The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of differences in mortality rates for (a) permanent and (b) temporary workers.
Nick Boles
My Department has not made an assessment of the differences in mortality rates for permanent and temporary workers.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what meetings he has initiated on steel in the last two years.
Anna Soubry
It is an established convention that Ministers of one Administration cannot see the documents of a previous Administration. I am therefore unable to provide the information requested by the hon Member for the entire period given in his Question.
I first met with Gareth Stace on 01 June 2015 and discussions with steel industry stakeholders continued thereafter to identify the policy priorities for dealing with the considerable challenges facing the sector. We convened a Steel Summit on 16 October 2015 which brought together all the major stakeholders, including key Government and industry participants as well as constituency MPs, recognising the significant part steel companies play in local communities. This led to the formation of three Ministerial Working Groups which took the lead on our efforts to deliver on the five key ‘Asks’ put to us by our partners in the steel industry.
To ensure a sustainable future we set up the Steel Council, co-chaired by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to build on the achievements of the three previous Ministerial working groups, by looking at the longer term future of the sector and how we can strengthen the capability and competiveness of the UK steel industry both at home and globally. The Council met for the first time on 2 March.
Since this Government took office, BIS Ministers have undertaken a number of visits to steel-producing sites across the UK, including: SSI Redcar; Tata Steel facilities at Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham; Celsa in Cardiff and the former-Tata Steel site at Motherwell recently re-opened by Liberty Steel.
To date we have made significant progress in addressing the challenges faced by the industry, including:
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the role of the PrescQIPP Programme is within his Department.
Alistair Burt
The PrescQIPP NHS Programme currently has no direct role within the Department as it is an independent social enterprise.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) use its materials to improve the prescribing of medicines. These are mainly publicly available for CCGs and Health Boards, with some additional subscription-only content. Their governance and annual work programme is overseen by a strategic oversight group representing the users.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make a comparative assessment of the effect of tariffs on steel imports in the EU and the US.
Anna Soubry
Each anti-dumping case is different. Moreover the levels of dumping and injury occurring in EU and US markets may be very different. The Government examines the evidence in all EU anti-dumping cases closely before taking a view.
The Government believes that effective trade defence measures should be proportionate, not protectionist, and strike a balance between removing the injury to producers caused by dumping, and avoiding imposing unnecessary costs on user industries, retailers, consumers and the rest of the economy. The evidence we have to date is that duties that have been imposed on imports of Chinese steel into the EU have been effective in delivering rapid, substantial and sustained reductions in imports. For example, imports of wire rod, organic coated steel and stainless steel flat products are down by more than 90%.
Where the European Commission has set duties that we believe to be too low to remove the injury caused to EU industry by dumped imports, we will push for them to be increased, as we have done in the reinforcing bar and cold rolled flat products cases.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-06-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of mechanisms for parliamentary oversight of the UK’s bilateral investment treaties.
Anna Soubry
Treaties, including bilateral investment treaties, that are subject to ratification, approval, acceptance, accession or the mutual notification of completion of procedures are laid before Parliament for scrutiny purposes for a period of 21 parliamentary sitting days under the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (Part 2: ratification of treaties) which commenced on 11 November 2010. This legislation provides that the UK cannot legally ratify or consent to be bound by a treaty laid under its provisions until the statutory 21 sitting day process has elapsed. During the 21 sitting days, hon Members and Select Committees have the chance to scrutinise the treaty provisions, ask questions, and potentially report. They may ask for extra time. The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act does not guarantee a debate, but any request would have to be seriously considered. If Parliament debated and resolved that HMG “shall not ratify”, then the latter could not legally do so at that point.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-11-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement on (a) the UK economy as a whole, (b) each region and nation of the UK’s economy, (c) each business sector in the UK economy, (d) large UK businesses and (e) UK SMEs.
Anna Soubry
An independent assessment of the potential economic impact of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on the UK as a whole was carried out by the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). The CEPR analysis includes an assessment of the impact on twenty broad sectors of the economy, with estimated impacts on output, trade and shifts in employment. This can be found on the GOV.UK website.
The CEPR assessment demonstrated that TTIP offers an enormous economic benefit: in growth, exports and high quality jobs, worth up to £10 billion a year. Small businesses in particular will benefit from removing unnecessary barriers to trade.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on Israeli products in each of the last three years.
Mr Philip Dunne
This information is not held centrally in the format requested. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has made the total value of payments below against contracts where the MOD Commercial teams have identified Israel as the location of some or all of the work required for the completion of the overall contract.
|
Financial Year |
Total Value of Payments (£ million) |
|
2012-13 |
18.9 |
|
2013-14 |
25.5 |
|
2014-15 |
15.8 |
These figures may not include all subcontracted components of Israeli manufacture and may include subcontracted components manufactured in countries other than Israel. The analysis is based on Location of Work codes and does not relate to the billing address of companies nor is it based on ownership of the companies involved in the production of the product.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps fully to implement the Energy Intensive Industry Compensation package.
Anna Soubry
On 14 December, the EU Commission approved our first state aid case – to commence relief from the indirect costs of the Renewables Obligation and small-scale Feed-in-Tariff . Eligible companies are now able to apply for compensation. Scheme guidance and application forms were published on 19 January 2016 and details can be found on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewables-obligation-and-small-scale-feed-in-tariffs-apply-for-compensation. We continue to be in dialogue with the EU Commission on the second element of our State Aid Application to compensate competitors of eligible Electricity Intensive Industries (EII) to ensure they do not face competitive distortions. Compensation paid under the EII scheme is in addition to the £148 million of support the Government has already given to EIIs to mitigate the impact of climate policy.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the potential costs to (a) consumers and (b) the public purse of the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
Anna Soubry
The Government is moving UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) into private ownership so it can continue operating in the same way it does now only funded with private capital rather than relying on taxpayers’ support. The detailed background and supporting case for this move was set out in the policy statement we published on 18 November.
Decisions on the proposed sale are being taken in accordance with best practice to ensure all available options are properly examined in a detailed business case and that a robust valuation process is followed. We expect taxpayers to gain a receipt to the public purse from a majority sale of GIB, and to benefit from reduced public funding requirements in future.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2016 to Question 23237, if he will place in the Library a list of the recent representations he has received on the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank.
Anna Soubry
The Government does not intend to place a list of the recent representations received on the privatisation of the Green Investment Bank in the Library.