number of children in poverty is dependent on a number of factors which cannot be reliably predicted, including the median income.

    The Government does not believe it is possible to accurately project child poverty to 2020. Poverty projections are rarely accurate. For example, IFS projections in October 2011 suggested the number of children in relative poverty would fall by 100,000 in 2010/11, whereas in fact it fell by 300,000.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of welfare reforms since May 2010 on levels of child poverty.

    Esther McVey

    The Government has not made an assessment of the effect of welfare reforms on levels on child poverty. Given the large number of reforms and variables involved, the impact of welfare changes cannot be seen in isolation.

    However, the guiding principles of all of this Government’s welfare reforms are to get more people into work by making work pay.

    A key component of the Welfare Reform is Universal Credit. Universal Credit is expected to improve work incentives by allowing individuals to keep more of their income as they move into work, and by introducing a smoother and more transparent reduction of benefits when they increase their earnings.

    We estimate this new reform will lift around 300,000 children out of poverty.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what information he holds on the proportion of companies in (a) Glasgow North West, (b) Glasgow and (c) Scotland are ultimately owned by companies based in (i) Scotland, (ii) other parts of the UK, (iii) other countries in the EU and (iv) outside the EU.

    David Mundell

    According to Glasgow City Council figures (November 2013), there are approximately 18,000 businesses in Glasgow. The Scotland Office holds no information on the ownership nationality of companies located in neither Glasgow North West nor Glasgow.

    However, across the UK as a whole, over 99% of private sector businesses will be small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and ownership for these is therefore highly likely to be based locally.

    In 2013, registered private sector enterprises with ultimate ownership outside Scotland accounted for 3.1% of firms. These are disproportionately larger firms and so account for over 35% of employment. This suggests that 96.9% of businesses in Scotland have Scottish ownership, accounting for 64.8% of employment.

  • John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    John Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Robertson on 2014-06-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will estimate the revenue generated in Scotland by companies that have their headquarters (a) in Scotland and (b) outside of Scotland.

    David Mundell

    There are no estimates of the number of companies headquartered in Scotland, of the 343,105 enterprises operating in Scotland as at March 2013. Registered private sector enterprises with ultimate ownership outside Scotland accounted for 3.1% of firms, and 58.1% of turnover. This means that 41.9% of business turnover in Scotland is generated by enterprises with ownership in Scotland. These figures come from the Scottish Government publication Businesses in Scotland 2013.