Tag: Kevin Brennan

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.

“

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

“

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the benefits that the Growth Accelerator Programme has had for small and medium-sized enterprises since the launch of that programme.

Anna Soubry

The Growth Accelerator was launched as our economy was still recovering from the worst recession this country had faced in 100 years, presided over by the hon Member’s party. An interim evaluation of the Growth Accelerator programme was published in November 2014.

Thanks to the difficult decisions made by this government and the last, we now have the fastest growing economy in the developed world and a record number of businesses and as part of our continued commitment to live within our means and pay down our debts, we took the decision to discontinue the Business Growth Service in the Spending Review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2015 to Question 3892, how many (a) jobs and (b) apprenticeships were created by each Green Investment Bank (GIB) investment; and whether he plans to monitor the performance of a privatised GIB in creating jobs and apprenticeships.

Anna Soubry

The Green Investment Bank (GIB) estimates that approximately 5700 jobs have been created during the construction phases of their projects and approximately 1000 jobs have been created during the operational phase of their projects. Apprenticeship numbers are not recorded separately from other jobs but any apprenticeship roles would be included in the figures mentioned above.

We would expect a privatised GIB to continue to monitor the green and other benefits of their investments, such as job creation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Brennan on 2016-01-21.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the average levels of exit payments in the (a) public sector and (b) private sector.

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 the potential impacts of the cap and sets out which organisations the Government intends to capture within scope of the public sector exit payment cap. The final policy is in line with the Government’s manifesto commitment to end tax payer funded six figure payoffs for public sector workers.

The consultation ran from 31 July to 27 August 2015. Over 4000 responses were received. These representations were considered during and after the consultation to inform the Government response that was published on 16 September 2015.

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

An impact analysis was published within the exit payment cap consultation document which respondents had an opportunity to comment on. Further, the Government worked with departments and took into account consultation responses received after the official deadline to inform the impact of a public sector exit payment cap set at £95,000 in different sectors and for different categories of workers. This assessment gave due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty.

The exit payment cap is intended to capture organisations classified as public sector by the Office for National Statistics with few exceptions as identified in the consultation response.

The Government does not expect the cap to have a widespread impact on the take-up of voluntary redundancy.

At the 2015 Spending Review the Government announced it will consult on further cross public sector action on exit payment terms. This consultation will provide a good opportunity to collect further information on the trends in the level of exit payments between the private and public sector.