Tag: Parliamentary Question

Rebecca Long Bailey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made by the Emerging Industry Action Group.

Anna Soubry

The Emerging Industry Action Group for the sharing economy held its first meeting on 12th November 2015. Businesses from across the sector have agreed to participate in the group and attended the meeting to set out their views on the key challenges and opportunities for both businesses and the Government in making the UK one of the best places to start and grow a sharing economy business.

01/01/2023
Tulip Siddiq – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-12-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many appeals were heard in the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) relating to immigration decisions made by her Department in each of the last five years; for how many of those cases her Department did not appoint a legal representative; and in how many of those cases where no legal representative was appointed the appeal was upheld.

James Brokenshire

The Ministry of Justice publishes data at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics on the total number of appeals disposed at the First-Tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum) which includes all types of immigration appeal. Due to the way that data is recorded on Home Office systems, overseas appeals have been excluded from the data set included in the table attachment. The data also excludes paper cases at which a Home Office representative is not required.

The Home Office is usually represented at appeal hearings by a Home Office Presenting Officer acting as a Crown representative on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) in immigration appeals pursuant to s84 (6) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Section 84 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 covers who can act as legal representatives in immigration appeals. Subsection 6 specifies that persons acting on behalf of the Crown or relevant Government Department can represent the SSHD at immigration appeals and do not need to be a legally qualified person. However in some cases barristers have also been used.

The proportion of oral appeals not represented increased between January – September 2015 in comparison to the previous 2 years. This was the result of the availability of Presenting resource in the Home Office to match court listing schedules which varied from forecasts used for planning purposes to a significant extent. Resources were put in place to ensure that representation rates increased in the final three months of the calendar year.

01/01/2023

Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many dogs brought into the UK under the Pet Travel Scheme were found to be non-compliant with that scheme’s requirements in each year since 2012.

George Eustice

The requirement to ensure that pet dogs travel to Great Britain on approved routes is the responsibility of the relevant transport companies. It is a condition of their approval that the transport companies check 100% of pets declared by their owners for compliance with the EU Pet Travel Scheme.

The table below lists the number of audits completed by APHA staff on pet checkers and the number of fails identified during the audits.

Year	No of Pets travelling to GB under PETS	No. of QA checks on Pet animals	No. of non-compliances
2012	184,338	6070	74
2013	167,507	4894	58
2014	170,659	5978	54
2015	267,613	4863	69

The data on the number of pets travelling from 2012/2014 was taken from the PETS database. We rely upon Pet checkers who operate upon behalf of APHA to complete the database and so cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. A different system of recording the number of pets entering Great Britain in 2015 was implemented in Jan 2015. However, we still rely on pet checkers to provide this info and so cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data.

Of the pets found not to be in compliance with the entry rules, these pets were either detained until their compliance could be established, re-exported or placed into quarantine.

01/01/2023

Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of fair access protocols on pupil referral units.

Nick Gibb

Fair access protocols exist to ensure that, outside the normal admissions round, unplaced children, especially the most vulnerable, are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible and that no school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children with challenging behaviour or children excluded from other schools.

Fair access protocols do not have a direct impact on pupil referral units.

It is for local authorities, together with the schools in their area, to decide on which children should be eligible for consideration under their fair access protocol, which as a minimum must include children from pupil referral units who need to be integrated back into mainstream education.

01/01/2023
David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has commissioned research on the potential effect on the purchase of energy through the interconnectors in the event of a majority leave vote in the EU referendum.

Amber Rudd

At the February European Council, the Government negotiated a new settlement, giving the United Kingdom a special status in a reformed European Union. The Government’s position, as set out by the Prime Minister to the House on 22 February, is that the UK will be stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed EU.

We currently expect our electricity interconnector capacity with the EU to double by the early 2020s with studies showing they could deliver benefits to British consumers of almost £12 billion over 25 years. As the White Paper that the Government recently published on the process for withdrawing from the European Union makes clear, a vote to leave the EU would lead to a prolonged period of uncertainty, including on the nature of our access to the EU’s single energy market.

01/01/2023
Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-04-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many European Court of Justice decisions on taxation his Department has (a) won and (b) lost in the last six years.

Mr David Gauke

In the last six years HM Treasury argued one case on taxation as the lead Department before the European Court of Justice. The judgment went against the UK, but the protective purpose was nevertheless served.

01/01/2023
Graham Allen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Graham Allen on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the effect will be on the pension entitlement of the Deputy Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police of her promotion to acting Chief Constable.

Mike Penning

The Home Office does not hold information about the personal pension entitlement of any individual police officer.

Arrangements for the pensionable pay of chief officers on temporary promotion to a higher rank are set out in determinations made under the Police Regulations 2003. These state that after 28 days spent performing the duties of a chief constable, a deputy chief constable will be paid either a temporary salary (pensionable) at a rate equivalent to 90% of the higher rank’s basic pay or an honorarium (a non-pensionable payment) of an amount to be determined by the local policing body.

Pensionable pay is taken into account in calculating pension contributions and pension benefits, whereas any non-pensionable payments are not.

01/01/2023
Lord Bassam of Brighton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 2016-07-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to give guidance to the operator of Southern Rail services on ensuring passenger safety when short formation services are in use.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Each operator is responsible for the safety of their staff, passengers and services. The Office of Rail and Road’s duty is to ensure that those responsible for keeping Britain’s railways safe for passengers and providing a safe place for staff to work do so.

01/01/2023
Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered upgrading the M20 or the A2/M2 as an alternative to the establishment of a permanent lorry area near Junction 11 of the M20.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Highways England carried out an assessment of alternative options for a solution to Operation Stack and this considered increasing the overall capacity and resilience of Kent’s motorway network. The alternatives were included in a public consultation held between December 2015 and January 2016.

Overall, a lorry area was the best performing option and this was stated in the report on the consultation which can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/management-of-freight-vehicles-through-kent and is attached for ease of reference.

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01/01/2023
Anne Marie Morris – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne Marie Morris on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the number of businesses in Newton Abbot constituency which have superfast broadband of 24Mb/s.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government has committed to achieving availability of superfast broadband to 95% of homes and businesses in the UK by the end of 2017. 88 per cent of homes and businesses in Newton Abbott are estimated to have coverage by the end of 2016, and additional funding sources, including the clawback funding that BT have offered in response to the high levels of take-up, will allow coverage to be extended further in Newton Abbott and the rest of the area covered by the Devon and Somerset broadband project. The Government will also launch a public consultation early next year in preparation for the implementation of a new broadband USO by 2020, with the ambition to give people the legal right to request a connection to broadband with speeds of 10 Mbps, no matter where in the country they live.

01/01/2023