Tag: Kevin Brennan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans his Department has to ensure that a privatised Green Investment Bank will work to open major new investment options for investors in the UK’s low carbon economy while making a material contribution to decarbonisation.

Anna Soubry

Details of why the Government believes moving UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) into private ownership represents the best way to enable the company to deliver its ambitious green business plan and have a greater impact on green investment while minimising burdens on the UK taxpayer are provided in our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB and are further set out in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the future of GIB which was laid in Parliament on 2 February. Both documents can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much public sector funding was spent on facilitating higher risk green investment in each of the last five years; and what estimate he has made of the likely spend of this type in each of the next five years.

Anna Soubry

Government funding for green innovation is provided for private sector led technology R&D through grants, procurement approaches and to a lesser extent equity interventions. Additionally, DECC, Research Councils and InnovateUK are involved in European programmes that can leverage significant funding from the EC while ensuring cross border collaboration.

Government spent ~£1.3billion on low carbon innovation for the period 2011-15. In addition, the Low Carbon Networks Fund which is funded by network operators is expected to allocate ~£440m over the period 2010-15. See table 1 attached:

Separately, the British Business Bank has three main programmes for supporting early stage technology investment, including in the clean technology area: the Enterprise Capital Funds targeted at early stage venture capital investment; the UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF) which supports creation of viable investment funds targeting UK high growth technology-based businesses; and the Venture Capital Catalyst Fund, launched in 2013.

As part of the recent Spending Review, it was announced that the department for Energy & Climate Change will double its innovation program to £500 million over the next five years.

UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) also invests in innovative green projects, though it does so on fully commercial terms and is focused on technologies ready for deployment at full commercial scale and capable of attracting additional investment from mainstream finance providers. Details of all GIB’s investments to date can be found on the company’s website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-28.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which public sector organisations will not be covered by the public sector exit payments cap proposed in the Enterprise Bill.

Greg Hands

The Government consulted on implementing a public sector exit payment cap in July 2015. The Government response to this consultation was published on 16 September 2015. This response provides detail on which organisations and types of payments the Government intends to capture within the scope of the public sector exit payment cap. This accords with the Government’s manifesto commitment to end tax payer funded six figure payoffs for public sector workers.

The response document can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464367/Public_sector_exit_payments_response.pdf

The exit payment cap will apply to payments made as a result of an employee leaving their employment. It will not affect any pension a person has earned through their years of service or have any impact on accrued pension rights or pension lump sum entitlements on retirement. It will capture contributions, made by the employer, to fund early access to an unreduced or partially reduced pension. This is because such costs are ultimately funded by the tax payer.

The Government has been clear that early retirements relating to ill health are outside the scope of the cap and will not be affected. Additionally, any payments directed by a Court or Tribunal will not be included in the scope of the cap.

Exits on compassionate grounds are not such a clearly defined concept as exits related to ill health or redundancy. There will generally be a large degree of employer discretion on the terms of such exits, and on any payments. In these cases there will be discretion available to relax the cap in individual cases, subject to relevant Ministerial or local council approval, as will be set out in further detail in forthcoming Treasury guidance and directions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the value was of direct investment from China in each (a) sector and (b) industry sector in each of the last five years.

Anna Soubry

Information about the financial value of inward FDI stock by sector and source country is available from the ONS FDI Report (MA4, December 2015) and the value of direct investment from China by sector from 2011-2014 can be found in the attached table.

Please see tab 3.3 in the dataset: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessinnovation/datasets/foreigndirectinvestmentinvolvingukcompanies2013inwardtables.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many companies have cited in their registration at Companies House their registered office, the address of another business or private individual which they are not authorised to use in each year for which data is available.

Anna Soubry

Companies House has received the following number of complaints that companies have cited as their registered office, the address of another business or private individual that they allegedly are not authorised to use.

Year	Number of Cases
2013/14	1,270
2014/15	1,385
2015/16 (to date)	1,517

Provisions contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 will be commenced on 6 April. These will allow the Registrar of Companies to act in the event of a complaint of this nature about a registered office.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the top five reasons were for imposing sanctions on jobseeker’s allowance claimants in each year for which data is available.

Priti Patel

The available information for the number of Jobseeker’s Allowance sanction decisions, by referral reason, is published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started—SuperWEB2.html

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average length of a non domestic rates appeal was in each of the last five years.

Mr David Gauke

The time taken to resolve an appeal can be affected by a number of factors, such as the complexity of the case or whether the case proceeds to be listed for hearing by the independent Valuation Tribunal. Some cases can be held up in litigation or placed on hold at the ratepayer’s request. The average (median) time taken to resolve challenges for non-domestic properties in each of the last five years is shown in the attached table. This table covers the 2010 Local Rating Lists.

Year	Median (days)
2010-11	135*
2011-12	335
2012-13	413
2013-14	390
2014-15	395

*The 2010 list began on 1 April 2010 so only those challenges received in 2010-11 were resolved in 2010-11. In subsequent years, however, challenges received in previous years can also be resolved so the median clearance time may include more complex challenges which took longer to resolve.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much his Department has spent on its industrial strategy in each year in which that strategy has been in force.

Anna Soubry

The industrial strategy was launched under the coalition Government in September 2012. The strategy was characterised by support for a number of sectors, in several areas where government action (via investment or otherwise) was identified to have an impact in promoting jobs and growth.

These areas were access to finance, support for emerging technologies, creating a pipeline of skilled workers, government procurement and the development of supply chains.

The figures below show how much money has been spent in the spend areas of Aerospace, Automotive and Agri-tech, in each year that it has been in force:

	13/14 (£)	14/15 (£)	15/16 (£) (Forecast)
Euro-Transonic Wind-tunnel (part of the Agri-tech Catalyst)	1,111,747	683,000	1,195,000
Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI)	72,697,664	132,544,663	128,877,536
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC)	–	16,009,948	32,358,783
Agri-Tech Catalyst	1,648,790	1,959,154	24,837,890
Total	75,458,201	151,196,766	187,269,209

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will undertake a comparative assessment of levels of business rates applying to steel producers in the UK and in other EU member states.

Mr David Gauke

The government concluded the Business Rates Review at Budget 2016. The government consulted with stakeholders, including the steel industry.

From April 2020, business rates for all businesses, including the steel industry, will be cut through a switch in the indexation of business rates from RPI to the main measure of inflation currently CPI.

The government has worked hard to deliver on the steel industry’s key asks. We (a) secured state aid approval to compensate for energy costs, (b) secured flexibility over EU emissions regulations, (c) published guidance so that the true value of UK steel can be taken into account in major procurement decisions, and (d) continue to tackle unfair trading practices at an EU and an international level

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35059, how many requests to meet with hon. Members she has received from each of the political parties represented in the House since 1 February 2016.

Nick Gibb

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Education frequently meets Hon Members from across the political spectrum in the performance of her duties.

Information in the form requested is not readily available and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.