Tag: Jonathan Ashworth

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2015-10-28.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department’s impact assessment on the Tax Credits (Income Threshold and Determination of Rates) (Amendment) Regulations 2015, what the (a) income brackets are for each decile and (b) equivalent levels are for the proportions in Chart 1.

Damian Hinds

The analysis that fed into the published Impact Assessment^[1] shows how the £4.4bn of savings from the tax credit changes as laid out in the publication are distributed for each income decile on the income distribution for tax credit claimants. This has clearly demonstrated that tax credit claimants on the highest incomes – on average £42,000 a year – will contribute nearly 4 times as much as the claimants on the lowest incomes to the savings from this policy.

This Government is committed to moving from a high welfare, high tax, low wage economy to a lower welfare, lower tax, higher wage society. As the Chancellor has made clear, the Government will set out at Autumn Statement how we plan to achieve the same goal of reforming tax credits, saving the money we need to save to secure our economy, while at the same time helping in the transition.

[1] http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/Secondary-Legislation-Scrutiny-Committee/DraftTaxCreditsRegs2015-ImpactAssessment.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2015-12-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, on how many occasions a special adviser in his Department accompanied a Minister on an overseas trip since May 2015.

Harriett Baldwin

As has been the case under successive Administrations, civil servants, including special advisers, may routinely accompany their Ministers on official visits. Information relating to Ministers’ overseas visits are published on my Department’s website, as part of the Government’s wider transparency agenda.

All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what financial and other resources the Government makes available to UK Trade and Investment trade envoys.

Anna Soubry

To fulfil their overseas and UK travel commitments, there is a dedicated budget for the Trade Envoys.

Total cost of the programme to date has been £424,529

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Prime Minister, how many meetings he has had with UK Trade and Investment trade envoys since May 2015.

Mr David Cameron

I have to-date appointed 24 Trade Envoys who are MPs and Peers from across the political spectrum to represent the UK in 50 countries. They are parliamentarians from a range of backgrounds and I receive regular feedback from them on their work in promoting the UK in trade and investment matters. Further details of the Trade Envoy programme can be found on the gov.uk website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many consultants’ contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.

Brandon Lewis

DCLG has not terminated any consultancy contracts early in the past six years.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) publications, (b) consultation documents and (c) circulars her Department has issued since August 2012; and what the title was of each such publication, consultation document or circular.

Nick Gibb

Since August 2012 the Department for Education has issued: 997 publications[1] and 121 consultation exercises. Since 2012 a digital-by-default policy has applied to departmental publications and consultations. These are available on GOV.UK.

The department no longer uses the term circulars as a publication type. The department issues emails to schools and local authorities periodically to draw their attention to information and guidance that has been published on GOV.UK. 321 such email newsletters were issued in the period in question. These are referenced by the date issued and audience, and so there is no list of titles available.

• Attachment A shows the titles of DfE publications since August 2012.

• Attachment B shows the titles of DfE consultations carried out since August 2012.

[1] This information has been sourced from GOV.UK. It is possible that some records may be incomplete for the period prior to the migration to GOV.UK (August 2012 to August 2013).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.

Jane Ellison

The amounts paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months are contained in the attached document.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) publications, (b) consultation documents and (c) circulars his Department has issued since August 2012; and what the title was of each such publication, consultation document or circular.

Mike Penning

We publish consultations and other publications on GOV.UK. The list of pages published is available through a filtered search. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=&publication_filter_option=all&topics[]=all&departments[]=ministry-of-justice&official_document_status=all&world_locations[]=all&from_date=01%2F08%2F2012&to_date=

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many times the former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the former hon. Member for Twickenham, held individual meetings with trade envoys in each year between September 2012 and May 2015.

Anna Soubry

It is an established convention that Minsters of one Administration cannot see the documents of a previous Administration. I am therefore unable to provide the information requested by the hon Member.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to page 86 of the Budget 2016, how many people in each (a) region and constituent part of the UK and (b) parliamentary constituency will be affected by changes to personal independence payments: aids and appliances.

Justin Tomlinson

As confirmed by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State in his statement to the House on 21 March, the proposed changes to PIP will not be going ahead.

We spend around £50bn every year on benefits alone to support people with disabilities or health conditions, with spending on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) having increased by more than £3 billion since 2010. The government is committed to talking to disabled people, their representatives, healthcare professionals and employers to help the welfare system work better with the health and social care systems and provide help and support to those who need it most.