Tag: Lord Taylor of Warwick

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-01-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the claim by Aegis Europe that granting market economy status to China could put more than one million European jobs at risk.

Lord Maude of Horsham

A report by the Economic Policy Institute, on which the claim by Aegis Europe draws makes some significant omissions, uses some questionable assumptions and does not take account of a number of potential positive or mitigating effects in reaching its estimates. We understand that the European Commission will be undertaking a detailed assessment of the economic impacts of granting MES as part of their consideration of this issue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to impose large extra tax rises or spending cuts at short notice in order to meet their target of cutting the deficit by 2019–20.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The government has set out a fixed target to achieve a surplus on the headline measure of public sector net borrowing by the end of 2019-20. This is a transparent commitment showing the government’s resolve to complete the repair of the public finances. The Spending Review and Autumn Statement set out the action required to return the country to surplus over the course of this Parliament and on the basis of the latest Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in their November 2015 ‘Economic and fiscal outlook’ the government is forecast to achieve a surplus of £10.1bn by the end of 2019-20.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-04-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to protect people against fraud as they are automatically enrolled into a pension scheme, in the light of the recent cuts to the pensions watchdog.

Baroness Altmann

The resources allocated to the Pensions Regulator to cover its regulatory responsibilities, together with those for automatic enrolment compliance activity, increased by £3.4m to £79.5m for the financial year 2016/17.

Schemes that can be used by employers to meet their automatic enrolment duties are subject to specific quality requirements. The Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority both play an active role in monitoring schemes used for automatic enrolment to ensure that they meet these standards. The Pensions Regulator has also published a list of independently audited ‘master trusts’ pension schemes that employers may wish to use for automatic enrolment.

Both Regulators carry out targeted activity to investigate and mitigate risks, including indicators of possible fraud.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-07-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the risk that leaving the EU could negatively affect the growth of startup companies in the UK.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

There will be no immediate changes to the UK’s relationship with the EU, in the way goods can move or services can be sold.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK remains open for business and continues to grow and thrive.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to help the Local Government Association prevent children being taught in illegal schools.

Lord Nash

We are determined to keep children safe in and out of school and have made it very clear that it is an offence to operate an unregistered independent school. In January 2016, we announced funding for Ofsted to establish a dedicated team of specialist inspectors to investigate such settings and since that time, there has been a significant escalation of Ofsted investigations.

The Department for Education and Ofsted are working closely with local authorities to identify and tackle illegal schools, and close collaboration has resulted in the closure of many such settings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-10-28.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any discussions are taking place about supporting ING Groep NV’s plans to expand their small-business lending programme.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The government wishes to see a diverse and competitive market for lending to small and medium businesses and welcomes new entrants to that market. We are aware of ING’s recent equity investment in an online lending platform. That is a commercial matter for ING which the government has not discussed with the company.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-11-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve broadband networks in the UK to support small businesses.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Since 2010 the proportion of households and businesses with access to superfast broadband has risen from 45% to 83%. Thanks to the Government’s investment this will rise to 95 per cent by the end of 2017. In addition, the Government’s Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme has been a tremendous success. More than 55,000 small businesses across the UK have taken up the offer, many of which are already seeing significant boosts to their business as a result of improved broadband speeds.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-12-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to promote gender diversity in the UK film industry.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

This Government is committed to promoting diversity in the film industry. We support the British Film Institute’s (BFI) newly launched £1 million Diversity Fund, which works to provide professional development opportunities to people from underrepresented groups, as well as funding to organisations that are looking to support diversity projects. As part of the recent London Film Festival, the BFI supported the Geena Davis Institute’s symposium on Gender in the Media, and has also recently extended its Diversity Standards to cover all Film Fund Lottery schemes which support film development, production and distribution, and widen access to film in the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-03-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support female start-up company founders in the light of the study by MIT, Harvard and Wharton Universities in 2014 showing that males are 60 per cent more likely to get funding.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The UK is a great place to start a business, with an increase of 760,000 businesses between 2010 and 2014. There are more women-led businesses in the UK than ever before – around 1 million (20%) of all Small and Medium sized Enterprises. But we know more needs to be done to ensure we create the right environment for women to start and grow their own businesses.

Women can benefit from the full range of wider business support available from government. This includes Start-Up Loans which provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs (38% of Start-Up Loans have been awarded to women); and the New Enterprise Allowance which provides a business mentor and access to financial support for Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants who want to start their own business (37% of NEA loans have been awarded to women).

We have developed a specific web page on the Business is Great website for potential and existing female entrepreneurs to find out what help is available to them (http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/women-in-enterprise/). We are also currently undertaking research to increase our understanding of the best way to reach female entrepreneurs.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to increase business confidence, in the light of uncertainty regarding the global economy and the EU referendum.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

At the February European Council the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union.

As part of these negotiations, we secured a firm commitment to drive an ambitious agenda of economic reform within the EU to help unleash the full potential of the Single Market and create growth and jobs.

The Government’s view is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.