The below Parliamentary question was asked by Robert Neill on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has plans to work with the Mayor of London to create a chief digital officer to oversee and champion the Capital’s broadband needs.
Matt Hancock
We work closely with all devolved authorities on their Broadband needs. The appointment of a chief digital officer for London is a matter for the new Mayor of London.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the capacity of Pension Wise to meet the volume of over the telephone and face-to-face appointment requests it receives; and what plans he has to increase Pension Wise’s capacity after the introduction of the proposed secondary market for annuities.
Richard Harrington
Pension Wise regularly reviews capacity within the service with its delivery partners to ensure it has the right number of guidance specialists in the right places. Since launch there have been over 82,000 Pension Wise appointments and customer satisfaction has been consistently high.
The service is confident that it will be able to meet the demand of those seeking guidance on selling their annuity on the secondary market.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-11-06.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the vulnerability of the UK banking system to a Russian debt default; and if he will make a statement.
Harriett Baldwin
The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) within the Bank of England identifies, monitors and addresses risks to the UK financial system; including overseas exposures.
The FPC regularly publishes the indicators that it considers when formulating policy, and this includes all countries to which UK banks have large or rapidly growing total exposure. The most recent indicators (for Q2 2015) can be found on the Bank of England’s website using the link below.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/financialstability/Pages/fpc/coreindicators.aspx
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-07.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Oral Statement of 25 November 2015, Official Report, column 1358, what the evidential basis is for his statement that the Midlands is creating jobs three times faster than London and the South East; and if he will make a statement.
Greg Hands
The independent Office for National Statistics publishes labour market statistics for the 12 UK regions every month.
According to the latest data which covers the 3 months to September 2015, the total number of people in employment in London and the South East has increased by 53,000 since the same period one year earlier (the 3 months to September 2014). This equates to an increase of 0.6 per cent on the employment level one year ago.
According to the same data, the total number of people in employment in the East and West Midlands combined (the ‘Midlands’) has increased by 101,000 over the same period. This equates to an increase of 2.1 per cent on the employment level in the Midlands one year ago. This rate of increase is more than 3 times faster than the rate for London and the South East.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-01-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how many solar power companies there were in (a) Lancashire, (b) the North West and (c) Britain in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.
Andrea Leadsom
DECC does not hold information on the number of solar power companies. However, data on the number of solar photovoltaic installations (including households) by UK region, are available for 2010 to 2014. This is given in the table below. DECC does not hold information by UK county. Data for 2015 for the UK as a whole will be available on 28 January 2016, and by region in September 2016.
|
End-2010 |
End-2011 |
End-2012 |
End-2013 |
End-2014 |
|
|
North-West England |
1,404 |
17,723 |
33,208 |
41,960 |
54,583 |
|
Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) |
25,684 |
221,000 |
374,778 |
465,678 |
574,582 |
Source: Regional Renewables Statistics, 2003-2014, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/regional-renewable-statistics
Data by Local Authority (for 2014 only) are available on the same link. Monthly solar installations data for the UK as a whole are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/solar-photovoltaics-deployment
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Blackford on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions his Department plans to hold with colleagues in the Scottish Government on the environmental proposal for ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Cromarty firth.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Port of Cromarty Firth Oil Transfer Licence (OTL) application, which ran from 10 December 2015 to 8 February 2016 was sent to Scottish Government officials directly through Marine Scotland, and to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), and the Highland Council, in order to seek their views.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is the Competent Authority that assesses all applications for OTLs, and the MCA has regular contact with the Scottish Government and their appropriate officials on a number of issues, including ship-to-ship licencing. The MCA has worked closely with them on previous OTL applications and the development of the policy itself.
With the public consultation having just ended, the assessment phase will begin and the MCA looks forward to continuing this cooperation in relation to the Cromarty Firth proposal, prior to any decision being made.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what objectives his Department has set for the proposed sale of the M6 toll road; and if he will make a statement.
Andrew Jones
The sale of the M6 Toll is being carried out by a private company and it is for the vendor to set objectives for the process.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-04-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Army Reserve personnel, excluding members of University Officer Training Corps, have served for a period of over one year.
Mr Julian Brazier
The total number of Army Reserve personnel that have served at least one year, excluding members of University Officer Training Corps, is currently 22,480.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many gambling licenses were issued for premises in (a) Calderdale and (b) West Yorkshire in each year between 2005 and 2016.
David Evennett
The requested information is not held centrally. Local authorities are responsible for the issuing of gambling premises licences in accordance with the Licensing Objectives and their own Statement of Licensing Policy. Local Authority license registers listing the number of licences in each borough are available to access by the public. More information from Calderdale Council can be found at http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/business/licences/gambling-act/index.html
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachael Maskell on 2016-07-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will extend the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to include primary producers’ relationships with their suppliers.
Margot James
We will shortly be commencing a review of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and as part of that we will take account of the recent calls for its remit to be extended.